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This guide is designed to assist setting up ICS (Internet Connection Sharing) and tweaking a Direcway SRS 4000 Satellite connection for Windows XP users. Windows 2000 users will find this guide useful but should bear in mind that the screenshots are from Windows XP machines. If you have a Windows 98SE/ME system you will find this networking guide more useful.
NOTE: This guide assumes you have a functioning network.

Most of the information here was gathered from the Broadbandreports.com Satellite Forum and the accompanying Broadbandreports.com Satellite Forum FAQ. I take no credit for it's contents, I've simply tried to organize it into a single guide. Thanks to all in the satellite forum who have contributed to this guide!

By TweakHound

Contributors: snowman, Red Baron, wolfpac, Sat_Man, Rfsjr2, DominoKat

Setting up the Host Machine

(Thanks to snowman and DominoKat for providing the pics for this section!)

Definition: The Host machine is the computer which is connected directly to the Direcway satellite modems.

Open your Control Panel and double-click Network and Internet Connections => in the resulting window, right-click on the icon that says Direcway Satellite Connection => choose Properties => a new screen will appear, Click the Advanced tab.

in the section titled Internet Connection Sharing, check the box next to Allow other network users to connect through this computer's Internet connection.

For those without a firewall, under the section titled Internet Connection Firewall, check the box next to Protect my computer and network.

NOTE: XP's firewall, while better than nothing, is not the best. It only blocks incoming traffic, and isn't very tweakable.

A box may pop-up saying your computer will now be using a fixed IP address of 192.168.0.1 and are you sure you want to enable ICS, click Yes.

Next, open Internet Explorer => On the top menu choose Tools => Internet Options => Click on the Advanced tab => scroll down until you see HTTP 1.1 settings => insure the box next to Use HTTP 1.1 through proxy connections is UNCHECKED and close all open windows.

Although not technically necessary, I highly recommend you reboot this computer at this point.



Setting up the Client Machine(s)

Definition: A client machine is any computer on your network that you wish to access the internet through the host computer's DirecWay connection.

Open your Control Panel and double-click Network Connections => in the resulting window, right-click on the icon that says Local Area Connection => choose Properties => under the General tab click (once) on Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and choose Properties.

Option 1: Using DHCP

Under the General tab, insure that the button that says Obtain IP address automatically is highlighted => click the button next to Use the following DNS server addresses => in the Preferred DNS server box type 192.168.0.1 => in the Alternate DNS server box type 198.77.116.8

Option 2: Using Static IP addressing.

Another way of assigning IP addresses is to use a static IP addresses. This allows for a faster startup and dispenses with DHCP service from the host PC. The IP address you use must be between 192.168.0.2 and 192.168.0.254 with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0.

NOTE: No two devices on your network can have the same IP address (and this includes any router, WAP or gateway you might be using) so it's a good idea to write them down as you set them up.

Option 1: Using DHCP (Obtain an IP address automatically)
(see image below)


Option 2: Using a Static IP Address (Use the following IP address)
(see image below)

Now click the Advanced tab => In the IP Settings window and under the section that says Default gateways, click the Add button...


type 192.168.0.1 and click Add =>


Now go back to the top and click the DNS tab => towards the bottom, in the box that says DNS suffix for this connection, type direcway.com , insure that the box next to Register this connection's address in DNS is checked Click OK to exit out of all windows. We aren't done yet!


Open Internet Explorer. In the toolbar choose Tools => Internet Options => in the resulting window, click the Connections tab => click LAN Settings


Under Proxy server, check both boxes => click on the Advanced button


In the HTTP box, under Proxy address to use type 192.168.0.1 => still in the HTTP box and under Port type 83 => in the Exceptions section, in the box labeled Do not use proxy server for addresses beginning with: copy and paste the following:

https; ftp; http://Windowsupdate.microsoft.com; http://V4.Windowsupdate.microsoft.com; https://v4.Windowsupdate.microsoft.com; http://Download.Windowsupdate.com
Click OK to exit out of all screens and exit out of Internet Explorer. Reboot your computer.


Open Internet Explorer => On the top menu choose Tools => Internet Options= > Click on the Advanced tab => scroll down until you see HTTP 1.1 settings => insure the box next to Use HTTP 1.1 through proxy connections is UNCHECKED and close all open windows.




Tweaks

First, download DrTCP Tweak Utility.

Next BACKUP EVERY COMPUTER YOU ARE GOING TO TWEAK. There is no excuse for not backing up.

Now the caveat. These settings ARE NOT what will work for everyone. You will have to play around with the settings to find what will work best for you. If your connection is working to your satisfaction, I suggest you leave it alone.

Open Dr. TCP. Make sure that what shows in the Adapter Settings box is the connection you connect to the internet with. For the Host PC it will be something like Satellite USB Device. For a Client machine it will be your NIC card. The settings in the picture below are what I use. See THIS FAQ article for more information about the tweak numbers and how they were arrived at.


The Settings

Choose the settings you desire and click Save and then Exit.
You should start with:

TCP Receive Window: 224360
Window Scaling: Yes
Time Stamping: No
Selective Acks: Yes
Path MTU Discovery: Yes
Black Hole Detection:No
Max Duplicate Acks: 3
TTL: 64
MTU: 1460

Optional numbers: (numbers others reported using with success)
TCP Receive Window: 224360, 256920, 474280, 513920
Max Duplicate Acks: 2, 3
TTL: 64, 128
MTU: 1460, 1500

More tweaks...

Increase the number of connections you can make: (primarily for the client machines as the DirecWay software installation has already performed this tweak on the Host PC.)

Click Start => Run => type regedit => navigate to the following keys and change the settings as listed below:
HKEY_USERS\DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings AND HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings
"MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server"=DWORD:00000015
"MaxConnectionsPerServer"=DWORD:00000015

Default Send/Receive Window Tweak

This tweak may or may not help your speeds. What is does is change the amount of info that is buffered before flow control kicks in. You will need to test various values to find which works best for you.

More info on this can be found in this forum thread. Please check it out before attempting this tweak. A lot of unselfish people have put in much effort to try and nail down this tweak. I am only passing on the info, this tweak is theirs and it has worked for me.

Start => Run => type regedit => Go to => HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE | SYSTEM | CurrentControlSet | Services | AFD => right-click on AFD and create a new KEY named Parameters => click Parameters => in the blank space on the right create a new DWORD value DefaultSendWindow => again in the blank space on the right create a new DWORD value DefaultReceiveWindow => Double click on these new values and enter 17a00 (hexadecimal value) to start. Both values should have the same value. Also, if you are on a home network or are part of an Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) network, all the machines on that network should have this tweak added. It will look like this:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE | SYSTEM | CurrentControlSet | Services | AFD | Parameters]
"DefaultSendWindow"=DWORD:00017a00
"DefaultReceiveWindow"=DWORD:00017a00

Other values you may want to try: b000, 18000 (all values are Hex)

To undo this tweak, simply delete the Parameters key.

Browser Cache Tweak: Reduce your cache for better browsing - see THIS FAQ entry for more information.



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by TweakHound See Profile edited by seagreen See Profile
last modified: 2004-05-03 11:56:18