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snowman41
join:2006-10-20
Almonte, ON

snowman41 to tomupnorth

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to tomupnorth

Re: Increasing Internet Speed by DNS Hacking

For the IE users, there is a FREE version of Tweakmaster that has a DNS accelerator in in. It will capture the DNS entries from IE and automatically build your host file.

It's compatible with VISTA, if that's important.

You can optimize for dialup and change the settings somewhat for hughes. I use 64,240 for the Receive Window, 128 for TTL and MTU of 1500 for the Network Adapters.

It does help.

»www.tweakmaster.com/

Doesn't capture DNS for Firefox ... as mentioned you need Fasterfox for that

Snowman
tomupnorth
join:2005-01-14
UpperMidwest

tomupnorth

Member

said by snowman41:

For the IE users, there is a FREE version of Tweakmaster that has a DNS accelerator in in. It will capture the DNS entries from IE and automatically build your host file.
I have Tweakmaster installed and I like how it manages my hosts file--haven't tried your other settings yet though.

It does NOT appear to be free, however; despite that their website says "no purchase necessary" you have to buy or sign-up for something from TrialPay... Does anyone know, does this thing expire/is crippled after the 30 day "evaluation" is up?
snowman41
join:2006-10-20
Almonte, ON

2 edits

snowman41

Member

»www.tweakmaster.com/download.php

You want the standard version, which they clearly say is free, no purchase necessary on the above link. It's a bit confusing between pro and standard in selecting the downloads.

I just downloaded a copy of the install file from the above link without getting asked for anything.

It does not have a couple of the features of pro version, which I have. That's Linkfox for IE (basically a proxy server I think) and the DU meter (download / upload meter to measure your speeds continuously and will run a daily total), but only for your computer. I have the pro version, do not use linkfox, but do use the DU meter.

All other features, including the DNS Accelerator are in the free version, which they used to charge for.

They may prompt you to buy the pro features after 30 days, but I think you can just say no and it will continue working.

Snowman

*****

Oooops, I guess you do have to go through the checkout to get a free license (probably after the 30 days), but the cost shows as 0.00

Follow the link at the top of the page.

»www.tweakmaster.com/register.php
tomupnorth
join:2005-01-14
UpperMidwest

tomupnorth

Member

Well, actually you HAVE TO GO THRU TRIALPAY to get the license, and you CAN'T get thru that process without signing-up for or buying something with one of its sponsors.

Prolly worth it to find something to buy w/TrialPay to get the "free" license, but I might just wait-out the 30-day TM trial and see what happens.

In the meantime if anybody here sees how to get it "scot-free" by all means tell us! It DOES look like a very nice tool...
tomupnorth

tomupnorth to snowman41

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to snowman41
said by snowman41:

For the IE users, there is a FREE version of Tweakmaster that has a DNS accelerator in in...You can optimize for dialup and change the settings somewhat for hughes. I use 64,240 for the Receive Window, 128 for TTL and MTU of 1500 for the Network Adapters. It does help.

»www.tweakmaster.com/
Just a note to thank you snowman for this tip. I'm not obsessive/compulsive about HN speeds or operation, but it does seem that since implementing at least the DNS accelerator function of tweakmaster our surfing has been faster, with fewer "page not found". I've just now made your other setting changes and will likely keep TM on my computers from now on. Thanks again!

grohgreg
Dunno. Ask The Chief
join:2001-07-05
Dawson Springs, KY

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I'm a bit skeptical as to just how you quantify " It does help ". Just for drill, take a peek at »Satellite Forum FAQ »Can I Tweak My Self-Hosted System?

//greg//
snowman41
join:2006-10-20
Almonte, ON

snowman41

Member

Chief,

I believe the speed of the Hughes DNS servers leaves a lot to be desired. At times, they seem to time out, so anything that stores the DNS information on your computer is a good thing, as Martha would say. TweakMaster will collect and store the DNS for Internet Explorer use automatically in the host file for up to a couple of weeks and remind you when to run the update, which only takes a minute or two. Fasterfox, will only do it in Firefox for a couple of hours at best, because the longer you make it store the data, the slower page loads seem to get as it fills up.

The reason for the receive window, as I understand it, is to avoid the browser hanging around too long before displaying the error message, so that you can retry again. If I calculated it right back then, the combination of the receive window and the TTL was about 2 seconds, which IMHO is about right for lost requests. If you set the receive window at 256 or 512 kb, you waste time waiting for a response. Whether you are optimizing windows to the modem or the modem to windows, I'm not sure.

Using an MTU network value less than 1500, even though TweakMaster might suggest the optimum is 1420, etc. also seems to slow things down. In any case 1500 is the Windows standard, I believe, for the network side.

I don't think we really know how much of the window's settings are hard-programmed into the 7000s modem and how much can be modified with SOME of these settings. To me, it seems some can be changed and some cannot.

If you do enough tests, you can see some download / upload speed improvement, maybe 10%. However, that's hard to really prove, because of the varying loading on the Hughes system.

I cannot suggest TweakMaster as free anymore if they make people buy something else to register it, so I'll pass on recommending it in the future.

Snowman

grohgreg
Dunno. Ask The Chief
join:2001-07-05
Dawson Springs, KY

4 edits

grohgreg

Member

You still didn't quantify how much " help " you think you're getting. The TCP/IP values you addressed (the ones we used a long time ago for the PC-hosted systems) only communicate between your Ethernet card and the next address in the chain. In the case of self-hosted systems, that's the IDU (DW6000/7000/HN7000/whatever). The other "tweaks" you mentioned are strictly browser-related. They've got little or nothing to do with the actual TCP/IP stack performance. Caching DNS addresses simply makes your browser respond faster assuming you've got a direct connection to the DNS server. The speed/performance of the connection itself remains unchanged. Actually, in the case of an active PROXY connection AND a user who's set his browser to check for most current page - I can actually envision the possibility where local caching might actually slow things down.

The reason for RWIN is to tell the TCP/IP stack how big a packet to order from the distant server. But it's useless in this case, since the request actually terminates with the IDU. Same thing for MTU; it's a function of MSS which is a sub-multiple of RWIN. Besides that, XP (and presumably Vista) TCP/IP stacks are supposed to be self-adjusting.

And this DNS business doesn't make much sense either, since PROXY ON is almost exclusively the HughesNet operating default. I can see a fallback use perhaps, but only if PROXY/WebAccel/et cetera are down hard - and a straight DNS path is the only way to keep up the HughesNet connection

//greg//
tomupnorth
join:2005-01-14
UpperMidwest

tomupnorth

Member

Jeez greg, are you this much fun at parties!!!???
said by grohgreg:

Caching DNS addresses simply makes your browser respond faster assuming you've got a direct connection to the DNS server... And this DNS business doesn't make much sense either, since PROXY ON is almost exclusively the HughesNet operating default. I can see a fallback use perhaps, but only if PROXY/WebAccel/et cetera are down hard - and a straight DNS path is the only way to keep up the HughesNet connection
Not sure what you mean in your 1st statement, in bold? I had an awful lot of failed pages in the weeks leading-up to my installation of Tweakmaster, which looked to me like HN's DNS was dead-as-a-doornail. That things have worked better since installing TM may be a coincidence, sure...

If all it's doing for me is maintaining the hosts file, I'm not sure it's worth it, but it is a very nice piece of software nonetheless.
tomupnorth

tomupnorth to grohgreg

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to grohgreg
said by grohgreg:

Just for drill, take a peek at »Satellite Forum FAQ »Can I Tweak My Self-Hosted System?
BTW I did take a peek and it says the following which TMK is incorrect:
Note that if you have used the Lan Client Configuration Utility (LCCU) provided by Hughes, it will have already made these entries...

HKEY_USERS - .DEFAULT - Software - Microsoft - Windows - CurrentVersion - Internet Settings

MaxConnectionsPerServer
MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server

HKEY_CURRENT_USER - Software - Microsoft - Windows - CurrentVersion - Internet Settings

MaxConnectionsPerServer
MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server
The LCCU utility does not make the HKEY_USERS - .DEFAULT entry, only the HKEY_CURRENT_USER.

grohgreg
Dunno. Ask The Chief
join:2001-07-05
Dawson Springs, KY

1 edit

grohgreg to tomupnorth

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to tomupnorth
said by tomupnorth:

Jeez greg, are you this much fun at parties!!!???
Fun ain't got a whole lot to do with it. I just figgered to save some readers a bit of money by pointing out why so many of these broadband "tweak" utilities CAN'T do much to enhance performance on HughesNet self-hosted connections. In some cases, they've actually been known to make things worse.

And you completely missed my point about the FAQ; that is, any TweakMaster (or equivalent) changes to the TCP/IP stack of a self-hosted system are pointless. In the case of the self-adjusting properties of XP/Vista, they may even be ignored (if not written over).

//greg//