Improving your Windows networking defaults
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By Fred Langa Free online tools can help speed your downloads and Web browsing. First, use a free connection analyzer to find out exactly what your optimum settings should be. Then, use a free tweaking tool to actually make the changes. |
Optimizing your network connections
Windows Secrets reader "abcalvin" wondered about some of the less obvious settings Windows uses for its networking setups:
- "Depending on the type of connection — dial-up, broadband, etc. — some communications settings, such as 'Max transmission unit,' 'TCP receiving window,' 'selective acks,' and so on, have to be set for best results. What are these settings and how do we read the present settings, find the best values for the specific mode, and correctly set them?"
Several Web sites offer tools that can help you tune your online connections, but the one I use myself is Broadband Reports (formerly DSLReports). The site's Tools section is a gold mine. The Speed Test will let you compare your actual upload and download speeds to other users so you can get an idea of how well (or not) your system is doing online. The Tweak Test analyzes your online connection and makes specific recommendations as to what your ideal settings should be. Then, to implement the recommendations, you can download and use the free Dr. TCP tool, which provides an easy-to-use front end for modifying all of Windows' essential networking parameters.
Figure 1. The free Dr. TCP tool makes it easy to change Windows' essential networking parameters.
It's a great site. Highly recommended!
More on the Vista Express Upgrade
Today (Mar. 15) marks the end of the "Vista Express Upgrade" purchase program. Most Windows PCs purchased between Oct. 26, 2006 and today are eligible for a free upgrade to Vista. The only catches are: (1) You must submit your upgrade request and proof of purchase by the end of this month; and (2) the upgrade ordering process may not work very well, as was discussed in the Mar. 1 issue.
In my test case — trying to upgrade a new Acer laptop — I experienced almost a month of problems with the upgrade site, which prevented me from completing my order. Eventually, after a phone call to the site's tech support also failed, I tried to contact Acer by e-mail (the only contact mechanism the company offers). After a delay of about a week, Acer responded by sending me back to the upgrade site. But this time, the site's tech support was finally able to help. After several more rounds of e-mail, my upgrade CD supposedly will be on its way in four to six weeks. I'm not holding my breath, though.
Reader Charles Little asked an important question about the Vista upgrades:
-
"I read your article on the Windows Vista Express Upgrade, and it was an
eye-opening read! I do have one question: When you upgrade, do you get any way
to reinstall if you have a catastrophic failure of your PC and have to
reformat? Can you use this license on another PC?"
Licensing does allow for upgrades. If you have an original, OEM-licensed copy of Windows on your PC, you can upgrade it with a later version. The original version is the "qualifying product" that makes the upgrade legitimate. The upgrade inherits this legitimacy, but then remains tied to the original PC.
Because the Vista Express Upgrade program is an upgrade and not a brand-new installation of Vista, most vendors will simply send an upgrade CD. This means that you'd need a two-step process to do a complete restore of the PC's software, using the vendor tools. First, you'd use the original restore process that came with the PC (usually a restore CD or a restore program on the hard drive) to return the system to its as-shipped setup. Then, you'd run the Vista upgrade CD again to install the new OS.
A computer vendor could, in theory, choose to send out a complete new Vista-based recovery CD. This would give you a one-step total restore of the new (upgraded) OS and all the software normally bundled with a brand-new PC. But in every case I've seen to date, an "upgrade" means that you get an upgrade CD, period. The upgrade CD extends, but does not replace, the PC's original restore CD or process.
Two final notes: Most vendors' total-system-restore procedures wipe out all user data, settings and changes when returning a PC's software to its as-shipped condition. As a result, these restoration tools should be used only as a last resort. It's much better and much safer to use some other backup technique that will let you restore not only the original system files, but also your personal data and modifications. (See the next item for more information on backups.)
Lastly, it may be possible to use an OEM upgrade CD to produce a clean install of Vista, just as if you were starting fresh, by using the technique Brian Livingston described in the Feb. 1 and Feb. 8 issues. This doesn't affect the licensing, which remains tied to the original PC, but may be a way to produce a fresh, "clean" Vista setup.
The catch is that OEM upgrade CDs may or may not contain all the files in the retail upgrade CDs, and there's no way to know in advance. So by all means try Brian's technique if you wish, but (as always before any major work on your system) make a full backup first. That way, you can roll back your changes in the event that things don't work out.
Backing up encrypted password files
Reader Fred Stone crafted a way to selectively back up his files of passwords and, in doing so, nearly created a complete, do-it-yourself backup system:
-
"After reading your comments about RoboForm in the
Jan. 4
issue, I decided it was worth my sanity to purchase. Since many of my
passwords existed only in RoboForm, backup was a serious concern.
My solution for backup: Copy the encrypted password files to another drive on
a regular basis. I do it with a batch file [Note: The command that begins with
c:\ should be all on one line—Ed.]:
echo Backup RoboForm File
echo Rev 20060404.0238
rem Remove oldest file
del J:\backups\robobkup\roboback5.zip
rem Shift all files up by 1
ren J:\backups\robobkup\roboback4.zip roboback5.zip
ren J:\backups\robobkup\roboback3.zip roboback4.zip
ren J:\backups\robobkup\roboback2.zip roboback3.zip
ren J:\backups\robobkup\roboback1.zip roboback2.zip
ren J:\backups\robobkup\roboback0.zip roboback1.zip
rem All files have been shifted. Begin backup
"c:\program files\pkware\pkzipc\pkzipc" -add -path=specify J:\backups\robobkup\roboback0.zip "C:\Documents and Settings\F W Stone\My Documents\My RoboForm Data\Default Profile\*"
echo RoboForm backup complete
"This batch file is executed at 2:55 a.m. as a scheduled task every Mon., Tue., Wed., Thur., Fri., and Sat. of every week."
Second: I use a technique similar to yours, except that it's a complete system backup that uses WinZip (instead of PKzip). It also employs a slightly more powerful script that renames the backup files based on their creation date and sequence. Having the creation date embedded in the file name makes it simpler to find one specific backup in a group of files.
The technique I use is fully explained in my article "Fast, Easy Backups," and the scripts that power the process are available for free download at the end of that article.
Worldwide responses to CD longevity article
Even after some 30 years of writing about PCs, I'm still surprised at some "hot button" topics that crop up unexpectedly. For example, I discussed "How to predict CDR and DVD-R longevity" in the Feb. 8 issue, and then, due to reader response, also ran "CD-Rs don't survive freezing temperatures" in the Feb. 22issue.
Even more reader mail poured in, leading to "Cold weather can damage hard drives" in the Mar. 1 issue. Like ripples on a pond, reader mail is still coming in from distant places like Finland and Greece.
First, from Finland, advice from a reader named Petri who knows something about cold weather:
-
"I just wanted to reply to your article about condensation on hard drives. I am
also transporting hard drives back and forth to work almost daily. I keep all my
personal docs and other 'personal junk' in my portable hard drive. I have been doing
that for years now, and I am using a simple trick to avoid condensation almost
completely.
"Being born and raised in arctic conditions (Finland), and having hobbies like photography, condensation is something you see often on items brought inside from sub-zero temperatures, and it is not so good on cameras either. I am using big Ziplock bags to seal my hard drive in before I take it outside in cold weather. When you bring it back in, even from sub-zero temperatures, all condensation happens outside of the bag and your hard drive is 'safe,' as long as you let it warm up before opening the bag.
Next, from Greece, Theo has a question about backup tapes, and the longevity of other data storage media:
-
"You have covered CDs and hard disks; still to discuss are floppies,
Flash drives/memory cards, and backup tapes.
"As part of our disaster recovery policy, we ensure that tapes not in tape devices be offsite temporarily or permanently as much as practically possible. This means the tapes are daily potentially exposed to extremely low/high temperatures and humidity, as well as to possible rapid temperature and humidity changes.
"For what it is worth, I do not think that any backup problems that we have are related to humidity, low temperatures (tapes are brought into the office in the morning and will have reached room temperature by the time of the evening backup) or high temperatures (again, tapes are brought into the office in the morning, when temperatures are still relatively low.) Can you give me and other readers your thoughts?"
As a result, major tape manufacturers such as Imation recommend that tapes in routine use (i.e., not in archival storage in a controlled environment) be replaced every 100 uses or so. If you're using the same tape every day, that's only three or four months' worth of use! The complete Imation Tape FAQ is good reading. And the Vidipax site has additional excellent information on the problems that can befall magnetic tape.
Floppies employ technologies much like tape: oxide particles bound to a flexible substrate. So, similar guidelines apply there.
Flash drives are new enough that there's no definitive data on long-term life spans, but there are several indicators that suggest a maximum useful life of about 10 years or 10,000 write cycles, whichever comes first. If that's the maximum life, then the safe life span for storing critically important data is probably three to five years. For more information, see my article "Life Expectancy Of Flash Drives."
And, in the interest of completeness — so you'll have longevity data on all the most common archival storage media referenced together in this one issue — there's good information on CD and DVD longevity in the National Institute of Standards and Technology's "Digital Data Preservation Program." You can find additional information in my article "Consensus Emerging On CD/DVD Life."
Fred Langa edited the LangaList e-mail newsletter from 1997 to 2006, when it merged with Windows Secrets. Prior to that, he was editor of Byte Magazine and editorial director of CMP Media, overseeing Windows Magazine and others.
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