No magic and expensive programs are needed to increase the computer's network speed, just a few tweaks to the internal parameters of Windows 10 and Windows 7 or 8 ( the registry keys ) that can be done safely by following this guide. This time, as real geeks, we have a bit of fun with 7 tricks that, in some circumstances, can give real benefits to the speed of data transfer between computers on the network and, perhaps, also to the internet connection during normal browsing .
To those who wonder why making these changes I can say that Windows is a commercial operating system sold all over the world.
For this reason it is set with prudent parameters so that it can work as well as possible on any computer.
However, this does not mean that, on your personal PC, it cannot be optimized by changing some of these parameters.
As for the network speed, the changes can free Windows from some restrictions imposed by default for the best efficiency in any environment, both when using slow and broadband connections.
To open the registry editor, click on the Windows Start menu and then write the word regedit on the search box or on Run (press the shortcut Windows-R ).
Those who do not feel confident working on the registry keys can make a backup by selecting Computer from the tree on the left and then clicking on File -> Export to save the entire registry.
For each change, however, you can always go back and restore the default values.
Before starting with the changes, it may be useful to do an internet connection speed test or, better still, measuring the speed of the LAN so that you can then make comparisons and check if there are actual improvements after each change.
The explanations of each point can be complex even for experts and may be incomprehensible to many, but they are necessary to understand what is being done.
The registry keys are structured in a tree so you have to expand the directories to the final one and then change the parameter indicated on the right side of the editor.
Whenever you change or add a value, be sure to select the decimal base
1) the parameter TCP1323Opts determines whether the TCP protocol should use timestamping and the TCP reception window up to 1 GB.
The TCP receive window is the amount of data that can be sent to the host simultaneously over a connection.
Windows sets this value to "3" by default (see technical article) but you can change it to 1 to increase the network speed.
The parameter is located TCP1323Opts in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Services \ LanmanServer \ Parameters, if it is not present it can be added as a DWORD value (press the right button on the white of the right section).
2) MaxFreeTcbs is a value that determines the number of active TCP connections on the computer based on available physical memory and bandwidth.
If the number is too large, the computer may not process TCP transactions correctly and open too many connections at the same time.
If the number was too low, it would not be possible to request to open multiple connections together.
To learn more you can read the technical guide.
It can be said that for programs like UTorrent that download from multiple sources simultaneously, this value can be important.
The MaxFreeTcbs key is located in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Services \ Tcpip \ Parameters .
If it does not exist, it can be created as a new parameter with a DWORD key and a value of 65536 .
If you are using an older computer with lower hardware performance, you can set value to a lower number such as 16000.
3) MaxUserPort
When an application asks to open a port on Windows, the operating system chooses a number ranging from 1024 to a maximum specified in the " MaxUserPort " parameter.
In a nutshell, a port on the computer is an address used by a program to establish TCP / UDP connections on the Internet and on the local network.
The default value is 5000 (too low) but it can be increased so as to give Windows more chances to find a port (see technical article in Italian).
The location where MaxUserPort should go is in the following registry path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Services \ Tcpip \ Parameters and the value to assign is 65534 .
4) GlobalMaxTcpWindowSize is a value to be changed if you are connected to a fast network.
This value represents the amount of data that can be sent from the computer without receiving acceptance.
In fact, every time a certain amount of data is sent over the Internet, the computer must wait for a response to be allowed to receive more.
Changing this value means allowing the transmission of more data to be sent, without waiting for return receipts (see Microsoft technical guide)
GlobalMaxTcpWindowSize is located in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Services \ Tcpip \ Parameters key and can be set with the value 65535.
This will make the computer capable of sending data for 64 kilobytes without waiting for confirmation.
If you notice a drop in speed as a result of this change, remove the value or try increasing to 128 kilobytes (setting the value to 131072).
5) MTU
One of the most common ways to increase the speed of an Internet connection and by setting the maximum transmission unit (MTU).
This value represents the maximum size of a packet transmitted by the computer and is normally set automatically by the network card.
If you have a fast connection, it is convenient to adjust this network parameter according to the speed of the Internet connection.
The optimal setting of this value is difficult to uniquely find.
First, we need to find the optimal MTU value .
Then open a dos prompt (from the search box write cmd) and type the following command without quotes:
ping -f -l mtu gateway address
Replace "mtu" with a number from 88 to 65600 and write as the gateway address what you see from the connection details (type 192.168.2.1).
If you don't know the gateway, type the " ipconfig " command on the command line to find out the default gateway value.
By trying higher and higher MTU values (press the arrow at the top to repeat a command on the dos prompt), you will understand that you have exceeded if the ping returns the following message in response: It is necessary to fragment the package but DF is active .
Therefore choose a maximum number that does not require fragmentation of the package to have an optimal MTU .
This value is then written to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Services \ Tcpip \ Parameters \ Interfaces \ Interface ID registry key.
As interface ID you can have different values so you have to look for the network interface used by looking at the values on the right and trying to recognize a correspondence with the marked IP addresses.
For the active network interface, therefore, you can add a new DWORD value named MTU with a value fixed to the number found before.
6) IRPStackSize (I / O Request Packet Size Stack) basically represents the receiving buffer of the computer and allows the computer to receive multiple data at the same time.
If you have a bandwidth Internet connection (more than 10 Mbps), you can get more by changing the value otherwise you can skip this change.
The value is in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Services \ LanmanServer \ Parameters key and is usually set at 15.
You can set it with a value of 32 or you can try to see if it improves going up to 50 .
7) DefaultTTL (Time to live) tells the router how long a packet should remain deliverable before it is discarded.
When the value is high, the computer spends more time waiting for a packet that maybe never arrives and decreases the network speed.
You can then increase this speed by setting a shorter period of time.
Going to the key in the registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Services \ Tcpip \ Parameters, you can set it as a DWORD value with the name DefaultTTL and with a decimal number between 1 and 255.
The best value should be 64.
8) In another article there are 5 other tricks to speed up the internet that I recommend going to see why they are very effective.
Another guide instead describes how to decrease ping and network latency by optimizing the connection .
In addition, I remember the two options to disable that limit internet bandwidth in Windows
By force of things, I must decline any responsibility for any malfunctions resulting from these changes which, however, should not be there unless major mistakes are made.
The effects should be visible when the computer is restarted even if a significant increase in network and internet speed cannot be guaranteed because there are many circumstances and external factors that can affect it.
After this demanding job, then let me know how it went.
Those who prefer to use automatic programs and do not want to venture into these manual changes can always increase internet speed with the Auslogic automatic accelerator
