Tips, Tweaks, and Downloads

56kers Unite - TPC's Dial-Suck Survival Guide

Moderator Note: This sticky is an amalgamation of several sticky worthy posts which fall under the category of "Tips, Tweaks, and Downloads". Below is a table of contents for this sticky, as well as links to the full original threads the posts appeared in. Please direct any comments and questions to the original thread -- any new posts appearing in this thread will be deleted.

• Posts 1, 2, 3, 6 -- 56kers Unite - TPC's Dial-Suck Survival Guide (original thread)
• Post 4 -- Get your browsers here! (original thread)
• Post 5 -- A word on BROWSERS, and MAIL. (original thread)
• Post 7 -- Official FireFox Tweaks Thread (original thread)

Don't forget to check out su root's "list o links" thread for tons of tweaking/benchmarking info:

http://forum.oc-forums.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=130380

Fact: 90% of internet users still employ dial-suck modems.

Most of these people are only there to check their e-mail and download the newspaper.

Alot of these people are lucky enough to have broad-band access elsewhere.

Some of these people are in countries that know nothing better.

Hell, one or two of these people are actually *happy* with the "blazing fast" downloads of a 56k or less.

But what about the group I didn't mention? What about those of us who long for the freedom of broad-band, but are choking and held to the ground daily by this damned dial-suck internet access?

Dial-up blows, I know. I've dealt with it all my life. I've had three machines that I could see being hooked up to a high-speed cable modem... but it never happened. It's dial-suck for me until I go to college.

So that's what this guide is for. If you're fed up with corrupted downloads, slow IM reconnects or missing pictures on webpages, then I suggest you read this before you go tossing that modem out the window.

Section 1 of 2

I use several programs to help get over my dial-suck blues.

CiDial - A very clean, efficient, no BS app that redials automatically in the event of a disconnect. Asoblutely wonderful, especially when working in conjuction with BulletProof FTP. Connection dies, CiDial reconnects silently, and BPTFTP resumes my download. I use it on my Win95 laptop, my Win98 Penitum, and my Win2kPro Athlon (well, DID use it... see sig). Wonderful. You download it from CNET here:

http://download.com.com/3000-2155-3293014.html?tag=lst-0-1

Bullet Proof FTP - Automatic resume for all FTP downloads, so long as the server supports it. How do you think I downloaded 1.3GB of Linux ISOs in a week on my 56k? It's not because I was up every six hours, making it reconnect to the server...

http://www.bpftp.com/

Download Accelerator Plus - If you don't have it... GET IT! It's a wonderful shareware app that downloads quickly and efficiently. It has problems with dropped connections, however - it doesn't reconnect to the server automatically. This really isn't a problem with me, as I almost never download anything larger than 60MB at a time (about what I can move in 5 or 6 hours). This program works even better on a broad-band line. But for our fellow dial-suck users, it has customizable dial-up extensions, including the ability to hang up the connection when the d/l is finished.

Downloadable here:

http://www.speedbit.com/

7/7/03 Edit - DAP comes with AdWare, not SpyWare. There's a difference. The huge ads can become annoying, especially if you're stuck on a slow machine that runs at 800x600 or less. Plus, when it's time for new ads, your download assumes the back-burner position until the new ads are downloaded.

So, while I never had any problems with the program itself, you can try:

GetRight - Just like DAP, with a better interface, no AdWare, and works better for broad-band connections too. GetRight supports multi-segmented downloading, and with enough mirrors, you can get up to 10 connections going at once. On the line in the dorms, I got 730 KB/s using just 4 connections. With my dial-up modem, I'd maybe squeeze another half KB out of the download speed.

Priority downloading, scheduled downloading, download speed caps, GetRight has what DAP does, and more. Certainly worth a try, especially if you have access to a broad-band machine.

http://www.getright.com/

Trillian - Screw ICQ. ICQ = a resource hogging, slow-conecting, six-ways-to-do-anything app that I refuse to run anymore. Trillian works great for me. Five different chat protocols - IRC, YIM, AIM, ICQ, and MSN. All of these connect within 5 seconds of my hitting the "Global Reconnect" option. Besides the fact that it emulates some Windows XP features even on Win95 systems, I like it because it automatically reconnects on it's own, after CiDial has done it's business. ICQ used to just ***** that "The ICQ network is unavailable.". My @$$. You're just a trashy piece of coding, ICQ.

Trilian 0.74 & Trillian Pro 1.0 is available here:

http://www.trillian.cc

You can import your YIM, AIM, IRC, ICQ, and MSN contact lists from old installations of the five afore-mentioned IMs. Also, TP 1.0 isn't free - but it's worth the $25.

KazaaLite - We've all got the run-around by spyware at one time of the other. While cleaning a bud's machine the other day, I found over 300 spyware components!!! After a good few minutes spent cleaning, the system ran all around better. Kazaa is a great P2P file-sharing app, complete with auto-logon and auto-resuming after CiDial does it's business. Unfortunately, spyware components laced throughout the program can choke your computer literally to death (software death - reformat). KazaaLite is a modified version of Kazaa. It's just like Kazaa, only all of the spyware components have been extracted and/or disabled completely. You can download it here:

http://www.kazaalite.tk

Note: If you run Ad-Aware, if *will* find a CyDoor spyware component within the KazaaLite directory. DO NOT DELETE IT! It is a critical part of both Kazaa and KazaaLite. Rest assured, though, CyDoor DLL will not affect your system's performance, as it has been rendered useless to anything other than KazaaLite.

Another note: The new KazaaLite "K++" version prevents fellow Kazaa-ers from using the "Find More Form Same->User" (or however it goes) option. Draw your own conclusions, but this is there for a reason.

Section 2 of 2

WinModems - ...suck. WinModems aren't modems (IMO). They're parasites on your system; in short, they use main processor power to do their housework, as opposed to "keeping it on your own card". The result? Lower connectivity rates, less reliablility, and more chances of data corruption. (Yes, data corruption. ) Got a crappy line? Your WinModem will spew all over itself trying to connect. Trying to hit above 20kb/sec downloads? Impossible. (I've hit 18.7kb/sec on my WinModem - because apparently, ISO images compress well). So why, do you ask, do they continue to MAKE these horrible things!?

Money. They're cheaper and more cost effective to manufacture than real hardware modems. Chances are, if you open up a pre-built system (Compaq, Dell, etc.), you'll find a WinModem inside. Hardware modems are mucho expensive, and people would rather save a few bucks by lowering transfer rates.

If you're aching for more speed, go get yourself an internal/external hardware modem. Specifically ask the salesman, "Is this a winmodem, or a hardware modem?" if he's not sure, then find someone who is. Be careful, some salesmen will just BS you into buying a crap modem, so it's best to bring someone who knows modems along with you as well. Almost all external modems are hardware modems.

Multi-modem Connectivity - Windows has an option for this, built right in - it's called Multilink. Got more than one analog internal or external modem? Set your connection to use both at once, and theoretically double your transfer rates. To access this option, open your Dial-Up Networking folder, and right-click the connection you want to modify. Hit the Multilink tab. There, you can add devices to the connection, which will dial simultaneously along with the other modems on that connection, when you dial in.

However, this requires one phone line per modem (obviously), and some ISPs don't like it if you attempt you use more than one modem per username and password combo. Before you go spending cash on mucho modems to dial-in with, ask your ISP if they support Windows' Multilink function, and test a bud's modem in your machine if they do.

RAM, Defrag, and other Machine Maintenance - Defrag your HD, get some more RAM, and in some cases, update/downdate (lol) your OS. For example, with Windows 95, I get better connectivity rates than I do with 98SE, but both OSes are owned by Win2kPro's dial-up extensions. Windows 2000 also seems a little more stable when it comes to dealing with modem hardware failures. Defraging is standard maintenance, you should do that anyway. A little more RAM never hurts, unless you're running Win9X with more than 256MB of RAM already.

Hope that helps those who want to get over 56k... it certainly helped me pass the time while I wait for the FedEx truck.

10/7/02 Edit - fixed spelling errors, updated Trillian section, corrected awkward sentences.

Drivers for Conexant modems, along with a modem ID utility:

http://www.conexant.com/customer/md_driverdownload.jsp

[Ports]
LPT1:=
LPT2:=
LPT3:=
COM1:=9600,n,8,1,x
COM2:=9600,n,8,1,x
COM3:=230400,n,8,1,p
COM4:=9600,n,8,1,x
FILE:=

Notice com 3. Enter it exactly as shown in the win.ini file. Of course do it for the com port on which your modem is.

Go to dial up adapter properties and change IP packet size to large. Save all and reboot. Try the modem and results should be substantially improved. I use these settings with 98se and do not know how they will work with xp, though I suspect they will.

Results before...48 bps...after 50666 bps with occasional hookups at 52000 bps. Response time and thoughput are dramatically improved. Give it a go if you are on modem. BTW, I am on Juno and have only had 1 dropped line in the last year. This is with two different cities though both are located in Georgia.

I used to get into this stuff a lot. I only use Daimond SST modems now. Average connect 52000. Never get booted. Winmodems do suck. I am not sure if Diamond "Supra" SST is hardware or software, but it works awesome. Does not seem to matter how big the rig, always fast.

I did run cat5e from the telco box outside my house to my computer. I put in a junction block, so every other phone in the house runs from one point, my computer. I noticed an ever so slight increase when I put a switch in that turned off all other tele devices and allowed me a path to the telco with nothing else even wired in. That might be overkill, but like I said, I was into this.

Now for the juice.

A reg edit on 9x. HKEY_LOCAL-MACHINE\System\CurrentControSet\Services\Class\Modem\000#\

look for a bin with the word "properties". Click to modify.

On the left had side, you should see the next to bottom row with the numbers 0018. To the right of that should be 8 double digit strings. From the right, count to #7. It should be C2 and #6 should be 01.

Put your mouse cursor in to the right of C2. Hit backspace. Now put in 84. Move to the right of #6 (01) and backspace. Now put in 03.

Exit regedit and go to device manager. Look at your modem properties. You should now be able to set your rate from 115000 to 230000.

One step further.

If you make #7 to 08 : and #6 to 07, you can now choose a "Maximum Speed" in modem properties of 460800.

One more step further.

If you change #7 to 10 and #6 to 10, you can now choose a "Maximum Speed" in modem properties of 921600.

This is only affecting the speed at which your modem recieves info from your buffer, not from the line.

You are limited to the bandwidth that the powers that be created in the phone lines. That happens to be about 54,000. You are not going to get more than that with one modem. But you can speed up how fast the modem talks to the buffer that actually recieves the packets, which is what this mod does.

Your buffer size and packet size also affect this. It was my findings that if you leave the defaults alone, it will be faster.

When I was using Napster I tried this stuff out. You can actually open your properties for your buffer and packet size and change them on the fly. I found that I could sometimes tweak the download rate by adjusting these, but overall, for both file transfers and general surfing, default worked best.

But by all means, play with these. You will see a difference.

I found that any program app that was supposed to help your modem speed, such as MTUspeed, suck. The all mess with your packet, rwin, ipmtu, slownet,combuff and mstcp settings. It was just not worth it to me. I can change all of that manually and be more successfull.

Anyway, cat5e got me the best connection. About 2000 more (from 50000 to 52000).

Some of you are just out of luck because of problems outside of your house. Olderwires or whatever. You can only work with your internal wiring and your rig.

Hope you found that interesting.

About the reg edits, I experimented with pushing the speed past 230400. I do not know if it works correctly or not. Again, I did those. If you want to try it, go ahead. It worked for me. Make sure you record your original settings for #7 and #6.

They should be C2 and 01 by default. But yours may be different.

Be careful.

Later.

Try a new browser today!

*Updated Feb 2004*


Mozilla Firefox is a speedy, full-featured browser that makes browsing more efficient than ever before. Firefox includes:

• comprehensive popup controls to keep unwanted advertising off your desktop;
• a tab browsing mode that lets you open several pages in a single window, allowing you to load links in the background without leaving the page you're on;
• integrated Google search ;
• industry leading accessibility with Find As You Type - find links and page text by simply typing;
• simplified privacy controls that let you cover your tracks more effectively;
• a streamlined browser window that lets you see more of the page than any other browser while at the same time being more configurable;
• a large variety of free downloadable extensions and themes that add specific functionality and visual changes to the browser;

Mozilla is world-class open source browser that is designed from the ground up to support open internet standards across a variety of platforms including Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, OS/2, Solaris, and many more. Mozilla provides users with acclaimed browsing convenience along with power features such as pop-up blocking and tabbed browsing.

With Opera's new rendering engine, the Web has never been so fast! With additional features aimed at moving you quickly through the Web like keyboard shortcuts, mouse gestures, window management and great search features, it's the only place you won't be caught for traveling at such speed!

Netscape was once the worlds #1 browser, and is trying to steal back the crown. Featuring the Mozilla core, it is making a comeback........

A word on BROWSERS, and MAIL.

Well, I gave myself a few days to play with some browsers and I believe I can share my thoughts with all of you. Before I get started I would just like to point out that as much as I love Win XP Pro, I do not care for IE or Outlook Express. So I was searching for a browser and mail client that could replace them.

And by popular demand, I am going to include a few more browsers into the mix, also I am adding links to them all for you guys!

First up,

OPERA 7.03: This is indeed a fast browser, but I do not like all the real estate to the right of the top bar with nothing in it. I would prefer in this case to be able to move the address bar over there or other things but I could not, Opera kinda felt inflated to me, alot of things going on, and maybe it is me but I thought it was overkill. I would have preferred a more customizable interface and NO ADS blaring in the top right, to me this is just pathetic. Who charges for a browser these days, honestly?! Also plugin support for this browser is not the best, opera even has settings to make other software think its IE or Mozilla, weak. On a last note, the best feature is the zooming text under the navigation icons, just sweet looking and should be in all browsers!

I give Opera a 6 / 10
Opera 7.03

Mozilla 1.3: Now this browser is just screaming fast, has a great interface, and is very lite on the system. There is no clutter or wasted space on the navigation bar, and it works very well. Plugin support is good and I ran into little trouble. I felt it still has too many of those bloated options from Netscape along with the Composer, Mail, options but if your in the market for a webpage editor, I have used Composer in the past and it is nice. I ran into little problems with this browser with the exception of Themes...alot of themes for Mozilla are for past versions ie 1.1 - 1.2, and with good reason as they caused bugs on the newer 1.3+ versions. All in all a full featured browser and would be welcome on any desktop.

I give Mozilla 1.3 a 8 / 10
Mozilla 1.3 / 1.4a

Phoenix 0.5 (Renamed to Firebird): Now this browser suprised me, is has the basic interface of Mozilla, great theme support, and is lite on the system and fast. This is the Mozilla browser without all the bloat of email or Composer. It is highly customizable and has the best navigation bar of the lot. I really like how they incorperated the search bar on the right of the address bar, and a simple choice of search engines to use...google being mine. Plugin support is great as it takes any Netscape compatible plugins. It has the famed "Tabbed Browsing" that Mozilla and Opera both have and to me it works best and easier here. I actually am finding it very difficult to find fault with Phoenix, and I know it is only going to get better. I believe I read the roadmap for Mozilla and Phoenix are going to merge sometime in the near future here....as the netscape options become more stripped away from both, and this will be wolcomed by me with open arms.

I gave Phoenix / Firebird 0.5 a 9 / 10
Phoenix 0.5

Internet Explorer 6: Ok here we go, the big MS browser itself, chalk full of features, integrated into windows and the only browser that takes ahold of your computer like no other program in the world. Thats right, IE has been here forever and I am poised to tell you what I think about it. We have all used it, but I for one am not happy with it. It takes up way too many resources, does NOT let you customize as much as you would want, there are no bonus features available that MOST browsers now a days like Tabbed Browsing, Sidebar functionality, and Skinning...it is slow at rendering most webpages that Mozilla, Opera, or Phoenix can render in half the time, and has the worst popup ad, caching, and cookie handling of them all. One bonus to IE is it WILL run anything as far as plugins go, and that has to be its only saving grace. If it could not handle plugins no one would use it. The only going for this browser right now is the fact that everyone with windows has it, and truthfully the majority use it. MS please look at your market and bring us more features that we want!

I gave IE 6 a 5 / 10

Netscape 7.02: The newest build of the Gekko based Netscape is here, and you know what?....It is pretty good. Consider this browser the fully featured overflowing with everything you need. To me it uses to many resources and is FAR too bloated but it is a very funtional browser. If you want a browser, mail, web editing, Instant messaging all in one here is the best choice. It is fast and it is highly customizable. It has skins, it has tabbed browsing, a download manager, a sidebar full of features and things to play with and even built in click to search functions. The only bad thing IMHO is the fact that IT IS this fully featured. I like a simple get going browser that customizes the way I want it, that is why I use Phoenix personally. Netscape has good plugin support, but the browser takes too long to load and just feels to heavy. I would prefer this be the defualt browser in windows though honestly, more people would get the true feel for what you can do with a browser.

I gave Netscape 7.02 a 8 / 10
Netscape 7.02

_______________

MAIL clients.

I tested Mozilla mail and Eudora, and out of the 2 I chose Eudora for my mail client. It is easy to use, very customizable and simple in the end. Mozilla mail was just a little too clunky for me. Outlook Express is very simple as well, I just dont much like the look or feel of it. So Eudora is my mail cliient of choice right now...anyone know other mail clients that are good? I will test them!

Eudora 5.2

_______________

ADD-ON software for Internet Explorer.

Avant Browser 7.0.5.2, 03.03.2003 This I found while running around on the web today, I saw it was an add on program for IE and decided to give it a go based on the things it did. Well, I am completely stoked with it to tell you the truth! I have been using Phoenix (just renamed to Firebird lately) for awhile and I think I might actually switch back to IE. EEEK! Avant is pretty cool actually, the best control over Tabbed browsing thus far hands down, the Plug-In support of IE (100%), and VERY VERY VERY customizable. I spent 15 minutes alone getting my toolbar area just right, lol. It has a built in search feature that is powered by GOOGLE (who doesnt use google), and runs flawlessly. Now I just got this today and thought I should mention it right away, I am going to play with it for awhile and if I find anything wrong with it I will of course post it here, but for now Im going to give it....

9 / 10
Avant Browser

OK, for those of you with ADSL, Cable modems, or even dial-suck.
This could be an answer to all your prayers (unless you've done it already, or your DSL or Broadband providers software does it for you, but unlikely)
During the time that win98 was made, there wasn't much need for TCP stacks in excess of about 32kbits, but when DSL and broadband came out, win2000 had stack sizes of 64k or more.
now, in order to do this correctly, you should know a little about registry editing, as this could make your connection go from bad to worse (especially "lossy" connections which have to re-dump packets which were "lost" in transmission from the ISDN provider and had to be re-sent)
now, on to the goodies....

in win95/98/se, you need to open regedit (start menu/run/type in "regedit" in the space provided)
double-click HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, then System, then CurrentControlSet, then Services, then VxD, then MSTCP, and look for "DefaultRcvWindow".
If your provider has changed this by software, then the value will be between 4096 and 16384 for DSL or broadband, and around 1024 for dial-up. What you want to do is to double click on the "DefaultRcvWindow" to change the value. for DSL and broadband, change this value to "32767", and "16384" for dial-up.
Now the tricky part....
You get to make your own registry string, which will set a "bottleneck" on the TCP packet size.
Now, you need to follow this EXACTLY as shown or it wont work!
You should be still looking at the same page as where you found "DefaultRcvWindow".
On the right hand side of the page, right-click to bring up the "new" menu. Point to New - String.
When you do that, it will ask for a name. At this point, you need to type "GlobalMaxTcpWindoSize" EXACTLY as shown (this is not a typo, someone on the win98 TCP stack made a spelling error, and MS has'nt come out with a patch as of yet).
Now for the value...
It needs to be at least the same or more than the DefaultRcvWindow size, or it won't work right (really slow connection speeds and such). As a rule of thumb, I like to set this value to double the DefaultRcvWindow size, meaning

DefaultRcvWindow "32767"
GlobalMaxTcpWindoSize "65535"

You can experiment with different sizes, as long as the format stays the same (IE Default always double GlobalMax, etc).

To test this, you need to connect to your ISDN and figure out how to "ping" them (example, in the adress bar, type "ping ftp.aol.com", or whoever you use.
Then do the registry changes and connect again, "pinging" as before, and noticing the latency (delay time) from before and comparing to now. you should see a considerable difference in speed, but maybe not downloading since that is dependent on connection speed, not packet speed. this should make a big difference in page loading for dial-up users, since the modem recieves more of a packet before displaying anything on the screen.
BTW - Sorry for the long thread, but its necessary to get this out correctly.

Official FireFox Tweaks Thread

- Enter about:config in the address bar and press Enter
- Scroll down to nglayout.initialpaint.delay
- Double-click nglayout.initialpaint.delay
- Change the default value of 250 to 0
- network.http.max-connections = 64
- network.http.max-connections-per-server=21
- network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server=8

Install Browser Gestures for Firefox

Install Web Development Toolbar

Here is a list of all KeyBoard Shortcuts for Firefox, Internet Explorer and Opera. A table if you like. Very useful!

More to come as I think of them or get comments with them.

This makes Firefox pretty darn fast and extremely fun to use!!

As from NuclearMoose…an avid Firefox/Mozilla user:

I suggest also EditCSS which will load a site’s stylesheet(s) into the sidebar. You can then fool with the CSS all you like, and you will see the changes. Once you have discovered a fix or something that you really like, you can simply hightlight the CSS, copy/paste it into your stylesheet, and upload it to your server. It’s available through the same extension page as all the other FB/FF extensions. I’m using FireFox, and it works just fine.

Others I recommend are:
CuteMenus
Copy Image
Bookmark Links checker
Bookmark Backup
Dictionary Search
Tabbrowser Extensions
ChromeEdit is nice for hacking profile files.
Chatzilla is a nice IRC client.
and let’s not forget the Spell Checker Front End 0.3.5.

Have fun!
________________________________________________________
Better Tweak
TABBROWSER EXTENSIONS is an abolute must have extension in my opinion. It is the only way I can get mozilla tabs to work the way I want them.

For spell checking your online text entry boxes (such as composing a post on a message board
First install This then install This and This.

You can also tweak things by creating a text file, naming it user.js and putting it in your profile folder (in Win Xp that would probably be Documents and Settings/user name/Application Data/Phoenix/profiles/profile name/(randomly named folder which should be the only one in here)/ - you can then add tweaks in such as:

// Speed up rendering by removing delay
user_pref("nglayout.initialpaint.delay", 0);

// Instead of annoying error dialog messages, display pages:
user_pref("browser.xul.error_pages.enabled", true);

//These tweaks increase the number of connections and downloads you can have going at once (these settings are for broadband connections):
user_pref("network.http.max-connections", 48);
user_pref("network.http.max-connections-per-server", 16);
user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy", 16);
user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server",
8);

(these setting are for Dialup) copy to notepad and name it user.js and put it in your profile:
browser.cache.memory.capacity : 65536
browser.cache.disk_cache_ssl : true
browser.xul.error_pages.enabled : true
content.interrupt.parsing : true
content.max.tokenizing.time : 3000000
content.maxtextrun : 8191
content.notify.backoffcount : 5
content.notify.interval : 750000
content.notify.ontimer : true
content.switch.threshold : 750000
network.http.max-connections : 32
network.http.max-connections-per-server : 8
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy : 8
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server : 4
network.http.pipelining : true
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests : 8
network.http.proxy.pipelining : true
nglayout.initialpaint.delay : 750
plugin.expose_full_path : true
signed.applets.codebase_principal_support : true

Tons more Here. Be sure and note whether they are tweaks for you user.js file, or tweaks for the userChrome.css file (same directory as above, in the Chrome folder).

Install Browser Gestures for Firefox?
Install Web Development Toolbar ?
how come i cant find them? can some1 give me the direct link

Here is a few programs that i love and a website:

Fraps -->Click Here for the website

DVD ShrinkClick Here for the website

XFireClick Here for the website

Tweaktown. A ton of tweaks and tips for windows

To remove LOOK2ME

that adware/trojan horse will make you computer go nuts & pop ups will flood you net browser