Speed tweaks for broadband/ethernet NIC?

My parents finally got themselves some satellite internet, and although it isn't fast by most standards, its worlds better than the dial up service they've had living in the mountains with old analog phone lines and switches. Anyhow, between the desktop computer [wired connection] and my sister's laptop [wireless connection], they notice a pretty significant difference in download/streaming speeds in favor of the laptop on the wireless connection. Somehow, the laptop is able to download/stream nearly twice as fast as the desktop can do.

Before they get it in their heads that they need to upgrade something or get a new computer, I'd like to see what tweaks or adjustments I can do either through windows settings, or NIC settings, or wherever I can get an increase. The computer is running XP home SP3, with a 1.8ghz AMD Duron and a half-gig RAM on [I believe] a VIA KT600 chipset board. The onboard NIC failed, so it's now using a cheap Encore NIC.

Where should I begin? I remember from my old dial-up days that there were tweaks within windows internet settings, but I knew that no amount of tweaking was going to help my 24k connection so I never bothered messing with it

Bump.

A good place to start would be doing bandwidth tests from both systems and confirming what performance they're getting.

Go to speedtest.net and compare results. Let us know what you get.

It could be a slow connection, or bad playback performance on the one PC. Just trying to get the necessary details so we can ensure we're looking in the right place.

Tweaking NIC settings are unlikely to cause noticeable improvements on a broadband connection. I'd try a different network cable, a bad network cable can cause poor performance.

Either way tho, unless something is very wrong, the connection of both PC's to the router/wireless AP should have much higher bandwidth than your getting from that satellite internet - which makes NIC settings even less likely to be the culprit.

Here's a an idea.

Why not connect the wired computer directly to the satellite connection. I assume you are using a router - so, lets make sure there isn't an issue there.

Assuming you go from wired computer > satellite connection and the speed increases we would know that it isn't the NIC card that is the issue.

Hope this helps!

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tweakboy said:

Simply the best TCPIP tweaker for all OSes

tcpoptimizer


google her in and download it. Put it on Optimal and set your Mbps ,, and apply and reboot,,, enjoy,

Click to expand...

I.M.O.G. said:

Tweaking NIC settings are unlikely to cause noticeable improvements on a broadband connection. I'd try a different network cable, a bad network cable can cause poor performance.

Click to expand...

I've never been a fan of "Auto Configuration Tweaker" type apps. I kind of place them in the same category as "Finally Fast" and other registry cleaners and "Speed up your system" apps. And as IMOG mentioned, Broadband bandwidths aren't likely to be limited by NIC settings (even a 10-Base-T connection won't be saturated by Satellite Internet )

I'd agree with starting by bypassing the Router - Troubleshoot the hardware (the easy stuff ) first...

Dang, what have I been doing for almost a week to miss replies that started half an hour after my bump? lol. Next time I'm at their house I'll compare the speedtests as well as trying to bypass the router for the wired computer.

Let's say things improve when I bypass the router, what types of settings should I look into changing within the router's options? I'm generally only there once a week at most, so I'd like to go in with a few things to try. Hopefully I can get something figured out this weekend for them.