MTU Settings for MTN/Globesurfer HSDPA connection

[rudirautenbach]

I was wondering whether the default MTU setting of 1500 for the Globesurfer HSDPA router is optimal for the MTN network?

Also, what recommendations are out there regarding the RWin (receive window) settings.

I use DrTCP to change the settings in the Windows XP environment. My router connects to the MTN network with HDSPA.

Comments/ideas/suggestions appreciated. All in the quest for more speed...

 

[YelloFever]

I was wondering whether the default MTU setting of 1500 for the Globesurfer HSDPA router is optimal for the MTN network?

Also, what recommendations are out there regarding the RWin (receive window) settings.

I use DrTCP to change the settings in the Windows XP environment. My router connects to the MTN network with HDSPA.

Comments/ideas/suggestions appreciated. All in the quest for more speed...

The default settings on the MTN supplied GlobeSurfers seem to be the best. I use mine on default and get great throughput - typically I often get the max theoretical UL and DL that the network is capable of delivering. I have not tried tweaking the settings but it might be possible to improve performance slightly.

MTNDD

 

[rudirautenbach]

Hi MTNDD,

Thanks for the response! I am in the process of tweaking the settings and will report back once completed.

 

[YelloFever]

Hi MTNDD,

Thanks for the response! I am in the process of tweaking the settings and will report back once completed.

Please do

MTNDD

 

[rudirautenbach]

Tweaking TCPIP settings

Ok here are the interim results. I use a TCPIP interface called TCPIP Optimizer, downloadable from http://www.speedguide.net/files/TCPOptimizer.exe.

Before I continue, please use at your own risk. Fiddling with the registry settings could sometimes be disastrous...

I used three machines, and basically varying the MTU, RWIN, TTL, LAN request buffer size and MaxConnectionsPerServer settings in intervals sequentially from one machine to the next, which helped me to determine effect after each change.

I did try to change the router (I use the Globesurfer unit) MTU but it had little effect.

I also disabled firewalls temporarily as not to get false readings.

Pick a file from an international site (I picked a file from www.download.com of about 4 Mb), each time checking the time to complete the download as well as the average download speed in kbits per second.) Don´t waste time with broadband speedtesters, IMO, they can hardly reproduce results.

Optimal settings for my environment was found to be as follows:

General settings:
TCP Receive Window : 256 960
MTU discovery : Yes
Black hole detect : No
Selective ACK´s : Yes
Max duplicate ACK´s : 2
MTU : 1500

Advanced settings
MaxConnectionsPerServer : 10
MaxconnectionPer1_0Server : 10
LocalPriority : 5
HostPriority : 6
DNSPriority : 7
NetbtPriority : 8
QoS Nonbesteffortlimit : 0
ToS : DisableUserToSSetting : blank
ToS : Default ToS value : blank
DNS error caching : all three fields on 0
LAN request buffer : 16384

Interestingly, if one follows the procedure on the website to determine the max MTU setting using pinging to a host (I pinged www.google.com and www.mybroadband.com) the calculated maximum MTU is returned as 1448. But, when using 1448 as MTU setting browsing is slowed down significantly.

One can try DrTCP (recommended by iBurst techies), it basically does the same thing but with less options.

Remember to note which adapter you are changing settings for, there is a tick box on the general settings tab to "modify all adapters". Use this if you are connecting using both wireless and LAN.

For dial-up users it is said there is not much to be done, according to website sources. I am not convinced of this yet.

I would appreciate if someone has tried a similar exercise, to post their feedback.

The secret is patience, and remember we are connecting over a wireless network so conditions can be drastically affected by location, distance from base station, atmospheric pressure and humidity.

Happy tweaking!

Rudi

PS PM me if you need help.