FiOS Speed Optimizer problems

I've used the FiOS Speed Optimizer tool successfully on two computers in my home (XP home and Win2k) but on two other machines (XP home and XP Pro), it fails with the message:

Optimization of your current system settings failed.

In all of the cases, I've run as the Administrator/Owner. I've tried both IE and Firefox on both machines and also tried the direct link at http://verizon.net/optimizesettings/. On both machines, I've allowed the ActiveX control to do it's thing. On my XP Pro machine, I thought I'd look through the registry for things like Tcp1323Opts and GlobalMaxTcpWindowSize - both keys that had been modified on my Win2k machine. However, I couldn't find anything in the registry for Tcp window size. I'd rather have the Verizon script make the appropriate modifications, but it won't work. Any ideas?

Accepted answers

NielsBohr

I can't go back and edit my prior post presumably since it's passed some sort of time threshold. But here's an addendum - I just completed these steps on another laptop running a 2001 Gateway XP Home w/512 Mb RAM and a wireless G card (a marginal machine at best). I started with 7 up/7 down and could not get the FiOS Speed Optimizer tool to work so followed these steps:

Download the Tcp Optimizer tool from speedguide.net
In the TCP Optimizer, save your current settings
In the TCP Optimizer, select the network adapter whose settings you want to modify (ethernet/wireles/all)
In the TCP Optimizer, slide the Connection Speed performance bar to whatever your plan maximum is (in my case, it only goes to 20, so I slid it all the way over).
In the TCP Optimizer, select the Optimal Settings radio button in the lower right-hand corner
In the TCP Optimizer, click on Preferences and check Enable Registry Editor
In the TCP Optimizer, click on the Registry tab and enter the following:

Tcp->Parameters->GlobalMaxTcpWindowSize (right-click on Parameters and select new DWORD Value) = 1045440
Tcp->Parameters->TcpWindowSize (right-click on Parameters and select new DWORD Value) = 262144
AFD->Parameters->DefaultSendWindow (right-click on Parameters and select new DWORD Value) = 262144
AFD->Parameters->DefaultReceiveWindow (right-click on Parameters and select new DWORD Value) = 262144

8. Exit, reboot, and check a few speed tests - I got 25 down and 21 up - not bad for an 8-yr-old laptop running wireless.

All comments

VZ_Brian

Hello. Haven't heard that one yet, but I am researching. I will tell you that, for testing purposes, I ran my rig through the tcpOptimizer at speedtest.net and had fine results with FiOS. I have also seen good results through Dr. TCP, with the following settings (http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17619013?hilite=fios+tweak😞

Set Tcp Receive Window to 255552
Set Selective Acks, Path MTU Discovery, Black Hole Detection to Default.
Leave Max Duplicate Acks and TTL Blank
Using the drop-down menu in The Doctor set your NIC’s (Ethernet adapter’s) MTU to 1492.
Save/Exit DrTcp
Reboot

Telcoguru

Make sure that you have Microsoft .NET framework 2.0 or higher installed or the VZ in Home Agent will not run.

spacedebris

the instructions that brian gave will work. DRTCP is a GREAT tool

You can get the tool here... www.dslreports.com/drtcp

download and run the program named drtcp021.exe

Every pre Vista computer I've every used I've done this to with excellent results. never had it fail.

NielsBohr

Thank you all for your responses.

I started with DrTcp since it looked the least intimidating. It was pretty easy to plug in Brian's (& Irish Shark's) settings and get going. After applying the DrTcp settings, I went from 7 down/7 up on my wireless laptop to 25 down/7 up. This was a big improvement in download speed but my upload speed didn't budge. I couldn't help but notice that DrTcp has a TcpReceiveWindow setting but no TcpSendWindow setting - no wonder my upload speed didn't improve. So I downloaded the Tcp Optimizer tool from speedguide.net.

There are a lot more options on the Tcp Optimizer app - and a lot of stuff I have no idea about. But it did have some of the registry key/value pairs that I remember were set with the Verizon optimizer tool: Tcp1323Opts, GlobalMaxTcpWindowSize, etc. So, I saved my current settings (another nice feature of this app) and let the app pick the optimal values. I rebooted and went back to the speed test and still got 25 down/7 up. Then, I found this: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r22551906-northeast-Which-speed-test-is-most-accurate-for-Fios - the 3rd post from the bottom by Raphion. If you're interested in upload speeds, this is an important post. I chose (4096 * 64 = 262114) as my 'DefaultSendWindow' and 'DefaultReceiveWindow'. Note: these keys did not exist in my registry - I had to create them. After rebooting, I got 26 down/20 up!

These are the registry key/values I ended up with:

HKLM->System->CurrentControlSet->Services->Tcpip->Parameters->GlobalMaxTcpWindowSize 1045440

HKLM->System->CurrentControlSet->Services->Tcpip->Parameters->TcpWindowSize 262114

HKLM->System->CurrentControlSet->Services->AFD->Parameters->DefaultSendWindow 262114

HKLM->System->CurrentControlSet->Services->AFD->Parameters->DefaultReceiveWindow 262114

It's interesting how much the DrTcp recommended receive window size (255552) differs from the Tcp Optimizer (1045440). Note: I believe the Verizion optimizer tool also uses the 1045440 value - at least it did on my Windows 2000 machine. I ended up using a combination of numbers from the two programs. I like the 262114 number since it's a multiple of 4096 (supposedly the thing to do if you follow the smallvoid link). You _can_ calculate these numbers on one of the tabs on the Tcp Optimizer tool but you need to know stuff about latency and I really had no idea what to put there. Ultimately, I just chose the 262114 number since it seemed like a more reasonable default window size than 1045440 and was close to the DrTcp recommendation of 255552.

If I were to do this over, I'd recommend the following (assuming you can't get the Verizon FiOS speed optimizer to work):

Download the Tcp Optimizer tool from speedguide.net
In the TCP Optimizer, save your current settings
In the TCP Optimizer, choose the optimal settings, save, and reboot
Create the AFD->Parameters->DefaultSend and ReceiveWindows.
Play around with the 4 registry key/value pairs above until you get better performance.

VZ_Brian

Thanks for that info!!!

NielsBohr

Oops, that should 262144, not 262114. 262144 = 2^18 - a nice CS number.

NielsBohr

Download the Tcp Optimizer tool from speedguide.net
In the TCP Optimizer, save your current settings
In the TCP Optimizer, select the network adapter whose settings you want to modify (ethernet/wireles/all)
In the TCP Optimizer, slide the Connection Speed performance bar to whatever your plan maximum is (in my case, it only goes to 20, so I slid it all the way over).
In the TCP Optimizer, select the Optimal Settings radio button in the lower right-hand corner
In the TCP Optimizer, click on Preferences and check Enable Registry Editor
In the TCP Optimizer, click on the Registry tab and enter the following:

Tcp->Parameters->GlobalMaxTcpWindowSize (right-click on Parameters and select new DWORD Value) = 1045440
Tcp->Parameters->TcpWindowSize (right-click on Parameters and select new DWORD Value) = 262144
AFD->Parameters->DefaultSendWindow (right-click on Parameters and select new DWORD Value) = 262144
AFD->Parameters->DefaultReceiveWindow (right-click on Parameters and select new DWORD Value) = 262144

8. Exit, reboot, and check a few speed tests - I got 25 down and 21 up - not bad for an 8-yr-old laptop running wireless.