WARNING:- The instructions below require you to edit Windows Registry - editing the Registry requires great care and should NOT be attempted unless you are familiar with the procedure.
FIRST, back up your existing Registry files located in the Windows directory, you may need them later - the files to back up are:-
system.dat - system.da0 - user.dat - user.da0,
These are large files with attributes hrs set. I suggest you copy them to a special directory on a partition other than C. Copying these files to a special directory is recommended in case you make a mistake editing the Registry - you may need them!
If after a reboot your system fails you must be able to restore your Registry. Instructions for restoring the Registry are in the Windows 95 handbook under 'Restoring the Registry' - read this section of the handbook BEFORE you you attempt to edit the Registry.
Now to START -
WARNING:- The instructions below require you to edit Windows Registry - editing the Registry requires great care and should NOT be attempted unless you are familiar with the procedure.
When I refer to a 'router' I am referring to a device placed in a network node that examines each packet and decides on the best outgoing connection to forward it along, so that it takes the shortest route to its destination.
1: As a default Windows 95 is set for a LAN value of 1500, the Internet value is 576 bytes, therefore adjust the MTU (maximum transmission unit) from the default of 1500 bytes to 576 bytes. The reason you 'reduce' this value is as follows - The Internet standard is 576 bytes, though parts of it may use bigger packets. This means that 1500 byte packets are likely to encounter a router that will split or fragment them. Fragmentation reduces performance, so reduce the MTU to 576 bytes.
You are about edit the Registry - caution and care is now required!! -
Click Start\Run and enter regedit and press Enter. Then navigate to Hkey_Local_Machine\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\netTrans\000n, where 'n' is a digit. You may have to look through the available '000n' keys to find the one that refers to your TCP/IP connection - this will be clear from the labels on the right hand screen. Highlight '000n' then click Edit\New\String Value and in the new box that appears in the right hand screen delete what's there and enter MaxMTU, then double click on MaxMTU and the 'Edit String' dialogue box appears, in the 'Value Data' line enter 576 and click OK . In the right hand screen you should see an entry called MaxMTU with the value 576 along side it - then close down RegEdit and reboot the computer.
If the computer boots OK, login to your ISP and run your browser to check the connection is working.
2: If it's OK log off and set MSS (maximum segment size) this is the largest allowable size of a data block inside a packet. This should be 40 bytes less than MTU, more on this later but first you must set the RWin (receive window) RWin is a buffer for received packets and is set as follows.
Run regedit and navigate to:- Hkey_Local_Machine\System\Current ControlSet\Services\VxD\MSTCP. Highlight MSTCP and using the same sequence as above add a new string value called DefaultRcvWindow then make the value 2144. Exit regedit and test as above.
The value 2144 is arrived at as follows; (576x4) - (40x4) = 2144. NOTE: RWin is only effective with PPP connections, it has no effect with SLIP connections. This does not concern us, as Internet Dial-Up connections are usually PPP. If you are unsure about this check with your ISP.
3: Finally you need to adjust your TTL (Time to Live) Too small a TTL will prevent you connecting to very remote modems, Windows default is 32, however, if you are more than 32 router hops away, not uncommon, the packets won't arrive! To optomise for Internet use I suggest you increase the TTL value to 64 - here's how:
Run regedit and navigate to:- Hkey_Local_Machine\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\MSTCP. Highlight MSTCP and add a new string value called DefaultTTL and set the value to 64. Then close regedit and restart your PC.
After you have finished the above three mods your Windows 95 operating system should be optimised for the Internet!!
I have only scraped the surface with my explanations of the above, there is more to it than I care to write - it would take me a week of mails - but for an optimised Windows 95 Internet connection the above information is more than adequate.