Best XP settings and Windows Firewall to access SOH website

[kelticheart]

Hi everybody! :wavey:

I re-assembled an old pc to use exclusively online, without any of my applications and personal data. Just OS and security programs.

I installed XP SP3 and I connect, sigh!, via my old US Robotics house modem. I have been fighting with XP Internet options and Windows firewall for the entire w-end but the result is always the same: impossibly slow to open SOH pages, while it's decent when I move the very same modem to my main pc and connect via Win98 SE, as I did up until three days ago. I only used 98 all of this time because I set it up on a separate HDD, and when active, Win98SE is incapable to "see" disks formatted with NTFS file system, therefore viruses could not jump from this drive to my main C: drive. Now I am tired of having to deal with nothing new that supports Win98SE anymore, long since obsolete and surpassed.

There must be some XP setting and Windows firewall that I am obviously missing because my ISP, phone line, modem and achievable connection speed are exactly the same. The two pc's are sitting side-by-side on my desk but, when I connect with Win98 SE, it runs circles around XP doing the very same thing a few moments later.
The only difference sits in the antivirus software I use, AVG v.7.5 (last Win98 update of two years ago) and AVG v.9.0 perfectly up-to-date. I am suspecting a high AVG input-output checking activity slowing down my connection, but it shouldn't be only that.

XP Internet setting options are slightly different than Win98SE, so my question is:

which are the best performance settings for XP SP3 and Windows firewall to access SOH with a decent house modem speed? I am speaking of Windows Firewall also because I couldn't find a specific setup screen to enter all SOH's IP addresses and keep it permanently open for SOH exclusively.

My many thanks go in advance to any generous soul willing to offer some help just by describing how their pc connections are configured. Providing house modems are still being used somewhere in the world.......:rolleyes:

Cheers!
KH :ernae:

[rohan]

KH,
I wish I could help you with that but I'm afraid I've forgotten all I ever knew about modem connections. However, an alternative you might like to consider would be to use Linux on that old PC - there's still the problem of setting up the modem, but I believe that it would be much more straightforward than it is under WinXP.

As far as using Linux is concerned, there should be little problem bearing in mind that you plan to only browse SOH, and presumably download from the Libraries here, as there are Linux flavours with GUIs and desktops very similar to that of WinXP. As an example, you might like to browse this site to see how it looks -
http://www.linuxmint.com/index.php

and here's the latest user guide -
http://ftp.heanet.ie/pub/linuxmint.com/docs/user-guide/english_9.0.pdf

and a brief review of the latest version -
http://www.linux.com/distrocentral/distronews/311675-linux-mint-9-solid-simple-shiny

Something else that crossed my mind was whether you had tried different browsers on your current WinXP setup - that might also make a significant difference to your page opening speed,
hope that helps,
Ro
:ernae:

[bearcat241]

Hey Stef,

On the topic of alternative browsers, Opera is one of the fastest browsers around, if not THE undisputed fastest. Firefox is good also, unless you load it down with too many plugins and extensions. As for your connection, i'm assuming that you are using Internet Explorer 8.0 and you're referring to a dial-up modem by the term "house modem", right? I use a DSL modem working through my phone line on an XP3-Win7 rig and i get no problems - using IE 8.0 in both systems, as well as alternate browsers. Is the problem only with the SOH site or is all web browsing slow?

I'm guessing that if its dialup we're discussing here, your XP3 internet settings are not yet fully optimized for speed. That can be fixed by downloading any utility for tweaking web speed. But you can further diagnose the problem by (1) disabling your AV program, then cruising a batch of safe websites to check loading speed. (2) disable the Windows firewall and cruise the same sites again. If none of these help, then you know its the connection speed that needs optimizing.

Sme good site for finding connection internet connection utilities are :

Softpedia
ZDnet
Cnet
Rocket Download
MajorGeeks
Tucows
Soft32.com
FileGuru.Com
FileHippo.com

[kelticheart]

Hey Stef,

On the topic of alternative browsers, Opera is one of the fastest browsers around, if not THE undisputed fastest. Firefox is good also, unless you load it down with too many plugins and extensions. As for your connection, i'm assuming that you are using Internet Explorer 8.0 and you're referring to a dial-up modem by the term "house modem", right? I use a DSL modem working through my phone line on an XP3-Win7 rig and i get no problems - using IE 8.0 in both systems, as well as alternate browsers. Is the problem only with the SOH site or is all web browsing slow?

I'm guessing that if its dialup we're discussing here, your XP3 internet settings are not yet fully optimized for speed. That can be fixed by downloading any utility for tweaking web speed. But you can further diagnose the problem by (1) disabling your AV program, then cruising a batch of safe websites to check loading speed. (2) disable the Windows firewall and cruise the same sites again. If none of these help, then you know its the connection speed that needs optimizing.

Sme good site for finding connection internet connection utilities are :

Softpedia
ZDnet
Cnet
Rocket Download
MajorGeeks
Tucows
Soft32.com
FileGuru.Com
FileHippo.com

Thanks Rohan and BC!

BC, we are speaking of dial-up connection indeed, and I already tried disabling XP firewall to no avail. AVG antivirus 9.0 cannot be disabled, only uninstalled. If one trys to disable it via TAsk Manager, any component disabled restarts automatically in a second or two.

Today I dumped XP firewall and gone for Zone Alarm, more efficient and fast, I entered all SOH's IPs, as per Ickie's instructions of few months back, and it seems to be ok but the connection speed is still awful. This morning it took 47 minutes to open SOH home page!

This evening I'll try installing either Opera or Firefox and see what happens.

Thanks for the optimisation utilities links, I'll check them too.

Cheers!
KH :ernae:

[sc7500]

Stef, there are a zillion freeware, shareware and payware solutions to your challenges - try visiting this website and see if their solutions help:

http://www.speedupnow.com/speed-tweaks/modem-tweaks.html

Bearcat's list will get you to some very capable downloads that may automatically reset your line to the fastest possible speeds. When I lived out in the country, I ended up running new dedicated phone wire from the incoming telco box to my computer - maximized the speed at about 52KbPS, up from 34K !

Good Luck :salute:
SC
:kilroy: