Optimizing your server with more than one network card

New IT professionals may think that adding a second network card will improve throughput.  While this can be true, IT personnel need to be aware of several rules behind configuring multiple network cards.

Assuming the server will be in the same subnet, once the network cards are installed, several decisions have to be made.  Will the cards be independent and have separate IP addresses or will the cards be bridged and have the same IP address?

Two IP addresses

If you plan on installing two nic cards in your server and you want to use two ip addresses-

• Make sure that licensing of software is not based on the MAC address of one of the NIC cards
• Do NOT enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP – This can cause the name of the server to appear on the network more than once and an error will occur (multiple NetBT Event ID 4319 Errors stating “A duplicate name has been detected on the TCP network)
• Use an internal DNS server – Client computers will use a DNS round-robin and routing tables will be built

One IP Address, multiple NIC cards

If you plan on using aggregation or the bridging of your network cards-

• USE HP, Intel, Broadcom or other NICs that support teaming (drivers) – this is important so that the cards will be used together

Note- (Our recommendations)

• Connect each NIC to a separate switch to ensure switchport flooding does not occur.”  Use switches that support IEEE 802.3ad
• USE RSS and modify the registry appropriately to use multiple CPUs
  In Windows Server 2008, administrators can set the maximum number of RSS CPUs with the MaxNumRssCpus registry keyword in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Ndis\Parameters. TheMaxNumRssCpus value is a DWORD type and, if it is not present, NDIS uses the default value of 4.
  More information: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/ff570795(v=vs.85).aspx
• To enable RSS:
  1. Open a command prompt as an administrator
  2. Type the following command, and then press ENTER:
     netsh int tcp set global rss=enabled
• You may want to also enable TCP Chimney if your NIC card supports it. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/951037

Is TCP Chimney working? Type netstat -t if you see Offloaded during a connection, this feature is working

An excellent article on the use of multiple NIC cards http://blogs.technet.com/b/josebda/archive/2010/09/03/using-the-multiple-nics-of-your-file-server-running-windows-server-2008-and-2008-r2.aspx

Internet or network application slow? You may need to temporarily disable Nagle’s Algorithm

With the Nagle-Algorithm, Windows takes small packets and packages them in to more manageable and efficient sizes.   If you have poor latency, you might try to disable the Nagle-Algorithm.  Nagle’s algorithm helps to control congestion when small packets are sent continuously by TCP.   When enabled, this helps to prevent a flood of these packets.

More information – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagle’s_algorithm

How to disable Nagle’s algorithm-

Open regedit.exe.  Navigate to HKey_Local_Machine\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\

Find the interface that has your current IP address (see example below)

Add the following values and make sure they are set to 1.

TcpAckFrequency and TCPNoDelay

This is only a temporary fix for the reduction of some applications on the internet.  Once your project or need is fulfilled, you should re-enable the algorithm by deleting the keys and rebooting or changing the values.

Is your SSD or HDD dirty?

You can of course use the Windows GUI to check your SSD or HDD.  But did you know that you should check your drives by typing the following (you can copy and paste in a elevated command prompt and change switches as necessary)-

fsutil dirty query c:
fsutil dirty query c:
chkntfs c:
fsutil repair query c:
fsutil behavior set BugcheckOnCorrupt 1
fsutil repair set c: 0x01
pause

What does it look like when it is ran at an elevated command prompt?

Review – GL-MT300N-V2 (Mango) Mini Smart Router

Do you travel?  Want extra protection of taking a router with a firewall with you when you are on the road?    Want the flexibility of OpenWRT?

The GL iNet GL-MT300N-V2 mini smart router is loaded with a ton of features.   These Routers can act as a router, repeater, WDS, 3/4g Modem or it’ll work with phone tethering.

For less than $21,  this tiny router packs a lot of punch.  Able to fit in the palm of your hand, the router has the following features.

• Powered by MTK 7628NN 580Mhz SoC
• 300Mbps high speed
• Small, light, easy to use
• LEDE pre-installed
• Increased RAM from 64MB to 128 MB
• Better Wi-Fi with MTK driver
• Faster OpenVPN encryption
• 4 GPIOs

Tech Specs.

CPU	MTK 7628NN @580Mhzz
Memory/Storage	DDR2 128MB/ FLASH 16MB
Interfaces	1 WAN, 1 LAN, 1 USB2.0, 1 micro USB (power), 1 Reset button
Frequency	2.4GHz
Transmission rate	300Mbps
Max Tx Power	20dBm
Protocol	802.11 b/g/n
External Storage support	FAT32/EXFAT/EXT4/EXT3/EXT2/NTFS
Webcam support	MJPG, YUV
DIY features	UART, 4GPIO, 3.3V & 5V power port
External antenna support	No
Power input	5V/1A
Power consumption	<2.75W
Dimension, Weight	58*58*25mm, 39g

Using the default login, the GL-MT300N-V2 can be accessed by a web browser.

The admin panel contains every feature you’ll need in any router.  While this custom menu has Internet, Wireless, Client info, Upgrade (firmware), Firewall, VPN (OpenVPN), Applications and more settings; its OpenWRT that makes this router unique.

Because the router runs on OpenWRT firmware, items such as a firewall, OpenVPN and more are available.

The firewall features logging and a Captive Portal.

The Network Mode includes changing the router from being a router to a wireless access point, Extender or WDS (Wireless Distribution System).

By entering the IP address with /cgi-bin/luci, you can gain access to OpenWRT. What is LuCi?

The full OpenWRT menu is available including graphs and all of the features of OpenWRT.

Real-time information can be accessed under the OpenWRT menu.

Firmware
https://docs.gl-inet.com/en/3/release_notes/

Firmware for gl-mt300-n-v2
https://docs.gl-inet.com/en/3/release_notes/gl-mt300n-v2/

Documents
https://docs.gl-inet.com/en/3/setup/mini_router/upgrade/#official-openwrtlede-firmware

First Time Setup
https://docs.gl-inet.com/en/3/setup/mini_router/first-time_setup/

Fix Windows Update errors by using the DISM or System Update Readiness tool

At an elevated command prompt (command prompt as administrator) – type 
DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

What should you try first? – Try the PowerShell post we made on an earlier date to check for updates.

Open PowerShell as an Administrator

Type the following-

Install-Module PSWinodwsUpdate
Get-WindowsUpdate
Install-WindowsUpdate

 

Should you disable 8dot3 for performance and security?

icrosoft did recommend to disable short names  in a security guide some times back.  There is evidence that file operations in directories (folders) that contain a large number of file can be slowed by short file name creations.  So does it improve performance? The short answer – Yes.

Now should you disable short names?  This answer is going to be on a case by case basis.  Some questions to ask yourself –

• Do you have older programs that use 8dot3 (short names)?
• Do you have a folder with a significant amount of files and coping or creating files is slow?

Below is a pic showing the improvement by disabling and stripping

Image:  Blog Technet Microsoft

Here’s what you need to do –

• Always backup your system
• Open a Command Prompt as Administrator
• Type fsutil 8dot3name query c:
  (enter the drive letter at the end)
• Type fsutil 8dot3name set c: 1
  (This will disable 8.3)
• If you want to do this system wide, type –
  –  fsutil behavior set disable8dot3 1
• To strip existing files with a 8.3 short name, this will scan your computer and the system registry and strip the files of their short names type the following-
  –   fsutil 8dot3name strip /s /v c:

Example:

References:

• KB Article on short names: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/121007
• TechNet article with a reference for FSUTIL.EXE 8dot3name: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff621566.aspx
• TechNet article on the registry setting to disable 8.3 names system wide: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc778996.aspx
• https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/josebda/2012/11/13/windows-server-2012-file-server-tip-disable-8-3-naming-and-strip-those-short-names-too/

Optimizing MySQL- Moodle

To be specific, if you are loading Moodle, look at the optimization at – https://docs.moodle.org/37/en/Performance_recommendations

On our server, we use a SSD with the Inetinfop\Parameters set to 2.  You need to run the performance under plugins at 100,000 request.  So go to site administration and see how you do.

https://yourdomain/cache/testperformance.php and request 100,000.

Make sure you set all of the settings under FastCGI to 10,000 or their max of 1000.

Opcache should be enabled in the php.ini file.

Optimize the my.ini file for Windows Server.
https://www.percona.com/blog/2016/10/12/mysql-5-7-performance-tuning-immediately-after-installation/

IIS performance (https://docs.moodle.org/37/en/Performance_recommendations)

All alter this location in the registry:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Inetinfo\Parameters\

• The equivalent to KeepAliveTimeout is ListenBackLog (IIS – registry location is HKLM\ SYSTEM\ CurrentControlSet\ Services\ Inetinfo\ Parameters). Set this to between 2 to 5.
• Change the MemCacheSize value to adjust the amount of memory (Mb) that IIS will use for its file cache (50% of available memory by default).
• Change the MaxCachedFileSize to adjust the maximum size of a file cached in the file cache in bytes. Default is 262,144 (256K).
• Create a new DWORD called ObjectCacheTTL to change the length of time (in milliseconds) that objects in the cache are held in memory. Default is 30,000 milliseconds (30 seconds).

Updating Drivers? Don’t forget the chipset!

While I’d like to guess that over 98% of the computers that I have worked on that are privately owned; the drivers were out of date or missing critical drivers that other drivers rely on.

Here’s what I mean.  If you decide to update your wireless drivers,  don’t go to the manufacturer of the computer, look for drivers from the hardware website. Don’t download any program that offers to update your drivers.  Update your drivers manually.   Open the device manager, look for the device you want to update, navigate to the hardware manufacturer’s website, download the zip file,  unzip the file, click update driver, select let me choose and point to the location of the driver.

       

Now which drivers should you update?  Video, sound, network (wired and wireless), camera, mouse (synaptics if a laptop), and most importantly, the chipset.  Why the chipset?  It controls the peripheral equipment (e.g. video, sound, network).  Updates usually correct problems or latency issues.

Remember, the chipset and BIOS (UEFI) control these devices.  It’s important to get BIOS/UEFI updates along with what controls your computer…the chipset.

Link aggregation – Use Multiple NIC Cards

There is truly an advantage to adding multiple NIC cards to a computer.   It won’t speed up a single internet connection but it can help with loss of signal, detecting access points, transferring information to and  from computers.

When adding a second NIC card to a computer, you can highlight both by holding down the CTRL key and clicking on them and then right clicking to bridge the connections so they act as one…this can allow you to bridge a wireless network to a wired network.

Two nic cards on the same network can allow for load balancing.

Dual Wireless Cards

Truly reset the TCP/IP stack – Fix network/internet problems

Having connection issues and no viruses or malware?  Hardware ok?

Try typing the following at a command prompt to fully reset the TCP/IP Stack-

---

netsh winsock reset 

netsh int ip reset 

netsh interface ipv4 reset

netsh interface ipv6 reset 

netsh interface tcp reset

netsh int reset all
 
ipconfig /flushdns

nbtstat -R

nbtstat -RR

netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled

netsh advfirewall reset

---

What will you see?

C:\WINDOWS\system32>netsh winsock reset

Sucessfully reset the Winsock Catalog.
You must restart the computer in order to complete the reset.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>netsh int ip reset
Resetting Compartment Forwarding, OK!
Resetting Compartment, OK!
Resetting Control Protocol, OK!
Resetting Echo Sequence Request, OK!
Resetting Global, OK!
Resetting Interface, OK!
Resetting Anycast Address, OK!
Resetting Multicast Address, OK!
Resetting Unicast Address, OK!
Resetting Neighbor, OK!
Resetting Path, OK!
Resetting Potential, OK!
Resetting Prefix Policy, OK!
Resetting Proxy Neighbor, OK!
Resetting Route, OK!
Resetting Site Prefix, OK!
Resetting Subinterface, OK!
Resetting Wakeup Pattern, OK!
Resetting Resolve Neighbor, OK!
Resetting , OK!
Resetting , OK!
Resetting , OK!
Resetting , OK!
Resetting , OK!
Resetting , OK!
Resetting , OK!
Resetting , OK!
Resetting , OK!
Resetting , OK!
Resetting , OK!
Restart the computer to complete this action.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>netsh interface ipv4 reset
Resetting Compartment Forwarding, OK!
Resetting Compartment, OK!
Resetting Control Protocol, OK!
Resetting Echo Sequence Request, OK!
Resetting Global, OK!
Resetting Interface, OK!
Resetting Anycast Address, OK!
Resetting Multicast Address, OK!
Resetting Unicast Address, OK!
Resetting Neighbor, OK!
Resetting Path, OK!
Resetting Potential, OK!
Resetting Prefix Policy, OK!
Resetting Proxy Neighbor, OK!
Resetting Route, OK!
Resetting Site Prefix, OK!
Resetting Subinterface, OK!
Resetting Wakeup Pattern, OK!
Resetting Resolve Neighbor, OK!
Resetting , OK!
Resetting , OK!
Resetting , OK!
Resetting , OK!
Resetting , OK!
Resetting , OK!
Resetting , OK!
Resetting , OK!
Resetting , OK!
Resetting , OK!
Resetting , OK!
Restart the computer to complete this action.

 

C:\WINDOWS\system32>netsh interface ipv6 reset
Resetting Compartment Forwarding, OK!
Resetting Compartment, OK!
Resetting Control Protocol, OK!
Resetting Echo Sequence Request, OK!
Resetting Global, OK!
Resetting Interface, OK!
Resetting Anycast Address, OK!
Resetting Multicast Address, OK!
Resetting Unicast Address, OK!
Resetting Neighbor, OK!
Resetting Path, OK!
Resetting Potential, OK!
Resetting Prefix Policy, OK!
Resetting Proxy Neighbor, OK!
Resetting Route, OK!
Resetting Site Prefix, OK!
Resetting Subinterface, OK!
Resetting Wakeup Pattern, OK!
Resetting Resolve Neighbor, OK!
Resetting , OK!
Resetting , OK!
Resetting , OK!
Resetting , OK!
Resetting , OK!
Resetting , OK!
Resetting , OK!
Resetting , OK!
Resetting , OK!
Resetting , OK!
Resetting , OK!
Restart the computer to complete this action.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>netsh interface tcp reset

Reset of all TCP parameters OK!
Ok.

C:\WINDOWS\system32> ipconfig /flushdns

Windows IP Configuration

Successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>nbtstat -R
Successful purge and preload of the NBT Remote Cache Name Table.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>nbtstat -RR
The NetBIOS names registered by this computer have been refreshed.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>

 

 

WMIC – a little known command in Windows

So what if you needed to find out information about your computer that is otherwise available in third party programs or all over Windows?  You can use WMIC to find out a lot of information about your computer.   I’ve been using some of these for years but only remembered to blog about it after I saw a post at What’s On My PC (Thanks Rick!) back in 2011.

Here’s a quick list from Microsoft (Use WMIC the alias command)

Examples:

Here’s how to get your hard drive information –

Go to a command prompt and type:

wmic diskdrive get name,size,model

So how many partitions does it have?

wmic partition get name, size, type

This shows one hard drive and three partitions. (above)

How about BIOS information?

wmic bios get name,serialnumber,version

What service packs, patches and hotfixes were installed and on what date?

wmic qfe get description,installedOn /format:csv

Want to know more information about WMI?  Click here to see how WMI is used at over at Microsoft

 

Need System Information? Use PowerShell

If you need system information about your BIOS, Motherboard and more, open PowerShell as an Administrator and past the following into PowerShell –

Get-WMIObject -Class Win32_ComputerSystem
Get-WMIObject -Class Win32_BIOS
Get-WMIObject -Class Win32_Baseboard
Get-WMIObject -Class Win32_Processor
Get-WMIObject -Class Win32_LogicalDisk
Get-WMIObject -Class Win32_DiskDrive
Get-WMIObject -Class Win32_PhysicalMemory
Get-WMIObject -Class Win32_NetworkAdapter
Get-WMIObject -Class Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration

Windows 10 Shell Commands you can run from the ‘Run’ line

e following shell commands can be ran from the ‘run’ line in Windows 10

shell:AccountPictures	%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\AccountPictures
shell:AddNewProgramsFolder	Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Get Programs
shell:Administrative Tools	%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Administrative Tools
shell:AppData	%AppData%
shell:Application Shortcuts	%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Application Shortcuts
shell:AppsFolder	Applications
shell:AppUpdatesFolder	Installed Updates
shell:Cache	%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache
shell:Camera Roll	%UserProfile%\Pictures\Camera Roll
shell:CD Burning	%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Burn\Burn
shell:ChangeRemoveProgramsFolder	Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Programs and Features
shell:Common Administrative Tools	%ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Administrative Tools
shell:Common AppData	%ProgramData%
shell:Common Desktop	%Public%\Desktop
shell:Common Documents	%Public%\Documents
shell:CommonDownloads	%Public%\Downloads
shell:CommonMusic	%Public%\Music
shell:CommonPictures	%Public%\Pictures
shell:Common Programs	%ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
shell:CommonRingtones	%ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Ringtones
shell:Common Start Menu	%ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
shell:Common Startup	%ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
shell:Common Templates	%ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Templates
shell:CommonVideo	%Public%\Videos
shell:ConflictFolder	Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Sync Center\Conflicts
shell:ConnectionsFolder	Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Network Connections
shell:Contacts	%UserProfile%\Contacts
shell:ControlPanelFolder	Control Panel\All Control Panel Items
shell:Cookies	%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\INetCookies
shell:Cookies\Low	%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\INetCookies\Low
shell:CredentialManager	%AppData%\Microsoft\Credentials
shell:CryptoKeys	%AppData%\Microsoft\Crypto
shell:desktop	Desktop
shell:device Metadata Store	%ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\DeviceMetadataStore
shell:documentsLibrary	Libraries\Documents
shell:downloads	%UserProfile%\Downloads
shell:dpapiKeys	%AppData%\Microsoft\Protect
shell:Favorites	%UserProfile%\Favorites
shell:Fonts	%WinDir%\Fonts
shell:Games	Games
shell:GameTasks	%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\GameExplorer
shell:History	%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\History
shell:HomeGroupCurrentUserFolder	Homegroup\(user-name)
shell:HomeGroupFolder	Homegroup
shell:ImplicitAppShortcuts	%AppData%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\ImplicitAppShortcuts
shell:InternetFolder	Internet Explorer
shell:Libraries	Libraries
shell:Links	%UserProfile%\Links
shell:Local AppData	%LocalAppData%
shell:LocalAppDataLow	%UserProfile%\AppData\LocalLow
shell:MusicLibrary	Libraries\Music
shell:MyComputerFolder	This PC
shell:My Music	%UserProfile%\Music
shell:My Pictures	%UserProfile%\Pictures
shell:My Video	%UserProfile%\Videos
shell:NetHood	%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Network Shortcuts
shell:NetworkPlacesFolder	Network
shell:OneDrive	OneDrive
shell:OneDriveCameraRoll	%UserProfile%\OneDrive\Pictures\Camera Roll
shell:OneDriveDocuments	%UserProfile%\OneDrive\Documents
shell:OneDriveMusic	%UserProfile%\OneDrive\Music
shell:OneDrivePictures	%UserProfile%\OneDrive\Pictures
shell:Personal	%UserProfile%\Documents
shell:PicturesLibrary	Libraries\Pictures
shell:PrintersFolder	All Control Panel Items\Printers
shell:PrintHood	%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Printer Shortcuts
shell:Profile	%UserProfile%
shell:ProgramFiles	%ProgramFiles%
shell:ProgramFilesCommon	%ProgramFiles%\Common Files
shell:ProgramFilesCommonX64	%ProgramFiles%\Common Files
shell:ProgramFilesCommonX86	%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Common Files
shell:ProgramFilesX64	%ProgramFiles%
shell:ProgramFilesX86	%ProgramFiles(x86)%
shell:Programs	%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
shell:Public	%Public%
shell:PublicAccountPictures	%Public%\AccountPictures
shell:PublicGameTasks	%ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\GameExplorer
shell:PublicLibraries	%Public%\Libraries
shell:Quick Launch	%AppData%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
shell:Recent	%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent
shell:RecordedTVLibrary	Libraries\Recorded TV
shell:RecycleBinFolder	Recycle Bin
shell:ResourceDir	%WinDir%\Resources
shell:Ringtones	%ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Ringtones
shell:Roamed Tile Images	%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\RoamedTileImages
shell:Roaming Tiles	%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\RoamingTiles
shell:SavedGames	%UserProfile%\Saved Games
shell:Screenshots	%UserProfile%\Pictures\Screenshots
shell:Searches	%UserProfile%\Searches
shell:SearchHistoryFolder	%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\ConnectedSearch\History
shell:SearchHomeFolder	search-ms:
shell:SearchTemplatesFolder	%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\ConnectedSearch\Templates
shell:SendTo	%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo
shell:Start Menu	%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu
shell:StartMenuAllPrograms	StartMenuAllPrograms
shell:Startup	%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
shell:SyncCenterFolder	Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Sync Center
shell:SyncResultsFolder	Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Sync Center\Sync Results
shell:SyncSetupFolder	Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Sync Center\Sync Setup
shell:System	%WinDir%\System32
shell:SystemCertificates	%AppData%\Microsoft\SystemCertificates
shell:SystemX86	%WinDir%\SysWOW64
shell:Templates	%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Templates
shell:ThisPCDesktopFolder	Desktop
shell:UsersFilesFolder	%UserProfile%
shell:User Pinned	%AppData%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned
shell:UserProfiles	%HomeDrive%\Users
shell:UserProgramFiles	%LocalAppData%\Programs
shell:UserProgramFilesCommon	%LocalAppData%\Programs\Common
shell:UsersLibrariesFolder	Libraries
shell:VideosLibrary	Libraries\Videos
shell:Windows	%WinDir%

 

Good tweak or bad tweak? TweakHound helps you decide.

An excellent site to look at tweaks and optimization of your operating system is TweakHound.   TweakHound gives step by step guides and hundreds of tweaks – they also help you look at these individually and explain why they are good or bad.

Go check them out.

 

 

Display Driver Uninstaller

If you are a gamer or in IT, you may have noticed a performance degradation after changing your video card or after upgrading the driver.

Display Driver Uninstaller helps to remove orphaned files and registry keys.

Go over to TECHSPOT and download the uninstaller.

Change network adapter priorities in Windows 10 – PowerShell

irst thing –

• disable network adapters you don’t use
• If you use Ethernet, disable everything but flow control
• Disable LLMNR
• Adjust NTLM
• Perform test with Totusoft’s network speed test

Next, avoid latency of your network card by adjusting the network adapter priorities.

Open PowerShell as an Administrator – Type Get-NetIPInterface

You will see the Interfacemetric numbers that vary from 11 to 90.

If you want a higher priority, set the interface to a lower number – I use wi-fi – therefore I can type the command –

Set-NetIPInterface -InterfaceIndex “11” -InterfaceMetric “11”

Our old article on using the GUI 

If you use more than one network card for mutliple LANS or connections, you can set the metric of each card to send IP packets through the fastest card first or the desired card.

For instance if you have a network card that connects to other servers and computers on one LAN and a network card that connects to a separate LAN that has security cameras; metrics can be used to compute the routing algorithm.

The one card would be set to a lower metric in order to go to the web and the security camera system would be set to a higher metric thus giving priority to the lower number.

Here’s an example of my home LAN which uses a printer and cameras on a separate network and my wireless which connects to the Internet.

So how do you change it?  Open the Network and Sharing Center – Click on Adapters – Right click the desired adapter – Select Properties – Double click TCP/IP – Click Advanced – Uncheck the Automatic Metric – Change to the desired number

Wireless

Above the wireless is set to 1.  Below the LAN which has a static IP address and no Gateway is configured with a 20.

Valid values are 1 to 9999.

Don’t forget to set the binding order of the network cards.   Go to the Adapter.  Hit the ‘Alt’ key once for the menu.  Click on Advanced and then Advanced Settings.

Move the network card with a higher priority to the top.

Is your AHCI Link Power Management viewable from the Power Options Console?

TCAT Shelbyville - Technical Blog

If you can’t see your AHCI Link Power Management from the Power Options, there is a way to add it.  Always backup your computer before modifying the registry.

You can add the GUID to the registry by going opening the registry (regedit) and creating  a key under the following key -0012ee47-9041-4b5d-9b77-535fba8b1442

The easiest way is to copy the information in italics to notepad or notepad++ and save as AHCI.reg.

After saving this, double click on the .reg file and reboot.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlPowerPowerSettings

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Error 1935 while installing Office

If you receive the error 1935, take the following steps-

• Make sure you have C++ Redistributables  Link 
• Uninstall Office (Make sure you have any documents backed up)
  • Run the Office Installation Cleaner (easy fix two found in Option Two at the following link)
• Delete the following key in your registry

 

Need to optimize your network? Look at adjusting LocalPriority, HostPriority, DNSPriority or NetBTPriority.

TCAT Shelbyville - Technical Blog

Need to optimize your network? Look at adjusting LocalPriority, HostPriority, DNSPriority or NetBTPriority.  (Host/DNS resolution)

The tweak works by increasing the priority of four processes.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesTcpipServiceProvider
LocalPriority = 4 (DWORD, the default is 499, change to 4)
HostPriority = 5 (DWORD, the default is 500, change to 5)
DnsPriority = 6 (DWORD, the default is 2000, change to 6)
NetbtPriority = 7 (DWORD, the default is 2001, change to 7)

You can use this script at a command prompt (as Admin) or in PowerShell (as Admin)-

reg add HKLMSystemCurrentControlSetServicesTcpIpServiceProvider /v “LocalPriority” /t REG_DWORD /D 4 /F

reg add HKLMSystemCurrentControlSetServicesTcpIpServiceProvider /v “HostsPriority” /t REG_DWORD /D 5 /F

reg add HKLMSystemCurrentControlSetServicesTcpIpServiceProvider /v “DnsPriority” /t REG_DWORD /D 6 /F

reg add HKLMSystemCurrentControlSetServicesTcpIpServiceProvider /v “NetBtPriority” /t REG_DWORD /D 7 /F

taskkill /f /im explorer.exe

start explorer.exe

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High Resource Utilization – It could be your memory compression

Have you noticed high resource utilization?  CPU, Memory or Disk at 100%? Of course this could be malware, a virus, a startup app or program. It could also be memory compression.

Windows 10 offers memory compression which takes little-used elements and stores them in RAM.   This saves memory and is faster than your pagefile.

If you experience latency or high memory utilization, you can turn off memory compression by using PowerShell.

Open PowerShell and type the following-

Get-mmagent

You should see Memory Compression is True.

If you are having issues with memory, Open PowerShell as an admin and type –
Disable-MMAgent -mc

This will disable memory compression

Reboot

You can enable memory compression by typing-

Enable-MMAgent -mc

There truly is no reason why you should disable memory compression.  Users have reported what they believed was corrupt compressed memory.   After disabling and re-enabling, users reported their systems had stabilized.

If the performance has improved with memory compression disabled, you can leave  Windows 10 with the compressed memory disabled.

You can also see Memory Compression by using the Task Manager or  Resource Monitor.

 

You can also use set-mmagent and use the maximum number of prefetch files  from 1 through 8192.