How to Upgrade Your Download Speed

A few tweaks are all that's between you and faster downloads.

While your download speed is in many ways limited by your connection, there are a few small tweaks that can be done to make things run a little faster. After you invest a few minutes into optimizing the way your computer communicates with the Internet, you should see a marked increase in the speed of your downloads.

Instructions

Open Your Bandwidth

1. Click the "Start" button and select "Run." On the Run prompt, enter the command "REGEDIT" and press "Enter."

2. Find this entry in your Windows registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows.

3. Right-click on the folder titled "Windows" and select "New Key." Title this new key "Psched."

4. Right-click anywhere in the empty white space on the right hand panel and select "New." Make a DWORD entry called "NonBestEffortLimit."

5. Set the value of NonBestEffortLimit to "0." Lowering this value removes Windows's automatic function which reserves 20 percent of your bandwidth. This should help improve your downloads.

Adjust the DNS Cache

1. Open the REDGEDIT menu again by clicking the "Start" button and hitting the "Run" function. Enter "REGEDIT" in the Run form and press "Enter."

2. Scan your registry until you find the following entry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Dnscache\Parameters

3. Right-click on the empty white space and add four DWORD entries: MaxSOACacheEntryTtlLimit, CacheHashTableSize, MaxCacheEntryTtlLimit, and CacheHashTableBucketSize.

4. Set these DWORDs to the following values: MaxSOACacheEntryTtlLimit to 301, CacheHashTableSize to 384, CacheHashTableBucketSize to 1, and MaxCacheEntryTtlLimit to 64000.

5. Restart your computer to complete the registry edit process.

Tips & Warnings

• You can tweak a few settings on your computer to make things faster, but overall you're going to be limited by your Internet connection. If you are experiencing slow downloads or webpages, it may be time to upgrade to a faster connection.

• Always show great caution when editing your Windows registry. These files are critical to your system's performance and can cause system failure if edited incorrectly.

References

• Make Use Of: Top 5 Vista Tweaks to Increase Internet Speed
• Online Tech Tips: How to boost and increase your Internet speed