XP Networking Options problems and ?s 2

[greneday556]

I have been using windows XP for a couple of years now, and have yet to really understand all of the networking things lol.
I was hoping someone could shed some light on this part of XP please.
My network is Roadrunner uplinked into a linksys 4 port router, and 4 computers on that router.
I have file sharing on all the computers, and some have Internet Connection under Internet Gateway, and some do not. Whats up with that?
Also, what is neccessay for the network?
QOS, is it useful or neccessary?
Any tweaks I should do.
Thanks all.!
Merry Christmas

 

[greneday556]

woops forgot, few more things.
On my laptop when I log off it takes around 2 minutes, thought it is brand new and still freshly formatted.
Also my Cable downloads are 150k cap behind the router, yet around 600 or so on good days when directly connected to the cable modem.
any way, any help would be loved!

 

[bcastner]

1.QoS you can check or uncheck, it only makes a difference if your are using devices that have the intelligence to make bandwidth reservations. For several years a popular hack was to change some Group Policy settings for QoS, but this hack was a simple mis-reading of the Group Policy hint for the setting. So, it makes no difference, uncheck it.

2. The Internet Gateway appears in the presence of uPnP enabled routers or devices, and also in the presence of SSDP Discovery. For when it does not appear, Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, Add or Remove Windows Compenents, Network Services, check the boxes for the Discovery client and for uPnP. After some period of time the Internet Gateway will appear in Network Connections. Do not bother to enable the icon, it is a pure processor intensive waste of time.

3. For your general issues, head to the BroadBandReports Tweak Test. Test your connection. Download the DrTCP utility (freeware) to adjust RWIN or other values recommended by the Tweak Test:

http://www.dslreports.com/tweaks

4. I am not ignoring your laptop slow shutdown, please start a new thread topic for this issue.

 

[linney]

For a general view of Networking you can do a lot worse than visit these sites.

http://www.wown.info

http://www.practicallynetworked.com

http://www.sohointer.net

http://www.webdevelopersjournal.com/columns/greg1.html