*** Updated *** - Corrected the command for enabled autotuning.

I travel a fair amount which means I live on WiFi connections to stay connected. When I first started using Vista I noticed that I had problems with some WiFi connections. The issues could anything from not being able to resolve DNS to no mail flow. The most obvious issue is very slow or complete failure to load a web page ( we have documented a few specific issues here).

The issue revolves around a new feature in the Windows Vista TCP stack called TCP Autotuning. Autotuning lets Vista monitor network conditions and adjust the TCP Receive Window. In the olden days you could make these changes manually with some reg hacks but this was inefficient since a change network conditions would require another manual reg hack. Vista can do this on the fly now which should mean that through-put on gigabit, high-latency and WAN links should improve.

The problem we run into is that some older networking hardware does not handle TCP Scaling very well (or at all). I have experienced this on WiFi at a a few trade shows in the past and at some hotels that implemented WiFi very early in the Internet gold rush. On some occasions it has impacted wired connections at hotels though that has been a very rare occurrence.

Fixing the issue is pretty straightforward. First, to see if you have Autotuning enabled, issue the following command at an elevated command prompt -

netsh interface tcp show global

You should get something back that looks like this...

I am currently set to have autotuning enabled (I am also at home right now where I have a gigabit network and all Vista clients and soon to be all Win 2008 servers). I leave this setting alone until I go out on the road and start having connectivity issues.

If I head out on the road and end up at a hotel where my connection seems very slow, I have a problems connection to my home servers via RDP, or I can't establish a VPN back to MS, I will disable the TCP Autotuning with this command -

netsh interface tcp set global autotuning=disabled

When I get back home or go to a location where I know autotuning isn't an issue, I turn it back on with the following command -

netsh interface tcp set global autotuning=normal

*** Updated *** - you can also set autotuning= to ....

disabled = disabled autotuning and sets to default value

restricted = Allow the receive windows to grow in a restricted fashion

highlyrestricted = Allow the receive window to grow but be very, very conservative with adjustments

experimental = normally only used in testing. Should not typically be used in production. Can can severe reduction in performance.

Keep in mind that if you have User Account Control enabled, you will have to issue those commands at an elevated CMD prompt.

I mentioned this issue at my launch event in Anchorage last week. I also mentioned that I have a couple of batch files to do this for me so I don't have to do as much typing. You can grab the batch files here. There are two batch files with self-explanatory names to either enable or disable autotuning.

This blog goes into a little more detail on the issue and fixes. It also mentions another option of setting autotuning to "restricted". I have had limited success with this and stick to either on or off.

Cheers!

Not everyone has been able to make it to one of our Live Windows 2008 Launch events. So a small group of us here at Microsoft are heading into Second Life world to deliver our launch content. We will be "in world" on April 26th to deliver our full launch presentations that you would see at any "real world" launch event.

This should be fun if not at least interesting. I have not spent a lot of time in world yet, but look forward to delivering some launch content there. I will be in Second Life this afternoon to better orient myself with the world. My Avatar is named Loper Markova if you wish to track me down and do some hand holding while I get accustomed to my new Second Life.

Zain Naboulsi is heading up the charge on the Developer side of the world while I am delivering the IT Pro related content. As noted, we are doing the same content that you would see if you were to attend a live event in the physical world. I am afraid that we can only offer virtual soft drinks and muffins though. :)

Zain has posted all the details for getting into Second Life and attending the sessions. We look forward to seeing you there you there!

Cheers!

Here is the link to Keith's screencasts on installing PHP, MySQL and Wordpress to a Windows 2008/IIS7 Core Server.

Cheers!

Great turnout in Seattle yesterday! The weather stayed in check and we had a great event. Great questions from the crowd during the sessions and breaks too. I have had a few people email me questions as well. Feel free to let me know what I  can help you out with and I will get you in touch with the right people.

I saw a number of familiar faces from the presentations I have delivered in Tacoma, Olympia, and over on the East Side. I even saw one of our truly dedicated attendees who comes down from Vancouver, BC to see our events (sorry I didn't get a chance to say "Hello!", Shah).

Btw.....how many of you have retold to bad jokes I told at the event? I know some of you have....  :)

Cheers!

Way back in January, I asked my readers to explain to me why I should be on Facebook or Twitter.

You can still hear the crickets on that one.....

I am back again asking the same question but I am also going to throw in a few other services - Quechup, LinkedIn, FriendFeed and Second Life. There are a number of others but I will stick to these for now.

If you read Robert Scoble's blog (and for the record, he used to have important things to say. Now, I read his blog just so I can be prepared for the day his ego exceeds the capacity of his cranium. I want to be out of the way when it finally explodes...) he has been touting a whole list of services from Twitter to FriendFeed to GoogleReader to LinkedIn to.....the list goes on. He makes it sound like if you aren't there, you aren't involved in the conversation.

I signed up for Twitter. Nothing.

I signed up for FaceBook. That at least connected me with people but became a tremendous time suck.

I signed up with LinkedIn. Essentially Facebook only more professional (IMO) but I already had FaceBook so I didn't pursue.

So I have stuck with blogging and it seems to have increased my connection to you and you back to me just fine. I am still trying to figure out exactly how Twitter is going to foster a better connection to my audience. Am I just getting to old and dense to get it? You tell me....

One thing I am (albeit reluctantly) getting involved with is Second Life. In fact we will be holding a Windows 2008 Launch event in Second Life in the very near future. I have been debating our Second Life involvement with Zain Naboulsi while at the same time taking over the reigns of IT Evangelism within Second Life. Zain believes that Second Life type worlds are the future of communications and evangelism.

I am quite a bit more skeptical....

Many companies have developed a presence in Second Life. IBM has a massive presence there. Many companies have also exited Second Life. My guess is they have no proof at all that it is doing anything positive for the company. Right now it all seems to very warm and fuzzy and cool and hip and trendy and that might impact sales in the short term but does put money in the bank over the long haul without some concrete evidence proving things are working.

I just wonder if spending my time in Second Life is where you want to spend time as well. I personally think that many of these services, Second Life in particular, are more suited for developer audiences than IT Pro audiences. The whole premise behind Second Life is that you can immerse yourself in a world of your own creation. To create you essentially write code/script to change your avatar, your surroundings, your world.  That is exactly what dev types like to do anyway and so it appeals to that group. I am not sure that same model work with IT Pro's though. Again....you tell me.

Now please don't get me wrong. I am not saying that these services have no value at all. My Space re-connected me with people I haven't been in contact with for 20+ years. Facebook did the same. I even connected with a few others through LinkedIn. But in all of those situations the connections were on a personal level. None of it was work/business related. Sure I joined a bunch of work related groups on FaceBook, but I found myself spending a large amount of time just trying to keep up. I also found that I wasn't learning anything really new. I also have enough relationships in my life to manage without heaping on a pile of "friends" (and who the hell decided that perfect strangers could sign up to be my "friend" anyway!?!?!) I can't remember when I even logged onto Facebook last and you know what? I don't have any empty feeling inside....

But I can't help but feel that with all of the press that these services get that I am missing out on something. On the flip side, no one has ever asked my why I am not involved with the services which leads me to believe that you, my audience, aren't there either.

To sum this all up......

I am trying to find the value in being a part of the services and how they will 1) Foster a more connected relationship with my IT Pro Audience and 2) Positively change perceptions of Microsoft.

There is a 3rd option that no one who ever writes about these services ever mentions even though it really is what makes the world go around - Sales. No one cares how well connected to my audience I really am or if customer satisfaction is at an all time high unless people are buying the products. Period.

So again, I am asking for your feedback.

Are you on any of these services?

Are you using them on a personal level or a business level?

Should I be there and where?

 

Cheers!

Forgive me Twitter for I have been silent. It has been 9 months since my last Tweet...

I decided to logon to Twitter to give it another shot and noticed my last message was sent in July of last year. I also only sent about 4 msgs prior to that and only 4 people are listed as following them right now. I don't know if there were ever any more than 4 that followed but I can say that with only 4 postings I would have dropped off long ago.

So I can't say that I ever gave Twitter a fair chance. I posted a few messages internally and received some feedback that made me think twice about it. Nothing earth shattering and I am still skeptical, but since I didn't let it play out the first time around I should at least give it a fair chance this time.

For those of you who might be on Twitter..... here I am...

Now....who to follow....

Cheers!

I have had several people email telling me they can't locate the slides for the launch content on my blog. I am just using the Search field on the left sidebar of my blog and looking for "slides" and I am finding them as 4 of the first 5 hits. Ignore the top hit as that is from an old event.

Please comment here if this is not working for you and I will ping our IT staff.

Cheers!

While at the Seattle Windows Server Launch event this week, I sat down with Michael Cooper, a Microsoft TS here in the PacWest area and we had a casual conversation about technology. We spoke quite a bit about virtualization and how it has impacted organizations of all sizes as well as where we think virtualization is going. Check it out over on the TechNet Radio site.

Cheers!

I noticed after my most recent post my sunset banner and other graphics are not showing in my blog. That pictures are actually hosted on my servers at home. In prep for my Windows 2008 server installs, I have been cleaning up my network and one change I made was to pull a couple of IP addresses I have away from my firewall and assign them to some perimeter boxes. One of those IP addresses was for publishing my personal blog which also hosts the pics. I just updated DNS and I also performed Windows Updates. Expect for the pics and graphics here to come back around after DNS caches get updated.

Cheers!