Six easy steps to speed up your Windows 7 network

These six easy steps will should resolve the Windows 7 network problem and speed it up.

1) Disable Autotuning

Disabling auto tuning will help the speed on DNS lookup and network discovery. It improves the data transfer speed also over the network. 

To start the command prompt as administrator, click Start, All Programs, Accessories, and right-click on Command Prompt and choose Run As Administrator.

At the prompt, type netsh interface tcp set global autotuning=disabled and press Enter.
To check your work, type netsh interface tcp show global and press Enter.

2) Remove RDC ( Remote Differential Compression)

This feature was introduced with Windows Vista to transfer data over network in compressed format. Since most of the old operating systems that came before Windows Vista do not support the RDC feature, it slows down the network data transfer. You can remove the RDC feature in Windows 7 by clicking Start, Control Panel, Programs and Features. Click Turn Windows features on or off, and clear the checkbox from Remote Differential Compression, as shown below.

3) Remove IPv6 from network properties.

If your internal or external networks do not require the IPv6 protocol, new with Windows Vista, remove it.

• Go to Network Connections folder (click on Start button, then right click on Network, select Properties, then click on Manager network connections in the Tasks pane).
• You should see various LAN, wireless, Bluetooth, high speed Internet, and other network connections available on the Vista computer with the network adapter description. Right click on the network connection that you want to disable the IPv6 interface for and select Properties. Click Continue on the User Access Control permission request prompt (if it appears).
• Clear the checkbox next to the Internet Protocol version 6 (TCP/IPv6) component in the list under This connection uses the following items box.

4) Clear DNS Cache

You can remove any DNS cache from computer, so next time DNS request will be solved by the proper updated DNS server. This will prevent your computer from trying broken or changed DNS records from cache. To clear the DNS cache, open a command prompt window as administrator (as done in the first step) and type ipconfig /flushdns and press Enter.

5) Disable Wireless Network and any additional (including Virtual adapters) network adapters.

If you will not be using wireless network or it’s your secondary network, disable wireless network in Windows 7 under Network Connections in step 3.  If it is enabled, the Windows 7 computer will be trying to connect to available wireless networks around you, and trying to login though its network.

6) Modifying Link Speed & Duplex Value in Network adapter Properties.

This step also assists in speeding up your Windows 7 network. We can’t say which option will work better for you, as it depends on your physical network setup (network adapter, cable type, LAN speed and network switch). By default, it is set for Auto Negotiation. Play around with the Value options and find out which will work better for your computer and network.