RPC Programs That Use Winsock Over TCP/IP May Benefit from Tuning (246984)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Terminal Server Edition
  • Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0
  • Microsoft Windows NT Server, Enterprise Edition 4.0
  • Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 4.0
This article was previously published under Q246984
IMPORTANT: This article contains information about modifying the registry. Before you modify the registry, make sure to back it up and make sure that you understand how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For information about how to back up, restore, and edit the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

256986 Description of the Microsoft Windows Registry

SUMMARY

Remote Procedure Call (RPC) programs that use Winsock over TCP/IP and perform reads or writes that are over 8 KB in size may benefit from increasing the Windows NT Winsock driver internal receive buffer size.

MORE INFORMATION

WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

The Windows NT socket driver (Afd.sys) has a default receive buffer size of 8 KB. When a program receives more data than this buffer is configured to hold, all data received up to this count must be transferred to the program before receiving continues. When this happens, RPC sends an acknowledgement to the computer that is sending the RPC data. In some cases, the program's receive function may experience a time-out during this period.

Winsock programs can set the size of this buffer on a per-socket basis by calling the Windows Socket function setsockopt and specifying the new value for the parameter SO_RCVBUF.

Because programs that use RPC over Winsock do not have access to the Winsock options, you must set this parameter in the Windows NT registry manually. If you modify this parameter in the registry, it is in effect for sockets used by all Winsock programs. The change causes the default receive buffer allocated for each socket created to be equal to the new size.

NOTE: You should change this parameter only on systems that are reading more than 8 KB of data at a time. For example, if the server side of an RPC programs is written so that it receives small requests and sends large responses (larger than 8 KB), only the Windows NT client computers need the DefaultReceiveWindow parameter increased.

To change the default receive buffer size for Afd.sys:
  1. Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe).
  2. Open the following registry key:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Afd\Parameters

  3. On the Edit menu, click Add Value. Add the following value:

    Value Name: DefaultReceiveWindow
    Value Type: REG_DWORD
    Radix: as appropriate
    Value Data: as appropriate (the buffer size that gives optimal performance)

    For example, click Decimal as the radix and type 16384 to set the DefaultReceiveWindow value.

  4. Quit Registry Editor, and then reboot the computer.
Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:6/28/2004
Keywords:kbenv kbinfo KB246984
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