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[Devenic]

Update: Qwix 1.01 has been released, so this tweak is no longer needed.  The settings are still available in the ini file, but you probably won't want to use anything anywhere near 64KB.  The new default is 1MB (or 1048576).

Late in the testing of Qwix, I modified the default send and receive buffer sizes to 512KB instead of 64KB.  This has the effect of actually making Qwix bog the machine down quite a lot while transferring to your Xbox.  The tweak below will help alleviate the performance crunch, and should keep your machine more responsive during transfers.

In your settings.ini file, add the following at the end of the file.  If you don't have a settings.ini file, just create a new empty file with notepad and insert these lines.

CODE

[FTP] ReceiveBuffer=65536 SendBuffer=65536

You can also try values like 98304, 131072, 262144, and the default of 512KB is 524288.  Remember, each value may cause a tradeoff of boost transfer speed versus machine responsiveness.

You can tweak those settings, but very low numbers will slow down the boost transfer, but higher numbers may not buy as much as you might think because the machine will be hammered.  I'd be interested in any feedback regarding numbers you found perform very well for you (in both PC responsiveness, and transfer speeds) and information on how fast your CPU is and how much RAM you have, so that others here can benefit from what you find.

In Qwix 1.1, I'll be reworking how the buffer is allocated and used, so a large buffer size should have no adverse effect on any machines.


This post has been edited by Devenic: Nov 25 2003, 07:44 AM

[Devenic]

Update:  The tweak will probably reduce your boost transfer speeds, but the tradeoff is that Windows won't be such a pig.

I have reworked the buffer so that only one is allocated for the life of the FTP connection.  This allowed me to bump up my buffer to 1MB, and it improved my boost transfer speeds by about 500 KB/s.  A 2MB buffer was actually slower.   If you have a machine with more than 512MB of memory, or a very fast CPU (2GHz or above) you may not see any improvement.  Those of you with 512MB or less should see a big improvement in Windows performance and a small bump up in boost transfer speeds.

I will release a minor update to Qwix (probably 1.01) that includes this change, as well as a couple of other minor fixes.  Then on to some new features for 1.1.

[Devenic]

By the way, if you're using Avalaunch, make sure you leave the "Advanced Avalaunch Features" option turned off for your connection.  The only thing it does is attempt to refresh the menu in Avalaunch.  There's a bug in Avalaunch that we've been trying to fix for a while that keeps the refresh from working properly.

It should not make the transfer slower because there's no difference in the code except it doesn't issue a SITE REFRESH command to the FTP server after the transfer is finished.

In Qwix 1.01 that feature will be disabled and will remain disabled until we solve the problem in Avalaunch.

[ReKlaTs]

65K made it slowest of all..
as I Increased the buffer back to 512 it got faster and faster.

65: xfered at about 330K/s
128: about 1000K/s
512: about 2500K/s
AMD 2100, 512mb ddr, winME

[Devenic]

Wow...that's a really slow boost transfer if you're using Avalaunch as the dashboard.  Most users get between 8000 and 10000KB/s.

[fff]

So I've tested with the buffers at : 131072 et the speed is almost the same (8000 instead of 9500) but I can still use Windows!!!
btw disabling Use advance avalaunch feature fix the problem of Avalaunch crash

[ReKlaTs]

My bad Dev.. those speeds were using MXM.
I switched to a boot cd for EvoX and it was a bit faster.  For some reason Avalaunch, MXM, neXgen and EvoX all ftp slow but if I use a boot CD it's faster. - still slow but faster.

No idea why I don't see 8000+ on my 100mb lan..  It could be my cable length though.. so not a huge deal.

[Devenic]

ReKlaTs, are you using Ava 0.48?  If so, are you using a hub (not a switch)?  Hubs can affect transfer speeds dramatically.  Switches work much faster than hubs because they don't have packet collisions.  We've also seen speed problems with a few NICs, especially RealTek.  Someone else had a 1 gigabit ethernet adapter, and switching it to 100 megabit mode made the speed go way up.

[ReKlaTs]

Ill check it out Dev.. I"m using a Linksys 4 port switch.. no hubs here. (Well I have 3 hubs but they're doing their job sitting on my book shelf holding up books)
My cable could very well be the culprit though.. it's about 100' cat5 but it's old cable.  I might try new cable.

Yah on Ava version, but oddly enough it doesn't seem to report that I'm running Ava (Always says I need a newer version) so I might just delete ava and reinstall it clean as obviously something's screwed up on it.

-- How does Qwix detect Ava or determine if it's new enough?  - just out of curiousity since I'm a programmer as well just not on the box yet..

Anyway, Qwix still get's my vote as the best iso tool even without .rar support and even though it breaks my start menu hehe

[Devenic]

If Qwix says you're using an old version of Ava, then you must be.  Make sure you're running the xbe you think you are.

[ReKlaTs]

My ava install was munged somehow.. I reinstalled .48 from scratch and my xfers are 7-9K now.

Wonder why with the old ava it was so slow?  Also slow with evox and mxm?  Not that I mind.. I used to use EvoX all the time, then I liked using MXM for a few days... now I'm using Avalaunch as my default dash.

[the joker]

seems to me like it didn't recognize the version, that happened in one release.
add this patch to fix everything imaginable.

[Devenic]

QUOTE (ReKlaTs @ Nov 25 2003, 02:37 PM)

Wonder why with the old ava it was so slow?  Also slow with evox and mxm?

Qwix uses a special Boost transfer protocol that we developed for Avalaunch and Qwix.  It was added in Avalaunch 0.48, so if you were running an old version it wasn't capable of Boost.  Same goes for any other dashboard...they won't have Boost, so the transfer speeds won't be as fast.