DW6000 - Insight needed

[visionlogic]

Hi all, new member visionlogic here. 

I'm seeking some insight, advice, thoughts on a new Direcway account with a DW6000.    Background - last week a friend/client living in the boonies of south Alabama decided she'd sign up with Direcway for a "consumer" account in hopes of improving over her dialup.  She didn't ask my opinion first, only after the fact was I called.  I arrived to find that the installer had left her with a single, foldover "brochure" containing her account info and nothing else, no "manual" of any kind.  She called me to see if I could hook both her XP machine and her mentally challenged son's XP/AOL machine to  a wireless router and get them both up and running through the DW6000.  After a bit of Googling (finding this site in the process) and a patience-trying call to Direcway tech support in New Dehli I've managed to get them up and running.  However, I'd like to try to improve their "experience", if ya know what I mean.  So any insight would be much appreciated.

Questions:

1.  Since the DW6000 appears to be (among other things) a caching proxy for http but NOT for https, would a locally installed caching proxy for https be of benefit in improving the perceived "speed" of https connections?  I'm thinking of using the DeleGate open-source proxy.

2.  Does the DW6000 also cache DNS requests?  It seems that some connect failurres are due to failure of DNS.  I would think that perhaps an installation of Treewalk or AnalogX DNS proxies would help.  Does Direcway block DNS requests to any DNS servers other than its own?  Is there a list here of Direcway's DNS servers?

3.  The signal strength shown is 63.  So called "tech support" said that is OK.  From reading here that appears to be BS.  Do you agree?

4.  Any specific tips on using AOL v.8 over Direcway (I hate AOL and its software)?

Again, thanks in advance for your help!

[deerkill10]

hi visionlogic

:::.. Upload Stats ..:::

Connection is:: 21 Kbps about 0 Mbps (tested with 97 KB)

Upload Speed is:: 3 KB/s

Tested From:: http://www.testmy.net/

Test Time:: Mon Feb 7 10:48:27 EST 2005

Bottom Line:: 0X faster than 56K 1MB upload in 341.33 sec

Valida:::.. Download Stats ..:::

Connection is:: 1755 Kbps about 1.8 Mbps (tested with 579 KB)

Download Speed is:: 214 KB/s

Tested From:: http://www.testmy.net/

Test Time:: Mon Feb 7 10:57:43 EST 2005

Bottom Line:: 31X faster than 56K 1MB download in 4.79 sec

Validation Link:: https://testmy.net/id-KGFRCOYA7

tion Link:: https://testmy.net/id-SPWDY41N9ogic

These are my typical download and upload speeds with a dw 4000 with 176mb account  if she is within the first month cancel if you can or ask them to extend it untill you see better download and upload speeds these tests are on the high end of my tests

using tcp optimiser.  I have noticed a significant loss of bandwith on my network after the router i dont have a self-hosting dw6000 like you....but i havnt heard real good things about them...post your speeds maybe we can help alittle

[rlh24]

Hello visionlogic and welcome to the forum. First since you have the DW6000 do not look for the kind of download speed that deerkill10 has. He has a 4000 which is much faster that the DW6000. You see Direcway can control the speed of the DW6000 much more than the 4000. As for you proxy question I am afraid I will not be able to help with that since you are talking about using a router. Signal strength varies from each location depending on which bird you are on as well as how much time you installer spent to get you a max. signal. You signal will not effect your browsing experience or speed. It will however effect how fast you get disconnected due to weather, such as rain or snow. I would recommend that you use TCP Optimizer and set it up using this thread. You will find a specially tweaked version within the thread.

[visionlogic]

Thanks for the infos deerkill10 and rlh24.

I have "tweaked" the registry according the the TCP Optimizer settings thread, although I had to use Dr. TCP on one of the machines as Optimizer refused to recognize the network card (yeah, weird).  Standard http rendering appears to be adequate as, of course, it uses the DW6000's proxy.  However, https drags - and my friend must use several https sites in her line of work.  And AOL... well, that's another "story" altogether.  Sometimes it works just fine, at other times it doesn't work at all.  I have no idea, yet, what the problem is with AOL.

I'm going to try a test local installation of the DeleGate proxy.  I'm a novice with DeleGate also, but I do know that it DOES cache https so it theoretically should allow for quicker access to those secure sites.  I'll report back here my results - success or failure - in case any are interested.  May take a few days.

Does anyone have any info on the DW DNS servers?  Does a list exist here?

Again, thanks!

[dell]

Fix #1 is to go to the top of your browser, click on Tools, then Internet Options, then Connections, then LAN Settings.  Please place a check mark in both of those proxy boxes (if you installed the LCCU ...it 'unchecked' those boxes and robbed you of about 200Fbps of speed)!  Now, click on the Advanced button and make sure it says 192.168.0.1 and is using Port 87.  Below that, in the "Exceptions" box, add this info inside that box (cut n paste it if you wish):

DirecWaysupport.com;192.168.0.*  <----if you know the # of your Router (like mine is 192.168.2.1 ...just add a semicolon plus that number (NO SPACES) to that list and you'll be able to access your Router via your browser ...especially if you are using a D-Link Router)!

[visionlogic]

Thanks dell.  I've already entered that exact info (with modification for the router address).

My friend purchased a Linksys 802.11b wireless router (I can't remember the model).  In order to avoid "double-NATing", I plugged the DW6000 into one of the LAN ports instead of the WAN port.  Also, I changed the router address to 192.168.0.254 so it would be on the same subnet as the DW6000 and not conflict with the modem's DHCP.  The router's DHCP is turned off.

I'm trying to get this thing setup for maximum "reliability".  The way it is now it appears that at times the browser just "times out" too quickly - rendering a default "could not find..." page.  That's why I think there may be some kind of DNS snafu.

Thanks again.

[dell]

There is no such thing as "reliability" from Direcway   Have you tryed posting at http://www.dslreports.com/forum/sat.

[visionlogic]

There is no such thing as "reliability" from DirecWay   Have you tryed posting at http://www.dslreports.com/forum/sat.

Yeah, I'm beginning to realize that "reliability" may be too high of a goal.  And that's a downright shame.  No, I haven't posted over at the Sat forum of dslreports.  You guys here are very knowledgeable, and I'm appreciative of that fact.