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Windows Server 2003
Description of Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003 TCP Features Need More Help?
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The TCP receive window size is the amount of receive data (in bytes) that can be buffered during a connection. The sending host can send only ● You receive a "CS:EIP =
that amount of data before it must wait for an acknowledgment and window update from the receiving host. The Windows TCP/IP stack is 000Fh:00001373h" error
designed to self-tune itself in most environments, and uses larger default window sizes than earlier versions. message when you run an
MS-DOS-based program in
Instead of using a hard-coded default receive window size; TCP adjusts to even increments of the maximum segment size (MSS), which is Windows
negotiated during connection setup. Adjusting the receive window to even increments of the MSS increases the percentage of full-sized TCP
segments utilized during bulk data transmissions. More Troubleshooting...
In previous versions of Windows NT, the window size for an Ethernet connection was 8,760 bytes, or six 1460-byte segments. ● Save to My Support
To set the receive window size to a specific value, add the TcpWindowSize value to the registry subkey specific to your version of Windows. To do Favorites
this, follow these steps: ● Go to My Support
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1. Click Start, click Run, type Regedit, and then click OK.
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2. Expand the registry subkey specific to your version of Windows:
• For Windows 2000, expand the following subkey: ●
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces
3. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
4. Type TcpWindowSize in the New Value box, and thne press Enter
5. Click Modify on the Edit menu.
6. Type the desired window size in the Value data box.
This value is not present by default. When you add the TcpWindowSize value, it overrides the default window size algorithm discussed above.
Note TcpWindowSize can also be added to the Parameters key to set the window size globally for all interfaces.
1. A single octet TCP option, which is used to indicate a specific option kind.
2. A multiple octet TCP option, which consists of an option kind, an option length and a series of option octets.
The following list shows each TCP option kind, length, name, and description.
Kind: 0
Length: 1
Option: End of Option List
Description: This is used when padding is needed for the last TCP option.
Kind: 1
Length: 1
Option: No Operation
Description: This is used when padding is needed and more TCP options follow within the same packet.
Kind: 2
Length: 4
Option: Maximum Segment Size
Description: This indicates the maximum size for a TCP segment that can be sent across the network.
Kind: 3
Length: 3
Option: Window Scale Option
Description: Identifies the scaling factor to be used when using window sizes larger than 64k.
Kind: 8
Length: 10
Option: Time Stamp Option
Description: Used to help calculate the Round Trip Time (RTT) of packets transmitted.
Kind: 4
Length: 2
Option: TCP SACK permitted
Description: Informs other hosts that Selective Acks are permitted.
Kind: 5
Length: Varies
Option: TCP SACK Option
Description: Used by hosts to identify whether out-of-order packets were received.
Windows scaling
For more efficient use of high bandwidth networks, a larger TCP window size may be used. The TCP window size field controls the flow of data
and is limited to 2 bytes, or a window size of 65,535 bytes.
Since the size field cannot be expanded, a scaling factor is used. TCP window scale is an option used to increase the maximum window size from
65,535 bytes to 1 Gigabyte.
The window scale option is used only during the TCP 3-way handshake. The window scale value represents the number of bits to left-shift the 16-
bit window size field. The window scale value can be set from 0 (no shift) to 14.
To calculate the true window size, multiply the window size by 2^S where S is the scale value.
For Example:
If the window size is 65,535 bytes with a window scale factor of 3.
The following Network Monitor trace shows how the window scale option is used:
It's important to note that the window size used in the actual 3-way handshake is NOT the window size that is scaled. This is per RFC 1323
section 2.2, "The Window field in a SYN (for example, a [SYN] or [SYN,ACK]) segment itself is never scaled."
This means that the first data packet sent after the 3-way handshake is the actual window size. If there is a scaling factor, the initial window size
of 65,535 bytes is always used. The window size is then multiplied by the scaling factor identified in the 3-way handshake. The table below
represents the scaling factor boundaries for various window sizes.
For Example:
If the window size in the registry is entered as 269000000 (269M) in decimal, the scaling factor during the 3-way handshake is 13, because a
scaling factor of 12 only allows a window size up to 268,431,360 bytes (268M).
When the value for window size is added to the registry and its size is larger than the default value, Windows attempts to use a scale value that
accommodates the new window size.
The Tcp1323Opts value in the following registry key can be added to control scaling windows and timestamp:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
1. On the toolbar click Start, click Run, and then type Regedit to start the Registry Editor.
2. In the Registry Editor, click Edit, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
3. In the New Value box, type Tcp1323Opts, press ENTER, and then on the Edit menu, click Modify. Note The valid range is 0,1,2 or 3
where:
This registry entry controls RFC 1323 timestamps and window scaling options. Timestamps and Window scaling are enabled by default, but can
be manipulated with flag bits. Bit 0 controls window scaling, and bit 1 controls timestamps.
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Timestamps
Previously, the TCP/IP stack used one sample per window of data sent to calculate the round trip time (RTT). A timer (retransmit timer) was set
when the packet was sent, until the acknowledgment was received. For example, if the window size was 64,240 bytes (44 full segments) on an
Ethernet network, only one of every 44 packets were used to recalculate the round trip time. With a maximum window size of 65,535 bytes, this
sampling rate was sufficient. Using window scaling, and a maximum window size of 1 Gigabyte, this RTT sampling rate is not sufficient.
The TCP Timestamp option can now be set to be used on segments (data and ACK) deemed appropriate by the stack, to perform operations such
as RTT computation, PAWS check, and so on. Using this data, the RTT can be accurately calculated with large window sizes. RTT is used to
calculate retransmission intervals. Accurate RTT and retransmission timeouts are needed for optimum throughput.
When TCP time stamp is used in a TCP session, the originator of the session sends the option in its first packet of the TCP three way handshake
(SYN packet). Either side can then use the TCP option during the session.
The timestamp option field can be viewed in a Network Monitor trace by expanding the TCP options field, as shown below:
Windows introduces support for a performance feature known as Selective Acknowledgement, or SACK. SACK is especially important for
connections that use large TCP window sizes. Prior to SACK, a receiver could only acknowledge the latest sequence number of a contiguous data
stream that had been received, or the "left edge" of the receive window. With SACK enabled, the receiver continues to use the ACK number to
acknowledge the left edge of the receive window, but it can also acknowledge other blocks of received data individually. SACK uses TCP header
options, as shown below.
The TCP Sack-Permitted Option is used only in a SYN packet (during the TCP connection establishment) to indicate that it can do selective ACK.
The second TCP option, TCP Sack Option, contains acknowledgment for one or more blocks of data. The data blocks are identified using the
sequence number at the start and at the end of that block of data. This is also known as the left and right edge of the block of data.
Kind 4 is TCP Sack-Permitted Option, Kind 5 is TCP Sack Option. Length is the length in bytes of this TCP option.
Kind = 4 Length = 2
1 byte 1 byte
With SACK enabled (default), a packet or series of packets can be dropped, and the receiver informs the sender which data has been received,
and where there may be "holes" in the data. The sender can then selectively retransmit the missing data without a retransmission of blocks of
data that have already been received successfully. SACK is controlled by the SackOpts registry parameter.
The SackOpts value in the following registry key can be edited to control the use of selective acknowledgements:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
1. On the toolbar click Start, click Run, and then type Regedit to start the Registry Editor.
2. Locate and click the above key in the Registry Editor, and then click Modify on the Edit menu.
3. Type the desired value in the Value data box.
NOTE: The valid binary value is 0 or 1, the default value is 1. This parameter controls whether or not Selective ACK (SACK - RFC 2018) support
is enabled.
The following Network Monitor trace illustrates a host acknowledging all data up to sequence number 54857341, plus the data from sequence
number 54858789-54861685. The missing data is from 54857341 to 54858788.
As a review of normal retransmission behavior, TCP starts a retransmission timer when each outbound segment is handed down to the Internet
Protocol (IP). If no acknowledgment has been received for the data in a given segment before the timer expires, then the segment is
retransmitted.
The retransmission timeout (RTO) is adjusted continuously to match the characteristics of the connection using Smoothed Round Trip Time
(SRTT) calculations as described in RFC 793. The timer for a given segment is doubled after each retransmission of that segment. Using this
algorithm, TCP tunes itself to the normal delay of a connection.
Fast Retransmit
TCP retransmits data before the retransmission timer expires under some circumstances. The most common of these occurs due to a feature
known as fast retransmit. When a receiver that supports fast retransmits receives data with a sequence number beyond the current expected
one, and then it is likely that some data was dropped. To help inform the sender of this event, the receiver immediately sends an ACK, with the
ACK number set to the sequence number that it was expecting. It will continue to do this for each additional TCP segment that arrives. When the
sender starts to receive a stream of ACKs that is acknowledging the same sequence number, it is likely that a segment has been dropped. The
sender will immediately resend the segment that the receiver is expecting, without waiting for the retransmission timer to expire. This
optimization greatly improves performance when packets are frequently dropped.
By default, Windows resends a segment if it receives three ACKs for the same sequence number, (one ACK and 2 duplicates) and that sequence
number lags the current one. This is controllable with the TcpMaxDupAcks registry parameter.
The TcpMaxDupAcks value in the following registry key can be edited to control the number of ACKs necessary to start a fast retransmits:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
1. On the toolbar click Start, click Run, and then type Regedit to start the Registry Editor.
2. Locate and click the above key in the Registry Editor, and then click Modify on the Edit menu.
3. Type the desired value in the Value data box.
This parameter determines the number of duplicate ACKs that must be received for the same sequence number of sent data before "fast
retransmit" is triggered to resend the segment that has been dropped in transit.
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APPLIES TO
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Edition
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition (32-bit x86)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition (32-bit x86)
Yes
No
Partially
Strongly Strongly
Agree Disagree
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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