What is a Windows 7 compatible router

[fla]

I've been using a linux machine as a router for years. Recently I noticed that download speeds were 4x slower on Windows 7 clients compared to XP clients. I shutdown the linux machine and reconfigured my network the to use the router functionality in my IP phone ATA instead. Now my Windows 7 machines are as fast as the XP machines.

My assumption was that my old linux distribution couldn't handle IPV6 so I disabled it on the Windows 7 systems but that had no effect. I also tried to turn off Windows 7 tcp autotuning also without any effect.

I can see that many commercial routers have had firmware updates to make them Windows 7 compatible. I'm curious what changes were made to the embedded linux config to become Windows 7 compatible?

Considering I no longer have needs for a blazingly fast router, I may just retire the linux box permanently and keep my current config. I am curious to know what Windows 7 packets have that was causing a 4x slowdown.

[pBS]

i'm not sure what else makes them vista/win7 compatible, but it has something to do with UPNP on the router..
basically it lets machines re-configure router on the fly, making optimized routes,etc when they need them...
turning it on lets vista/7 machines net faster...but can also leave it in an unstable state..

nowdays i have a gigabit switch connecting computers together, and only connection to internet has router..
everything is fast and consistent...

[pBS]

here is a link to a tester for vista/7 compatibility...[maybe also the info you seek about what's different]
as suspected upnp is involved..but also dhcp and others..
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932134
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/using/t...fault.mspx

[fla]

Exactly what I need thanks! I'll even try it on the current router that seems Windows 7 compatible.

[pBS]

it's one of the main things that is wrong with Vista..
they made changes to win7 so you can troubleshoot and it stops freaking out randomly, but it still has same mechanisms...
i recommend disconnecting router when installing win7, as sometimes it can totally reconfig your router,rendering it useless till manual reset..

[whurlston]

I personally disable upnp on any router immediately after I get it. Allowing software to automatically modify router settings is a very bad idea.

[fla]

I ran the test on my IP phone ATA router and all the tests pass except UPnP which I don't want anyways. Out of curiosity I fired up the Linux machine and configured one Windows 7 client to use it as a router and ran the test and got the same result ie. everything passed except UPnP. I guess it does support everything that Vista/Windows 7's TCP stack uses just not very efficiently.

BTW speaking of UPnP, years ago I was sniffing packets on my network an found some suspicious packets. It was the wireless router which I use as an access point (nothing connected to the WAN port) which was UPnP sending out UPnP discovery packets. It's even beneficial to turn off UPnP in a router not connected to the WAN just to keep it quiet.

[whurlston]

Nah, the discovery packets are minimal and shouldn't affect performance or throughput.

[fla]

I turned it off because I like a clean network just like I clean lint off of my carpet even though it's small enough that I don't really trip on it while walking. In the case where someone actually uses UPnP on the network, then there is definitely a reason to turn it off in other devices that aren't used as the gateway.