Welcome
Welcome!

Welcome to Internet Rocket version 4.0! Internet Rocket is a simple solution of speeding up the throughput of your Internet connection. We hope you enjoy Internet Rocket! As always, your feed back is important to us. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please visit http://www.roadside-software.com. At our website you can also get the latest versions of all our software, play in contests, sign up for the newsletter, and much more!

Internet Rocket is homepageware. That means that Internet Rocket is free as long as you have your homepage set to Digitalnalia.com or Yagaboga.com. If you choose to use Internet Rocket, but want your own homepage you may purchase Internet Rocket at http://www.roadside-software.com/Shop/Index.shtml. If neither of these options suits you, please uninstall the software.

Thank you!


How it works

Internet Rocket works by changing some values in your registry. These values determine the size of the packets which you send, the size of the data header, cache sizes, and more. When Windows is freshly installed, these settings are optimized for LAN connections - not the Internet. Internet Rocket can walk you through a step by step wizard to help you optimize it for your situation. Internet Rocket's sub-utility, DNS Rocket, will speed your connection by caching domain names and their corresponding IP addresses on your hard disk. Here is a list of what Internet Rocket is and isn’t:

Internet Rocket is a simple way to speed up your Internet transfer by optimizing your registry.

Internet Rocket is not a 'web cache'.

Internet Rocket cannot make you connect faster (if you have a 33.6 kbps modem, you cannot connect faster than 33.6 kbps).

Internet Rocket cannot improve line conditions, your ISP’s quality, or the speed of the server you are connected to.

Note: Internet Rocket does not need to be running while you use the Internet. In fact, only run Internet Rocket when needed to change the Internet settings.


Getting Started

Once Internet Rocket is open, connect to the Internet.

Go to the “History” tab (the middle button on the bottom). Make sure there is at least one entry there. If not, close the program and try again.

Go to the “Test Speed” tab. Click “Get Test File.” This will download a 33 KB file from the RoadSide Software server to test your current transfer rate. Make sure you have no other Internet programs open during testing. After a short while (depending on your Internet speed) it will tell you the ‘bytes per second’ rate that it downloaded at. When it asks you if you want to add this to the history, click “Yes.”

Now, go back to the “TCP/IP Settings” tab and click the button that says “Wizard.”

It will now ask you to select your connection speed, select your speed from the drop down list.

Click “Next.”

Now enter the clarity of your phone line. If the line is newly installed, the clarity could be above average. If the line has been around for decades, it could be below average. However, most of the time, “Average” is the option you want to select.

Click “Next.”

Now it will ask you to enter how often you seem to have trouble getting to web sites. Selecting “Never” is not recommended.

Click “Next.”

Next you have the option of setting the NDI Cache Size to 16. Microsoft did not document the NDI cache size, but many people noticed great increases in speed when they did.

Click “Next.”

Now you have the option of detecting Black Hole servers. Doing this can speed up your Internet speed in some rare case, but more often then not, it can have a negative effect on performance.

Click “Finish”

Click “Save Changes”

Close Internet Rocket

Restart your computer.

Test the speed again.

The best way to speed up your Internet speed is through trial and error. So you should repeat this process until you have found what suits you best. If you mess up, you can reset to the Window's default by clicking "Reset to default".

To get started with DNS Rocket, follow these instructions.

Connect to the Internet.

Open Internet Rocket.

Click the tab labeled "DNSRocket."

Click the button labeled "Search for hosts."

The screen will display a box with the number of hosts found.

It will then switch to another screen where it shows DNS Rocket finding the IP address of each of these hosts.

When that screen closes, close Internet Rocket.

Internet Rocket will ask you if you want to save the hosts file, click "Yes."

The computer does not need to be restarted after this type of action. Read more in the DNS Rocket section.


What's new!

Version 4.0

Added DNS Rocket.

Added Yagaboga.com as an alternative homepage.

Added a slider bar on the about page to determine what percent of the time you would use Yagaboga or Digitalnalia.

Version 3.2:

Fixed a bug when saving MTU value.

Made the history easier to understand.

Added preset for more types of connections.

Cleaned the interface more.

Improved the HTTP method used to test the speed.

Version 3.1:

Smaller download.

Asks before changing homepage the first time.

Fixed minor bugs.

Cleaned up the interface.

Version 3.0:

History tab to store old settings.

Internal speed testing.

Saving settings to, and load settings from, a file.

Many small bugs fixed.

New help file.

TCP/IP profile selection added.


Maximum Transmission Unit

The Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) is the maximum number of bytes that can be sent in a frame. If the number is too big then the frame will be broken up, slowing the transfer. If the number is too small, not enough data will be transferred. The number 576 has been found to be the best value for most dial-up users. If you have an ultra fast connection (such as DSL or cable) this number can be much higher (for example, try 2500).
You can also have your MTU auto-detected by Windows. If nothing else works, this is a great option.


Maximum Segment Size

The Maximum Segment Size (MSS) is the maximum number of data bytes that can be sent in a frame. A frame consists of two parts: a header and data. The header identifies the frame and the data is just that: data. If there is no room for the header this will also cause the frame to be broken up. The normal size for a header is 40 bytes. This means that the value should be 40 less than that of the MTU. Make sure you update the value of the MSS when you change the MTU! We recommend that you use the Auto Setting button just to make sure!


Receive Window Multiplier

The Receive Windows value (RWIN) is the total amount of data the computer is ready to receive. Internet Rocket features the ability to change the Receive Window Multiplier. This just means that the RWIN value will be x * MTU. So if you have an MTU of 536 and a Receive Window Multiplier of 4 the RWIN value will be 2144. If you set the multiplier too low that means that data transit will be very slow, but when there are errors in transit (damaged packet, etc.) the data loss will also be low. If you set the value too high the data transit will be fast, but when you get a bad packet the data loss will be high. The best value has been found to be around 3 or 4.


Time To Live

The Time To Live (TTL) is the number of "hops" allowed to reach other systems on the network. If you have trouble getting to some websites a higher number might help you. You may want to try changing the value of the TTL until it works best for you. Depending on the sites you are reaching, any number may be best.


NDI Cache Size

The NDI Cache Size has been known for its lack of documentation. However it has been found that the value of 16 works the best (if you are a registry hacker you will notice that Microsoft recommends 16, but they set the value to 0!).


Black Holes

Black Hole detecting will tell Windows to detect Black Hole routers. We recommend experimenting with this value for best results. However, in most cases, turning it off will make the speed faster.


About Internet Rocket

Internet Rocket is homepageware. That means that it is free as long as you have your browser's homepage set to http://www.digitalnalia.com or http://www.yagaboga.com. To choose which site you would rather use, go to the "About" tab of Internet Rocket. You will see a slider bar. To go to Yagaboga more often, slide the bar to the left. To go to Digitalnalia more often, slide the bar to the right. If you do not want you browser's homepage set to this, then you can purchase a non-homepageware version from our website for $10.

Do not "Delete" the program from your computer, you should "Uninstall" it. This is done by clicking "Start", then "Settings", then "Control Panel", double clicking "Add/Remove Programs", and selecting the program you wish to remove.


The Wizard

The Wizard is opened by clicking the "Wizard" button on the "TCP/IP Settings" tab of Internet Rocket. The Wizard will guide you through, step by step, how to set up your Internet connection for better speed. For more info see Getting Started.


The History

The History is a self maintaining tab of Internet Rocket. It keeps track of the changes you made to the registry. It also includes a fail-safe option to make sure that your Internet connection does not get messed up. If you see a setting in the history that worked better than your current setting, select it and click “Use This Setting.” If you want to save a history setting to a file, select the setting and click “Save to File.” If you click on the column header of one of the parameters in the history, it will sort it by that setting (for example, sort by date, or transfer speed).


Speed testing

Internet Rocket now has built-in speed testing. Using this is simple. Enter the URL of the file you wish to download and click “Get test file.” The file will then be downloaded from the Internet, and the speed will be calculated. If you use a proxy server, you can simply enter the address and port after clicking the “Use proxy server” check box. (If you don’t know what a proxy server is, don’t worry). You will then be asked if you want to save the recorded speed in the history. It is recommended that you click “Yes.”


TCP/IP Profile

This lets you select what TCP/IP profile you wish to set the Maximum Transmission Unit for. Normaly, the first number listed is what you want. However, you can change the MTU for all the profiles if you wish.


Internet Rocket File
Internet Rocket Files

If you found a setting that worked really well for you and you want to share it with your friends, it’s as easy as save the settings to an Internet Rocket file. Simply enter the settings that you like and click “Save to File.” It will then ask you for a file name ending with the ‘.ir’ extension. Once the file is save you can open it on other computers, and your own, by clicking “Load From File” and selecting the file. Digitalnalia will have a community where you can post your fastest Internet Rocket files and download other people’s fast Internet Rocket files.


Presets

Internet Rocket now includes preset settings for many connection types. Using a preset setting is the easiest way to start moving faster on the Internet. To take advantage of this feature, open Internet Rocket. You will see a button with the caption "Preset settings." Click this button. You will see a list of options come up, select the option that describes your connection best.

Note to DSL users: there are two preset settings for DSL. One setting is if you are near your phone company's central office, the other if you are far from the central office. If you don't know how far you are from the central office, please contact your phone company.

Once you have clicked the setting that describes your Internet connection best, click the "Save Settings" button, exit Internet Rocket, and reset the computer.


DNS Rocket

DNS Rocket is a revolutionary step for Internet Rocket. DNS Rocket can increase the speed of your Internet even more than with Internet Rocket alone! DNS Rocket caches the IP addresses of domain names on your hard drive so that you do not have to access the Internet each time you need to do a DNS lookup. To understand better, you must know that each computer on the Internet has an IP address. An IP address is a set of four 8-bit numbers. Each number is separated by a "." symbol. When you connect to the Internet, your Internet Service Provider will assign your computer an IP address. Your IP address is the number that identifies your computer. An example of an IP address is 64.176.213.219. That is the current IP address for RoadSide-Software.com. If you type that number into your web browser, you will see the roadside-software.com website.

Each domain name points to the IP address of the computer that holds the website. That means each time you type in a domain name, your computer must access a DNS server, look up the domain name to find its corresponding IP address, then send the IP address back to your computer. Depending on the speed of your connection, this could take a second or two to complete (not much if you only visit one website in a day, but if you visit 100 websites, that is an entire four minutes of wasted time).

DNS Rocket functions by accessing the DNS server once, then writing the domain name and its corresponding IP address to the Windows "Hosts" file. Once the domain name and IP address are in this file, your browser will access this file - rather than the Internet - to find the IP address of the domain you are trying to access.

To start using DNS Rocket right away, go to the "DNSRocket" tab of Internet Rocket. You will see six buttons.

If you click the first button, you will be able to add a single host (for example: www.roadside-software.com). The host will be looked up, then it will be displayed (along with the IP address) on the right side of the screen.

If you click the "Search for hosts" button, this will scan your hard disk in areas where domain names are often found. Once it is done finding these domain names, it will look them all up with a DNS server and store them on your hard disk.

If you click the "Verify Hosts" button, this will check the IP address of each domain name. It will also eliminate invalid or duplicate names. From time to time, websites may change their IP address. If you do not update your computer to reflect these changes, you may not be able to visit the site. Verifying the hosts will solve that problem if it arises.

If you click "Remove selected hosts" it will remove the selected host names and IP address from your machine. This means that your computer will need to access a DNS server each time you visit those sites.

If you click "Merge Hosts" you will be able to add another computer's hosts file to your computer's host file. When you click the button you will be asked to find the hosts file, once you have found it, click "Open.” When Internet Rocket asks you if you want to verify the hosts, click "Yes.”

If you click "Edit in Notepad" you will be able to edit the contents of the hosts file in the Windows utility called Notepad.