Optimize ICS in XP

I have a fairly poor pc acting as a gateway to my network. I run windows xp on the gateway which then interfaces to various other machines running different operating systems. The connection on the gateway seems quite fast, however the connected computers get about half the bandwidth(even when only one computer is using the connection). I know in windows 98 there where some registery settings that could be manipulated to greatly speed up ics performance. Would there be any such thing in XP?

I also don't believe that this is a hardware problem since I've run linux gateways on worse computers with better results.

gateway:
p2 400MHz, 128MBram, WinXp

on a Netgear 8 port hub, pretty new

thanks

if it is no hardware problem, it´s probably a driver´s....

hard to tell anything without detailed infos about your setup and testing methods..

Jesse: your post is very interesting. I'm having a similar problem: I'm running ICS over a Win2k machine (Pro, not Server), using an ADSL PPPoE connection. When there are several applications contending for the connection, (doing several tens of TCP/IP connections), the Internet connection bogs down.

Symptoms: 1. total bandwith attained is ~½ of max bandwidth
2. Ping to an external domain, (which usually takes 100-200 msec) takes from 1,500 and in extreme cases up to 6,000(!) msec
3. URL response time is very slow, a URL which usually returns in ½ - 1 second, may take 20-60 seconds to respond; some URL don't respond and IE says "timeout"
4. ping <hostname> -f -l size times out for size>64 ! (for external <hostname>s). Internally it's 1492.

I'll greatly appreciate any new knowledge you gain, and likewise.

yeah, no ones touched this thread for a while, suprised to see a response.

Anyway, I was not able to find much on optimizing ICS, but i do have some questions. How many comps are you running through your gateway, and is there a drastic speed difference between the connection on the gateway its self and the connected computers?

jesse