Some things you can try (also check network settings like the mtu test here listed in the link):

http://www.dslreports.com/faq/5793


Backup your registry first, then you can try:

1. Edit (or create if non-existent) an entry of DormantFileLimit and set
the value to 100.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Lanmanworkstation\Parameters\

2. Edit (or create if non-existent) an entry of TcpAckFrequency and set the
value to 13.

3. Disable fast-user switching.

4. Filter out the directory that contains your data from virus scanning.

5. Disable task scheduling over the network. When you connect to another
computer with Windows XP, it checks for any Scheduled tasks on that
computer. If you don't share scheduled tasks, disable it:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Explorer/RemoteComputer/NameSpace

Below that, there should be a key called
{D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}. Just delete this, and after a
restart, Windows will no longer check for scheduled tasks.

6. There are several memory tweaks that can be performed with Windows XP -
all of them are located in the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSession ManagerMemory
Management section of the registry.


a. Disable Paging Executive In normal usage, XP pages sections from RAM
memory to the hard drive. We can stop this happening and keep the data in
RAM, resulting in improved performance. Note that only users with a large
amount of RAM (256MB+) should use this setting. The setting we want to
change to disable the ’Paging Executive’, as it is called, is called
DisablePagingExecutive. Changing the value of this key from 0 to 1 will de-
activate memory paging.

b. System Cache Boost Changing the value of the key LargeSystemCache from
0 to 1 will tell Windows XP to allocate all but 4MB of system memory to the
file system cache, basically meaning that the XP Kernel can run in memory,
greatly improving it’s speed. The 4MB of memory left is used for disk
caching, but if for any reason more is needed, XP allocates more. Generally,
this tweak improves performance by a fair bit but can, in some intensive
applications, degrade performance. As with the above tweak, you should have
at least 256MB of RAM before attempting to enable LargeSystemCache.

c. Input/Output Performance This tweak is only really valuable to anyone
running a server - it improves performance while a computer is performing
large file transfer operations. By default, the value does not appear in the
registry, so you will have to create a REG_DWORD value called
IOPageLockLimit. The data for this value is in bytes, and defaults to 512KB
on machines that have the value. Most people using this tweak have found
maximum performance in the 8 to 16 megabyte range, so you will have to play
around with the value to find the best performance. Remember that the value
is measured in bytes, so if you want, say, 12MB allocated, it’s 12 * 1024 *
1024, or 12582912. As with all these memory tweaks, you should only use this
if you have 256MB or more of RAM.


7. Clean out the prefetch folder:

a. From a dos window, copy con killpref.bat, and press [Enter]. Next,
type the following commands:


Echo off
del c:\windows\prefetch\*.* /q

Finish by pressing [F6] and then [Enter]. You can then run the killpref.bat
file from the command line or Explorer window or even run it as a scheduled
task.


b. Optimize the prefetch settings in:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory
Management\PrefetchParameters


In the right pane, look for the key named EnablePrefetcher. The value of
this key represents how prefetch works on your system. Values you can choose
from include:


0—Disable
1—Application Launch Prefetch
2—Boot Prefetch
3—Prefetch everything

If you have a low-memory workstation, 128 MB or so, set the value to 0. If
your workstation has 512 MB of RAM or more, set it to 3. Otherwise, you can
choose the value that works best in testing.