# Freeware for speeding up internet access -- does it work? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 6, 2003, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-for-speeding-up-internet-access-does-it-work/180064 "2003-06-06T12:59:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2003, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-for-speeding-up-internet-access-does-it-work/180064/1 "2003-06-06T12:59:01Z")
Lately I sumbled across some listings for freeware that supposedly speeds up your internet access (cable modem, DSL, anything). This sounds a little weird to me. Does it somehow increase the priority of the internet-related tasks on your PC? If so, does it slow down other tasks? If you’re basically just surfing the net, does this freeware make any difference? Has anyone out there used this sort of software, and had problems with it, or liked it? I have broadband cable modem access and always assumed that any slow access was either due to heavy traffic on the site I’m accessing (most commonly the SDMB!), or some bottleneck involving traffic via my ISP. So I’m quite dubious about this freeware, but they all claim to have rave reviews. Are their claims a total fabrication? ---
**Author:** ![Chagto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a4c791/32.png) [@Chagto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chagto)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2003, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-for-speeding-up-internet-access-does-it-work/180064/2 "2003-06-06T13:07:11Z")
although i’m not clear on the actual details, i’m pretty sure that internet speed-up software tends to focus on a) utilizing the bandwidth you already have more efficiently, and/or b) finding mirror sites with a better connection path to you these techniques tend to be much more effective with downloading files as oppose to just browsing, though. also, they’re claims are not totally fabricated, however i’m pretty sure you’ll find that they say things like “_up to_ 150% increase!”, therefore covering they’re behinds, so to speak. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2003, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-for-speeding-up-internet-access-does-it-work/180064/3 "2003-06-06T13:07:23Z")
“Total fabrication” is such an ugly phrase. Let’s stick with “severely overstated”. Usually, it involves either caching (which I loathe since it’s basically false speed) or juggling with probabilities to ascertain what comes next. In my experience, it does very little good and usually screws up a lot of other things. Websites that require logging in cease to work, internet banking goes down, etc. Your mileage may vary. ---
**Author:** ![KellyM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/57b2e6/32.png) [@KellyM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KellyM)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2003, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-for-speeding-up-internet-access-does-it-work/180064/4 "2003-06-06T15:03:25Z")
Actually, most of these “internet accelerator” packages just change a few of your Internet Explorer settings. A scant few change settings in the IP stack to “tune” it to work better (supposedly) with a dialup connection. Some of them prefetch links on the page you’re on so when you go to click on them they’re already loaded. Almost all of them install (or are) spyware, which is the real point of these products. In my opinion, there is no good reason to use them. Ever. ---
**Author:** ![bernse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@bernse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bernse)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2003, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-for-speeding-up-internet-access-does-it-work/180064/5 "2003-06-06T16:10:21Z")
> [@](#): > > Almost all of them install (or are) spyware, which is the real point of these products. In my opinion, there is no good reason to use them. Ever. Absolutely seconded. ---
**Author:** ![Futile\_Gesture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2003, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-for-speeding-up-internet-access-does-it-work/180064/6 "2003-06-06T18:42:25Z")
Ask yourself why they’re free. Particularly if they’re not written by a individual enthusiast or feature in adverts all over the web. The only thing that most of these freeware packages “speed up” is the downloading of advertising onto your screen. You **might** benefit from some fine tuning or caching, but it’s unlikely. ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2003, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-for-speeding-up-internet-access-does-it-work/180064/7 "2003-06-06T20:24:50Z")
Windows TCP registry settings aren’t optimized for broadband connections. I suspect some of these programs do optimize those values, in addition to adding spyware and possibly screwing up your computer. The speed gain obtained from changing these values is nothing to write home about, but you may want to do it anyway. Rather than download one of those shady programs that the pop-ups advertise, go to [this](http://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php) site and download and apply the appropriate registry patches. If that sounds intimidating, the same site also has a small freeware program that does it automatically for you. It contains no spyware or anything, of course. ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2003, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-for-speeding-up-internet-access-does-it-work/180064/8 "2003-06-06T23:00:09Z")
Although most such programs may contain spyware and ads, there are legitimate products that correctly optimize Internet access settings on your computer. The bottom line, though, is, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. If your speed is suitably fast, it’s perhaps better to keep your current settings, but if you experience chronic slow connections when it should actually be faster, it is possible that it is due to unoptimized settings. The default values set by your Windows OS are not necessarily optimal. Optimal values will depend on many factors, primarily connection type (dial-up, cable modem, DSL, etc.), ISP network settings, etc. The basic settings that are generally changed to optimize Internet access speeds are MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit), RWIN (Receive Window), TTL (Time To Live), MSS (Maximum Segment Size), etc. A detailed FAQ is available on this page (includes a calculator to determine some of the optimal settings for your machine): [http://www.dslreports.com/faq/tweaks/all](http://www.dslreports.com/faq/tweaks/all) Here’s another explanation: [http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~kurtwagn/article.html](http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~kurtwagn/article.html) And another: [http://www.plus.net/supportpages.html?bvIkeqvfDEk%3D](http://www.plus.net/supportpages.html?bvIkeqvfDEk%3D) e.g.: > [@](#): > > What is an MTU? > MTU stands for Maximum Transmission Unit. The Internet’s Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) uses the MTU to determine the maximum size of each packet in any transmission. Too large an MTU size may mean retransmissions if the packet encounters a router that can’t handle that large a packet. However, an MTU size that is too small is also inefficient, as each small transmission unit needs the same amount of header (summary) information as a large unit. The amount of summary information and acknowledgements are relatively large when compared to the amount of actual data being sent. ---
**Author:** ![milk\_milk\_lemonade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecccb3/32.png) [@milk\_milk\_lemonade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/milk_milk_lemonade)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2003, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-for-speeding-up-internet-access-does-it-work/180064/9 "2003-06-06T23:18:45Z")
“Windows TCP registry settings aren’t optimized for broadband connections”. They absolutely are. Dial-up = 56kb/s Broadband = 512kb/s Ethernet = 10mB/s Fast Ethernet = 100mB/s Fibre = 1000mB/s Windows copes with that OK… ---
**Author:** ![petre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@petre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/petre)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2003, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-for-speeding-up-internet-access-does-it-work/180064/10 "2003-06-06T23:25:25Z")
As a final word of caution, such software that uses “lookahead” to pre-download likely links has been known to add items to your “shopping cart” while you are shopping online. Folks with their credit card information cached on their system might even unknowingly purchase the items without ever even knowing it. ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2003, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-for-speeding-up-internet-access-does-it-work/180064/11 "2003-06-07T00:47:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by milk milk lemonade \* > \*\*“Windows TCP registry settings aren’t optimized for broadband connections”. > > They absolutely are. > > Dial-up = 56kb/s > Broadband = 512kb/s > Ethernet = 10mB/s > Fast Ethernet = 100mB/s > Fibre = 1000mB/s > > Windows copes with that OK… \*\* huh ? TCP registry settings that **neutron star** was referring to include MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit), RWIN (Receive Window), TTL (Time To Live), MSS (Maximum Segment Size), etc. as explained in my previous post. These settings are all stored in the registry. And no, these settings are not typically optimized for broadband connections. Also, to determine the optimal settings for any given configuration requires a set of calculations which are not taken into consideration by the Windows default settings. ---
**Author:** ![milk\_milk\_lemonade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecccb3/32.png) [@milk\_milk\_lemonade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/milk_milk_lemonade)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2003, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-for-speeding-up-internet-access-does-it-work/180064/12 "2003-06-08T01:17:10Z")
Windows sees any kind of high throughput network as a “broadband”. It’s TCP/IP stack doesn’t care what medium is used, it just communicates. Especially a LAN, that is faster than any kind of Internet connection. So how can you say that Windows can’t handle broadband when it can handle LANs? slowest LAN = 100 Mega Byte / Sec typical Broadband Internet = 512 Mega bit / sec at best the lan = 6.4 times faster than the broadband ---
**Author:** ![KellyM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/57b2e6/32.png) [@KellyM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KellyM)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2003, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-for-speeding-up-internet-access-does-it-work/180064/13 "2003-06-08T01:57:34Z")
Uh, **milk milk lemonade** , let’s watch our numbers there; you’re wildly off. Typical LAN speeds are 10 megabit/second (Ethernet), 100 megabit/second (Fast Ethernet), and 1000 megabit/second (Gigabit Ethernet). Typical residential broadband speeds range from 128 kilobits/second to 1.5 megabits/second. An Internet connection that provided 512 megabits/second would be the equivalent of three OC-3s (an OC-3 is a optical standard for commercial broadband implemented with three optical fiber pairs and providing 155.52 Mb/s) and would cost something in the vicinity of $30,000 a month. ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2003, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-for-speeding-up-internet-access-does-it-work/180064/14 "2003-06-08T02:22:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by milk milk lemonade \* > \*\*So how can you say that Windows can’t handle broadband when it can handle LANs? > \*\* Nobody said Windows can’t handle broadband, just that certain TCP settings aren’t optimized for it. Please read **xash** ’s post and links. Actually, based on the other stuff in your post, maybe you just need to read a good book on networking. Your numbers don’t make sense in any way, shape, or form. In addition to the accurate information **KellyM** provided, I would also remind you that network transmission speeds are always measured in megabits, not bytes. You seem to be switching back and forth between the two rather indiscriminately in your posts.