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Which ones REALLY - Do Work Which ones REALLY - Do Work :!:

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Several posters (notably , and ) are rightly skeptical about blanket “speed-up” claims. Below is a concise, practical companion that classifies the typical product types, gives a short diagnostic workflow to find the real bottleneck, and lists safe test steps for anyone who still wants to evaluate an accelerator on a Windows system.

Common product types and when they help:

  • Compression/proxy services: can shrink plain HTML/text traffic on unencrypted sites; ineffective on HTTPS and already-compressed media (images, video, many modern assets).
  • Multi-connection download managers: may speed single-file transfers when the remote server allows parallel connections and the ISP link isn’t the limiting factor.
  • Local caching / proxy servers: useful on LANs with repeated identical downloads or for offline browsing.
  • TCP/IP / registry “tweakers”: sometimes useful in niche high-latency or unusual link scenarios; generally small gains on typical home broadband.
  • Content blockers (ad/script blocking): frequently give the largest perceived page-load improvement by removing third-party bloat.

Quick diagnostic workflow (execute before testing any accelerator):

  1. Establish a baseline: measure throughput and latency with wired vs wireless, and record results. Use ping and tracert to check latency and path.
  2. Test sustained throughput: download a large file from a reliable server to see sustained Mbps versus bursty transfer.
  3. Check DNS lookup times and try an alternate resolver for comparison.
  4. Disable browser add-ons and background up-/downloads during tests to isolate client-side causes.
  5. If evaluating a product, install it in a VM or separate test account, create a system restore point, and monitor network activity with Resource Monitor or netstat -ano to see whether it installs proxies, services, or toolbars.

Bottom line: measurable improvement comes from identifying the real bottleneck (wireless interference, DNS, local configuration, or an overloaded remote server) and addressing that. Accelerators can help in narrow cases, but any trial should be done safely and reversibly and judged against the baseline measurements described above.

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Member Avatar for kc0arf

Hi,

I don't use any internet speedup utility. I do not believe the claims -- the FCC in the US regulates the maximum transfer speed over dialup, so that means vendors have to come up with means of compressing data in order to achieve the claims. But then we have to think... what if I am already moving compressed data. It is certainly possible that re-compressing data will make it even larger.

That and I have to wonder about cross-platform compatability. A lot of those packages are saying for Windows only. Hmm. Compressing, windows only, decompressing, slowdowns...

Steer clear of them.

Christian

Member Avatar for Catweazle

Moving this to the Windows software section. Tech questions in the Tech sections please!


And yes, I agree. Internet accelerators are best avoided. If someone wants faster transfer speeds, then a better (and probably more expensive) connection plan is the ONLY really suitable alternative.

Member Avatar for jwenting

These tools are all scams. The limiting factor on the time it takes to get data to your computer is hardly ever the bandwidth YOU have available (especially if you're on broadband) but rather the speed at which the host sends its data (which these tools can't affect).
And if you're on dialup (unless you're in the stone age and using a 33k6 or slower connection) your data is already compressed as the V56 protocol includes downstream compression (the actual line itself is still at 33k6, but the dialup server at your ISP will compress the data before sending it to you).

And if you install it on your own system, it does nothing at all to reduce bandwidth usage of course.

There's a word for things like this: snake oil.

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