Does TCP Optimizer work?

[Berryracer]

I heard in the past that messing around with this program (ie. the TCP settings) of Windows Vista or 7 brings no benefit and can sometimes cause some harm

Has anyone had any real world experience and tested any results before/after using this utility?

Please share your findings

 

[lxskllr]

I used to try that kind of stuff when I was on 56k. If you saw an improvement anywhere, it would be there, and I never saw an improvement.

 

[cl-scott]

I personally tend to put those kinds of programs into the same general scam category as registry cleaners, download accelerators, and more generalized performance tuning programs that basically just switch your Windows theme to "Classic" along with a few other gimmicky (if being exceedingly generous) tweaks.

No amount of tweaking TCP settings are going to magically make that router somewhere along the chain of connections between you and some website be any less overloaded, or that web server magically get some kind of hardware upgrade so it can better handle the connection load it receives. It shouldn't take too much more than the intro chapter to almost any networking book to make you start having serious questions about the efficacy of such programs.

 

[Berryracer]

I personally tend to put those kinds of programs into the same general scam category as registry cleaners, download accelerators, and more generalized performance tuning programs that basically just switch your Windows theme to "Classic" along with a few other gimmicky (if being exceedingly generous) tweaks.

No amount of tweaking TCP settings are going to magically make that router somewhere along the chain of connections between you and some website be any less overloaded, or that web server magically get some kind of hardware upgrade so it can better handle the connection load it receives. It shouldn't take too much more than the intro chapter to almost any networking book to make you start having serious questions about the efficacy of such programs.

I see, so it's just a gimmick I guess

Thanks for the confirmation bro

 

[theevilsharpie]

I've used TCP Optimizer, and it's a legitimate utility that will allow you to easily tune some of the settings of Windows' network stack.

That being said, Windows is already pretty well optimized for most common network connections. The only time where I would consider tuning to be beneficial is if you're using a very latent network connection (e.g., satellite) or a very fast connection (e.g., 10+Gb Ethernet or Inifiniband), or you have an usual edge case where you need to adjust a setting for your network connection to work properly. In any case, I would advise not tinkering with Windows' advanced network settings unless you know exactly what you're doing.

 

[cl-scott]

I see, so it's just a gimmick I guess

Thanks for the confirmation bro

I was maybe a little harsh, but on the whole, if you have to ask if you need this program or not, you don't.