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Internet Surfing Speed

Many factors influence how fast a computer can access information on the Internet - after all, a system is a working combination of hardware and software. Thus, a whiz-bang-tweak accelerator, no matter how good it might potentially be, will never remedy the effects of a CPU struggling with spyware and background processes run amok, and a hard drive last defragmented at the turn of the century - any process added in such a circumstance adds drag to an already overwhelmed system.

Once your system is in good general repair, Internet speed utilities are fun to experiment with and can provide benefit - such utilities typically tweak values such as 'MTU', 'RWIN', 'TTL' or 'Pipelining' and 'Cache'. You may find the full understanding of such terminology a worthy pursuit, then again you may just like to know that certain Windows and Browser settings affect precisely how your computer handles communication to and from the Internet - most users are comfortable with leaving the adjustment of such values to Internet Speed Utilities which survey your system and connection so to determine the best settings. Good luck and good computing.

Doctor TCP - tweak Internet connection settings with this tool

Dan Elwell's Broadband Speed Test - a freeware download for the basic tests

Fasterfox - Firefox extension tweaks network and rendering setting such as simultaneous connections, pipelining, cache, DNS Cache, and initial paint delay, for greater browsing speed. Also prefetches page links for more speed.

Google Web Accelerator - utilizes specialized web accelerator servers, prefetches, caches, and manages the internet connection, all to improve page loading speed for broadband users

Robust

Throttle (Free Trial) - an Internet speed booster. Combine with PCBoost (Free Trial) , a CPU utilization booster,  increases the CPU priority thread of active applications including, of course, your browser - often makes for page snapping surfing quickness on a system.  I've had good results with these applications from PGWare; one click optimization that simply works.  Try also PC Medik (Free Trial) , a one-click Black Box optimization which improves overall performance and stability through registry and system tweaks.

TuneUp Utilities (Free Trial) - quality registry cleanup as part of a performance suite - the 2007 version includes a faster and more comprehensive registry cleaner.  One-Click Maintenance provides a handy tool for registry handling and quick cleanup.  Suite also includes disk cleanup, Windows Tweaks, Icon Cache repair (very handy for those times when icons bring up the wrong program), Internet connection optimization, Uninstaller, RAM optimization, System TuneUp wizard, StartUp manager, and more.

System Mechanic 7 (Free Trial)  - address a myriad of system issues including security vulnerabilities, popular polished suite including tools to cleanup, compact and defragment the registry, general Internet and temp files cleanup, hard disk defrag including boot time defragmentation of the MFT, System Page File and Registry Hives, Internet Connection Optimization.  Plus Windows Tweak tools, Uninstaller, RAM optimization, Pop-up stopper, Spyware Wizard, and more. Settings for one-click and scheduled maintenance. Organized collection of quality tools. Pro includes Firewall & Virus protection.

1 Click Boost (Free Trial)