Modem Booster

Modem Booster aims to speed up Internet downloads by optimizing TCP/IP settings. The developers claim that average modem speed will improve by 10-50%, with as much as 300% improvement in extreme cases.

Installation is quick and simple, and afterwards you run the Configuration Wizard to configure Modem Booster for each of your ISPs. This involves answering a couple of straightforward questions, after which you're ready to begin tuning up your modem. The Auto Tune-Up option performs a series of 37 tests, automatically connecting and disconnecting to your ISP's Web site for each test. According to the Modem Booster documentation, the tests should take 1-2 hours to complete. Auto Tune-Up fine-tunes four aspects:

- Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU), the size of data packets transmitted by both ends.
- Receive Window (RWIN), the amount of information you can receive at a particular moment.
- Time-to-live (TTL), the time allowed for information to reach you before it retransmits.
- Cache Size, the amount of temporary Web data your computer can hold.

When Auto Tune-Up completes, it produces a report showing the performance increase you can expect. You can fine-tune performance even more with the Manual Tune-Up option. Once tuning is completed you simply connect to your ISP using the Modem Booster dialer.