Why tweaking TCP is important to Internet Broadband User?

TCP Slow Start
TCP is an end to end protocol which operates over the heterogeneous Internet. TCP has no advance knowledge of the network characteristics, thus it has to adjust its behavior according to the current state of the network. TCP has built in support for congestion control. Congestion control ensures that TCP does not pump data at a rate higher than what the network can handle.

And well ... becasue your OS's TCP does not know your Internet Broadband speed - it is just a simple answer, ha? But this is a painful truth. TCP is not designed to guess your maximum speed and work at the highest capacity all the time. You may feel dumb why paying higer cost than normal 56K modem if you don't adjust TCP parameters for your Internet Broadband subscription.

Tweaking TCP parameters can be done manually if you are a computer nerd. However, there are such smart tools that you would love to utilize them. Here they are:

SG TCP Optimizer - The TCP Optimizer is a free, easy Windows program that provides an intuitive interface and optimizing your Internet connection. There is no installation required, just download and run.

DrTCP - by BroadbandReport's moderator DrTCP and the users of the tweaks forum. You will need to reboot (older windows) and restart networking (2k,XP) for DrTCP changes to take effect.

There are also researchs to modify TCP slow start mechanism at protocol level. Attempts on modifications to TCP slow start for high delay, bandwidth networks e.g. Floyd's TCP slow-start and AIMD mods.

However, this approach is not "You Can Do It Yourself" like tweaking TCP as suggested above. The mechansim will be bundled, if implemented, to equipments such as ADSL router, WiFi router, Satellite Modem, etc.