Steve’s Tech Guide

Our internet connections are far from perfect, our networks say that they transfer up to 100mb/s, yet we never actually see those speeds. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t optimize our internet connections to perform at the best speeds that it can. You can optimize your internet connection, network and routers several different ways, like using TCP Optimizer, modifying router settings, setting up OpenDNS, and using custom firmware for your router.

TCP Optimizer

TCP Optimizer is one of the most easiest ways you can optimize your internet connection’s settings. TCP Optimizer is a software program that modifies settings built into your network adapter so you can squeeze more bandwidth out of it. It is completely safe and easy to use.

Just download TCP Optimizer, run it, select your network adapter, click on ‘Optimal Settings’ then click ‘Apply Changes’, click ‘OK’, then reboot for it to take effect.

Once your computer has rebooted that’s it. TCP Optimizer selected the most optimal settings depending on your network adapter and your internet connection.

Router Settings

You can also improve your internet connection by selecting good router settings and securing your home network.

Make sure you change the router’s default login and setup your own user name and a good password to prevent anyone from being able to use it. If you have a wireless network make sure you also encrypt it with WPA network security encryption.

By securing your router and home network from outsiders you can ensure that no one will leech your internet, and possible use it for illegal reasons to slow down your network.

Configure OpenDNS

OpenDNS is a separate DNS system that is much faster than your internet provider’s DNS service. It’s the world’s largest and the fastest-growing DNS service. By using OpenDNs you can expect to see a major improvement in your internet speed, and plus it’s free, and there’s no software to download.

All you have to do is navigate to your ‘Control Panel’ -> ‘Network Connections’ -> Right click on ‘Local Area Connection’ -> Scroll To ‘Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)’ -> Click on ‘Properties’ -> And change the ‘Preferred DNS server’ to 208.67.222.222, then change the ‘Alternate DNS server’ to 208.67.220.220.

Once you’ve setup OpenDNS you can also register at their website for enhanced DNS features like content filtering, phishing protection, customization, typo correction, domain blocking, adult site blocking, domain whitelisting, and more.

Wireless Router Open Firmware

If you have a wireless router you can turn that piece of junk into a $300 wireless router that is just as powerful. Over on the Linux side of the pond a few really smart people have been developing Linux open source router firmware that you can upload to your wireless router to give it enhanced features, improved wireless performance as well better security.

Right now I’m using my wireless linksys router as a wireless bridge to connect my Xbox 360 and my computer to our other wireless router in the bonus room so I have internet without having to buy two extra wireless ethernet adapters.

X-Wrt, Tomato, DD-WRT, and OpenWRT are the most popular and well developed firmwares. OpenWRT is a heavy-duty firmware that is suitable for the most network savvy techs. It has more features than Tomato and DD-WRT. DD-WRT is built more for the average computer person, that knows enough to know what he’s doing, but doesn’t want to get too involved. Tomato is a more simpler, and user-friendly firmware that probably would be the easiest to use. And X-Wrt is an enhanced add-on user interface for OpenWRT which enabled even more features and enhancements to OpenWRT already advanced build.

The average persons internet connections are far from perfect, but by doing these internet connection optimizations we can increase our network performance greatly. The only tweaks that takes more than 5 minutes to do would be the router security settings, and installing the custom firmwares. I’m sure you can find a rainy afternoon to try out those options though.