CFosSpeed
Developer(s) | cFos Software GmbH |
---|---|
Initial release | 2004 |
Stable release | 5.12
/ May 31, 2010 |
Operating system | Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, 32 and 64-bit |
Available in | Multilingual |
Type | Traffic shaping |
License | Shareware license |
Website | www.cfos.com |
cFosSpeed is a software solution for traffic shaping for the Windows operating system. It improves Internet latency while maintaining high transfer rates. The program attaches itself as a device driver to the Windows network stack where it can then perform packet inspection and layer-7 protocol analyses.
As such, it is particularly often used by online gamers and VoIP users.
Operational summary
The software divides data packets into different traffic classes. This is achieved through a number of filtering rules that can be set by the user. Data traffic can thus be classified and prioritized by program name, by layer-7 protocol, by TCP or UDP port numbers, by DSCP tags as well as many other criteria.
Outgoing traffic is not sent out indiscriminately. Instead, data packets are first queued and then sent out in order of their priority. This way, data that is needed immediately is transmitted before less time-critical data.
Thus, even if large amounts of data are transferred at the same time, traffic shaping can keep interactive connections like SSH sessions, VNC sessions, VoIP calls, online games or other time-critical programs responsive. What’s more, quick transmission of TCP ACK packets will keep downloads fast [1]. This is because the sender will only send out data after the receiver has acknowledged reception of older data (TCP flow control).
cFosSpeed also reduces network congestion for downloads by lowering the TCP window size to keep the sender from sending too much data at once.
In addition, cFosSpeed contains a packet filter firewall, time and volume online budgets, a skinnable transfer monitor and several other special purpose features [2]. It has a filter language that allows experts to write their own traffic classifications [3].
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References
- ^ How does traffic shaping in cFosSpeed work? http://www.cfos.de/traffic_shaping/traffic_shaping_e.htm
- ^ List of cFosSpeed's features, http://www.cfos.com/speed/features_e.htm
- ^ Filter language used to classify packets, http://www.cfos.com/speed/documentation/filter_expressions_e.shtml