- Application protocols
- File transfer: FTP vs. HTTP, Secure Shell (SSH), BitTorrent, GridFTP
- Interactive Applications
- Multimedia - Voice over IP (VoIP), Videoconferencing
- Multiplayer games and other collaborative environments
- Media Streaming
- Happy Eyeballs
- End-system (host) tuning
- Operating system independent: Bugs, Hardware
- Operating system specific: BSD, Linux (InterfaceQueueLength), Mac OS X, Solaris, MS-Windows
- Adapters and drivers: Large Send Offload (LSO), InterruptCoalescence, Large Receive Offload (LRO), ChecksumOffload, TCP Offload Engines (TOEs), large MTUs ("jumbo frames")