Methods and systems are described that may be used in the context of a Performance Enhancing Proxy architecture for Internet traffic. A method of accelerated connection opening with error handling is disclosed. Also, a method of handling the Path MTU Discovery mechanism in the context of a distributed connection splitting PEP ("PEP1", "PEP2") is described. A novel packet format for a proprietary inter-PEP protocol is described which allows for low packet header overhead new acknowledgement scheme that adapts to packet loss conditions to minimize bandwidth consumption by selecting an acknowledgement type from several possibilities is also detailed method whereby potentially spurious retransmissions are minimized by timing every transmission and retransmission is also described.
