This paper evaluates and compares various schemes designed to improve the performance of TCP in wireless and lossy networks. The schemes are categorized into three main groups: end-to-end protocols, link-layer protocols, and split-connection protocols. End-to-end protocols aim to recover from multiple packet losses using selective acknowledgments (SACKs) and explicit loss notifications (ELN). Link-layer protocols provide local reliability by retransmitting lost packets locally, while split-connection protocols split the TCP connection at the base station to use a specialized protocol over the wireless link. The experiments, conducted in both LAN and WAN environments, show that a reliable link-layer protocol with TCP-awareness achieves very good performance, and that it is possible to achieve good performance without splitting the end-to-end connection. Selective acknowledgments and explicit loss notifications significantly improve performance, with the ELN scheme improving throughput by more than two times compared to TCP Reno. The results also demonstrate that the end-to-end connection does not need to be split to achieve good performance, and that link-layer protocols can effectively shield the sender from wireless losses.This paper evaluates and compares various schemes designed to improve the performance of TCP in wireless and lossy networks. The schemes are categorized into three main groups: end-to-end protocols, link-layer protocols, and split-connection protocols. End-to-end protocols aim to recover from multiple packet losses using selective acknowledgments (SACKs) and explicit loss notifications (ELN). Link-layer protocols provide local reliability by retransmitting lost packets locally, while split-connection protocols split the TCP connection at the base station to use a specialized protocol over the wireless link. The experiments, conducted in both LAN and WAN environments, show that a reliable link-layer protocol with TCP-awareness achieves very good performance, and that it is possible to achieve good performance without splitting the end-to-end connection. Selective acknowledgments and explicit loss notifications significantly improve performance, with the ELN scheme improving throughput by more than two times compared to TCP Reno. The results also demonstrate that the end-to-end connection does not need to be split to achieve good performance, and that link-layer protocols can effectively shield the sender from wireless losses.