A system and method for tuning TCP/IP acknowledgments is provided. The system and method reduces the number of acknowledgments sent by a TCP/IP receiver by determining whether the connection state with the sender warrants using minimal acknowledgments. If minimal acknowledgments are used, the receiver sends fewer acknowledgments to the sender in response to received packets. The number of packets that are received before an acknowledgment is returned is increased until the delay value reaches a threshold value. The threshold value can be determined based on the size of the buffer setup to receive packets from the sender during the session. If errors, such as TCP/IP timeouts or duplicate packets, are detected, the threshold is changed to the last delay value that did not cause errors. If further errors are detected, the system is programmed to revert to sending traditional acknowledgments for the session.