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Modem Accelerators?
An Anonymous Coward asks: "I was browsing on the web and came across a reference to Coastal Web Online's claim of a modem accelerator Apparently it is a service which is supposed to make your modem 3x faster. Is this possible? I've already got a v.92 modem and I thought it already did compression. It is possible it is a proxy doing some compression on white space in HTML or something, but I don't think so, since it apparently only works with Windows 9x and Internet Exploder. For $8.00 a month ontop a the dialup access sounds kinda snake oilish. Does anybody on Slashdot use the service? Would they recommend it? This sounds remarkably similar to the old idea of 'waxing your modem'. Am I missing out on something here?"
There is nothing snake oilish about these compression claims. Only a few ISPs are supporting it, but the v.42 compression standard has been out for a while. Check out this comparison to see how it differs from older compression standards. The key is that these claimed ratios are in ideal situations -- ie, when you're downloading a great deal of text, not the high-bandwidth consuming images or video streams. Those are already highly compressed, and so are unlikely to benefit from further compression. In fact, it is a fairly trivial consequence that any compression method will make some kinds of files larger, not smaller. A fatter pipe is the only solution sometimes, and that just isn't going to happen with POTS.
Ceci n'est pas un post
From The Site:
How does the 3XS system work?
We send you a CD ROM with your side of the program to load on your computer (a 5 minute process). At our network headquarters, we filter you through our Accelerator Server.
Once you have installed our 3XS software, even on a trial basis, you can click on and off the ICON to see the difference in downloading web pages, and transferring e-mail attachments on your computer.
From this I would have to think it is a data compression by proxy server system that uncompresses on the user side, they offer a 7 day trial, if your really curious I suggest trying it.
iRepairIT - iPhone, Mac, & PC Repair
I also seem to recall one that would prefetch/cache pages that it knew you went to and commonly clicked links on a page. So while you busy reading the front page of /., the software would have already cached the comments of each story. It's a neat idea and for people you actually have set patterns and do alot of reading I could see how it might give a significant percieved speedup.
It's a neat idea. I'm sure you could achieve a similiar effect with some type of offline scheduled cache.
Anyone remember the name of the software?
The best thing I ever did for my modem users, was to install mod_gzip, which compresses every page (be that HTML or any dynamically generated PHP page) apache sends out.
Result? Up to 92% compression! My pages are loading so much faster than before, AND I am saving on my bandwidth bill.
Installation is a breeze, the mod is a beauty.
- the mod_gzip project
- scoop article on mod_gzip
- some stats for intune.org
Hurra for Knark!
If not our modesty, or one-upmanship
This must be some pretty kooky compression scheme that it can only work with one brand of browser.
We send you a CD ROM with your side of the program to load on your computer (a 5 minute process).
Is this the new FedEx super-express delivery I've been hearing about? How much does it cost?
You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. The impossible just takes a little longer.
it might work a bit like this open source software.
Recompress jpegs with higher compression, remove banner ads. Gzip the remaining page and hey presto faster download, though of course that doesnt need any client side software apart from a browser that will accept gzip compression (most do).
I guess these guys are using some proprietary or obscured format for their compression, to help them cash in.
Not much use to those on fast connections but for a modem user the time taken to encode/decode may be faster than downloading the normal pages.
no sig.
I've been toying with setting up a compressed SSH stream to my webserver and installing Squid on that. I server a few small sites so Processing power is not a big deal. I'm not too sure that SSH will help me much. I've already installed a local Squid server and I block ads, that helps a bunch. I'd love to get more Idea's.
-- Tim
TKrabec Pahh
In order for your modem to receive the data in a compressed format, whatever is sending the data has to compress it using the same algorithm. Thus mod_gzip works. But it will only work on things that are compressible in the first place. Will your mp3s come down the pipe any faster? Of course not. Compressing a compressed file with a different algorithm will get you minimal gains. The short answer: no, other than tweaking the packets a bit (ie MTU, etc), you can't 'accellerate' your downloads.
I do, and I like it.
I've had one-way cable, ADSL, and two-way cable. The new house does not have broadband, and there's no planned arrival date from either the cable company (AT&T) or Bellsouth. I can get ISDN, which is about twice as fast as what I currently have, for a ridiculous amount. Or I can get satellite, which is $70 a month but installation is almost $1,000.
So any way to increase my current speed is welcomed, and their service does the trick. I haven't measured it with a stopwatch, but the pages load faster.
The service I'm using is ProxyConn .
They offer a free week trial, so if you're really interested in the service, give it a try!
I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
You can also use features in Mozilla, Konqueror, and IE to save content for offline browsing. It isn't an actual method to speed up your connection to websites but it does let you browse stuff pretty quickly. You can wait for everything to save to disk while making coffee or using the john and come back to do your browsing. One of the cool aspects of Ximian Evolution is the RDP news linker. Now if only Arts and Letters would put up an RDP too!
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
Nope, a cable modem does plenty of modulation and demodualtion. I'm pretty sure that cable modems use QAM (Quadrature Amplituded Modulation), though they may use PAM (Pulse Amplitude Modulation), which I'm much less familiar with.
Anyway, they most certainly do have an A/D-D/A in them. QAM (which I'm pretty sure cable modems use) is similar to DMT DSL in that DMT is (more or less) 256 concurrent narrow-band QAM channels, while cable modems (presumably, my biz is DSL, I've never read more than the occassional whitepaper on cable modems) use a single wide-band QAM channel for each customer while the head-unit maintains several of these connections (one for each customer).
Tim
There are cable modem standards called DOCSIS. Not all modems follow these standards. For the modulation demodulation part have a look at the RF specification starting at section 4 on page 23. Upstream uses QPSK or 16QAM, downstream uses 64QAM or 256QAM. I believe that for a given number of homes there will be one downstream signal, but multiple upstream signals. (the number of upstreams would probably not equal the number of homes.)
For the hardcore RF geeks these specs are a great read. You can see how these specs were designed as opposed to "happened."
ProxyConn's homepage brags that it "Works with all browsers / operating systems!".
However, if you dig a little deeper into their "Technology" page, you find that it works with any MS-Windows OS and only IE and Netscape browsers.
Never forget to read the fine print!!
Hey, who else could go for some flapjacks right now?
A network card modulates and demodulates, but you'll get lynched if you call it a modem around other geeks.