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New Breed Of Web Accelerators Actually Work

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the os-dependency dept.

axlrosen writes "Web accelerators first came around years ago, and they didn't live up to the hype. Now TV commercials are advertising accelerators that speed up your dial-up connection by up to 5 times, they say. AOL and EarthLink throw them in for free; some ISPs charge a monthly fee. Tests by PC World, PC Magazine and CNET show that they do speed up your surfing quite a bit. They work by using improved compression and caching. The downside is they don't help streaming video or audio." And they require non-Free software on the client's end, too.

14 of 323 comments (clear)

  1. Faster porn? by DigitalNinja7 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Unfortunately, these caches store only the most accessed pages, so anything of any value to the Slashdot audience will be as slow as ever. But you can be sure your porn will be delivered at 5x the speed of your normal dial-up! (yawn)

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    1. Re:Faster porn? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Are you saying Slashdotter's don't value pron?

  2. Next thing... by koi88 · · Score: 5, Funny

    They actually work?
    Next thing they find out is the new generation of penis enlargement devices actually work, too...

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  3. What the hell? by elwoodblues16 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Snake oil that works? What do you even call something like that?

  4. Re:Does anybody really care? by toomuchPerl · · Score: 5, Funny
    I'm ...
    on ....

    dialup....
    you....
    insensitive ...
    clod!

    And my connection is wheezing just trying to post this!

  5. Nasty JPEGs? by Hayzeus · · Score: 4, Funny

    OK -- now you'vegot my attention. Like, um... just how nasty?

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  6. Wow, what an amazing concept! by default+luser · · Score: 4, Funny

    WOW, a webcache and real-time compression!

    My browser and my modem with .v42Bis compression have only been able to do that for, what, nearly a decade?

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  7. Oh yeah? by identity0 · · Score: 4, Funny

    If they're so good, why isn't this first post?!

  8. A little bit of insight.. by ewhenn · · Score: 4, Funny

    Netzero offered this a while ago (maybe they still do). Basically it does speed up loading of pages greatly, however there is a drawback, and a big one at that, the pictures look like crap. The GIFs/JPEGs/etc are compressed. Compressed so much to the extent that they look like, for lack of better terms, crap. A rule of thumb applies here, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. You really cant expect broadband speed for the cost of a dial up, and if you do I have some lovely penis pills to sell you for the low low price of 69.95.

  9. Re:Does anybody really care? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny
    Wow, what the hell is 65 miles northeast of Seattle? What do you do for work? I'm intrigued.

    Please respond!

  10. Re:Get Broadband by Muggins+the+Mad · · Score: 2, Funny

    > Where I live, DSL is $30 a month and cable is $40 a month. How can you argue with that?

    Um, because I don't live where you live?

    - MugginsM

  11. Hey weren't you in my class? by narftrek · · Score: 5, Funny

    You......
    went.....
    to the.....
    William.....
    Shatner....
    school of.....
    acting.....
    didn't you?

  12. ObSimpsons Quote by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Geek:"I'm developing a program to download porn 1 million times faster."
    Marge: "Does anyone need that much porn?"
    Homer: "Mmm... one million times..."

  13. Re:You mean... by flug · · Score: 3, Funny

    >Now, for a file of all zeros, hey, I agree, you
    >can do a lot better. So, how often do you download
    >files containing nothing but zero?

    Er, every time I visit Slashdot?