This is actually a pretty cool technology. However, there are better ones than Propel.
I work for a company that sells a similar server. It is at http://www.browseblast.com. You can actually use it as a standalone product. In other words, if you have another ISP, you can use BrowseBlast's client.
We actually tested the Propel client and got slower results than the one that we went with.
If you want, feel free to go to the site. There is a free FIRST MONTH trial, so you can see if you like it.
There are a couple of things to note about this kind of technology:
1) Yes.. it usually maintains a connection. It is a proprietary client/server technology. Someone posted that IE got in trouble when they did this. Perhaps, but only in the browser arena.
2) There are some people saying to just increase your browser cache and you'll get the same affect. This might be true, if it is the second time you pull up the site. Read on for explanations as to why that isn't necessarily the truth.
3) Englarging the cache doesn't give you the entire affect. With actual web site retreival being from a server on a high speed network, the multiple gets required are sped up a lot compared to dialup. In comparison, you have to deal with the latency of a single modem user sending back and forth conversation packets to a web server somewhere out on the internet.
4) The link over dialup is compressed with a lossless compression. Thus, text is compressed greatly.
5) Graphics are usually recompressed. I don't know about Propels client, but with the BrowseBlast client, you can specify the quality of the image. If you want speed more than anything, you can lower the quality of the image recompression and the size will be greatly reduced. If you come to a site that you want to increase the quality of the images, you raise the quality in the client and reload the page in the browser.
6) There were some statements about how speed of email would not be affected with it. Currently BrowseBlast doesn't support email, but the word is coming down the pipe that it will be soon. Don't quote me on this one, but.. we'll see.
7) It only recompresses GIF and JPEG images.
8) As to the actual amount of speedup, that all depends. The more you view that is compressable, the more difference you'll notice.
9) This product works the best for DialUp users. It wasn't really designed for people having connections with T1 speeds or higher.
10) People are saying that it's getting in the way of rolling out regular broadband? This is not the case. Broadband is rolling out and taking out anything in its way:) However, there are a LOT of users that are currently limited to dialup and have NO OTHER OPTIONS. This is really a killer product for those people and the people that are limited to connections slower than a T1.
Anyway, those are my thoughts. If you doubt the technology, download it and give it a try. It's pretty cool!
-Gruph
Slashdot Mirror
This is actually a pretty cool technology. However, there are better ones than Propel. I work for a company that sells a similar server. It is at http://www.browseblast.com. You can actually use it as a standalone product. In other words, if you have another ISP, you can use BrowseBlast's client. We actually tested the Propel client and got slower results than the one that we went with. If you want, feel free to go to the site. There is a free FIRST MONTH trial, so you can see if you like it. There are a couple of things to note about this kind of technology: 1) Yes.. it usually maintains a connection. It is a proprietary client/server technology. Someone posted that IE got in trouble when they did this. Perhaps, but only in the browser arena. 2) There are some people saying to just increase your browser cache and you'll get the same affect. This might be true, if it is the second time you pull up the site. Read on for explanations as to why that isn't necessarily the truth. 3) Englarging the cache doesn't give you the entire affect. With actual web site retreival being from a server on a high speed network, the multiple gets required are sped up a lot compared to dialup. In comparison, you have to deal with the latency of a single modem user sending back and forth conversation packets to a web server somewhere out on the internet. 4) The link over dialup is compressed with a lossless compression. Thus, text is compressed greatly. 5) Graphics are usually recompressed. I don't know about Propels client, but with the BrowseBlast client, you can specify the quality of the image. If you want speed more than anything, you can lower the quality of the image recompression and the size will be greatly reduced. If you come to a site that you want to increase the quality of the images, you raise the quality in the client and reload the page in the browser. 6) There were some statements about how speed of email would not be affected with it. Currently BrowseBlast doesn't support email, but the word is coming down the pipe that it will be soon. Don't quote me on this one, but.. we'll see. 7) It only recompresses GIF and JPEG images. 8) As to the actual amount of speedup, that all depends. The more you view that is compressable, the more difference you'll notice. 9) This product works the best for DialUp users. It wasn't really designed for people having connections with T1 speeds or higher. 10) People are saying that it's getting in the way of rolling out regular broadband? This is not the case. Broadband is rolling out and taking out anything in its way :) However, there are a LOT of users that are currently limited to dialup and have NO OTHER OPTIONS. This is really a killer product for those people and the people that are limited to connections slower than a T1.
Anyway, those are my thoughts. If you doubt the technology, download it and give it a try. It's pretty cool!
-Gruph