December '04 Tools

A web accelerator is software that you install on your computer that optimizes the delivery of Web content to your computer by caching and compressing data.

With Web Acceleration, Web sites will download and display for the first time in about half the time normally required on a 56K line. Subsequent page loads are delivered even faster. Most web accelerators are easy to install, come with preset settings and work with most every system.

Some advanced web pages using Java, Flash, etc. may not work with the accelerator software.

There are four main attributes of accelerator software...

1) CACHED PAGES
Caching is the temporary storage of web pages on your computer for later retrieval. If you look at the preferences option of your browser, you're likely to find an option for setting your cacke preferences. This sets aside a section of of your computer’s hard disk to store web pages that you have visited. If need be, this section can be emptied by going to the tools section of your browser and choosing to delete "Temporary Internet Files"
When you click the "Back" button of your browser, the page you have previously viewed is pulled from the cache file on your computer.

2) COMPRESSION
Compression is the reduction in size of data in order to save space or transmission time. For data transmission, compression can be performed on just the data content or on the entire transmission unit depending on a number of factors.
Content compression can be as simple as removing all extra space characters, inserting a single repeat character to indicate a string of repeated characters, and substituting smaller bit strings for frequently occurring characters. This kind of compression can reduce a text file to 50% of its original size.
Graphic image file formats are usually designed to compress information as much as possible (since these can tend to become very large files). Graphic image compression can be either lossy (some information is permanently lost) or lossless (all information can be restored).

One of the most noticeable aspects of a web accelerator is the degradation of images due to compression of the graphics on a page. Acceleration improves your surfing speed significantly by reducing image quality significantly - making images appear fuzzy, or lacking in color. Most accelerators have different levels that you should try until you find the one you like best.

Note: If you use Internet Explorer or a related browser, you can quickly refresh a graphic image or an entire page to full quality by right clicking on the image or the background of the page and choosing Refresh Picture with Full Quality, or you can select Refresh Page with Full Quality to improve the quality of all the graphics on the page at once.

3) AD BLOCKER recognizes and removes banner ads and other advertising from each page. This accelerates page loading, eliminates annoying distractions and protects your privacy from online advertisers.

4) POP-UP BLOCKER A built-in pop-up blocker stops annoying pop-up advertisements from loading and slowing down your internet connection by using up bandwidth. Easy to configure, the pop-up blocking feature can usually be enabled or disabled with just a few clicks. Settings are provided for sites you would like to allow pop-ups from. Adding and removing sites from the list is usually very easy to do.

There are two main types of web accelerators available...

Most you will download and pay for only once. These accelerators usually perform optimization routines and configure your modem settings to their best performing values. You can also find and download web accelerator software online - some are free and some must be purchased. Many Internet Service Providers are now offering free web accelerators for their dial-up clients. You should be careful as some free web accelerators can be filled with "tracking your surfing habits" routines and advertising schemes. The more honest companies will provide a notification on their site as to their software does NOT contain spyware.

The other type of web accelerator requires a monthly or yearly subscription to a service that provides acceleration through a cached network. This simply means that they "predict" the sites you will visit and pre-fetch them.

A Web Accelerator won’t provide your computer with a blazing fast cable connection, but if you want better connections and significantly increased speed – you may wish to try acceleration software. Even if the acceleration software provides just a minor speed increase, you'll still save a lot of time.