Modem Accelerators? 51
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?"
modem compression standards. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:modem compression standards. (Score:2)
Received: from chad (gateway-office2.cwo.com [209.210.79.102])
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Message-ID: 001701c1c6c8$96042f20$6401a8c0@chad
From: "Coastal Web Online Tech Support" support@cwo.com
To:
References: 200203070655.WAA03840@DELETED 003b01c1c612$8cef79a0$6401a8c0@chad 200203072345.PAA26559@DELETED
Subject: Re: 3xs service
Date: Fri, 8 Mar 2002 09:42:14 -0800
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Yes it will and yes it is.
----- Original Message -----
From: DELETED@hotmail.com
To: "Coastal Web Online Tech Support" support@cwo.com
Sent: Thursday, March 07, 2002 3:43 PM
Subject: Re: 3xs service
> But will it improve thruput of compressed data?
>
> Is this basicly just a compressed connection to a caching proxy?
>
> On Thursday, March 07 2002 11:59 am, Coastal Web Online Tech Support
wrote:
> > " It works as CLIENT-SERVER technology. What happens is we send you a
> > CDROM with the software so it will work on your end. Then, when you use
> > your modem to call our modem, it connects and then your data and
> > transmissions all gets filtered through a very special piece of HARDWARE
> > that accererates the transmission speeds." If you would like to try it
out
> > i will be happy to send you out a disk.Please let me know.
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: DELETED@hotmail.com
> > To: support@cwo.com
> > Sent: Wednesday, March 06, 2002 10:55 PM
> > Subject: 3xs service
> >
> > > How does this work? Would I get any proformance increase on compressed
> >
> > data?
>
Re:modem compression standards. (Score:1)
Re:modem compression standards. (Score:2)
I'm local to them, I'm considering calling about this.
Well, just look at the technical documentation! (Score:1)
They do have technical documentation don't they?
If the service isn't 'snake oil' then it should be possible for them to explain in a reasonable way how the service work, what part of what your modem does that it accelerates.
Me, I'm betting they don't - not that I'm going to bother hitting their site to find out since I ain't someone that cares about modems any longer.
Re:Well, just look at the technical documentation! (Score:1)
really? are you not connected to the net through a modem? You do know what MoDem stands for right? I don't know what I'd do without my modem. (which just happens to be a Terayon cable modem..)
Re:Well, just look at the technical documentation! (Score:1)
I have a 300-baud accoustically coupled modulator demodulator in the cupboard - a leftover from the days when I used to do hardware rather more often than software. I figure on pulling it out in a few years when my son is too old to trash everything, and say something like: "Y'know, Son, back in my day we had to plug the handset into the modem and a-coo-stick-lee couple it to connect to the innanet".
But I don't think that these modern fibre-optic doohickeys are called modems - at least I have never heard any of the techs I've spoken to call them that. Seems kind of right too, since "modem" kind of implies some sort of analog signal to be MOdulated and DEModulated.
And just to get back on topic, since it looks from the other comments like there might be less snake oil involved in the claims of these organisations than I first thought, I really do wonder how well they play with all that GZip encoded content smart websites are delivering nowadays.
Re:Well, just look at the technical documentation! (Score:1)
Actually, I don't use a MoDem, I use a CSU/DSU (T1) at home, and T3 at work.
Some of us have higher standards for our connectivity.
--Dan
Re:Well, just look at the technical documentation! (Score:3, Funny)
If not our modesty, or one-upmanship
Re:Well, just look at the technical documentation! (Score:1)
Re:Well, just look at the technical documentation! (Score:2, Informative)
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
Re:Well, just look at the technical documentation! (Score:1)
Thanks again.
All you never wanted to know about cable modems (Score:2)
There are cable modem standards [cablemodem.com] called DOCSIS. Not all modems follow these standards. For the modulation demodulation part have a look at the RF specification [cablemodem.com] 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."
Re:Well, just look at the technical documentation! (Score:2)
Re:Well, just look at the technical documentation! (Score:1)
isn't it closer to 186,282 miles per second?
Re:Well, just look at the technical documentation! (Score:1)
How it works (Score:3, Funny)
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.
Acceleratotrons (Score:1)
Re:Acceleratotrons (Score:2, Informative)
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?
Re:Acceleratotrons (Score:1)
http://browserwatch.internet.com/news/story/pea
Re:Acceleratotrons (Score:2)
How to modem accelerate as a webmaster (Score:5, Informative)
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 [remotecommunications.com]
- scoop article on mod_gzip [kuro5hin.org]
- some stats [intune.org] for intune.org
Re:How to modem accelerate as a webmaster (Score:4, Interesting)
A) It takes more processor power on your webserver. It has to constantly compress files to send
B) It takes more processor power on the client. Well the client's gotten it quickly, but now it has to uncompress it. On a massively overpowered machine that is only running a web client at the time, not a problem. But perhaps problems for people with older machines, or running lots of stuff at the time.
Re:How to modem accelerate as a webmaster (Score:3, Informative)
-- Bob
Re:How to modem accelerate as a webmaster (Score:5, Informative)
B) you may be stuck with, but on a P100/64MB playing 192kb MP3s while surfing to a fairly involved site (say 500kB/page) the time saved over the link will more than make up for the decompression (yes, I've tried this myself). There was a large discussion on this quite some time ago (probably close to a year), and if the proc isn't pegged on the server, the client still saves time...
Quick numbers for an actual page (366858 bytes):
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/03
Raw page transfer: 366858 Bytes
Gzip time:
Transfer time: 66240 Bytes / (5kB/s) = ~12.94s
So, unless the client will spend more than a minute to decompress this file, you will be saving time... decompressing a few
Re:How to modem accelerate as a webmaster (Score:1)
Re:How to modem accelerate as a webmaster (Score:2)
Viewing the page in my browser, it has already been decompressed. Here are the steps.
Page open in browser (Netscrape in my case)
I saved off the page (File->Save As)
listed the size with an ls -l (size = 366858)
verified with an editor (ez) that the file was uncompressed html.
gzip [file]
ls -l file.gz (size = 66240 18% of original size is easily in range for HTML docs)
...used the two numbers and a speed of 5kB to estimate simple case transfer times. I used 'time' on gzip to obtain system time spent on that task. Pretty easy to replicate. I suggest you give it a try.
Re:How to modem accelerate as a webmaster (Score:2)
Re:How to modem accelerate as a webmaster (Score:1)
No, that'd be the table formatting. Unzipping is about the same level of complexity as decoding a GIF of comparable size. And I know Quadras can decompress 70K GIFs in far less than 5 minutes.
In contrast, Netscape 4.x with tables of any size can take forever to render, and it seems to take the rest of the machine with it while it does. (At least, on some machines.)
--JoeRe:How to modem accelerate as a webmaster (Score:3, Informative)
Now don't get me wrong -- I love mod_gzip. I have it installed on my other webservers. Just beware that it's not the holy grail yet.
Re:How to modem accelerate as a webmaster (Score:1)
-Lee
latency? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:latency? (Score:1)
"The wondershaper neatly addresses these issues, allowing users of a router with a wondershaper to continue using SSH over a loaded link happily. "
wondershaper speeds things up by dropping packets.Well sort of. Maybe you should read it yourself.
doesn't work with netscape? (Score:2, Insightful)
This must be some pretty kooky compression scheme that it can only work with one brand of browser.
Re:doesn't work with netscape? (Score:2)
That'd be the scheme that is kooky, not the compression. It probably uses an IE-only API to hand off the decompressed material (that is, something that Netscape doesn't support).
Pretty bass-ackward compared to putting the compression a few layers down, where ANY internet enabled app (say, an email or FTP client) could access it.
What the... (Score:4, Funny)
Is this the new FedEx super-express delivery I've been hearing about? How much does it cost?
Sounds like.... (Score:3, Informative)
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.
I'm stuck on pots (Score:2, Interesting)
-- Tim
Re:I'm stuck on pots (Score:1)
Compression requires two ends (Score:2)
Does anybody on Slashdot use the service? (Score:2, Informative)
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 [proxyconn.com] .
They offer a free week trial, so if you're really interested in the service, give it a try!
ProxyConn - Any OS/Any browser?? (Score:2)
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!!
More than likely what this is (Score:1)
We co-brand this stuff too. It works, but it's not mind-blowing technology.
Re:More than likely what this is (Score:1)