QuikCAT accelerating email and web page access by up to 14 times?

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Phantasm66

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As an user blessed with broadband, it’s sometimes easy to forget just how slow, annoying and downright rubbish dial-up modem internet access really is. I kind of have a problem with computers doing anything slowly (that HDD grinding caused by not enough RAM is pretty maddening....) but web pages loading slowly is kind of a personal peeve.

Furthermore, why is it always the important web pages that take ages to load? Why can IE or whatever not slow to a crawl when its chewing something insignificant, rather than when I am trying to check my bank balance or answer an important e-mail? It’s like the internet knows....

Anyway, for those of you in the unenviable position of having to endure dial-up 56K land, help is at hand!

"Data compression specialist QuikCAT Technologies has launched a service it claims is capable of accelerating email and web page access by up to 14 times.

The software, Miliki Dialup Accelerator, uses the company's patented content sensitive compression technology to reduce the amount of data passing down the connection. The upshot is an apparent increase in data throughput.

Not everything compresses by the same amount - the company only claims a six per cent increase on web pages, for instance, presumably because what takes up the space on a typical web page are the graphics and they tend to be compressed JPEG or GIF files anyway. "


More here.
 
I am assuming they are basically doing kind of the same thing as V.44 modems do. As far as software though I won't believe it till I actually see it happen. Even with V.44, I haven't had a customer say there was a noticeable improvement over V.34 yet. Though I have yet to actually use a V.44 modem on my own to see if I can notice a difference.
 
I do have broadband :-D. I feel for the .. suckers.. that are our customers using dialup hehe.

But like I do with most customers I give them sort of a free consultation when I think they need it and find out what their Internet needs are and see if it will justify paying $50 for broadband or would make more sense using dialup.

Obviously you don't want a customer trying to download "The Hulk", it taking 2 months and then we get bad gossip going around the area about how slow our service is. Well, in general I guess you dont want a customer doing that period, due to legal problems it could cause and bandwidth usage (actually that wouldnt really hurt because a dialup modem couldnt really hurt if it was on 24/7 downloading).

I know a lot of people are still very happy with the speed of dialup as compared to broadband because lots of people only use their Internet accounts for email, or to browse webpages -- just not very frequently. So obviously using broadband and spending $50/month would in no way make sense.

Usually if you are considering dialup it is because of the price, which means most of our customers can't afford broadband so they come to us. :D
 
Originally posted by ---agissi---
......Or..............you can just get broadband :grinthumb

Not everyone can, though. And sometimes, it doesn't matter how rural or how urban you are (well, to a point, perhaps).... I know a friend who is 20 metres away from the NTL HQ and he can't get broadband connected. One of my other good friends in one of the poshest areas in the center of Glasgow and can't get it.... Here's me in the this crappy street and it was here when I moved in almost....
 
Tell me about it...:(

I had Broadband for 12 months, then had to move house (owing to impending divorce) and now all i can get is crappy Dial-Up...

O Woe Am I...:rolleyes:
 
dial up will not die. at least not until they deliver broadband over the regular electricity wires.
 
Originally posted by SNGX1275
dial up will not die. at least not until they deliver broadband over the regular electricity wires.

I agree, which is a real shame...btw, cool avatar Rusty Zip :)
 
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