Straw Revolution -- Improve Your Internet Connection

In 1903, Barney Oldfield's name became synonymous with speed – he was the first man to travel a mile a minute. And not too many years ago, 9.6 Kbps was fast. Today, it's the bare minimum for full fledged Internet access. But that doesn't mean you can't squeeze a little more speed out of your connection. Some of the following techniques require a familiarity with PC's and the various Internet settings scattered about your computer (modem, port, browser). Some require installing additional software. Some involve purchasing a service, additional hardware, or both. Some can peacefully coexist; others throw a hissy fit if you try to combine them. Strangely enough, some of the best solutions are free. Since it's highly likely you used Windows 95 or 98 for your remote connection, I omit discussing other operating systems.

Software and Settings

You could dive right in and start adjusting all sorts of things. You might even still be able to use your computer after you're done. But do yourself a favor and install a few programs before you indulge. I strongly recommend studying, and writing down, your current settings, and learning how to do some basic tasks – like unproxy a browser.

Ispeed

Ispeed can log your data transfer speeds so you can compare what happens with different settings (MTU, RWIN, TTL, etc.). To minimize variables beyond your control, these comparisons are best done at off peak hours and with sites/servers that are somewhat idle – don't use Disney.com on Saturday morning for your tests. It also keeps history records of what happens with various tweaks, and can even restore the original window settings if everything goes South. Yes, it's possible to change things yourself, and use a stop watch, and write everything down, and make clever pie charts. Better to save yourself some time and go fishing instead.

Vital Signs Net.Medic

Perhaps the most valuable utility I've come across for trouble shooting, and ongoing monitoring. Well worth the $30 I paid for it. You can get it for free. Net.Medic can detect and optimize settings such as modem speed and port settings. It graphically displays how much data your computer is sending and receiving, how fast, and where the bottlenecks are along the route. Just because you have a slow connection doesn't mean that you're to blame. Some other computer out there – your ISP, routers, the server for the web site itself – could well be at fault. If so, the only thing you can really do is check back at a later time. It also keeps history and health logs and helps diagnose trends, slow sites, all sorts of stuff. Sometimes just knowing that information is flowing is all you need!

Accelerators

NetSonic, Netjet, Netetc (kidding), there are many software solutions that can give the illusion of speed through smoke and mirrors: prefetching, intelligent caching, etc. Think about it: that page you're desperately waiting for finally downloads, you spend a long time (in computer years) reading it, and then click "next" or some such button to read more, and wait. But Ho! the accelerator has been reading your thoughts, and maybe even twiddling it's virtual thumbs, and has already downloaded that selfsame page! Presto! You see it instantly. Or it drags the page up out of an "intelligent cache," as opposed to a competing products cache, because you asked for the same vital information moments or weeks or seconds before. This works well on many sites because much of the bulky data stays the same – graphics, buttons that change shapes – and the svelte text is all that you really need to access anew. Truthfully, all caches are not created equal, ditto accelerators. They really can help a slow connection. They can also tromp around your system like an elephant in must. If you're not comfortable adjusting things like proxy settings in your default browser, you should either use an uninstall program to install one of these (as ridiculous as that sounds on the surface), or prepare to learn how to reset everything by hand. Again, not all programs are created equal. Some will exit gracefully.

Ad Blockers

Blinking ads and popup windows may actually contain information that you really want, then again . . . Since you're the one waiting, what if you waited only for what you asked for? The less you download, the quicker the page you asked for will appear. And if you're worried about "supporting" a web site, downloading ads makes no difference. Out of the many choices, two have come to my attention. Earlier versions of Naviscope were a tad shaky on my system, but they've fixed that and more. Upgrades continue to come out frequently, and automatically install when you check for them. Add web tools, site mapping, intelligent caching, prefetching, customized ad blocking (if you have a rudimentary understanding of HTML and tenacity), DNS caching, history – just get it! Everything about this application works. Webwasher has ad blocking capabilities, but not all the advanced features of Naviscope.

Browsers

Basically, browsers are what you use to download web sites. More appear every day, and they are not created equal, nor equally fast. For some reason, most are free. Some have been around long enough that they've even become relatively stable. If you like to experiment, you'll have fun with the 100+ choices out there. If you don't, stick to up to date mainstream browsers, and avoid alpha and beta versions of anything. Here's my hit on the three most popular. Note that some software enhancements may only work with a particular browser.

Internet Explorer: Microsoft gives this one away to make Netscape give theirs away. The latest version, 5.5, actually works. The included email client, Outlook Express, actually works. Still, I believe the Microsoft motto goes something like this: "More bigger lots fatter (who cares?) better, Yes!" If you're on an older computer, choose a different browser – preferably not an earlier version of this one. If you're the paranoid type, or really do have someone after you, choose a different browser. The security problems of Internet Explorer boggle the mind.

Internet Explorer is widely available for free download (It's huge! This download can easily take 5 hours at cell phone speeds!), and also widely available on CD's from ISPs and magazines. If all else fails, you can buy a CD from Microsoft for about $7.

Netscape Navigator: Netscape gives this one away to make Microsoft give theirs away. The latest version, 4.7, actually works. Version 6.0 (yes, they skipped 5.anything) based on all new code, may be out by the time you read this. The included email client, Communicator works well enough. Still, I believe the Netscape motto goes something like this: "More bigger lots (so what it's free) fatter better, Yes!" They have a reputation for buggy releases – or are they just more up front about it all? If you're on an older computer, choose a different browser – preferably not an earlier version of this one. If you're the paranoid type, or really do have someone after you, Netscape has a good reputation for encryption and security – or are they just a smaller target?

Netscape Navigator is widely available for free download (It's huge! This download can easily take 5 hours at cell phone speeds!) and also widely available on CD's from ISPs and magazines. If all else fails, you can buy a CD at a computer/book store for too much money. (I've seen it priced as high as $50 for a platinum deluxe version.)

Opera: Opera charges for this one because they can. The latest version, 5.0, works very well, and it's faster than the other two. It bristles with brilliant design features, such as a button to toggle images off and download text only, another to toggle for page settings (a true help on ill-designed web pages). I believe the Opera motto goes something like this: "Sleeker faster better, Yes!" If you're on an older computer, choose this browser. If you're the paranoid type, or really do have someone after you, choose this browser. I haven't heard anything negative about security – but maybe they're a really small target.

Opera ($35) is available as a 30 days of use trial download at www.opera.com (It's small! This download can take less than 1/2 an hour at cell phone speeds!). It's also widely available on magazine CD's

Searching

If no one's told you yet, every search engine is different – they search differently, catalogue differently, have different databases, some allow you to buy your way to the top. Only a quarter of the web sites turn up in any search engine at all! Bias your chances, and save time with Copernic 2000. It can search 14 engines at once, throw out duplicates, delete pages that no longer exist, and collate the results in several different ways. This program is so good I paid for the Plus version that adds many more categories and engines that search specific topics. You can also save your searches, organize and update them, download all the pages or just some – with or without images. I started with Copernic 98. It just gets better every year. Other multi-engine programs exist, some web based, but I've found none that work as well as Copernic. It even upgrades itself!

Site Rippers

It sounds quite gruesome, but all site rippers really do is download an entire site to your hard drive – if you have a big enough hard drive. After you've had dinner, read War and Peace, and walked the dogs, you can browse the site at your leisure. Assuming you set all the right parameters, the instant gratification of pages and graphics that load immediately can be addicting. A great tool for researching a topic (like how to connect to the Internet with a cell phone), or for analyzing web site structure.

BlackWidow Maybe it's just me, but I got tired of the confusing interface, reentering my product code, downloading a site and then not being able to browse it, downloading a site and finding out I didn't really download it, just scanned it. It shouldn't be this hard unless they're giving it away.

BlackWidow ($40) is available as a limited trial download at www.softbytelabs.com from an FTP style list, i.e. not very informative. To get the latest version of this program, choose the most recent posting of blackwidow.exe

WebWhacker 2000 A giant leap from the old days, the latest version 4.0 is actually worth using. (I have a copy of 2.0 that I found on a discount rack for $5 and wish I had my money back.) Intuitive interface, easy to learn, you'll be tempted to whack everything in sight.

WebWhacker 2000 ($50) is available as a limited trial download from www.bluesquirrel.com

Internet Explorer 5.0 and up (Free) Quite too genteel to use the term Site Ripper, Microsoft has buried their version in the Favorites Menu. Click on Favorites, Add to Favorites, check Make Available Offline, set the number of levels deep you want to download (if you're not sure how deep to go, and it's a big site, try 2 at first. If that works, then change it to 3 or more. Click on Tools, Synchronize to update your offline version when you have the time. This works fine for research, but is useless for site analysis (the site's structure is known only by Internet Explorer).

Email, Fax, FTP

What? How long can this list go on? Besides the World Wide Web that you access through your browser, the Internet also includes many other protocols – that you may or may not access through your browser. You may not even be aware that you're using them. You should, however, consider ease of use, speed, and security for each..

The flat out best choice for an email program? Poco. More useful features than any other program I know, easy to learn, no security problems that I'm aware of. The recent Love Virus and its variants won't spread by Poco. "If you receive it, then explicitly run the VBS attachment the virus will run and act (i.e. delete JPG and MP3 files), but will not spread through Poco, and Poco will not invoke the virus unless the user does it. . . you cannot get infected without launching an attachment."

Web based services are usually easy to use, but you will sacrifice speed, features, and security. A recent glitch at Hotmail (Microsoft's free and very popular email site) left millions of email accounts wide open for anyone to browse. This lasted for over a day! Other web based services have had similar problems. But web based email can be handy for people who travel or want to access their email from different computers without reconfiguring them. Or use web based addresses when posting to newsgroups or bulletin boards – if you start getting too much spam (junk email) or flames (insulting email), you can just close it down and open a new account. Or you could stop posting messages.

If security is your major concern, consider using Poco, Pegasus, Netscape Messenger, Eudora, a web based account, or Outlook – in that order.

Eudora (named after Eudora Welty, author of "Why I Live at the P.O.") is available for download in several versions (free to $ ) at www.qualcom.com
Netscape Messenger comes with Netscape Communicator (see Browsers)
Outlook comes in several versions, free (Outlook Express with the browser Internet Explorer) and bundled with Microsoft's Office Suite.
Poco 2.11 ($25) is available as a 30 day trial download from www.pocomail.com
Pegasus is available for free download a www.trumpet.com.au.
Web based services are ubiquitous – experiment!

Fax, without a fax machine

Software solutions for fax abound, some free, some not. If all you want is 24/7 service for incoming faxes and don't want to leave your computer on or tie up the phone, try www.jfax.com. For free, you'll get your own fax number (probably not in your area code), and faxes are forwarded to your email address as attachments – with no ads. Pay services include specifying an area code, outgoing fax capability and having your fax read to you by a computer. Other fax services are available, but the free Jfax service works so well I looked no further. Sending faxes from your own computer can take a bit of learning, but it's worth it. The easiest program I've used, WinFax, is available in a limited feature (but still quite useful) version for free. The full version costs about $90 (though deals can be found). Look for more details on either at www.symantec.com

FTP

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol, the best way to transfer large amounts of information (entire web sites or software programs, for example). That funny address you see in your browser's URL window, http://www.whatever.com, refers to Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. An FTP address would look something like ftp://ftp.whatever.com. At times, your browser will handle FTP very well. Then again, who wants to start from scratch if the connection breaks? In spite of the bizarre sound effects, GoZilla has performed the best for me. The time saved by resuming broken downloads adds up quickly; and GoZilla can find mirror sites, test them for speed, and switch connections if the server you are downloading from slows to a crawl or stops. If you tire of blinking ads you only need to pony up some $ for the full product. You might also try GetRight, a product with similar features.

GoZilla is available as a free download from www.gozilla.com
GetRight is available as a free download from www.getright.com
Opera 5.0 and up has a very handy ftp download utility built right in.

Hybrid Solutions

BoostWEB Internet"uses page analysis, optimization, caching and compression of data and images to reduce the amount of data traffic." BoostWEB combines the smoke and mirror tricks of acceleration with a proxy server that crunches data and images so that they take up less space. Less data to download equals "2 to 7 times faster" response. Who can say why this data isn't compressed in the first place? It works quite well, when it's working. The BoostWEB servers cannot make a slow web site cough anything up fast. And since all user requests must go through BoostWEB servers, a potential bottleneck exists. Still, for $30 a year, this approach deserves serious consideration. Make sure to keep a browser on hand that isn't configured to use BoostWEB for those times when it seems inexplicably slow (or learn how to unproxy your browser). I have found no way to pin down the cause of any slowdowns.

BoostWEB is available as a full function download (14 day trial) at www.boostweb.net.

Hardware Solutions:
Satellite Dishes and Other Fables

Starband 2 way Internet is the only reliable answer, if you don't have a mountains/trees/buildings blocking your view of their satellite in the Southern sky. Expect brief outages for several days in the spring and summer when the sun is directly behind the satellite. This happens with all satellite systems. It can be rather difficult to install the usb drivers, so I recommend using the ethernet connection if you can (and so does starband). One point of contention that I finally gave up trying to resolve — even though the service is widely advertised at $69.95 a month , you will have to pay $74.95 if you don't buy a tv channel package. The contract I signed said $69.95 a month, period. Oh well . . . At least it works! I now run it on WindowsXP (though it proved challenging to install). Amazingly, I can now turn on the power and be up, running and on line in less than one minute. A high recommend on this one.

I keep calling DirecPC a tarbaby. It will only work as an add on to your existing connection. It still relies on a "terrestrial" uplink at a speed of at least 9.6 Kbps. At one time, we used Nokia Data Suite 3.0 and a digital cell phone to uplink through InfoStream at 9.6 Kbps. And we downlinked through a DirecPC satellite dish at speeds "up to 400 Kbps." What does that mean in the real world? Maybe 10 times faster for an average web page, 20 or 30 times faster for large downloads like complex web pages, software programs and updates. For example, downloading the latest version of Internet Explorer takes over five hours on a digital cellular connection, but can take under a half hour via satellite. Nothing, involving computers, is ever simple, though. Although everyone crawls along at the same speed in a traffic jam, the speed of a satellite download will sometimes allow you to magically jump ahead a space or two. Still, the only time a Ferrari ever comes into its own is on an open road. Yet if DirecPC is a Ferrari, it needs a tuneup – or maybe an overhaul. It's impossible for me to tell, and DirecPC isn't telling anyone. The issues? Shaky software installation, "remote party disconnects" that come in streaks, inability to troubleshoot connection issues, a "fair access policy."

Shaky software installation

I have never installed the DirecPC software without the install program crashing, or freezing, or the entire computer freezing. This may sound daunting, but requires slogging through a reboot, possibly mucking around uninstalling something that never really installed, and generally wastes time. I've tried installing with all the usual programs running, no antivirus running, no crashguard running, no other programs running (except explorer). It always crashes or hangs – at different spots. And it always installs with perseverance – a half hour long task spread out to two or three.

Well, I've been wrong before. And if I'm wrong now, if it is perfect, it's still poorly designed. The installation procedure is far from intuitive and the pamphlets provide little help. The CD installs, or attempts to, three different services in succession with no explanation of what each service does. Turbo Internet connects you and the World Wide Web. Turbo Newscast force feeds newsgroups that you subscribe to without a modem connection. Turbo Webcast force feeds certain web sites in their eventual entirety, at your request. Your computer must be on to receive the Newscast or Webcast downloads. All useful services. But maybe you don't want to leave your computer on all night long just to update a web site. Maybe you don't do newsgroups. Maybe you don't do Internet– well, they should install that one without asking, I guess. In my experience, the less you install on your computer, the better everything else works – especially if you're not going to use it. I suggest you hit cancel when Newscast and Webcast try to install and download whatever newsgroups or web sites you want in the regular way on your own schedule.

When, by golly, you do get everything installed, including the slow "registration" process (their registration server connects at 9.6K – just as slow as my cell phone!!), and get to reboot, you need to understand that you're not really ready to go. No. What you must do first after rebooting, is go through the whole registration process again (they were "conditionally" kidding the first time) by clicking on the DirecPc icon on your desktop. Theoretically (a common word when discussing computers and software) the icon should click itself – much like the antenna pointing program makes a noise when you finally acquire the satellite signal – and connect to the ill designed introduction to Turbothis and Turbothat page. And somewhere along the line, the re-registration cycle kicks in, a duplicate of the original. Made it this far? Now you can download the Internet at satellite speeds . . . in theory.

Remote party disconnected

The ISP says to talk to the satellite people, the satellite people say it's not their fault, the cell phone Internet service people . . . they don't even admit that they can provide Internet connection. It seems this party is so remote they can disconnect satellite surfers with impunity. Frustrating, random(?), so far unsolvable, the only good news is it comes and goes in streaks. And like installing the software, I've always been able to get it working. If you like to listen to radio over the Internet, once you get a station beaming in from, say Croatia, it will play on even after the disconnect.

Fair Access Policy

Sounds like something out of Orwell's 1984, or Reagan's 1984. Fair = We charge by the hour, whether we let you download at satellite speeds or not. Access = "Heavy" use of the satellite connection (the price of extra hours isn't deterrent enough?). Policy = The satellite feed to your computer is throttled back to below regular phone line speeds. Truth? Such a policy exists, appropriately buried in fine print as a link to a web page, and it's completely incomprehensible: bad math, undefined terms, and a clever table that makes no sense. For a deeper look at FAP, I've posted a copy, my analysis, this link to the original document no longer works. Hmmmm, what don't they want you to know?

Still, like BoostWeb, a satellite connection can't make the servers and routers run any faster. A normal Internet connection allows a user to trace the entire route and analyze the delays in each router and computer. A satellite connection intercepts the responses to your web page requests for rerouting through a satellite, and somehow placates the ISP to keep them from disconnecting you. Granted, they may have high bandwidth Internet access on the terrestrial side, but the satellite only kicks in on the downlink from NOC (their computer center) to your dish. I have yet to find any software that can analyze just how this connection works. Only one program could even trace the route to satellite headquarters in Houston, where it dead ends. I sense a bottleneck here, but have no way to prove it. Except that sometimes when the satellite can't download a thing, the cell phone still gets through..

Verdict

How bad do you need "speed"? Dishes used to cost any where from $100 (open up your computer to install a PCI card yourself) to $800 (USB plug and play external modem and a TV modem with remote control). With the appearance of Starband's two-way satellite Internet, they have fallen dramatically. You may even be able to get free installation. DirecPC service starts at $20 a month for 20 hours (in addition, you still need an ISP ($0-$20 a month) and possibly the cell phone Internet service ($30 and up a month).

If you're starved for more TV channels or better reception, DirecDUO can get both Internet and high quality TV at the same time.

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