Internet acceleration
The lack of speed remains one of our biggest frustrations
when using the Net .
BRUCE DAVIS-GOFF tells us about software programs that promise to speed up
our online surfing.
Internet acceleration has little to do with the speed at which data moves
down your telephone line. That is dictated by your hardware and how many
kilobits per second it isimmediately set to work discovering fault capable of
pumping through. Most Internet accelerators behave as proxy servers, a sort of
software middleman between your browser and the Net. In other words, a software
accelerator is an active agent that intercepts and anticipates your requests for
pages and smartly manages when and from where the page is downloaded.
While adding extra steps to a download may seem illogical, it helps to
picture it like this; a benevolent neighbour overhears you ordering a delivery
pizza, has one in the oven he's been saving just for this occasion and
cheerfully tosses it over the fence. And when he gets really pro-active, he's
out shopping for things he thinks you might like later and storing them up. This
is called read-ahead caching and is foremost amongst techniques used to make the
whole Net experience happen faster.
Art of anticipation
The current crop of accelerators work mostly by employing read-ahead page
caching. Instead of having to retrieve a page from the often-distant server,
your browser gets it straight off your hard drive where it's been previously
stashed. Read-ahead page caching can be divided into two categories; link based
and history based.
Link-based accelerators can graze indiscriminately through the Net,
downloading pages you may never look at. While you've been reading the current
page, all the links on it can be sniffed out and downloaded in the background.
This equals instant display when you click on a link, assuming you've loitered
long enough for the background downloading to take place. Nothing has actually
run faster but your future requests have been anticipated and pre-emptively
fulfilled, thus the page load time appears faster when you click a link. This
sort of operation can keep a modem running flat out with continual page
requests. If everyone used one, the already congested Net would hit gridlock
pronto. For this reason, such programs are not recommended for those paying for
their data traffic by the megabyte.
History-based acceleration works more conservatively, by downloading only
pages you have previously visited or specified. This is like a supercharged
version of the usual Navigator or IE history cache, with an automatic update
scheduler and cache management tool thrown in. You won't see any speed increases
for random surfing, but pre-visited sites load rapidly. Creatures of habit will
benefit most from this sort of acceleration.
Other roads to faster surfing
DNS Caching
The Internet addressing protocol (IP) is numerical, so every time you type in a
textual URL, it has to be converted to its numerical equivalent. This is done by
sending a request to a DNS (dynamic name server), usually a machine run by your
ISP. It matches up the URL and returns the numerical address from its database
to your machine, which all takes time. The DNS at your service provider can't
possibly hold every URL's IP address, so it's linked to a global network of
DNSes. Thus the lookup can take even longer. DNS caching stores the numerical IP
address for your most frequently-used URLs locally, in what is called a hosts
file, thus saving a call to a server.
Tweaking
MaxMTU, RWIN, TTL, STL, socketnum and maxsocket. Ha! If that doesn't mean a lot
to you, don't worry. They're among esoteric registry settings for both software
and hardware concerning dial-up networking (DUN) and the default values can be
changed with a resulting speed boost. Fooling around in the registry is a
dangerous game that is not recommended at all, even for the experienced. That's
why there's programs that aim to do it safely and automatically. It's also known
as modem optimisation.
Blockers
Blocking being the fine art of screening out pop-ups, ads, banners, cookies,
animations, graphics and even background music. It makes the Net a duller place,
but it sure speeds up page loading. The simplest form of blocking is already
available within your browser by turning off the graphics under Edit/Internet
Options or Edit/Preferences. If you're just browsing for information, using text
only is a good option, especially on a slower connection.
At the end of the day
The speed gain from read-ahead caching is undeniable. The ethics of using such
bandwidth-hungry software is questionable, though the arrival of high-speed
digital lines will probably render this a moot point. The true speed fiend will
relish the gains while the occasional user may not get so much out of it.
History based acceleration works for pre-visited sites but is useless for
random surfing It is though, a lot more Internet friendly. DNS caching, tweaking
and blocking can all contribute to faster surfing, though tweaking is the only
technique to speed up all Net services, the rest only work for http content.
Since the majority of these programs alter registry settings, it pays to
uninstall using the provided wizard or the control panel. Bear in mind that
you're adding an extra level of complexity to your browsing, both Surf Express
and Peak Jet can leave your browser unusable after a system crash for example.
Finally, these are interim software solutions that may not have any
relevance in a year's time. For now, though, they're the best way of squeezing
the most out of a dial-up account. Pedal to the metal.
