Do Web Accelerators Work?

Hardware and software solutions let you break the 56-kbps barrier without installing ISDN, DSL, or a cable modem. Just don't expect miracles.

Broadband technologies such as Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line, Integrated Services Digital Network, cable modem, and satellite promise superquick Internet access, lightning-fast downloads, and TV-like multimedia, as well as sunshine, flowers, and world peace. But if these aren't available where you live--or they're just too expensive for you--what are your options?

We examined two alternatives that claim to boost your Web access speed without costing you an arm and a leg. Browser accelerators attempt to turbocharge your Web browser by adding a smarter cache and by trying to anticipate where you'll go next on the Web. Modem bonders, as their name suggests, harness a pair of modems to give you a double-barrel pipe to your Internet service provider.

Of the two approaches, modem bonders yielded better results. At best, they may double your Internet access speed. They didn't do that in our tests, but they did improve the loading speed of a typical Web page markedly--in one case, by 67 percent. These gains come at a cost, however: The modem bonders we looked at require two separate modems and phone lines, and you'll also have to pay for two ISP accounts. Those demands generate cumulative costs that fall in the same range as DSL or even ISDN. (See " Bandwidth on Demand.")

Browser accelerators cost considerably less than modem bonders, because they require no financial investment beyond their modest sticker price; and they work with your existing modem setup. Unfortunately, reports of their efficiency have been greatly exaggerated. We saw far less improvement than we had hoped.

Browser Accelerators: Boosts or Blunders?

When they hit on all cylinders, browser accelerators make Web pages pop up noticeably faster. But the magnitude of the speed boost you get depends on the accelerator you use and the way you surf the Web. In our formal lab tests involving a static Web site, none of the four accelerators we reviewed yielded any appreciable speed increase; and in some cases, they actually slowed us down. Only in our informal, hands-on tests, conducted over several days, did our surfing speed improve over what we obtained using no browser accelerator at all. The products we tested tended to increase our Web access speed only after learning which sites we repeatedly visited.

Most browser accelerators rely on one of two technologies: smart caching or read-ahead browsing. Smart caching first replaces your browser's existing cache and then pulls elements from your hard drive, the Internet, or both to accelerate Web surfing. The best products log the pages you frequent and keep them cached on your hard drive. Ideally, they draw only new content from the Web.

Read-ahead browsing works by prefetching text links (and sometimes graphics) while you're still reading a page. For the most part, read-ahead accelerators grab all the links on the current page, and then dump them into the cache in the background. When you finally get around to clicking a cached link, the destination page should pop up instantly from your hard drive.

How well the process works depends to a large extent on how the software is set up. At their default settings, most browser accelerators prefetch only text, and in some cases they limit the size of the text file. (PeakSoft's PeakJet 2000, for example, restricts prefetched files to 96KB, by default.) These limitations are necessary so that prefetching doesn't overwhelm your hard drive or your modem, especially when you download lots of graphics files. Every product uses a different set of defaults, however, and allows a wide variety of tweaks. Consequently, you'll probably have to tune the accelerator to your style of browsing.

In our informal, hands-on testing, NetSonic 1.02 seemed to work fastest, effectively using both read-ahead browsing and smart caching. NetSonic's read-ahead browsing technique works best with text-heavy sites that contain relatively few links. We used this function when calling up the latest edition of the Onion, a weekly satirical online newspaper. NetSonic downloaded the initial page and then preloaded all of the main page's 15-odd article links. By the time we were ready to click over, the pages were all cached and appeared instantly. (Unlike its peers, NetSonic prefetches only text; there's no option to prefetch graphics.)

Two other features recommend NetSonic: We found it by far the easiest browser accelerator to install, and it's the only one we looked at that costs nothing. (A $39 deluxe version, NetSonic Pro, adds a handful of useful improvements, such as graphics prefetching.)

Like NetSonic, Surf Express Deluxe version 1.5 ($39 from Connectix) has an efficient smart-cache system. It loaded pages noticeably faster when we used it to revisit pages it had already cached, and it can cache up to 10MB. But Surf Express lacks prefetching capabilities and can't cache graphics larger than 100KB.

PeakSoft's $29 PeakJet 2000 version 2.0 showed occasional performance gains as well. Like NetSonic, it uses both caching and prefetching. To keep your modem from putting in too much overtime, it limits prefetched files to a default size of only 96KB. It does, however, give you a number of useful options for controlling what it caches.

Kiss Software's $50 Speed Surfer Internet Toolbox version 4.0 was the most difficult accelerator of the bunch to set up, for formal testing (with Navigator 4.5) and informal testing (with Navigator 4.06). In both kinds of testing, the program regularly stumbled over Web page graphics--once substituting a tiny icon for one of our large test graphics--and sometimes skipped them altogether. It hung up the browser on multiple occasions, too. On the other hand, Speed Surfer does offer such desirable Internet security features as anonymous cookies and e-mail encryption.

Our overall take? Browser accelerators work best on text-heavy Internet sites that you revisit frequently. If you go ahead and install one, though, don't plan on achieving huge speed gains.

Modem Bonders: Two Is Better Than One

Unlike browser accelerators, modem bonders harness the brute force of the modems themselves. They're pricier than browser accelerators because they require two modems, two phone lines, and two separate ISP accounts.

But at least the bonders deliver what you pay for. With two 56-kbps modems working together, you can realize combined throughput rates upwards of 90 kbps. (Despite marketing claims, the promised land of 112-kbps access is still a dream, since even 56-kbps modems seldom hit their maximum potential.)

Two modem bonders we tested (Diamond Multimedia's $149 Suprasonic II software and hardware kit, and the free Windows 98 Dial-Up Networking) took advantage of the multilink point-to-point protocol, or MLPPP, the Multilink option built into Windows 98's Dial-Up Networking. Both delivered smooth, fast performance, loading a static version of PC World Online's home page up to 62 percent faster. Unfortunately, these modem bonders require that your ISP support MLPPP--a potential problem if you use a national provider. Among the few national ISPs that currently support MLPPP: Netcom (recently purchased by Mindspring) and A+Net. Several regional and local providers support it, however.

The second type of modem bonder relies on the older point-to-point protocol, which all ISPs support. PPP has one other advantage over MLPPP: Though you still need two accounts, they can be with different ISPs--very handy if one service temporarily goes down. We tested three PPP-based modem bonders for this review: the Imass portion of Amquest's $69 Comsuite Software, MidCore Software's $49 MidPoint Teamer version 3.11, and Ragula Software's $49 FatPipe Internet Home Software version 3.0.

In our tests, bonded modems using Imass and MidPoint Teamer showed virtually no speedup versus a single-modem connection when loading the static version of PC World Online's home page. But they accelerated downloads of big graphics (four files totaling 1.1MB) and text (a 172KB file) by at least 70 percent. 

FatPipe, on the other hand, produced healthy performance boosts across the board. Though less impressive than Imass or MidPoint on large graphics and text files (offering a modest 21 percent enhancement), FatPipe matched the MLPPP-based products' record of accelerating the download time of PC World's Web site by 67 percent versus a single modem. And the configuration process was as painless as Diamond's setup.

The MLPPP Gotcha

If your ISP does support MLPPP--and that's a big "if"--Diamond Multimedia's $149 SupraSonic II modem kit with Shotgun technology, or Windows 98's Multilink option, is the way to go. Windows 95 users can get into the act, too, by downloading the free Dial Up Networking 1.3 for Windows 95; to obtain a copy, go to www.microsoft.com and instruct the site's search engine to find "Dial Up Networking 1.3."

Diamond Multimedia's Web site lists ISPs that support MLPPP. Most of these providers are regional and local companies.

In our tests, both of these MLPPP-based bonders demonstrated significant performance boosts across the board compared with Web surfing on a single modem line. Most impressively, they increased the download speed of large graphics files by 70 to 80 percent.

Diamond's Shotgun Technology software, part of the SupraSonic II kit, is available as a free download to current users of any 56-kbps Diamond SupraExpress modem. (At least one of the two modems you're using must be a SupraExpress. We tested the SupraSonic II's performance using its pair of included modems.) The SupraSonic version of Shotgun adds a voice-priority feature that senses incoming telephone calls or fax transmissions and allows them to ring through on your second phone line.

With a free Windows option available, does it pay to buy the $149 Diamond kit? If you don't already have a 56-kbps modem or don't want to fuss with Windows' Dial-Up Networking, Diamond does the dirty work for you--and the $149 price tag also covers a matched pair of modems. Plus, the two modems on one board take up only one ISA slot. If you aren't daunted by Dial-Up Networking, buy one modem and use the built-in Windows 98 Multilink option.

Modem bonding won't answer all your prayers, but it offers a viable alternative to ISDN. And it beats waiting until cable or DSL come to your town.

Recommended

If your ISP supports the multilink point-to-point protocol, your best bet for a modem bonder is Diamond Multimedia's SupraSonic II. Its $149 price tag includes the cost of two modems, making it an especially attractive package if you're planning to upgrade your current modem. The kit takes the pain out of setting up dual modems, and in our tests it provided excellent performance overall.

Of the four browser accelerators we tested, we liked Web 3000's NetSonic freeware version 1.02 best. In our informal tests, it learned which pages we visited most often and loaded them noticeably faster. Best of all, it's free.

If your ISP supports only the older point-to-point protocol standard, we think FatPipe Internet Home Software ($49) from Ragula Systems is the top choice. FatPipe is easy to set up, and it loaded our sample home page 67 percent faster than a comparable system using a single modem did.

Top Net Access Tips

Surf Lean Shield your browser from gyrating french fries, singing bananas, and pop-up ads by turning off Java and JavaScript. In Netscape Navigator 4.x, select Edit, Preferences, Advanced. Uncheck Enable Java and Enable JavaScript, and click OK. In Internet Explorer 4.x, select View, Internet Options, Advanced and, under Multimedia, uncheck Play animations, Play videos, and Play sounds, as desired. Scroll to the Java VM category, uncheck all selections, and click Apply. Disabling these scripting languages may limit the interactivity of some Web sites, and you may receive annoying error messages when your browser refuses to run a script.

Skip the Pics Your browser spends most of its online time downloading graphics. For a speed boost, turn off the pictures. In IE 4.x, select View, Internet Options, Advanced and, under Multimedia, uncheck Show pictures; then click Apply. Or go to Microsoft's Web site and download the IE 4.0 PowerToys, which include an Image Toggler to turn images on and off. In Navigator 4.x, select Edit, Preferences, Advanced, uncheck Automatically Load Images, and click OK. (In Navigator and IE, you can always right-click on image boxes later to view particular pictures.)

Another option, WRQ's $30 @Guard, strips out banner ads and prevents your browser from opening extraneous windows to display pop-up images. Download a trial copy at www.wrq.com. Or consider using the $35 "low-overhead" Opera browser from Opera Software. It comes with a camera button so you can easily toggle between surfing with pictures and surfing without.

Clear Junk Off Your Desktop To ensure that your browser won't slow down when it is displaying graphics, close any unnecessary programs that may be running on your PC--especially graphics applications. This tip is particularly helpful if your PC uses an older-model graphics card.

The Older Browsers May Be Faster On a slower PC, try using an earlier version of your browser, such as a 3.x edition of Navigator or Internet Explorer. Older browsers require less memory, so they load (and surf) faster on geriatric PCs. Or download the $35 copy of Opera (see "Skip the Pics," above). It runs on PCs as old and weak as a 386SX with 6MB of RAM.

Don't Linger at Home If you're like most people, you use the default setting for your home (or start) page--and that's either Netscape's home page or Microsoft's, depending on which browser you're using. But why waste time loading a Web page you rarely want to visit? Instead, set your home page to a fast-loading site that you visit often. A good candidate: your favorite search engine. In Navigator, select Edit, Preferences, Navigator. In IE 4.x, select View, Internet Options, General, or simply drag and drop the icon next to a URL in the Address field on to IE's Home button.

Be Cache Savvy Your browser uses memory and disk caches to store images and other gewgaws from Web sites you've visited. If your Web surfing consists of going to the same sites day after day, give your browser a roomy disk cache of 12MB or more. If you tend to visit new sites, set up a smaller disk cache that's faster to search and access. Keep in mind, though, that an undersize cache will slow your Web access, since it forces your browser to download the same graphics repeatedly as you surf.

To speed things up, tell your browser to check its disk and memory caches for changes to a Web page only once per session. In Navigator 4.x, select Edit, Preferences, click the plus sign next to Advanced, click Cache, customize your caches, and then click OK. In Internet Explorer 4.x, select View, Internet Options, General and, in the Temporary Internet File section, click Settings to gain access to the cache settings. Click OK when you're done.

Incidentally, putting the cache into a virtual or compressed drive often forces the browser to run in low gear if you do not have enough memory, so avoid doing this unless you have a lot of spare memory (at least 32MB of total system memory). Defragmenting your hard drive every few weeks also helps speed up your browser's disk access.

Accept Cookies From Strangers As tempted as you may be to deploy a so-called cookie crusher to block Web sites from slipping cookies to your browser, forbear. Cookies aren't all bad. They allow Web sites to jump you past irrelevant material to areas you're interested in. And if you instruct your browser not to gulp down cookies as you surf, you may be bombarded by an annoying stream of messages whenever a Web site pops up with a cookie. Navigator 4.x permits you to "Accept only cookies that get sent back to the originating server." To set this option, select Edit, Preferences, Advanced. Thereafter, Navigator won't send any cookie from your machine to a server other than the one that originally sent it. Thus, for instance, if your ordering information for a Web shopping site happens to be stored in a cookie, Navigator will send it only to the original shopping site.

Upgrade to V.90 If your ISP supports the V.90 spec, you'll enjoy higher-speed connections after upgrading your K56flex or x2 modem to this new standard. Go to the modem manufacturer's Web site for information--and with luck, a free firmware upgrade, too. And while you're there, check to see whether you will need a new modem-initialization string. You can peruse a list of ISPs that support V.90 at www.k56flex.com/isprt.html.

Accelerate Your Port If you have an external modem, make sure your communications port is talking as fast as the modem can listen. In Windows 9x, select Start, Settings, Control Panel, Modems. Select your modem, select Properties, and use the drop-down box to adjust the maximum speed to 115200 (for a 56-kbps modem; you can set ISDN and faster modems to higher speeds). Next, go to the Connection tab, choose Advanced, make sure that hardware flow control is enabled, and then click OK. Click Port Settings and nudge the sliders up a bit to increase the send and receive ports' speed. Click OK.

Buy a Faster Port If you have an external 56-kbps or ISDN modem, consider buying a hot-rod serial card to replace your outmoded 16550-compatible UART chip (whose top speed is 115 kbps). High-speed serial cards with a 16650 or 16750 chip can attain speeds of up to 460 kbps--essential for optimal ISDN performance. Lava Computer and Pacific CommWare both sell a variety of such cards, which typically cost around $100.

Find Your Modem's Real Speed Want to know how your modem is really performing? Download a large compressed file from your Internet service provider's FTP (for File Transfer Protocol) server. Why from your ISP's server? Because the connection will be swifter than if your modem has to communicate with another server over the Net--and the protocol is faster, too. Use FTP software like the $35 CuteFTP .

FTP software will make a faster connection to your ISP than your browser will. If your FTP program displays the transfer rate in kilobytes per second, multiply that number by 10 to identify the kilobits-per-second rate that the modem is gauged at. Perform this test late at night or early in the morning, when your ISP is least likely to experience a slowdown on its server. For more detailed information about your modem's performance on the Net, get a copy of VitalSigns Software's $30 Net.Medic, 888/984-8259. Net.Medic tells you where the slowdowns are occurring--whether the culprit is your modem, your ISP, or the Web sites you're visiting.

Remove Unrelated Wires Does your modem share the jack with a fax or an answering machine? Noise from devices near your modem may be hobbling its connection. Plug the modem cord directly into the jack. If you use a double jack, disconnect any devices plugged into the second jack. Remove any cordless phones. Unplug the part of the phone that plugs into the jack.

Track Line Noise They sound good in a cereal bowl, but crackles or pops on your phone line interfere with your modem connection. To check this out, pick up the phone's handset, press a single number on the keypad, and then listen for noise pollution. If you hear static or other noise, plug the phone into another jack and repeat the test. If the phone sounds fine from that jack, the source of the noise is a bad phone cord, a loose connection in the first jack, a faulty wire between the first jack and your home's network connection box, or a loose connection at the network box. Try a new phone cord first, because this is the most common culprit and the solution is so simple.

If you hear noise when the phone is plugged into the second jack, too, the problem may be a bad connection between your house and the phone company. Try repeating the noise test at a neighbor's home or at your office before you call the phone company.

If you do have to call your phone company, ask to speak to a "data specialist." If the company uses a digital exchange, ask whether the automatic gain control is turned off, and request that the technician set your line setting to position 5. Also have the company trace your phone line's signal strength and quality through each of its central offices.

Multiplexed Phone Line If you have two phone lines (one for voice, and one for the modem), ask your phone company to connect two separate lines to your house, rather than splitting a single line in two. Splitting one line cuts its bandwidth in half, inviting modem connection problems.

Faster for Free

Does the modem installed on your PC connect to an ISP that supports the multilink point-to-point protocol? If so, Windows 98's Dial-Up Networking lets you connect and bond a second modem:

1 Install the second modem according to the manufacturer's instructions. (Note: You can work with modems of different models, but installing modems that use identical chip sets yields better results.)

2 Go to Windows 98's My Computer, double-click Dial-Up Networking, right-click the icon for your ISP connection, and select Properties. (If Dial-Up Networking is missing, you may have to reinstall it from your Windows CD-ROM.)

3 From the Multilink tab, click Use additional devices, then click Add. In the Edit Extra Device dialog box, select the device you want to add to the connection, and then click OK.

4 Select Multilink tab again, and pick Use additional devices. At the bottom of the window, choose Add.

5 From the Device Name drop-down list in the Edit Extra Device Dialog Box, select your second modem. Once the ISP phone number appears, click OK.

6 Dial away. You can use the same icon that's located in Dial-Up Networking to access both modems, connecting each sequentially.

Multimodem routers--such as Multi-Tech Systems' ProxyServer, Ramp Networks' WebRamp 300e, and 3Com's OfficeConnect Remote Dual Analog Router--fill an important niche for computer users on a small LAN. These routers allow sharing of two or more bonded modems at close to double speed, for people who can't obtain or can't afford ISDN, cable, or other high-bandwidth technologies. In addition, they enable multiple users to share Internet access accounts. 

More Modems, More Speed

The Multi-Tech ProxyServer has three built-in K56flex modems; 3Com's OfficeConnect includes two built-in x2 units. The WebRamp 300e can support up to three external modems of your choice, though it doesn't come bundled with any. Of course, for each modem you plan to use in any of these systems, you'll need a corresponding phone line, as well as an ISP that has multimodem support--all of which will jack up your monthly costs.

Multi-Tech's $699 ProxyServer installed easily once we connected it to the PC's serial port. The software walked us through key configuration steps at installation time. The friendly interface should make implementing future changes fairly easy.

The WebRamp 300e, at a list price of $499, combines the functions of a router and a network hub, linking to up to four computers. With its external modem ports (modems are not included), the WebRamp is the only device we examined that has no preference for V.90, K56flex, or x2: Just make sure to buy modems that meet the standard your ISP uses. The WebRamp's capabilities roughly matched those of the ProxyServer--minus the dial-in support. But it added DNS (domain name service), which permits dynamic IP addressing, and it included browser-based configuration and automatic setup for Windows clients. Ramp Networks' COLT (Connection Optimated Link Technology) leverages the PPP protocol to allow users to employ different ISPs to connect each of the modems.

3COM'S OfficeConnect Remote Dual Analog Router (about $745 ) was also easy to configure. But unlike ProxyServer and WebRamp, it was short on built-in services.

We give our nod to the WebRamp 300e. It meets virtually all Internet routing requirements for small or home offices, and sets up in just a few minutes. Most important, it is simple to expand--so you won't pay for modems you don't use. The best course may be to get the WebRamp 300e with one modem now, and expand it later as you add more phone lines.