onspeed - any personal experience?

Hi All,
Has anyone any *personal* experience of Onspeed dialup compression? My
dad's on a modem connection and has no intention of going with
broadband, but his dial up modem is capped at about 28k via a BT codec
box on the line. Again, no chance of changing this either. For
general email (POP3, not webmail) and web browsing, does it work as
advertised? Recommended? Have just tried the mobile version on my
phone and that does actually seem pretty good.
Any recommendations (good or bad) appreciated - but only from people
who've actually used it, please.

Ric

"ric" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) ups.com...
> Hi All,
> Has anyone any *personal* experience of Onspeed dialup compression? My
> dad's on a modem connection and has no intention of going with
> broadband, but his dial up modem is capped at about 28k via a BT codec
> box on the line. Again, no chance of changing this either. For
> general email (POP3, not webmail) and web browsing, does it work as
> advertised? Recommended? Have just tried the mobile version on my
> phone and that does actually seem pretty good.
> Any recommendations (good or bad) appreciated - but only from people
> who've actually used it, please.
>
> Ric

Ric,

It will improve overall browsing speeds, but it won't speed up already
compressed file transfers (such as zip or rar, etc). It works by
compressing everything it can compress, for example pictures etc. It will
result in graphic content looking quite a lot poorer quality, but the pages
will load faster.

I have never used it on my computer, but I have used it at other locations
on slower connections.

My friend who used it before he got broadband installed, was quite pleased
with the noticeable speed increase, but I wasn't too keen on having to put
up with highly compressed images, so I guess its a bit of a compromise
really. Depends what you really want. I guess its worth him giving it a
go. On sites where image quality is important, you can just turn off
'Onspeed' and get full quality if needed.

ric wrote:
> Hi All,
> Has anyone any *personal* experience of Onspeed dialup compression?
> My dad's on a modem connection and has no intention of going with
> broadband, but his dial up modem is capped at about 28k via a BT codec
> box on the line. Again, no chance of changing this either. For
> general email (POP3, not webmail) and web browsing, does it work as
> advertised? Recommended? Have just tried the mobile version on my
> phone and that does actually seem pretty good.
> Any recommendations (good or bad) appreciated - but only from people
> who've actually used it, please.

I had a friend who signed up for it then gave the remainder of this account
to me when he got broadband... i used it for a month or so.

I didn't notice any speed improvement using it.

"ric" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) ups.com...
> Hi All,
> Has anyone any *personal* experience of Onspeed dialup compression? My
> dad's on a modem connection and has no intention of going with
> broadband, but his dial up modem is capped at about 28k via a BT codec
> box on the line. Again, no chance of changing this either. For
> general email (POP3, not webmail) and web browsing, does it work as
> advertised? Recommended? Have just tried the mobile version on my
> phone and that does actually seem pretty good.
> Any recommendations (good or bad) appreciated - but only from people
> who've actually used it, please.
>
> Ric
>

I know someone who used it. It seemed to speed things up a little
particularly normal web browsing. I think there was an issue with sending
email in that your SMTP server wouldn't accept email via Onspeed.

Onspeed still worked when they upgraded to broadband and they got stupendous
(effective) download speeds.

I also know someone used Onspeed to hack into a website and at that time all
users were seen to originate from the same IP address. Onspeed also didn't
keep logs of users so it was truly a hackers paradise. I trust they have
changed their tune since?

ric wrote:
> Hi All,
> Has anyone any *personal* experience of Onspeed dialup compression? My
> dad's on a modem connection and has no intention of going with
> broadband, but his dial up modem is capped at about 28k via a BT codec
> box on the line. Again, no chance of changing this either. For
> general email (POP3, not webmail) and web browsing, does it work as
> advertised? Recommended? Have just tried the mobile version on my
> phone and that does actually seem pretty good.
> Any recommendations (good or bad) appreciated - but only from people
> who've actually used it, please.
>
> Ric
>
I have it installed on a PDA and also on a laptop.

The PDA connects to the Internet via bluetooth to an Orange Mobile
Phone. OnSpeed makes a very noticeable difference to performance and
also saves money because data charges are per MB.

The laptop is mostly used at home or in regional offices through wifi
and broadband, in which case I don't really notice OnSpeed is there.
Very occasionally I am 'on the road' and the laptop connects via my
phone too, or via dial-up in a hotel room - and here OnSpeed is very handy.

The only annoyance is that OnSpeed cannot handle https connections and
so you need to build up a list of sites to be excluded from OnSpeed
compression - there is an option in the software to do this.

Can't say I've ever had any problems with OnSpeed and email.

"Linker3000" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:44287622$0$5005$(E-Mail Removed)...

> I have it installed on a PDA and also on a laptop.
>
> The PDA connects to the Internet via bluetooth to an Orange Mobile
> Phone. OnSpeed makes a very noticeable difference to performance and
> also saves money because data charges are per MB.
>
> The laptop is mostly used at home or in regional offices through wifi
> and broadband, in which case I don't really notice OnSpeed is there.
> Very occasionally I am 'on the road' and the laptop connects via my
> phone too, or via dial-up in a hotel room - and here OnSpeed is very
handy.
>
> The only annoyance is that OnSpeed cannot handle https connections and
> so you need to build up a list of sites to be excluded from OnSpeed
> compression - there is an option in the software to do this.
>
> Can't say I've ever had any problems with OnSpeed and email.


I have a Dell Laptop (Inspiron 6000) and every time I connect to the
internet using bluetooth to my mobile all the images appear at much lower
resolution (similar effect to what happens with Onspeed). Browsing is much
faster too. Does anyone know if this is a feature of Windows XP, or is it
something unique to Dell laptops? If I connect to my wireless network at
home (faster conection) the graphics go back to high quality. Comments
anyone?

If this is a feature of Windows XP, I would like to know where the settings
are to enable/disable it....

Steve

Steve wrote:
> "Linker3000" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:44287622$0$5005$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
>> I have it installed on a PDA and also on a laptop.
>>
>> The PDA connects to the Internet via bluetooth to an Orange Mobile
>> Phone. OnSpeed makes a very noticeable difference to performance and
>> also saves money because data charges are per MB.
>>
>> The laptop is mostly used at home or in regional offices through wifi
>> and broadband, in which case I don't really notice OnSpeed is there.
>> Very occasionally I am 'on the road' and the laptop connects via my
>> phone too, or via dial-up in a hotel room - and here OnSpeed is very
> handy.
>> The only annoyance is that OnSpeed cannot handle https connections and
>> so you need to build up a list of sites to be excluded from OnSpeed
>> compression - there is an option in the software to do this.
>>
>> Can't say I've ever had any problems with OnSpeed and email.
>
>
> I have a Dell Laptop (Inspiron 6000) and every time I connect to the
> internet using bluetooth to my mobile all the images appear at much lower
> resolution (similar effect to what happens with Onspeed). Browsing is much
> faster too. Does anyone know if this is a feature of Windows XP, or is it
> something unique to Dell laptops? If I connect to my wireless network at
> home (faster conection) the graphics go back to high quality. Comments
> anyone?
>
> If this is a feature of Windows XP, I would like to know where the settings
> are to enable/disable it....
>
> Steve
>
>
>
>
Is your phone co compressing stuff at a proxy?