| The CRYPT Mag |
Undoubtedly BroadBand is the way forward for todays internet users. Sadly not everyone is in an Area that allows a broadband connection, and must therefore rely upon the much slower dial up connection.
Perhaps I am fortunate and live in an area covered by "Blueyonder" and for quite some time now I have been considering upgrading from their surf unlimited package to broadband.
So why wait? Perhaps I just don't like change, Perhaps I'm just a bit lazy Who knows, it is one of these things that I will get around to some day.
Of course even for the "dial up" customers there is a wealth of companies offering to speed up you connection "for a price" are these worth considering?
The one that is certainly getting a lot of press coverage at the moment is a company called "Onspeed"
Onspeed boast they can make your dial up connection up to 5 time faster .. increase your dial up from 30kb per second to 300kb per second ... that is near enough broadband speeds.
After mulling this over for a few day, and checking the reviews taken from various computer magazines, I decided to give "Onspeed" a test run for 12 months.
In very simple terms Onspeed works by compressing various images and texts before downloading them to your computer, thus making internet page loading quicker.
So does it work? Simple answer is yes! it certainly does speed up your web browsing.
Daily I trawl several pages on the Internet Auction site "Ebay". Anyone who uses Ebay will know that the pages normally contain loads of graphics and it can take up to a minute or more to completely download a page.
Often in the past, I raced against the ebay pages, Scrolling down scanning the text description and reaching the bottom of the page before half the thumbnails had loaded.
No so with "Onspeed". Clicking on a particular Ebay page, The Computer seems to halt for a second (i.e.. the Page doe not immediately start to load) Then the action begins and the full page including the thumbnails magically appear almost at once.
Excellent stuff "Onspeed" Certainly speeds up Web page loading, But what else can it do?
Well if you use a Windows box it also speeds up your collection of Email (Super Fast downloads) sadly this feature currently will not work with the Mac computer.
Onspeed currently does not support Downloads from FTP sites, Hopefully this will be rectified in future issues.
Onspeed work with a variety of Web browsers and email packages, Check their FAQ Page here.
What does Onspeed cost? £24.99 per year .. Or just over £2.00 per month ..excellent value. The one off fee is paid via there web site. Once paid Onspeed allow you the Download (Download to your Desktop) then click to install ...simple fast and easy.
Plus Points:
Super fast loading of Web pages on Dial up connections.Drawbacks:
Will even show a speed increase on Broadband connections.
Super fast email service.
Easy to download and use.
Requires no extra software or hardware.
Excellent Value for money.
Onspeed will not increase Download times.
Onspeed can only be used on one computer at a time.
Onspeed currently won't speed up Mail collection on Mac Computers.
Onspeed will work with Windows 95 but read the FAQ First.
All in all Onspeed is excellent if you want fast internet browsing or email. No use for those large MP3 downloads though.
Perhaps is goes without saying ... Onspeed would be a great benefit to Amiga users, But of course currently they don't offer support for it.
However there is a page on their website where you can tell them which operating system you want them to support ..So why not fill their mail box with requests for Amiga Support.
| © RIYAN Productions |
