Technology News
Home | Tech Store | Amazon Store | Game Store | Webmaster Tools | Safe Kids Links | Promotional Items
Site Sponser
Recommended Products
Related Links



Christian InTech Articles - Computers

 

 

Informative Articles

Computer Viruses, Worms and Hoaxes
Computer Viruses, Worms and Hoaxes by Lady Camelot In recent days, I was one of the unfortunate persons to receive the "Mydoom" worm emails. Not just one, but at least forty appeared in my popserver mailbox. As frustrating as it was deleting all...

Countering the Spread of Spyware on your Computer.
Spyware has boomed into the top internet threat in no time and it continues to affect more computer users each day. Spyware is best described as a rogue application that latches to your system so it can record personal information and monitor...

Did You Ever Want to Completely Erase Everything on Your Computer?
Did you ever want to erase everything on your computer? This is a program I found that does that for you quickly and easily. Active@ KillDisk is a hard drive eraser and is powerful and compact DOS software that allows you to destroy all data on...

Printers
Do you feel overwhelmed when buying a computer or a new printer? You are not alone. With so many products to choose from I know exactly how you feel. The best approach when buying a computer related product is to educate your self. This way...

What Makes a Database Relational?
There is a calumny being spread across the Internet. It is so deeply entrenched that many intelligent people think they understand it. It makes perfect sense. It is logical. It is understandable. But it is wrong, wrong, wrong. Let me explain......

 
A Cheap Alternative To Broadband?

Are you a dial-up user looking for a faster connection, but don't like Broadband prices? If so, you should take a look at a new service called OnSpeed, which has received rave reviews in Internet technology publications.

What OnSpeed does is to re-route web pages and email via its own servers, compressing the data on the fly prior to sending it onwards to your PC. A small program then decompresses the data, so that you can view it in the normal way via your browser or email client.

In my own dial-up tests, with a modem running at a nominal 49kb/s I appeared to get speeds close to that of my normal broadband connection of 598 kb/s - very impressive. Image quality is often reduced but the compression for this can be improved, though with an adverse effect on the speed of course.

Also some file types like MP3 cannot yet be compressed. The company is working on these issues however and expects to find solutions soon.

Unfortunately I was unable to use email in my tests, due to a 'port' conflict with a spam filter that I was using. The standard advice on the OnSpeed site for such cases is to disable the
offending program. Not a constructive approach - to say the least - so I hope that the relevant instructions will be changed soon.

More significantly, the problem persisted even when I switched off the OnSpeed application on my PC; in the end I had to remove the program to get


the spam filter working again. I expect that this fault can be resolved, but clearly there are issues in this area that need to be addressed.

The software is easy to install, and is available for Mac as well as Windows PCs. On the whole the service is surprisingly good, and a lot cheaper than broadband. Unlike other 'speed-up'
techniques that tweak your computer's settings but result in little noticeable improvement, OnSpeed really works.

I can recommend OnSpeed for dial-up users who can't justify the expense of broadband, or who are not located close enough to a suitable exchange. OnSpeed is also stated to be great for mobile or PDA users, as GPRS (wireless) speeds can be boosted by as much as 8 times. It even helps with broadband if you can only get a reduced service in your area.

My overall rating is 4/5 - very good, but the email support needs to be improved.

If you want further details of OnSpeed, please visit http://www.On-Speed.net There is a 14 day money-back guarantee, so you can try the service without any risk.

Copyright © Richard Prosser 2004

About the Author

Richard is a software developer and entrepreneur, and may be contacted via the 'Article Tips' site given below. This article may be published without permission, but only in its entirety.

Free email course: "Drive 'Hot' Prospects To Your Site For Free!"
http://www.ArticleTips.com