Yahoo! DSL Speed for Dial-Up--A Review

Lorenzo · Post by **Lorenzo** » Sat Jan 10, 2004 6:42 pm

If you have a slow dial-up connection, you might try this and watch your connection speed up. All you have to do is sign up with Yahoo! DSL Speed for your current internet connection is then offered as a free trial for one week, then $3.99 p/mo for a year. "Yahoo! Groups" have a lot of nice discussion boards. http://www.yahoo.com/

If you don't want to pay $3.99 p/mo for a year, just unsubscribe at the end of the week.

illuminatus99 · Post by **illuminatus99** » Sat Jan 10, 2004 7:05 pm

Are you sure it's DSL? the DSL package yahoo offers is $29.99 a month for the first year. also you can't just download DSL, you need a DSL modem or router, it's the hardware that lets you connect to the DSLAM on the other end that's providing the DSL connection.

a regular phone line maxes out at about 53-56k when using a modem because it's using an analog signal from your modem to your ISP, the way DSL gets around that limitation is my running a digital signal on the line so the line is digial from the DSL modem to the DSLAM at the phone company.

while the software you downloaded may say that your connection is much faster it's really just a compression trick, try downloading some large files and you'll see that your connection isn't any faster than it was before.

Lorenzo · Post by **Lorenzo** » Sat Jan 10, 2004 7:25 pm

Don't ask me how it works, but whatever I downloaded set a new icon (a satellite dish) beside her regular internet connection icon (the twin monitors) and everytime I go to a new web site, the signal now flashes through the new icon as well as the old one, which says 195Kbps right now...that varies though. Sometimes it says 180, other times 142. Her regular dial-up speed remains the same and still says 44.0 Kbps. Whatever, the pages online are loading a a lot faster, including pictures, music, etc.

I don't think I'm imagining things, try it...it's free for a week. The offer was made while signing up for Yahoo! Groups. I couldn't find a seperate sign-up for DSL on Yahoo's home page, other than the one you mentioned for $29.99 p/mo, so you may have to join a Group to get the special offer.

If you figure it out, let me know.

brownja · Post by **brownja** » Sat Jan 10, 2004 7:52 pm

DSL does not work with a conventional modem. It uses different equipment. Some dial-up isp's are using new compression technology to speed up connections.
That's probably what you're looking at.
Can she use the phone at the same time? DSL does not tie up your voice phone line.
Regards,
jb

Lorenzo · Post by **Lorenzo** » Sat Jan 10, 2004 8:31 pm

No, the phone doesn't work at the same time. That's something I also wondered. I just asked my brother what's going on, he's a computer tech guy, and he says there's some trick Yahoo is using, in fact some places may even offer this kind of thing for free. We thought it might be some divice you download that recovers a page more quickly that you've already visited, kinda like the memory in your computer.

I'm still a little puzzled about the increase in speed though, it definitely did speed things up. If I place the cursor on the new icon, it either shows the speed, if it's flashing, or if it's idle, it says "Proxyconn: Effective Speed broadband" whatever that means.

You're probably right, it's likely some compressed technology. I'm having fun testing this thing anyway!

brownja · Post by **brownja** » Sat Jan 10, 2004 8:39 pm

I think it uses a combination of compression and pre-fetching.
Pre-fetching is starting to download pages from links on the page you're reading BEFORE you click on them. Then when you click on a link on a page, it's already partially downloaded. Of course, this only works if there's a managable number of links on a page, but for some kind of content, it works very well.

Lorenzo · Post by **Lorenzo** » Sat Jan 10, 2004 8:43 pm

Is it possible that Yahoo is rerouting everything through it's own high speed system?

brownja · Post by **brownja** » Sat Jan 10, 2004 8:59 pm

Lorenzo wrote:Is it possible that Yahoo is rerouting everything through it's own high speed system?

Everything comes through their system anyway. At least the last part of the trip. But you're right, one part of their high speed dialup servoce could be caching proxies.
The problem is the "last mile" from the phone company's central office to your house. There's not too much they can do about that if you're on dial-up.
Earthlink and Net-Zero advertise similar higher speed dialup.
jb

AngeloMeola · Post by **AngeloMeola** » Sat Jan 10, 2004 9:00 pm

Lorenzo wrote:Is it possible that Yahoo is rerouting everything through it's own high speed system?

It is possible that Yahoo is caching frequently accessed pages on its own server thereby reducing the number of hops to get the information. I got a cable modem 6 years ago and usually download at 2400 kbits per second. It can slow down to 1500 when traffic is heavy. I haven't looked into speed up techniques since.

One technique I remember is parallel downloading. The software makes multiple connections and each downloads part of the information. It is cached at the server closest to you so you always get the optimum speed from there to your computer.

Nothing will do as well as a faster connection.

Angelo

Lorenzo · Post by **Lorenzo** » Sat Jan 10, 2004 9:01 pm

Okay, here's the scoop...I went back through the computer's history to find the sign-up pages: http://www.proxyconn.com/best.asp

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OutOfBreath · Post by **OutOfBreath** » Sat Jan 10, 2004 10:09 pm

It's just a compression gimick -- i.e. software bells and whistles. Most ISPs offer it free, now.

If you're surfing normally some sites can be very fast because of the pre-fetching and compression. If you're downloading large files like huge images or MP3s (which are already compressed and which likely aren't going to be pre-fetched) there is no noticable difference.

kkrell · Post by **kkrell** » Sun Jan 11, 2004 3:06 am

OutOfBreath wrote:It's just a compression gimick -- i.e. software bells and whistles. Most ISPs offer it free, now.

If you're surfing normally some sites can be very fast because of the pre-fetching and compression. If you're downloading large files like huge images or MP3s (which are already compressed and which likely aren't going to be pre-fetched) there is no noticable difference.

Images are usually delivered at poorer quality, so there can still be a speed improvement.

Kevin Krell

IDAwHOa · Post by **IDAwHOa** » Sun Jan 11, 2004 10:32 pm

Juno (which owns Net Zero) offers this service for like $10 a month. I have not bitten that bug as of yet. I have plenty of other things to do while waiting for downloads to complete. MAYBE once or twice a month it would be nice to have the faster speed, but not too often. I am waiting until true DSL comes to my neighborhood before I get excited.

Lorenzo · Post by **Lorenzo** » Sun Jan 11, 2004 11:14 pm

I just uninstalled this Proxyconn "DSL Speed for Dial up" from my sisters's computer. Not only were photo images less clear, some thumbnail images never even appeared, like on eBay, and it didn't seem reliable with other web sites either...vague and mysterious things. The compressed feature did speed things up a little but the trade-off wasn't especially good.

I think I'll change the title to this thread.