Re: FreeBSD and NetZero
On Nov 24, 2004, at 23:23, Ted Mittelstaedt wrote: They are called dialup accellerators, and an entire industry has grown up to make and sell these programs, with the sole purpose of shagging money out of stupid people who run ISP's and don't understand you cannot compress jpgs, zips, .mp3s and other precompressed data that people download. You might want to try one first before making those statements. I run an ISP that makes SlipStream available for our users who want it. We find that it does make improvements. However, the amount of improvement is dependent on the settings you configure. JPGs etc can be easily compressed. You re-encode the JPG image using a lower quality setting. You can achieve significant download time savings that way. SlipStream lets to select the image quality setting to give the quality/improvement you want for initial image viewing. You can always reload the original image quality then if you need it. SlipStream also uses a newer compression algorithm than those currently used by PPP. Its not clear just how much more effective this is as its quite difficult to measure. SlipStream is not for everyone. There are other issues where its not totally transparent and it causes issues with some internet services. However, when used properly you can achive significant improvements in download times. ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
RE: FreeBSD and NetZero
-Original Message- From: Doug Hardie [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, November 25, 2004 12:15 AM To: Ted Mittelstaedt Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Steel City Phantom Subject: Re: FreeBSD and NetZero On Nov 24, 2004, at 23:23, Ted Mittelstaedt wrote: They are called dialup accellerators, and an entire industry has grown up to make and sell these programs, with the sole purpose of shagging money out of stupid people who run ISP's and don't understand you cannot compress jpgs, zips, .mp3s and other precompressed data that people download. You might want to try one first before making those statements. I run an ISP that makes SlipStream available for our users who want it. We find that it does make improvements. However, the amount of improvement is dependent on the settings you configure. JPGs etc can be easily compressed. You re-encode the JPG image using a lower quality setting. You can achieve significant download time savings that way. Well, our experience is that most of the people pulling lots of images are pulling porno off the web so I don't think they would want a worse quality image. And a lot of them are sucking it off the news server, I suspect that UUENCODED jpgs are going to be treated as random text, not go through the re-encoding process. I suppose this might help with sites like cnn.com which are heavy on the graphics, and most of the graphics are useless and don't need to be high-res. SlipStream lets to select the image quality setting to give the quality/improvement you want for initial image viewing. You can always reload the original image quality then if you need it. SlipStream also uses a newer compression algorithm than those currently used by PPP. Its not clear just how much more effective this is as its quite difficult to measure. Most modems out of the box have v.42bis turned on, so you really get no help from the ppp compression algorithims. In fact our tests have shown marked improvements when the user deselects hardware compression and just leaves the software PPP compression going. This is expically true of softmodems for obvious reasons. The big problem though is that many modems are really brain dead and when you turn off hardware compression the idiot things will connect without error correction as well. The decent modems like the USRs won't, but people wanting dialup nowadays seem to buy the cheapo $9.95 softmodems or use the modems on the motherboards which are softmodems. I've even lately seen USR 56k external modems for sale in the bins at Goodwill for $8 if you can believe how idiot some people are. (dump one of these in favor of a new winmodem?) Also, as more providers flash their terminal servers for V92 and start supporting V.44 I suspect that the Slipstream algorithm will be no better. SlipStream is not for everyone. There are other issues where its not totally transparent and it causes issues with some internet services. However, when used properly you can achive significant improvements in download times. The problem is that used properly is a very narrow definition - text only sites without hardware compression on the modem, and the willingness to take a degraded graphic. And not mentioned is that a Pentium 200 isn't going to have the CPU power to run an accellerator plus a softmodem plus the pig that is Internet Exploder nowadays. So you can just send anything purchased before 1998 on it's way. Most of our dialup customers who are with dialup by choice (as opposed to being stuck with it because they don't DSL qualify and can't get cable and cannot justify an $80 a month ISDN line) won't let a nickle through without rubbing off the face, if you get my meaning, and tend towards older computers or systems that power users have discarded. And to be fair a lot of them are older on fixed incomes, ie: retired, and only run the Internet to communicate with the family. I feel it's raising false hopes to tell that crowd that an accellerator is going to run their stuff at 5 times faster like they do in the TV ads. And their TV ads don't say what the disclaimer says, specifically Transmission of files including, without limitation, streaming audio or video, digital photographs, MP3 or other music files, executable files and other downloads, is not faster using NetZero HiSpeed than with standard dial-up service. This kind of thing just delays people from taking the plunge into DSL or cable. And to be perfectly honest about it, even though we ourselves don't sell cable and I cannot stand the cable companies, many people out there with a land POTS line, a cell phone, cable TV with HBO and a selection of expensive movie channels, and a dialup ISP, would find that if they ditched their ISP and their land phone line, got a slightly more expensive cellular plan and used their cell phone as their main phone number, and got cable Internet added to their cable bill, they would be at the same price
RE: FreeBSD and NetZero
They are called dialup accellerators, and an entire industry has grown up to make and sell these programs, with the sole purpose of shagging money out of stupid people who run ISP's and don't understand you cannot compress jpgs, zips, .mp3s and other precompressed data that people download. I always wondered what would happen to the dialup market once everyone who actually cared about a decent Internet connection switched to DSL and Cable. I guess when you skim off the good customers your left with the bulk of the market that is worthless - customers that actually believe these accellerators work, ISP's that don't give a damn if they work or not as long as it snags the dumb customers, and software firms staffed by programmers who checked their morals at the door, and are busy scamming the ISP's that don't give a damn. As NetZero gets a good amount of revenue from push advertising, I don't think the problem is going to be disbling the accellerator, I think the problem is when the NetZero servers don't get a handshake from the software widgit that accepts and displays the adverts and is supposed to be running on the dialup client, they are going to gun the client. At least, if I was an advertiser paying NetZero to push out my crap, that is how I would insist that it work. Good luck and I hope you figure out how to defeat the NetSpammers, I mean NetZero. For what junk they push out on their customers they deserve to have their icky dialup client defeated. Ted -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Steel City Phantom Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 2004 9:55 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: FreeBSD and NetZero if memory serves, netzero started some kick on fastest dial up network on the net by implementing some kind of over the line compression. if thats the case then it would be more than just a network protocol, but some kind of compression routine that you would need to duplicate. i hate to say it but you MAY find a netzero support tech with a brain that would be able to confirm if im right or not. Kevin D. Kinsey, DaleCo, S.P. wrote: J W wrote: I have NetZero as my Dial-Up ISP. I would love to use freebsd as my gateway, ratehr than use windows with ICS enabled. Is there a way to work around the proprietary software used by NetZero, or has any one seen a way to make freebsd work with netzero? Thank You, IDESpinner I've not used NetZero for a long time, but did Once Upon A Time(tm). What happens if you simply attempt to make a PPP connection to them from your FBSD box? Kevin Kinsey ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
FreeBSD and NetZero
I have NetZero as my Dial-Up ISP. I would love to use freebsd as my gateway, ratehr than use windows with ICS enabled. Is there a way to work around the proprietary software used by NetZero, or has any one seen a way to make freebsd work with netzero? Thank You, IDESpinner ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: FreeBSD and NetZero
J W wrote: I have NetZero as my Dial-Up ISP. I would love to use freebsd as my gateway, ratehr than use windows with ICS enabled. Is there a way to work around the proprietary software used by NetZero, or has any one seen a way to make freebsd work with netzero? Thank You, IDESpinner I've not used NetZero for a long time, but did Once Upon A Time(tm). What happens if you simply attempt to make a PPP connection to them from your FBSD box? Kevin Kinsey ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: FreeBSD and NetZero
if memory serves, netzero started some kick on fastest dial up network on the net by implementing some kind of over the line compression. if thats the case then it would be more than just a network protocol, but some kind of compression routine that you would need to duplicate. i hate to say it but you MAY find a netzero support tech with a brain that would be able to confirm if im right or not. Kevin D. Kinsey, DaleCo, S.P. wrote: J W wrote: I have NetZero as my Dial-Up ISP. I would love to use freebsd as my gateway, ratehr than use windows with ICS enabled. Is there a way to work around the proprietary software used by NetZero, or has any one seen a way to make freebsd work with netzero? Thank You, IDESpinner I've not used NetZero for a long time, but did Once Upon A Time(tm). What happens if you simply attempt to make a PPP connection to them from your FBSD box? Kevin Kinsey ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
