Anyone have experience with "Proxyconn"?

[Needtoknow]

Hello,
I stumbled across an ad for "Proxyconn" or something along those lines, a dial-up accelerator.
Anyone have any feedback?
Prepaid for a year was like 5 bucks a month, otherwise $9 a month would still be ok for some much faster access.
They advertise "dsl speed for your dial up" how can that be..
What's the reality here?
Thanks

[glc]

The reality is I'd rather spend the money on beer. Deal with proxies and accelerators at your own risk, there is no such thing as a free lunch.

This is a proxy that prefetches pages and stores them on your hard drive. Same technology as Netzero High Speed and Earthlink's high speed dialup option. It does NOTHING to increase your file download speeds, it just makes Web pages APPEAR to load faster.

[David_Jones]

The only way that I know of to increase your actual transfer rate is to use compression and your ISP wuld have to get involved.

Mine allows for the use of some compression and they give you a 'proxy' that you install on your PC to uncompress before passing over to your browser.

I'd have to pay double my fee for that, so I can't be bothered, but it is supposed to be equivalent to about 128Mbps for web pages.

David.

[Needtoknow]

Here is the article I found that made me have second thoughts, that maybe it wasn't all bs.
The good folks at PCWorld seem to find merit?
The link on this page goes to their article.

http://www.proxyconn.com/best.asp
They could be selling it for all I know, I was just curious how it works(or doesn't) The mechanics of it. I think glc answered that, as per usual.
Thanks.

[mairving]

When you click on the link to PCWorld, it is only a link to download ProxyConn. There is no review of it at PCWorld saying that it is an invaluable product that I could find with any search. I also couldn't find the other review at NY Times with a search.

As glc mentioned, it uses a caching proxy server to make pages appear to load faster. Using a proxy server can cause problems of it's own though; web page content stale, Realplayer problems, authentication problems, etc.

[glc]

The *best* way to improve a dialup connection is make sure your phone lines are clean and use a quality hardware based modem (no software or "Winmodems") with a quality ISP (that uses standard dialup networking), and don't load any proprietary software (AOL, MSN, Earthlink, etc.) on your system. In other words, keep it simple.

[Needtoknow]

How does one make sure the phone lines are "clean"?

[glc]

The *best* way is to run a dedicated pair direct from the modem jack out to the phone box outside, and make sure all other devices on the line are working properly, and making sure there is no corrosion or loose connections on all your other phone jacks. If you do all this, and pick up a phone and hear any noise, call the telco. What are your indicated dialup speeds presently?

[Needtoknow]

"run a dedicated pair"of what? wires?
Speeds now usually between 33 and 44, 44 the high and seems to be about average lately.
It's a winmodem, Broadxent pci DI 3631.
thanks
Mairving- it is on the right side of the page on the link, says "PC Review" click on it and up comes the article.
Or click below.
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,22338,00.asp

[glc]

Start with a decent modem, those speeds indicate your line is not very good. The USR 2977 is the ticket at $40 or so.

[Needtoknow]

thanks, will do
Looks really nice at Newegg.
One question, only semi- important, do you know if it supports "modem on hold". My isp does and it is a handy feature..
Thanks

[glc]

No, you will need a V.92 modem for that, look at the USR 5610B or the external 5686E. Hardware based USR's are the best modems out there for shaky phone lines.

No broadband there? SBC is pushing DSL for $29.95 a month here..........

[RayH]

I've just signed up with Joi Internet (www.joiinternet.com) and pay $3 extra for their Express service, which is like Proxyconn. The entire service, including dialup, is only $9.50-$13 depending upon how long you want to commit.

In the worst case scenario, it appears to be a decent dialup service. The price is cheap in any case. No $50/mo. bills next year. The service is certainly better than Fry's for the same amount.

It doesn't do anything for downloading. But if you're a text surfer with a lot of hard drive space, it's not too bad. You'd be surprised how many pages you actually revisit, especially when doing a Google Search.

On pages that have a lot of graphics, you can load the pages really fast if you don't care for the quality of the graphics or you can have them loaded at high quality the first time. You can right click to have individual graphics reloaded or the entire page reloaded.

It's like a variation on the old trick of not having any graphics loaded. But this time, you can have blurry images and the page will load quickly. And, by turning off the ads, it gets moving.

Also, the V.92 could end your need for a dedicated dialup line if you have call waiting. But I've always had my calls forwarded to my cell.

[Needtoknow]

Thanks RayH,
glc, I dont like the idea of $30+ dolares a month, I be cheap..
I am leaning towards the 5610b because it is,cheaper...
but wanted to ask, is there any other difference between an external and in internal modem as long as the internal is hardware based?
Also, the 5610b advertises the "gaming" feature which I read slows the ping or something.. is that something that the external (5686e) offers but doesn't advertise?
Curious minds...
Thanks

[RayH]

I'm just using a cheap $10 Intel chip V.92 modem. Works just fine.

[Needtoknow]

Hello Ray,
What sort of connection speeds do you normally get?
I am, as you probably read above, on the quest for faster dial-up.
Is yours a winmodem or something else?

[RayH]

I'm using a cheap, Intel chipset V.92 modem. I think I paid $10 tax incl. for it. The modem is running at full speed. I forget, but it's listing 115.2K. But it's using another data rate.

I'm just a text surfer. I think that computes are strong enough these days the I don't know that WinModem or hardware makes much difference. If the situation is that tight, use something else.

All I can say is I downloaded some files at 56K speed. But surfing is a matter the cached. It gets better as the cache gets larger. But I clean out everything in my computer weekly and start over.

It's about as fast a service as you're going to get with a 56K modem and it isn't expensive.

[Needtoknow]

i have crappy phone lines and a 44k connect is tops, hence the suggestion to upgrade to a hard modem.
Thanks

[Miz]

When weighing the cost of DSL against dialup, don't forget that if you're paying for a second line for your dialup, you can get rid of it if you go to DSL.

DSL here costs $39.95 a month, dialup, $19.95. However, when we dispensed with the second phone line for dialup, DSL ended up costing only $4 a month more.

[RayH]

WIth V.92 and call waiting, you don't need a dedicated line!

I'm waiting for cable, then I don't even need land line!

[Needtoknow]

My dial up is 9.95 a month, dsl is a minimum of 29.95(that's on sale)
I have t1 at work and it's nice to have the downloads go quick, but I have a download accelerator program, I don't download music and such, plus I just plan to download while I sleep.
I don't have cable tv or a cell phone, the folks at work think I seem to be happy in my little"early 90's time warp"
life is cool;)

[RayH]

Needtoknow It sounds like Joi would be just fine. For $10 (w/one year), you'd be getting the acceleration for free! 44K isn't really good. But I've seen worse. 44K used to be my minimum before I hung up! But I think when I got my $13 modem, my speeds went up!

[potassium19]

This is about a year old, but good info.
http://www.techtv.com/callforhelp/products/story/0,24330,3406117,00.html

[Needtoknow]

Thanks k19 good article.

Joi is looking really like something to check out RayH.
I still may invest in a better modem.
Appreciate the feedback....

[RayH]

potassium19 The article is absolutely true. That's why I'm not recommending anyone subscribe to Proxyconn, which requires a connection on top of Proxyconn charges. Joi Internet does the same thing for $3 extra. The total cost of a Joi Internet connection is either $7-10 w/o acceleration or $10-13 w/acceleration.

For most people, broadband probably represents a better value ESPECIALLY IF they have a dedicated phone line for the internet and/or have simultaneously internet connections. The cost of a separate phone line pays for most of the broadband.

Needtoknow I personally wouldn't invest too much money in a dial up modem. The proof of what you are doing isn't so much as what the connection speed SAYS it is, download something and check the average download speed.

44K isn't a bad dial up speed. Ideally, excellent service would be consistent at 49,333 on dial up. For $3 extra a month, you can peek at Joi Internet Acceleration. On a one year contract, it's $10 w/ the acceleration.

The service is for text/still graphics surfers. It does load cached pages quickly. If you are a text surfer, you'd be surprised at how many pages you revisit.

But anyway, the service could be the same as what you are paying. The service does seem to be very decent daily.

I don't subscribe to premium cable channels either. It not only saves me the cost of the service, but the rental of the decoder boxes. Unfortunately, the History Channel is not part of the basic package. But I'm not upping for digital cable for one channel.