Faster Dialup?? Sounds Fishy.

[gfidsens]

I live in rural Ontario, Canada, and am stuck on a 56K line for internet access. The other day, this offer from Netscape comes in the mail, directing me to this website:

http://join.netscape.ca

Apparently, they're offering access that's five times faster than regular 56k for $7 cheaper than is the norm round here. I went to the FAQ section on the website, and they said that they sped up the transfer of info over a regular phone line by compressing things like text, pics, media once it is requested from a browser and then unpacking it all once it reaches your screen. Less info, faster transfer. Sounds like magic or something, the way they tell it. It would not speed up things like song or video downloads, or flash or anything.
Have any of you heard of anything like this before? It sounds like bull**** to me, but I haven't had the nerve to call them and seriously inquire about the service. Is this possible?
GFID

[bigandy]

Yes, I've heard of it, but never used it. They did a piece about this on The Screen Savers awhile back, and from what they said on that segment, the more you "accelerate", the more image quality degrades, etc.. But like you said, for things like downloading an MP3, it will still go at your normal dial-up speed, because that can't be compressed. So if you browse sites that are mostly text, or don't care about loading the images, or the quality of them, it might not be such a bad deal.

[Force Flow]

Phone lines are only guaranteed a speed of 50K, I believe. You won't actually be getting multimedia much, if any, faster than you already are. I wouldn't go for it just because of the "acceleration".

[ric449]

This should help you decide: http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/p...675936,00.html

[RayH]

The V.92 dialup service is actually a web accelerator. It compresses text and graphics. It can work pretty well if you're a text surfer. You'd be surprised at how many pages you revisit. Those revisits are held in a cache.

But it's not broadband by any stretch of the imagination. If they only charge $2-3/mo, it might be worth it. I had the whole kit for $10 total monthly!

[glc]

Also - Netscape is now just a slimmed down AOL.

[juicelooser]

If you watch the NetZero Topspeed commercials, you'll notice that it says that it does not increase the speed of attachments or other file downloads. The "higher speed" internet is basically slimming down the images and caching.

[RayH]

If people just do text surfing, it could be alright. If you are in an area not served by broadband or just on limited funds, the accelerator could be OK.

I've seen the accelerator part hustled for $7/mo by itself on top of any ISP dial up charge. Joi Internet will do it all for $10!