D S L ?

i've seen several adds for dial-up dsl saying that it will increase your speed. how does this work ? and if you can do it over the existing connection(phone) why can't you hack into it for free ? this must be another way to get into my pocket. i have used cable w/modem at a friends and it is great downloads in seconds 50-110 kbs as opposed to the 4.3-8 kbs i am using now with dial-up. so whats the deal with DSL

 

You can't just "hack" into DSL, the phone company has to physically connect your phone line to the DSLAM equipment.
DSL works by using a frequency band above the voice band.

 

DSL is similar to cable for speed. I routinely get 150 k downloads. If the phone line qualifies, they put you on it with an account. Use the same line as your current phone. Hook up to a modem and enjoy.

I have Earthlink for about $45/ month.

 

i was checking for a dsl service and found PROXYCONN ACCELERATOR. they claim that it is as fast as dls and you get to keep your e-mail and also use the same isp you now have and for the charge of $8.95 per mo you can have their service. it is a download and you don't have to use a modem or add any thing to your system. how can this work ? is it another rip off ?

 

I've seen the ads on Yahoo also and they are promising dsl speeds, not a dsl connection; Basically from reading the ad, they eliminate banner ads/pop-ups, optimize your settings and most importantly; It appears that they serve webpages from a cache which is the same technology that AOL employs. Instead of pulling a new view of any particular page when you click, you actually get a copy from their cache which was probably updated either by you or a similar user, or on some kind of schedule based on popularity.

Hope this helps;
R

PS) The following link will take you to an explanation of how AOL's caching works; http://webmaster.info.aol.com/caching.html. Though, of course most of the info is webmaster-specific because of where it is located on AOL's public network

 

One thing that these "almost DSL" proxy servers and other things likely won't provide is significant download speeds for files, such as program updates or game files. These tend to be quite large and the download speed would depend upon the actual speed of the connection, rather than the presence of a proxy server or cache.

 

And to continue Chris's theme, if you read the AOL literature, among the address-types which are excluded are pages with a ? in the url which for example, means that no page within these forums would be cached. And of course, because they exclude asp pages, they also wouldn't cache microsoft.

(I realize that these exclusions appear aol-specific, but if you think about how the technology works, the advertising company's system would have to work the same way)

If you loaded primarily static pages on a slow connection, it may be worthwhile because after all, AOL has used the technology for as long as I can remember, so apparently it works for them; But AOL, if memory serves, also employs a network of cache servers geographically spread across the globe and that might have something to do with their satisfaction.

Peace Out;
R

PS) Of course, you could eliminate banner ads, if you just turn-off graphics. Though, I'm sure this company simply discriminates against doubleclick, linkshare and others; Though, I wonder if they block their own ads or any other ads within the spaces they advertise?

 

In other words, what Chris and R are saying is that is a load of crap and that the $9 a month you spend on it would be better served on a true DSL line (add it up, it's worth it.)

Those pages with ? marks in them are called dynamic pages. In other words they change dynamically, like the pages here at DIY. There is a lot of technology out there these days that uses this dynamic HTML format. PSP and ASP are probably the most popular and widely used. And when I say widely used, I mean everyone that knows anything about coding uses this technology now. So what does that mean for your "DSL speed dial-up", it's old news. Caching of pages won't work anymore. True, there are still some static pages out there, but they're becoming extinct (thank God) and are soon to go the way of the dial-up modem.

Do yourself a favor, if you want broadband/high-speed/always-on, get the real thing.

Good luck!