[KLUG Members] What is behind this www.onspeed.com?

[Mike Williams]

>
> From:
> Komal <agencies_ad1 at sancharnet.in>
>
>
>Hello,
>
>Today I read about www.onspeed.com site claiming to give broadband speed
>with their software. I wonder what is so unique about www.onspeed.com.
>
>  
>
Lots of places make ridiculous claims, particularly in technology where 
there are enough people that don't understand it well enough to smell 
the...   I mean "don't know enough to know better".  It is possible to 
get a slight speed advantage with on-the-fly compression of the data 
being sent across the line, but it's a LONG way from "so fast you won't 
believe it's not broadband".  Several dial-up providers (AOL, Earthlink, 
Netzero, and probably more) are offering a compression option.  Since 
the current HTTP spec has some compression in it already, the trick that 
probably produces the most speed increase is converting the images to 
lower-quality jpegs.  You trade image quality for speed.

My favorite "stupid marketing spin" was a place that claimed to offer 
cable TV and/or Internet to most of the US.  When I called to ask for 
details they explained that they don't use actual copper, they use 
"wireless cable through a 12-inch dish"!  Satellite Internet that they 
were trying to sell as cable.  I told them that if I'm gonna pay anybody 
for "wireless cable" it'd better be optical fiber!