MegaSPEED
Web Accelerator for Windows Frequently Asked Questions
1. Overview of MegaSPEED Web Accelerator
- How does MegaSPEED claim to be 5X faster? How does MegaSPEED's solution compare to DSL or cable modem?
- What are the privacy implications of using MegaSPEED Accelerator?
2 Download and Installation Help
- Why can't I open the MegaSPEED Accelerator installation file after I download it?
- How long will it take to download MegaSPEED Accelerator?
3 Using MegaSPEED Web Accelerator
- Is MegaSPEED Accelerator installed, active, and enabled on your computer?
- How do I change the image quality settings for all images?
- How do I start MegaSPEED Web Accelerator?
- How do I turn off the Pop-up Blocker?
- How do I uninstall MegaSPEED Accelerator?
- How do I see the original graphic quality of specific image or web page?
4 Product Details
- How do I use other browsers with my Web Accelerator?
- What types of Web content does MegaSPEED accelerate?
- Are ad blockers, popup stoppers, personal firewalls and other utilities compatible with MegaSPEED Accelerator?
- Does MegaSPEED Web Accelerator speed up email access?
- What are the system requirements for MegaSPEED Accelerator for Windows?
- I travel Does MegaSPEED Accelerator work anywhere I use my PC?
Section 1 - Overview of MegaSPEED Web Accelerator
How does MegaSPEED claim to be 5X faster?Web page performance is measured by the amount of time it takes to download an entire Web page into your browser. So, when comparing the performance improvement delivered by MegaSPEED Accelerator with an unaccelerated Internet connection, we configure two identical computers. Both are connected to the Internet at the same dial-up connection speed and both have the same PC and Internet browser configuration.
Using an automated browsing measurement tool (i.e. a surfing "bot"), both computers visit the same Web pages multiple times. In order to eliminate variations in download speed caused by various network factors, we take the average times for downloading the same page with and without MegaSPEED Accelerator and compare the two averages in order to determine the improvement factor for a specific Web page (example: www.amazon.com). 5X represents the high-end of the frequently measured averaged results.
If you are particularly
interested in the topic of timing Web pages, here's a
link to a site that provides a stopwatch for timing page loads and many
other
interesting Internet timing tools:
http://www.numion.com/Stopwatch/index.html
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MegaSPEED is an affordable software-only solution designed to significantly enhance Web access over low-speed (less than 200 kbps/second) connections. By contrast, DSL and cable modems provide high-speed Internet connectivity using hardware solutions that work with special telephone or cable lines.
The price for DSL or cable
modem is significantly higher than MegaSPEED
Accelerator. In addition to the higher price, many areas simply do not
have DSL
or cable Internet service available.
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What
are the privacy implications of using MegaSPEED
Accelerator?
Personally-identifiable
Information on Acceleration Servers
If you have a high level understanding of how Acceleration works you
may
be concerned that the Accelerator could be used to track your browsing
activities in a way that could violate your privacy. We recognize that
your
privacy is very important, and therefore we have implemented the
Acceleration Service so that personally-identifiable information cannot
be
easily tracked or easily derived from data within our server
infrastructure.
When your Accelerator client software connects to our infrastructure,
it
identifies itself using a unique client ID. Our infrastructure has a
database of
client IDs that are authorized to receive acceleration, but that
database does
not contain any personally-identifiable information associated with the
IDs,
such as your name, address, or email address. Further, we have designed
all of
our server logging features in such a way that no single log contains a
direct
record of the Web sites visited by specific clients.
Personally-identifiable
information regarding browsing activities is subject to the Privacy
Policy and
can be derived from information logged only by applying special
post-processing.
Accelerator Client/Server
Communication
The Accelerator client software does not transmit any historical record
of your browsing activities to our servers other than
non-user-identifiable
summary timing and compression information, and diagnostic information.
Such
information is used solely for overall system performance monitoring
and quality
assurance.
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Section 2 - Download and Installation Help
Why
can't I open the MegaSPEED Accelerator installation
file after I download it?
It is possible that the file extension ".exe" was somehow lost from
the MegaSPEED Accelerator installation file. You can easily check and,
if
necessary, remedy this situation. Here's how:
- First, find the installation file you downloaded. Unless you changed the name during the installation process, search for that. Use the Window's Start menu: Start -> Search -> For Files and Folders...
- When you find the file, select it. The full name of the file should be visible.
- If the ".exe" extension (without quotation marks) is missing, add it. Click on the filename and use your mouse to add the extension ".exe"
- You should be able to double-click on the file right in the Search Results window to start the install.
How
long will it take to download MegaSPEED Accelerator?
Depending on the speed of your modem and the processing speed of your
computer,
downloading will take between 5-10 minutes. For example, a modem
operating at
48kbps (kilobits per second) will download MegaSPEED Accelerator in
about 5
minutes using a recent-vintage computer. Running the install on your
computer
takes a minute or less
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Section 3 - Using MegaSPEED Web Accelerator
Is MegaSPEED Accelerator installed, active, and enabled on your computer?
If MegaSPEED Accelerator is
installed and active on your computer a
small
accelerator icon will appear in the Windows taskbar area (near the
system
clock). If the Accelerator is active while you are surfing the
Internet, the
accelerator icon will constantly change images. Try accessing a Web
site and you
should see the icon flashing as web pages load. If you are able to surf
the
Internet but do not see the icon changing, there are several
possibilities:
- You are accessing a Web site
or other content that MegaSPEED Accelerator does not speed up. If you
are not sure what content can be accelerated, Click Here
for details on what MegaSPEED Accelerator does and does not accelerate.
- MegaSPEED Accelerator is currently disabled on your computer. If you see red lines around and over the icon, it means that the Accelerator is disabled.
- MegaSPEED Accelerator or other software on your system may require special configuration. To review the list of currently incompatible software or software that may require special handling, Click Here.
How do I change the image quality setting for all images?
Right-click on the MegaSPEED
Web Accelerator taskbar icon and select
"Settings" Select the "Image Quality" tab Adjust the slider bar to the
desired image quality settings Press OK to
save the changes.
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How do I start MegaSPEED Web Accelerator?
MegaSPEED Web Accelerator is launched automatically every time Windows starts You do not have to launch it manually.A MegaSPEED Web Accelerator icon appears in the Windows system tray to show that it is operating in the background. If the program was terminated, you can start it up by going to your "Start Menu" "Program Files" "MegaSPEED" and selecting the program from there.How do I turn off the Pop-up Blocker?
Click on the accelerator icon
in the taskbar, click on Pop-Up and disable
it If you are going to websites that you need the windows to pop-up,
you
could add them to the white list so you won't need to disable the
pop-up blocker
every time you go there.
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How do I uninstall MegaSPEED Accelerator?
Open the "Start Menu" Open "Settings" Open "Control Panels" Finally open "Add/Remove Programs" Looks for the MegaSPEED client and remove it from there.
IMPORTANT: If you are using a browser other than Internet Explorer
or
Netscape
with MegaSPEED, you will need to manually reconfigure the proxy
settings for the
respective browser after uninstalling or stopping MegaSPEED Accelerator
in order
to continue using the Internet. See below for further details.
Restoring a Browser's Proxy
Address and Port Number
If you are using a browser besides Internet Explorer or Netscape when
you stop
or uninstall MegaSPEED Accelerator you will need to reset proxy
settings to
their original values (or no values). Until you do this, you will
likely not be
able to access the Internet Consult your browser's documentation for
information on how this could be done.
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How
do I see the original graphic quality of specific
image or Web page?
If you are using Internet Explorer, simply move your mouse over an
image on a
Web page and click the right mouse button. You'll see that two new
options are
available:
Refresh Page (or Show Original Image)
Refresh Picture with Full Quality (or show Original Page)
If you select one of these options, MegaSPEED Accelerator will replace
the
compressed graphic image with an original quality version. When
the icon stops
changing, the new image is in place.
Note: When you first install
MegaSPEED Accelerator, it is necessary
to
close and
then restart IE in order to have the Refresh Page and Refresh Picture
right-click menu options available.
These menu options are not
available in Netscape, Opera or Mozilla.
Please
follow these steps:
1. Click on the Accelerator icon located near your system clock. Go to
Options and adjust the Graphics Acceleration Level completely to the
right (original quality) and
click OK.
2. Hold down the Ctrl key and select R OR Select Reload from the View
menu. The
compressed graphic image will be replaced with an original quality
version.
3. Repeat step one and adjust the Graphics Acceleration Level back to
its
setting.
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Section 4 - Product Details
How do I use other browsers with my Web Accelerator?Netscape Navigator is automatically configured to use the MegaSPEED Accelerator. Use Netscape as you normally would.
For other browsers such as Opera and Mozilla, MegaSPEED Web Accelerator works with any web browser that allows you to specify an HTTP proxy. You must set the HTTP proxy host to be "127.0.0.1" and the port number to be the local listening port of the MegaSPEED Client (5400 by default) Consult your browser's documentation for information on how this can be done.
What
types of Web content does MegaSPEED accelerate?
MegaSPEED Web Accelerator significantly speeds up web page access To
achieve this speed up, proprietary lossless compression is applied to
text,
html, xml, javascript and style
sheets. Proprietary image compression
is
applied to gif images, jpeg images and Flash content
MegaSPEED also accelerates email traffic (POP3 and SMTP) using lossless compression.
MegaSPEED does NOT speed up
file downloads (over FTP or file sharing
programs), streaming audio/video and HTTPS (secure web sites).
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Are
ad blockers, popup stoppers, personal firewalls and other
utilities compatible with MegaSPEED Accelerator?
MegaSPEED is compatible with most ad blockers, popup stoppers, personal
firewalls, and other utilities. In some cases, minor configuration
either of
MegaSPEED or other products is needed. In other cases, MegaSPEED is not
compatible.
If you are receiving error
messages from a firewall please ensure the following ports are allowed
access:
5400 (127.0.0.1)
7000 (216.126.145.190)
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Does MegaSPEED Web Accelerator speed up email access?
Yes, MegaSPEED automatically
accelerates your email traffic (POP3 and SMTP)
for all popular email clients such as Eudora, Outlook, Outlook Express
and
Netscape Mail Other email clients should work transparently as well.
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What
are the system requirements for MegaSPEED Accelerator?
System Requirements
Below are the suggested and minimum system requirements beyond the basics of an analog modem, a telephone line, and an active Internet connection.
MegaSPEED Accelerator can be installed on any of the following operating systems:
- Windows 95b w/ Windsock2
- Windows 98
- Windows 98SE
- Windows Millennium Edition (Windows ME)
- Windows NT 4.0
- Windows 2000
- Windows XP
- Macintosh OS X 10.2 or greater
MegaSPEED Web Accelerator requires at least Internet Explorer 4.0 and Netscape 4.0 or any later version of either browser.
Note that the MegaSPEED Email Acceleration component requires Windows 98 and above, and that the MegaSPEED Pop-up Blocker component requires Internet Explorer 5.0 and above.
Newer versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer are available free of charge through Microsoft.
For Windows 95 users: Currently, Microsoft does not permit Windows 95 users to install Internet Explorer 6 or greater, however, Internet Explorer 5.5 and Netscape Communicator 4.8 are available.
The recommended system requirements for MegaSPEED Web Accelerator are a Pentium 200MHz with 64MB of RAM and at least 5MB of hard-disk space.
Internet connection line speed in Kbps (kilobits/second)
Minimum: 14.4 Kbps
Maximum: 200 Kbps
Regardless, MegaSPEED Web
Accelerator will work within your current system
configuration to provide you with the best content acceleration.
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I
travel. Does MegaSPEED Accelerator work anywhere I use my
PC?
Yes. If you are accessing the Internet through a dial-up connection
in
the U.S.
and Canada and your system conforms to MegaSPEED Accelerator system
requirements,
you should be able to get an accelerated Internet experience, if you
are dialing
numbers from the same ISP.
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