FreeBSD and NetZero

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Doug Hardie [mailto:bc979 at lafn.org]
> Sent: Thursday, November 25, 2004 12:15 AM
> To: Ted Mittelstaedt
> Cc: freebsd-questions at freebsd.org; Steel City Phantom
> Subject: Re: FreeBSD and NetZero
>
>
>
> On Nov 24, 2004, at 23:23, Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:
>
> >
> > They are called dialup accellerators, and an entire industry has grown
> > up to make and sell these programs, with the sole purpose of shagging
> > money out of stupid people who run ISP's and don't understand you
> > cannot
> > compress jpgs, zips, .mp3s and other precompressed data that people
> > download.
>
> You might want to try one first before making those statements.  I run
> an ISP that makes SlipStream available for our users who want it.  We
> find that it does make improvements.  However, the amount of
> improvement is dependent on the settings you configure.  JPGs etc can
> be easily compressed.  You re-encode the JPG image using a lower
> quality setting.  You can achieve significant download time savings
> that way.

Well, our experience is that most of the people pulling lots of images
are pulling porno off the web so I don't think they would want a worse
quality
image.  And a lot of them are sucking it off the news server, I suspect
that UUENCODED jpgs are going to be treated as random text, not go
through the re-encoding process.

I suppose this might help with sites like cnn.com which are heavy on
the graphics, and most of the graphics are useless and don't need to be
high-res.

> SlipStream lets to select the image quality setting to give
> the quality/improvement you want for initial image viewing.  You can
> always reload the original image quality then if you need it.
> SlipStream also uses a newer compression algorithm than those currently
> used by PPP.  Its not clear just how much more effective this is as its
> quite difficult to measure.
>

Most modems out of the box have v.42bis turned on, so you really get
no help from the ppp compression algorithims.  In fact our tests have
shown marked improvements when the user deselects hardware compression
and just leaves the software PPP compression going.  This is expically
true of softmodems for obvious reasons.  The big problem though is that
many modems are really brain dead and when you turn off hardware
compression the idiot things will connect without error correction as
well.  The decent modems like the USRs won't, but people wanting dialup
nowadays seem to buy the cheapo $9.95 softmodems or use the modems
on the motherboards which are softmodems.  I've even lately seen
USR 56k external modems for sale in the bins at Goodwill for $8 if
you can believe how idiot some people are.  (dump one of these in
favor of a new winmodem?)

Also, as more providers flash their terminal servers for V92 and
start supporting V.44 I suspect that the Slipstream algorithm will
be no better.

> SlipStream is not for everyone.  There are other issues where its not
> totally transparent and it causes issues with some internet services.
> However, when used properly you can achive significant improvements in
> download times.

The problem is that "used properly" is a very narrow definition - text
only sites without hardware compression on the modem, and the willingness
to take a degraded graphic.  And not mentioned is that a Pentium 200 isn't
going to have the CPU power to run an accellerator plus a softmodem
plus the pig that is Internet Exploder nowadays.  So you can just send
anything purchased before 1998 on it's way.  Most of our dialup customers
who are with dialup by choice (as opposed to being stuck with it because
they don't DSL qualify and can't get cable and cannot justify an $80
a month ISDN line) won't let a nickle through without rubbing off the face,
if you get my meaning, and tend towards older computers or systems that
power users have discarded.  And to be fair a lot of them are older on
fixed incomes, ie: retired, and only run the Internet to communicate
with the family.  I feel it's raising false hopes to tell that crowd
that an accellerator is going to run their stuff at 5 times faster like
they do in the TV ads.  And their TV ads don't say what the disclaimer
says, specifically "Transmission of files including, without limitation,
streaming audio or video, digital photographs, MP3 or other music files,
executable files and other downloads, is not faster using NetZero HiSpeed
than with standard dial-up service."

This kind of thing just delays people from taking the plunge into DSL
or cable.  And to be perfectly honest about it, even though we ourselves
don't sell cable and I cannot stand the cable companies, many people
out there with a land POTS line, a cell phone, cable TV with HBO and
a selection of expensive movie channels, and a dialup ISP, would find
that if they ditched their ISP and their land phone line, got a slightly
more expensive cellular plan and used their cell phone as their main
phone number, and got cable Internet added to their cable bill, they
would be at the same price as before but with real broadband.  And for
the rest of them, going to DSL in some cases is only an extra $15/mth,
hardly anything.

And all this is bad enough if your just making it a free option, which
I think you indicated you are.  When people like NetZero have the gall
to charge an extra five bucks a month (for it on broadband) that really
crosses the line.

Ted