Sponsor's Message

Local ISP Quicksilver has launched a service which, it claims, can triple the speed of a dial-up connection without the need for any additional hardware.

Sounds almost too good to be true doesn't it (ring, ring, ring).

Well maybe, maybe not.

The software that purports to achieve this speed-tripling magic is called Slipstream and comes from a company hiding out at slipstreamdata.com

So can a piece of software effectively triple the speed of your Internet connection, and are their any caveats?

Well since Quicksilver didn't say "hey Aardvark, why not review this" (I wonder why?) I can't provide any first-hand information in respect to the actual performance of the product but early adopters have suggested that they're seeing some improvement on some types of files.

But how does it work?

Well the answer is simple -- data compression.

We all know that by compressing data we can effectively fit a quart into a pint pot -- and data compression is already widely used on the Net.

All the common image formats such as GIF, JPEG, PNG, etc are a form of compressed data. By using some slick code, a 1MB uncompressed image can easily be squeezed down to 50Kbytes or less using JPEG.

Readers Say (updated irregularly) Quicksilver slipstream... - Owen Quicksilver slipstream(2)... - Owen From Yesterday... Watermark Advertising... - Alastair Paying for FTA channels... - Dave They can't be serious... - Joe TV3 watermark... - Don Demise of FTA?... - Ian Subscription Television... - Paul Pay TV... - Peter Joes Comments... - Craig ImpactTV's Website... - Brodie Have Your Say

But data compression is nothing new -- even the decades-old fax standard uses data compression to squeeze page of scanned data down to a size that can be sent in a reasonable time using the fax's 9600bps connection.

It would appear as if SlipStream attempts to speed up the transfer of data from the ISP (Quicksilver in this case) to the customer's PC by compressing it before it's sent and decompressing it once it arrives.

With most Net users running fairly fast computers with CPU cycles to spare, this sounds like a pretty damned good idea doesn't?

Well it is -- except that in the case of dial-up modems, this compression and decompression already happens.

Even since the very first "smartmodems" way back in the 1980s, most dial-up modems have included data compression.

Originally it was a system known as MNP but around about the time that 14.4Kbps became the new standard for dial-up, a system known as V42bis was chosen to do the job.

Both MNP and V42bis are relatively simple compression systems, but they do an astoundingly good job on plaintext and an even better job on sparse text (text files with lots of whitespace).

When downloading otherwise uncompressed log files from my webserver, I frequently see transfer speeds in excess of 75Kbps -- even though I'm only connected at 26Kbps. That's because the modem is transferring 26Kbps of compressed data which it then expands to 75Kbps of plain text.

The question one has to ask therefore is: how much better is Slipstream's compression than the V42bis compression offered by the modem?

Well if the reports of some users are to be believed there is an improvement, although hopes of seeing a consistent tripling of your modem's throughput are decidedly unreasonable.

Files that are already heavily compressed (such as ZIP files, JPEGs, MP3s, MPEGs, etc) will likely show no improvements at all - and let's face it, the compressible component of most webpages in these days of heavy graphics, is unlikely to be a significant proportion.

Is it worth paying $10 a month for this service?

I don't know -- but if you're spending most of your time downloading data which is already heavily compressed then possibly not. If you read really fast and browse a lot of solely text-based sites then maybe so.

If you're a Linux or Apple user however -- forget it. This is a Windows-only solution.

Improving NZ's Image? I don't Think So
Just a follow-up on the newzealand.com story.

If the government thinks that its purchase of newzealand.com is going to improve New Zealand's image on the Net then I think they've made an awful mistake.

As the overseas media begin to pick up on this story it's starting to look as if the purchase has turned us into a bit of a laughing stock instead.

And of course if any Aardvark readers have an opinion on today's column or want to add something you're also invited to chip in and have your say.

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