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This section answers frequently asked questions (FAQs)
about using and installing ExpressLink Web Accelerator.
Click any of the following questions for resolution information.
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Overview of ExpressLink Web
Accelerator
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Download and Installation Help
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Using ExpressLink Web
Accelerator
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Product Details
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Overview of ExpressLink Web
Accelerator
What is Web
Acceleration?
Web
Acceleration (also called Network Acceleration or Internet
Acceleration) is software technology, which effectively speeds up
data throughput of access links to the Internet, (particularly slow
speed ones like dial-up and cellular) so that they enable faster
downloads or transmission of data such as files, documents, emails,
pictures, video, audio and web pages.
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What is
ExpressLink and how does it work?
ExpressLink is
a unique client/server based Web Acceleration software which boosts
the throughput of a slow speed connection such as cellular or
dial-up, providing the user experience comparable to landline like
throughput on a cellular link and broadband like throughput on a
dial-up link.
We provide you
with client software to load on your computer. Every time you browse
the web or use your email service, the client software on your
machine sends this request to the ExpressLink acceleration server
which in turn gets the requested information from the host using
very high speed connections. The ExpressLink server then compresses
the web page or email and sends it to you using custom protocols.
The software on your computer receives and decompresses it to
display it as normal. By making web pages smaller, we can transmit
them to you faster over the slow speed links. You can easily turn
ExpressLink off and on as your needs require
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How is
Acceleration achieved?
Web
Acceleration is achieved through one or more of the following
methods:
• Caching
(storing content closer to the user)
• Protocol Optimization (reducing 'chattiness' of TCP/IP protocols)
• Protocol Compression (reducing size of data transmission overhead)
• File Compression (reducing size of file data content)
• Proprietary Protocols (replacing inefficient network protocols
with proprietary protocols).
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I use dial-up
access for Internet connection. How will ExpressLink help me?
ExpressLink
can speed up your dial-up connections by several times.
Instantaneous speed up of 5x or more is not uncommon. This means
with ExpressLink you can experience DSL type performance over
dial-up lines. Not only this can save you money but more important
you may not have DSL service available in your area yet. With
ExpressLink you can start experiencing faster browsing without
having to wait for DSL service to be available in your area.
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I connect to the
Internet using the Cellular Network. How will ExpressLink help me?
ExpressLink
may even be considered a necessity for users accessing the Internet
over cellular connections. Cellular connection speeds are
significantly slower than landline speeds. Even the high speed
cellular data available today rarely matches the speed of a 56Kbps
connection. With ExpressLink, you will immediately notice the
significant increase in speed at which the web pages will now
display.
Another
benefit of ExpressLink unique to Cellular users is that you can
potentially save significant amount of money. This is a direct
consequence of the data compression used in ExpressLink. Your
cellular service provider may charge you by the amount of data sent
and received over the cellular network. With ExpressLink you can opt
for a smaller data plan, which can save you enough money per month
to easily justify ExpressLink. Alternatively you can keep your
current plan and use on the average 3 times or more data as your
plan will allow and not pay any additional charge.
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I am an RVer.
How will ExpressLink help me?
You most
likely rely heavily on accessing the Internet using the Cellular
network. You are also often in areas where only low speed analog
cellular connection is available. ExpressLink will speed up these
slow connections (typically 9600 bps) to appear as 48,000 bps or
better. This is a huge improvement. If you are using Ositech’s
CellFlex product (www.ositech.com),
ExpressLink will speed up whichever connection the Ositech product
has determined is available in that area and is most suitable. You
have to use ExpressLink to really appreciate the improvement you
will get over what you are currently used to.
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Are not all Web
Acceleration products the same?
There are two
broad categories of Web Acceleration products. The first category
products are software programs that run on your machine. They
achieve a certain degree of web acceleration by (a) attempting to
“tweak” certain protocol related parameters and (b) by allocating
huge amounts of your hard disk space for local cache, so that if you
visit the same page frequently it need not be downloaded. Caching
approaches do little for narrowband networks with high latency
issues This approach also relies too much on web pages changing
infrequently which in most cases is an incorrect assumption. For
example the main pages of sites such as CNN, MSN, Yahoo are changing
very frequently. The cost of these programs range from “free” to
quite high for the value they deliver.
The second
category of Web Acceleration products is significantly superior when
compared to the first category of product because these products are
based on Client/Server architecture. ExpressLink falls under this
category. In the client/server architecture, a high performance
server receives web pages from the host web servers over very high
speed links, compresses these web pages using powerful compression
algorithms so that significantly small amount of data is transmitted
over the slow speed link. This technique gives the best
acceleration. ExpressLink employs several other unique techniques
which makes its performance better than other solutions based on the
Client/Server architecture.
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Do dial-up and
wireless networks not already use some compression technology?
Dial-up
networks offer some generic compression technology, which is
essentially built in to modems (V.42 compression). The 56kbps
dial-up speed performance experienced by dial-up users, as slow as
it is, is the result of this applied modem compression technology.
For wireless networks, PPP compression technology is built into
networking products, but like the 56kbps modems, the wireless speeds
experienced by users, already includes the limited benefits of this
compression technology, leaving much more to be gained via advanced
approaches such as ExpressLink.
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Don't Web
Browsers already have compression built into them?
HTTP 1.0 Web
Browsers do not have any compression built into the browsers. HTTP
1.1 supports GZIP, a ZIP derivative. Some web sites activate the
GZIP compression function, but most do not for a variety of reasons.
Even when activated, GZIP compression provides very limited
compression performance compared to advanced compression technology
available on products such as ExpressLink.
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What is the
difference between compression and web acceleration?
Compression
meaning reduction is a basic requirement for Web Acceleration.
Depending on what compression algorithms are used, they make a huge
difference in the compressed file size. Additional techniques are
used by advance Web Accelerators like ExpressLink for Protocol
Optimization, Protocol Compression and Efficient Transport protocols
to achieve the overall web acceleration.
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What networks
can benefit most from web acceleration?
Networks that
have either narrow bandwidth (wireless and dialup) and/or networks
that have higher latency (satellite and wireless). Furthermore some
networks, such as GPRS technology for GSM wireless networks, are
particularly prone to network inefficiencies because of both narrow
bandwidth and high latency.
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Where are the
benefits of Web Acceleration visible?
Web
Acceleration is usually a process transparent to the end user,
except for the obvious benefits experienced. These benefits include
fast Email downloads with attachments, fast Intranet access to
corporate documents and information, and fast Web Browsing
experiences. Much like the benefits of DSL access vs. Dial-Up Access
to the Internet.
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Won't broadband
wireline (DSL/Cable) and wireless (2.5G and 3G) networks eliminate
the need for web acceleration?
Not very
likely in the near future. Widespread availability of DSL/Cable is a
few years away so dial-up will continue to remain the dominant
Internet access method for some years to come. For mobile users,
reliance on dial-up is likely to continue even though they may have
broadband access available at their homes. When it comes to cellular
networks the need for ExpressLink type products will continue for
much longer for two reasons; (a) widespread availability of
DSL/Cable equivalent speeds on cellular networks are several years
away and (b) when such speeds do become available the cost will not
be the same as DSL/Cable any time soon. The 2.5G networks of today
can barely offer sustained speeds equivalent to land line 56Kbps
modems. In reality the GSM/GPRS network today delivers not more than
16 kbps on a sustained basis and the 1xCDMA network can hardly
deliver 30K on a sustained basis. For today’s 2.5G networks,
ExpressLink will not only speed up the connection to better than
landline modem speeds but can also save significant money due to the
lower amount of data transmitted as a result of compression. And
finally, historically, data and applications continue to grow (e.g.
Microsoft applications, web content, games, etc.) and network access
is always the bottleneck requiring acceleration.
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My Cellular
Service Provider also provides a Web Accelerator. Why should I
consider using ExpressLink?
Some Cellular
Service Providers support web acceleration and provide an
acceleration client. However these accelerators may not be usable in
all types of cellular connections and under all conditions. For
example some cellular service providers will not support
acceleration if you are not connected to their network (i.e.
roaming) and using them as your ISP (i.e. Packet or QNC
connections). And none of the cellular service providers will
accelerate a connection over analog cellular connection or if using
a dial-up connection. You would still require another web
accelerator if you want to speed up Internet access when using wired
connections to your dial-up service provider. And since only one web
accelerator can be active at any time, you will have to
enable/disable the appropriate accelerator. This may lead to set-up
conflicts and confusion.
If you use
ExpressLink you will not have any of these problems. All you need is
ExpressLink which will accelerate your wired as well as your
wireless connections without requiring any special set up. You can
roam on any cellular network, even overseas and ExpressLink will
continue to provide you transparent and automatic acceleration. Such
is the flexibility of ExpressLink.
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How can I compare
the performance of ExpressLink with other Web Accelerators?
We encourage
you to compare ExpressLink with other products. You can do this by
testing the speed of your connection using test programs available
from a number of independent websites. One such website is
www.numion.com. Visit this website and follow the instructions
on how to test the speed of your connection. Run ExpressLink and
other Web Accelerator and compare the results.
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Download and
Installation Help
How Do I Get
Started with ExpressLink?
Download
ExpressLink from
www.expresslink.biz or install it from CD if you have received
one from us. Use it free for 15 days and at the end of the free
trial period you can decide if you want to subscribe to the
ExpressLink service or not. There is absolutely no obligation of any
kind should you decide not to use the ExpressLink.
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What is involved
in the Setup of ExpressLink?
Setup is
extremely simple. You simply click the download button on the
www.expresslink.biz website or run the auto install on the CD if
you have received one from us. The installation is completed
automatically. After the completion of the installation you will see
a BLUE coloured ExpressLink icon in the system tray at the bottom
right of your screen. Simply launch your browser or if it was
already open, close it and then re-launch your browser. This is
only required once after the initial installation. You should see a
message pop up indicating that the ExpressLink compression server
has been connected. Start browsing as before and start experiencing
the acceleration. You can customize your experience by right
clicking on the ExpressLink icon and choosing the Image quality
setting you would like. The default setting for the image quality is
“Good” which we have found to be suitable for most applications.
Simply start browsing as before. You can also enable the built in
pop up blocker to further improve your web browsing performance.
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Will ExpressLink
Work on my Computer?
ExpressLink
client software will run under Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows
ME, Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP Professional and Windows
XP Home. The current version of ExpressLink will not install on
Windows 95, Windows NT or non-Windows operating systems.
At present
ExpressLink is not available for Macintosh Computers.
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Which web browsers
is the ExpressLink client compatible with?
The
ExpressLink client is compatible with most web browsers; however the
ExpressLink client only accelerates Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0
(or later), Mozilla 1 (or later) and Netscape 4.x and Netscape 7.x.
Currently, the ExpressLink client does not accelerate Netscape 6.2.
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Which email
applications is ExpressLink compatible with?
ExpressLink is
compatible with most email clients; however, ExpressLink only
accelerates Microsoft Outlook 2000, Microsoft Outlook 2002, and
Microsoft Outlook Express versions 5.x and 6.x.
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Are personal
firewalls, pop-up stoppers, ad stoppers and other utilities
compatible with ExpressLink?
Yes, the
ExpressLink client has been tested with popular firewall products on
the market such as Tiny Personal Firewall, Norton Personal Firewall
2003 & 2004, Zone Alarm Pro 3.0.xx & 4.xx, and McAfee Firewall to
name a few. In most cases the firewall will flag that the
ExpressLink client wants to communicate to its server, you MUST
allow the communication when prompted in order to have ExpressLink
connect to its server to provide the accelerated services. It is
recommended not to use other 3rd party pop-up blockers,
as this feature is built into ExpressLink.
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Who can I
contact if there is a problem with my ExpressLink?
If you have
any problems with your ExpressLink software, please send an e-mail
to
support@expresslink.biz. Include as many details as possible in
your e-mail (i.e. Windows Operating System being used, applications
being used, any error messages that may have appeared, what you were
doing, etc.). If your ExpressLink is not working at all and you
wish to unload it, simply right-click on the ExpressLink icon in the
System Tray and choose "Exit", this will unload ExpressLink.
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Using ExpressLink
Web Accelerator
How will I know when ExpressLink is
working?
You can tell
that ExpressLink is functioning by the color of the icon in the
System Tray. A dark blue color indicates that the client is
functioning (i.e. connected to the server). If the icon is red, then
the client has been disabled (i.e. not connected). If a green icon
is present, then ExpressLink is actively transferring data. You can
also hold the cursor over the icon and you will see the status of
the client in a bubble window.
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Will ExpressLink work with my
Cellular Phone and Data cable or my Sierra Wireless Aircard?
Yes.
ExpressLink is not dependent on the type or manufacturer of the data
device or cellular phone.
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Will my web-based email (at
yahoo.com, hotmail.com, etc.) be compressed?
Yes.
ExpressLink will accelerate web-based email to the same extent as
web pages itself. The extent of compression is dependant on
your client compression settings.
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Do people need to have ExpressLink
installed to be able to receive the email, or view the attachments I
send?
No, your email
recipients do not need to have ExpressLink installed. Files
compressed with ExpressLink client are uncompressed by the
ExpressLink Server before being forwarded to the recipients. Users
simply open the files they receive from you in the usual way.
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How can I tell how much benefit I'm
getting from ExpressLink?
ExpressLink
keeps statistics of uploaded and downloaded data. You can access
these by right clicking on the ExpressLink icon in the System Tray
and choosing "Statistics". This will bring up ExpressLink
Statistics Monitor window. Look in the box labeled "Summary".
There are three columns of data. The first column is for data that
is in its original un-accelerated state and the second column is for
data that you actually received on your computer. The third column
represents the savings ratio between the original and actual data.
The column
labeled "Actual" tells you how much data (in bytes) you have sent
and received using ExpressLink. The column labeled "Original" tells
you how much data (in bytes) existed prior to acceleration. The
column labeled "Savings Ratio" provides a mathematical expression
(x:1) to represent the benefit that you have derived from
ExpressLink. The larger the x number, the more benefit you have
gotten. Typical usage usually results in 6:1 for sending and 3:1
for receiving (the differences are due to the nature of the web data
being sent and received).
Please note
that these statistics are not accumulative, but rather for the
current session only, and so should be taken in context.
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Why does my Outlook email client get
an error during a large email download?
When the size
of a receiving email attachment is large, it will take the client
system a little while to download the attachment. If the download
is more than 60 seconds, your Outlook client will pop up a message
informing you if you still want to remain connected. Otherwise, you
will be disconnected, because your ExpressLink client tries to
receive the whole file first then pass it on to your Outlook
application. Typically, your Outlook email application refers any
kind of delay as an error in the system, which in this case is not
true, hence you should press “Continue to receive your email as
normal
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Product Details
What Does ExpressLink Accelerate
Best?
ExpressLink works best on general
web page content (HTML, JPEG, GIFs, etc.).
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What does ExpressLink not Accelerate
Well?
Executables and already compressed
or encrypted data such as EXE files, MP3 files, video, HTTPS and FTP
connections.
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Is ExpressLink a hardware or software
product?
ExpressLink is a client/server
software product consisting of specialized acceleration software,
which resides on a remote acceleration server in addition to the
acceleration client software, which resides on the client’s
computing device.
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How secure is
the link between my computer and the server?
The
ExpressLink client and server use a proprietary method of
communications that is inherently immune from hacker attacks.
ExpressLink provides no encryption. Data sent over the ExpressLink
proxy is no more or less secure than it would be if ExpressLink were
not in use. The ExpressLink proxy server is only a way station for
your data. No data resides on it, and therefore security is not an
issue.
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Does ExpressLink support SSL/HTTPS/TLS?
Yes. However, as these are
encrypted at the browser or email application, the acceleration
available for these network protocols is limited, as compression is
not possible on encrypted files.
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Can I view Flash movies, and other
movie files when ExpressLink is running?
Yes. ExpressLink does not compress
movie files.
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Can I download executable (.exe)
files and install other software when ExpressLink is running?
Yes. ExpressLink software does not
interfere with any software installation package.
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What kind of mobile devices is
ExpressLink web acceleration usable on?
ExpressLink requires client
software to achieve maximum performance. For this reason ExpressLink
requires either a desktop or a laptop running Microsoft Windows OS.
In the future ExpressLink may support PDAs.
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What type of content does ExpressLink
accelerate?
ExpressLink is constantly being
updated to support more and more content acceleration. In general
ExpressLink provides protocol optimization, which provides a basic
level of acceleration regardless of the content. With version 3.0.65
web based content (HTTP) including web based HTTP mail makes use of
ExpressLink high-performance acceleration.
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How can I get a receipt for my
subscription to ExpressLink?
As part of the ExpressLink
subscription process an email would have been sent to you as
confirmation, which also included your User Name and billing
details. Please use this email as a receipt for subscription to
ExpressLink.
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