Latest Video: Bleeding Edge TV 311: Hauppauge HD PVR 1212 reviewx
Tuesday June 21, 2005 3:33 pm
NetZero 3G: The Truth
I just saw a commercial for NetZero’s latest gimmick, NetZero High Speed 3G. They are saying it is so fast, you won’t believe it’s not broadband. I had to check out the site and find the legal mumbo-jumbo, and here it is:
Speed reference based upon comparison to nationally available dial-up ISPs. NetZero HiSpeed 3G accelerates certain web page text and graphics when compared to standard dial-up Internet service. Actual results may vary. Some web pages such as secure or encrypted web pages will not be accelerated. NetZero HiSpeed 3G is not a broadband service and actual data transmission rates are not faster than standard dial-up Internet service. 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 3G than with standard dial-up service. NetZero HiSpeed 3G may not be compatible with proxy based software or services such as content filters or firewalls. NetZero HiSpeed 3G is only compatible with Platinum service and specified browsers. Available only for Windows.
So, they are basically caching, and possibly pre-fetching in a similar manner to the Google Toolbar. The thing is, it only seems to speed up text, which doesn’t really need to be sped up in the first place. Oh, and do you see the gall that they have referring to the service as 3G?
Read More 
| NetZero 3G
- Related Tags:
Digg ThisAdvertisement
Advertisement
Recent Galleries
Featured Poll
How is your Xbox 360 connected to your home network?
Categories
Recent Users
Statistics
- Total Posts: 8166
- Total Comments: 14361
- Total Trackbacks: 601
- Total Members: 15617
- Members Online: 0
- Guests Online: 249
- Anonymous Members: 0
- Most Visitors Ever: 5394
- Current Members Online:
Advertisement
© Gear Live Inc. {year} – User-posted content, unless source is quoted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Public Domain License. Gear Live graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, videos, articles, blogs, forums, scripts and other service names are the trademarks of Gear Live Inc.
Comments:
Doesn’t Firefox do pre-fetching also?
Reply to this: comment | thread
Would it be possible that they are gzipping textual content before sending it along to you? It would actually make it seem like text is quite a bit faster on some sites, without actually increasing the data transfer rate.
Reply to this: comment | thread
this involves a caching server on the ISP side, which compresses images and text on websites before sending them to the client software used by the dialup customer.
Reply to this: comment | thread
That is awesome!
I love that its just plain dialup!
Thanks for clearing it up.
Reply to this: comment | thread
I use a Linux Live CD to surf the internet and turn off the images in the browsers. If I want to see the picture I just right click and view image. The great thing about a Live CD is that it runs off the CD not the hard drive so you never have to worry about downloading adware or viruses.
Reply to this: comment | thread
Thanks for going through the trouble of reading that ######## from their website. I think most of that is on the bottom of the screen of the commercial (and many of their prior commericals), but nonetheless, thanks for the effort. My theory - when I first saw it - was they were just using 3G(igs) of hard disk space to cache web pages, which would definitely be broadbandish. ####, you would probably have pages for months if not years (depending on surfing habits) before they were overwritten in the cache by new data.
Reply to this: comment | thread
The real value in NetZero High technologh lies in its ability to render graphics using a color map that uses less bits than the original graphic image file. NetZero is not try to scam anyone. The poster who is so paranoid needs to relax.
Reply to this: comment | thread
I right now have netzero 3G and every time I dial in, commercial commercial commercial! So I had to hack it so I don’t have to use there junkly software.
Reply to this: comment | thread
I just had a rep from NetZero come into my store and tell me that NetZero was now including something like 100 minutes of free VOIP with their NetZero 3G Service!! What the hell.. How can you have VOIP over Dial-Up??? It never fails to amaze me how stupid reps can be for not questioning these promotions, and how stupid NetZero must be for offering something like this. Time to look for the small print.
Amazing :(
Reply to this: comment | thread
hey i have a question do u think that netzero 3g is fast enough to play wow(world of warcraft) i saw highspeed for 15 dollars and jumped on it. Now i think that i am screwed.
Reply to this: comment | thread
Comments: Page 1 of 1 pages