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Frequently Asked Questions
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MegaSpeed
Accelerator 5 Minute Setup Guide
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It should take you less than 5 minutes to activate the Accelerator. That is, to find out if you are getting acceleration
and if not, why not. Verification occurs in the following order:
- Is the Web Accelerator active?
- Are you getting good acceleration?
- Do diagnostic tests pass?
Is the Web Accelerator installed, active,
and enabled on your computer?
If the Accelerator is installed and active on your computer a small Propel icon will appear in the Windows taskbar
area (near the system clock). If the Accelerator is active while you are surfing the Internet, the Propel icon
will appear as opposing white arrows flashing over the Propel. Try accessing a Web site. You should see the arrows
flashing as Web pages load. If you are able to surf the Internet but do not see the arrows, there are several possibilities:
- You subscribed, but the Accelerator software
is not enabled on your computer. A quick way to check this is to click on the blue Propel icon. In the pop-up menu
see if the second-from-the-top menu item is "Subscription Info..." If so, your subscription is active
on this machine. If the menu item is "Subscribe..." it means that your subscription is either not activated
or is not active on the machine you are using.
When you first subscribe, there is a special final step that allows you to enable the Accelerator on any computer
you are using. These instructions apply to you if 1) you never completed the subscription process, or 2) you want
to enable your subscription on a new machine.
- If You are past the free trial period and
have not yet subscribed to the Accelerator.
In such a case most Web sites will not be
accelerated and no acceleration arrows will appear when you surf.
- You are accessing a Web site or other content
that the Accelerator does not speed up.
If you are not sure what content can be
accelerated, Click
Here for details on what the Accelerator
does and does not accelerate.
- The Web Accelerator may be currently disabled
on your computer. If you see red lines around and over the blue Propel icon, it means that the Accelerator is disabled.
For instructions on how to enable and disable the Accelerator Click
Here.
- The Web 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.
What types of
Web content does this service accelerate?
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It accelerates Web page text (including plain text, HTML, markup and javascript) and the most common forms of graphics:
Gif, animated Gif, and JPEG images and Flash. It does not accelerate other forms of Internet content, including:
streaming media, such as video and audio streams; secure pages, such as those used for online banking and credit
card forms; FTP file downloads, including MP3 files and executable programs.
Are ad blockers,
popup stoppers, personal firewalls and other utilities compatible with the Web Accelerator?
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The Web Accelerator is compatible with most ad blockers, popup stoppers, personal firewalls, and other utilities.
In some cases, minor configuration either of the Web accelerator or other products is needed. In other cases, it
is not compatible.
What's the best
way to get technical support?
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The most effective way to obtain technical or customer support is to first review the on-line 5-minute Troubleshooting
Guide, which contains numerous suggestions as well as instructions on sending vitally important Web Accelerator
diagnostic information. Click
Here to access this guide.
If the Troubleshooting Guide does not answer your questions, the most effective thing to do is to contact 1USA.Com for further information.
How do I
uninstall the Web Accelerator?
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Restoring a Browser's Proxy Address
and Port Number
If you are using Netscape, Opera, or Mozilla, when you stop or uninstall the Accelerator you will need to reset
proxy settings to their original values (empty).
Click on the Netscape Edit menu. S elect Preferences... Click on the mark next to the Advanced category or simply
double-click on Advanced. Click on Proxies. If there was a proxy address in use prior to installing MegaSPEED Accelerator,
[Netscape 4 .7 only: click View... first] enter that address and port number. Otherwise click "Direct Connection
to the Internet".
Why can't
I open the Web Accelerator installation file after I download it?
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It is possible that the file extension ".exe" was somehow lost from the 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 "Propelsetup". 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 do you quantify
the up to 5x faster than dial-up claim
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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 the Web 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 the 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
How does this
solution compare to DSL or cable modem?
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The Web Accelerator 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 the Accelerator. In addition to the higher price,
many areas simply do not have DSL or cable Internet service available.
Why am I seeing
partial or incomplete page loads with the Web Accelerator?
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If you are using Zone Alarm Pro, a product from Zone Labs, it is possible that pages
only partially load and then stop ("timing out").
Propel is currently working with Zone Labs to resolve this problem. In the meantime, if you want to use Zone Alarm
Pro and the Web Accelerator at the same time, the workaround is to go into the Zone Alarm Pro control panel and
turn off the ad blocking and cookie control features. Note that this problem does not apply to the basic Zone Alarm
version.
At first I received faster page loads,
now they seem slower. Why is this?
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Click Here for Troubleshooting
tips.
What are the
system requirements for the Web Accelerator?
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System Requirements
Below, please find the suggested and minimum system requirements beyond the basics of an analog modem, a telephone
line, and an active Internet connection.
The Web Accelerator cannot be installed if minimum requirements are not met.
- Internet Explorer 5.0 or later
- AOL 6.0 or later
- Netscape 4.7 or later
- For Netscape 6.0 and above
- MSN Explorer
- Intel-based Pentium PC or the equivalent
Look for "X86-based PC" or the
equivalent in the System Summary section.
Operating system:
Windows 98, NT 4.0, 2000, ME, XP Home Edition, XP Professional
Disk space:
At least 25 MB of disk space. (135 MB recommended for optimal performance)
System memory (RAM):
At least 32 MB (64 MB recommended for optimal performance)
Internet connection line speed in Kbps (kilobits/second)
Minimum: 14.4 Kbps
Maximum: 200 Kbps
I travel. Does
the Web Accelerator work anywhere I use my PC?
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Yes. MegaSpeed will work on any of these 1USA dialup numbers.
What are the
privacy implications of using the Web Accelerator, powered by Propel?
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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.
Secondly, 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 by Propel only by applying special
post-processing.
Personally-identifiable Information
on Your Computer
Your browser stores temporary files on your computer's hard drive. These files are sometimes collectively called
your "browser cache". It is possible for someone with sufficient expertise to sit down at your computer
and view the cache folder to determine what Web sites you have visited. For this reason, your browser software
includes commands that allow you to delete its temporary files.
The Accelerator client software also stores temporary files on your computer's hard drive in the "MegaSPEED
cache". Those files could also be used to determine what Web pages you have visited, so MegaSPEED Accelerator
includes a command (on the Accelerator menu's Options dialog) so that you can delete those temporary files at any
time.
Propel Client/Server Communication
The 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.
How long will
it take to download MegaSPEED Accelerator?
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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. The
optional quick tour takes approximately 2-3 minutes.
How do I see
the original graphic quality of specific image or Web page?
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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 with Full Quality.
Refresh Picture with Full Quality. When your mouse is over a graphic.
If you select one of these options, MegaSPEED Accelerator will replace the compressed graphic image with an original
quality version. When the Propel icon arrows stop moving, 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 options are not available in Outlook.
These menu options are not available in Netscape, Opera or Mozilla. Please follow these steps.
1. Click on the small blue Propeller icon located near your system clock. Go to Options and adjust the Graphics
Acceleration Level to 1 (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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