I've seen a lot of ads for Onspeed, who claim for a small annual fee, to speed up your downloading by 3 to 5 times using a simple compression program. Now, good as this sounds I want proof from an existing user, and secondly am highly dubious it's correct as if it's that darn simple, why don't they sell it to Microsoft and have them put it in IE rather than hawking it to individuals for peanuts? If I find it does work, I'll be truly amazed the big boys don't make them an offer they can't refuse, as it's meant to work equally well on dial up and broadband. Can such an amazing piece of kit really exist in the shadows and not become incorporated into mainstream browsers? You can see why my skeptical button's been pressed. Am I right? Has anyone got it and does it really do what it says on the label?

Finally, it just occurred to me, seeing all the freeware out and about, surely any 14 year old programmer should be able to hack the insides out of this in about 30 minutes and distribute not only a similar but superior version for nothing, or maybe someone already has (URL please ).
The one you need to check out all the claims is Onspeed. Can they really walk on water?

I don't have any personal experience of this but it looks as if the speed-up is achieved by routing your page requests though Onspeed's own server. I'd guess what happens then is that the page is gathered quickly through its own high-speed connection, then the data is compressed and sent to you.

Being compressed, the data takes less time to transfer to your computer. So it seems it is the way Onspeed's server handles your request that counts, rather than it being anything to do with software that can be supplied by anyone. I'd think the software would just an interface for you to connect to Onspeed's server. Anyway, this approach to speeding up an Internet connection does work well on some data ...but not all.

I'm only putting my own interpretation what I gather from reading these two reviews. In the absence of anyone posting who's actually used the service, they may be of interest:

http://tinyurl.com/5nhpq
http://tinyurl.com/52c7k

Thanks TW, I've been promised broadband for the home line sometime next year, but as the broadband network in my father's road has just been terminated, he was hoping the dial-up prices could be reduced by staying on less time on the metered calls, as it's really me that uses it when I'm there and not worth getting a separate line. I'll see what the reports say compared to the 3-5 times faster claim in their ads, and at least now the whole process makes sense, as I'd just be sharing their broadband and getting it back at full speed.

Anyone interested after seeing the massive recent ad campaign should check this link out, and basically leave it alone. All it does is compress data, which speeds up text, speeds up pictures but doesn't keep the quality, and apparently has no effect on downloads, which is what I really wanted it for. Unless someone can't get broadband like me, it's certainly cheaper now than dial-up in the UK, and therefore no reason not to get it if it is actually available. Meanwhile I'll carry on with my two tin cans and a piece of string...