Onspeed

Not everyone can access broadband and people on the move often have to use a GPRS connection. The new version of Onspeed claims to speed up Internet access. Unlike some that simply tweak a few Registry settings, it's based around an annual subscription to a web proxy service. The web proxy compresses the documents you request and there's also a transparent email proxy for Pop3 and SMTP connections, which is new to this version.

Setup is straightforward and you only need to enter your subscription information. IE-based browsers will be configured automatically. For others, such as Opera, you simply configure a proxy server as localhost, port 5400.

Performance depends on what you're doing. The setup screens allow you to bypass the proxy for certain sites and a system tray icon lets you turn it off completely. You can also separately disable email speed-up and pop-ups and choose the compression level for images. At moderate compression, a gallery of photographs downloaded over the modem in one minute, instead of five minutes and 30 seconds without. However, we noticed a lot of artefacts. This gets considerably worse as the compression level is increased.

Onspeed is also less effective when dealing with files that are already compressed, such as zip. If you understand those limitations and the trade-off between image quality and speed on web browsing, it's a good package. Mobile phone users will probably save more than the monthly subscription.

Contact: Onspeed 08707 585 859
www.onspeed.com

System requirements:

• Windows 98, ME, 2000 or XP
• 25MB of disk space
• 64MB of memory

Price:
RRP: £24.99 per year (£21.27 ex VAT).