2. The handshake protocol, as the name implies,
begins the conversation that allows data to be
sent to and from your computer using the
Internet. There are actually two separate
handshakes that occur in this process. The first
half is the modem initializing the Internet
connection. We'll call that the modem
handshake. The second part is the software
handshake. That deals with authenticating the
user's access to the ISP (Internet Service
Provider). When your computer is chirping
away, it is introducing itself to your ISP. High-
speed dial-up providers can't do anything
about the modem handshake, but they can
speed up the software handshake.
3. High-speed Dial-up: Acceleration Servers
When you search for a Web page on the
Internet, your request is routed though your
ISP to the Web. After making a series of stops
along the way at machines that help find the
page you're looking for, your machine is
connected to the computer that serves the Web
page you requested. Once this connection is
established, data can flow freely from the Web
server to your computer. Once the information
leaves the Web server and hits your dial-up
connection, that's where the bottleneck begins
in the typical Internet transaction.
4. High-speed Dial-up: File Compression
The key element of high-speed dial-up
Internet is file compression. If you've
read How File Compression Works, then
you know that there are two types of file
compression: lossy and lossless.
File compression is an evolving
technology, and it doesn't work on every
file type yet. The chart below will help
you understand what will and will not be
accelerated by high-speed dial-up.
5. High-speed Dial-up: Filtering and Caching
When you type a URL (like www.AnyWebSite.com)
into the address bar of your browser, you are
sending a request for a specific page. If that page
uses pop-up advertising, there are pop-up
parameters hiding in its programming code. When
the information is sent back to your machine, the
hidden code executes a program that launches the
advertisement. In order for the pop-up to pop, that
hidden code must display parameters that tells
your machine what size the ad is, where on the
screen it should appear, and other details about
the ad. These ads take up valuable bandwidth,
slowing down the transmission of data to your
machine.
6. High-speed Dial-up: The Bottom Line
It would seem that a clever combination of
fairly straightforward technologies has helped
to overcome some of the speed bumps of dial-
up Internet. These advances serve to prolong
the life of dial-up Internet and provide an
alternative for those who are tired of standard
dial-up but not quite ready for the leap to
broadband. If these advances continue, dial-up
may be here to stay for quite a while.
