A web accelerator is a proxy server that reduces web site access times. Web accelerators may use several techniques to achieve this reduction:
- They may cache recently or frequently accessed documents so they may be sent to the client with less latency or at a faster transfer rate than the remote server could.
- They may freshen objects in the cache ensuring that frequently accessed content is readily available for display.
- They may prefetch documents that are likely to be accessed in the near future.
- They may compress documents to a smaller size, for example by reducing the quality of images or by sending only what's changed since the document was last requested.
- They may filter out ads and other undesirable objects so they are not sent to the client at all.
- They may maintain persistent TCP connections between the client and the proxy server.
Web accelerators may be installed on the client (browsing) computer or on ISP hosted servers or both. Accelerating delivery through compression requires some type of host based server to collect, compress and then deliver content to a client computer.
As of June 2005, these applications generally serve to improve dial-up and other low speed connections. Many users can achieve a 2 to 3 times speed increase in average browsing experience, while some report a 5 to 10 times speed increases for specific web pages. Many ISPs offer web accelerators as a part of their dial up service.
Artera Turbo and Google's Web Accelerator have attempted to improve broadband access to the sites. Moreover, they are designed for web browsing and, sometimes, for e-mailing and can not improve speeds of streaming, gaming, P2P downloads or many other Internet applications. The key differences between the two broadband accelerators are:
- Google requires the download and installation of client software while Artera Turbo is entirely network-based (no end user software component).
- Perhaps more importantly, while both offerings increase end user speed, the techniques used by Artera Turbo reduce the amount of bandwidth ISPs need to pay for (resulting in net cost savings) whereas Google tends to increase bandwidth requirements (resulting in net cost increases).
Some web accelerators have been very controversial pieces of software. Critics claim that prefetching HTML page links slows the internet backbone. Others suggest that the accelerators overload web servers with prefetching and cache freshening behaviors.
Comparison
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| Compression | Browser | Caching | Prefetching | Client | Connection | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Artera Turbo | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Onspeed | Text & Images | Explorer/Firefox | ? | ? | user | Any |
| Google Web Accelerator | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Broadband |
| Propel | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Toonel | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Freewire | ? | ? | ? | ? | ISP | ? |
External links
- Open Source Free Setup for your ISP (apache sample config file)
- Artera Turbo Web Accelerator (Clientless Broadband Solution - Works with any user platform and any access line)
- AcceleNet Web Accelerator
- Propel Internet & Email Accelerator
- Proxyconn Web Accelerator
- Google Web Accelerator
- Toonel (Windows, Mac OS, Linux, Symbian UIQ, Windows Mobile)
- Onspeed Web Accelerator
- Opera Mobile Accelerator (discontinued)
- SaferSurf (.de)
- Traffic Optimizer (.ru)
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