Download Accelerator
The Internet is too slow! Those five words have been uttered by probably everyone who has ever connected to the global network. I was out and about the other day, and I nearly fell out of my booth at the local diner when I overheard a neighbor complaining that his 1.5MB/sec DSL connection was too slow. Too slow? This, from a person who has probably never experienced the Internet at less than 500K/sec. I'd love to set him in front of a computer with my old 28.8 modem so he could really experience slow, but I'll be nice and just hand him a copy of Download Accelerator.

This program claims that it can increase those download speeds by up to 300%. Since the algorithms and other means by which this speed increase takes place aren't things the developer wants to share with the rest of the world -- and that attitude is certainly understandable -- you'll just have to take my word for it. So, er, here's my word: this program makes everything go really, really fast.

If, like most of the world, you connect to the Internet at 56K or less, you need Download Accelerator to get the most out of your modem. You're the target group for this application, the pool of users who will perhaps witness the best increase in download speed. In my informal tests of this program on a friend's computer -- since the cable was installed I've sold off my modems -- this program seemed to visibly shorten Web page downloads and hack 30% off of the time for a file download.

Speaking of downloads, there's the one heartache of many a dialup user: getting disconnected at the tail end of a monster download. Download Accelerator's error recovery defeats this irritating "feature" by automatically restarting your download at the cut-off point should loss of connection occur. If you should run into a slow download site, Download Accelerator includes a built-in mirror searcher to look for a faster download.

The program integrates directly into your browser, working with Internet Explorer 4.0 or later, and Netscape Navigator or Communicator 4.0. If you have a copy of one of those browsers and you're running Windows 95/NT or later, then you have everything you need to run Download Accelerator. If you'll excuse me, I think I'll go back to being stunned at someone describing a DSL connection as slow. My, how times have changed!

Wanna know what else I found this week? Go to my What's New page for a daily list of all the new and updated goodies!!