Propel Technology

How does a company accomplish their goal of improving the Internet experience? Simple. You combine an innovative idea with creative technology professionals and create a critically acclaimed software solution - Propel Accelerator!

Overview

Propel has become a market leader in Internet acceleration since launching its product in 2002. Used by millions of customers, Propel Accelerator provides an unparalleled Internet experience and is why it is considered the best Internet accelerator on the market today.

Propel Accelerator client-server software speeds up Web browsing, e-mail and file downloads by using patent-pending compression, caching and connection optimization. Also included is the blocking of unwanted in-page advertising.

Developed by serial Silicon Valley entrepreneur, Steve Kirsch, and a unique development team comprised of experienced managers, proven technology experts, innovative software developers, and highly-qualified network deployment professionals, Propel Accelerator quickly became the industry standard.

Want more proof? Ask many of the worlds top ISPs why they chose Propel. Companies such as AT&T, BellSouth, CenturyTel, Cincinnati Bell, EarthLink, PeoplePC Online, iG Brazil and Russia Online chose Propel Accelerator to reduce customer churn while dramatically reducing bandwidth usage on their network. Propel has also received critical acclaim from several leading reviewers and Internet experts from publications including CNET ("Editor's Choice"), PC World, Washington Post, ISP Planet, ZDNet, PC Magazine, the Wall Street Journal and Silicon Valley's San Jose Mercury News.

The Challenge

No matter how much bandwidth you currently possess, content providers will find a way to maximize their use of that bandwidth. Variable throughput coupled with larger feature-rich Web pages means ISPs need a way to reduce the amount of data traversing their network. Propel Accelerator technology solves these problems with innovative techniques that work no matter what type of connection you use - Broadband, Wireless, or Dial-up.

How It Works

Propel Accelerator introduces new techniques which take acceleration to new levels and provide better performance than competing solutions.

Compression

Propel Accelerator delivers text and graphics more efficiently by using a variety of proprietary compression technologies that significantly reduce the size of Web pages and page elements sent to your browser. Data can be reduced up to 70% to 90% depending on the final quality of graphics selected. Propel also allows the user to increase graphic compression levels (creating some image degradation) in order to get even faster speeds and higher data compression rates.

Compression is the main mechanism for accelerating first time page visits. Propel can compress web graphics losslesly (without loss in quality). In addition, If you use Internet Explorer or a related browser, you can quickly refresh a graphic image or an entire page to full quality by right clicking on the image or the background of the page and using one of the Refresh With Full Quality commands.

Intelligent Caching

While Web browsers do some level of caching, they can only cache content on an object basis, and often reload content needlessly due to unsophisticated cache control capabilities. In contrast, Propel can reuse fragments of objects. Leveraging its patent-pending caching techniques, Propel reloads content only when it has changed. This results in dramatic acceleration for browsing the Web since far less content is being transmitted and results in correspondingly faster page load times.

Optimized TCP/IP Connections

During a typical web browsing session, hundreds of TCP/IP connections and DNS lookups are necessary to retrieve Web pages. Propel Accelerator improves this process by efficiently managing and optimizing the communication between the computer and our network of servers. Propel Accelerator requires only one TCP/IP connection at the start of the browsing session and DNS lookups are shifted to the Propel Acceleration Servers where they can be carried out with low latency over high-bandwidth connections.

Content Filtering

In-page Advertisements

Propel Accelerator allows the user-controlled blocking of most advertisements that appear on Web pages. When an ad is blocked, it is replaced with a light gray box on the Web page, to make sure that Web pages maintain their intended design. You can easily view blocked ads by right clicking on the gray box.

On What Type Of Connections Does Propel Accelerator Work?

Connection Types Supported

  • Wired & Wireless Broadband
  • Wireless Mobile Data
  • Satellite
  • 802.11 Hotspots
  • 1XRTT / GPRS / EDGE
  • Dial-Up

What Type Of Performance Can I Expect From Propel Accelerator?

At Which Connection Speeds Does Propel Accelerator Work?

Propel Accelerator will technically work on any connection speed although the greatest visual and functional performance occur at speeds below 2 Mbps. At higher speeds, Propel Accelerator continues to provide benefit by evening out the browser performance and continuing to provide data savings of up to 70% to 90%. For more information on specific connection speeds, please see the chart located in the "Performance" section below.

Propel Accelerator At Work

The figure below depicts the relationships between the various components of the Propel Acceleration Service and how they interact.

Relationship #1

The Propel Accelerator Client Software ("Propel Client") runs in the background on your PC / Mac as a local proxy. The Propel Client maintains a persistent connection to the Propel Network in order to eliminate the connections that need to be established every time the browser initiates a request. The Propel Client decodes and caches the content it receives from the Propel Network before sending it to the Web browser.

Relationship #2

The Propel Network sits between the Propel Client running on your PC / Mac and the Web sites you are trying to reach. The Propel Network consists of a collection of strategically deployed servers that manage connections and encode data received from the destination sites. By doing so, the Propel Network reduces the distance data must travel, and at the same time reduces the amount of data transmitted.

Key Features of Propel Accelerator

Dynamic Imaging

In the past, users had to choose between final image quality and the amount of acceleration or speed provided to Web browsing. Now with Dynamic Imaging, users can have both! Dynamic Imaging dramatically reduces the time it takes your Web browser to receive a fully rendered Web page by delivering initial preview images that continue to improve as you linger on the page. Faster page loads means users are now free to move quickly past any page in which they are not interested, and on to the ones they are.

Propel Accelerator with Dynamic Imaging loads fully usable image gallery pages an average of 14.7x faster than without acceleration.

Our nearest competition delivers the same images at only 8.6x with noticeably degraded images. To reach our speed, they need to reduce the image quality even further!

Broadband Functionality

Broadband connections typically provide a fraction of the maximum speed claimed by providers. Propel Accelerator will "boost" your broadband browsing, providing acceleration when you need it. It will speed up your Internet browsing by up to 5x depending on how and where you surf. Version 6 provides noticeable benefit on connections up to 2 Mbps.

In addition to boosting web pages that need it, Propel Accelerator also reduces the amount of data downloaded by up to 90%. This will save you money if you are an end-user on a metered Internet access plan that charges by the amount of data you download, or, if you are an ISP who needs to reduce the amount of data traversing your network.

Benefits of Client Software

  • Offers superior performance compared to clientless solutions
  • Uses Dynamic Imaging Technology
  • Accelerates Web Browsing, Email Transfers and File Downloading
  • Intuitive User Interface
    • User configurable blocking of advertisements
    • Built-in diagnostics and performance reporting
  • Seamless Integration
  • Easy Set-up. No technical skills are required by the end-user. Just a few clicks and its downloaded to your computer.

What content types are Accelerated?

Text HTML / XML / DHTL / Text / JavaScript / CSS
Graphics & Photos JPEG / GIFF / PNG / BMP / PDF
Banner Ads Animated GIFFs / Flash
Email POP3 / SMTP / IMAP (Windows Only)

System Requirements

Windows Macintosh
RAM 128 Mb 128 Mb (Minimum as per OS X)
Platforms XP / Vista / Windows 7 OS X 10.2 or later /
10.4 or later* on Intel Mac
Browsers Internet Explorer 5.0 or later /
Firefox / Mozilla / Opera		 Internet Explorer 5.2 or later /
Safari 1.2 or later / Firefox / Mozilla
Connections Any Internet connection < 2 Mbps. This includes wired and wireless broadband, satellite, wireless mobile data, 802.11 hotspot and dial-up connections.
ISPs Most ISPs are compatible with Propel Accelerator.*

* Propel Accelerator will work with AOL, Wal-Mart Connect, CompuServe, MSN, Juno SpeedBand and NetZero HiSpeed using the browsers supported by Propel. The native browsers from these ISPs are not supported by Propel Accelerator.