Dial-Up Frequently Asked Questions
What is
the RCN Dial Accelerator service? How does it work?
RCN offers the RCN Dial
Accelerator service through a partnership with Slipstream
Inc. SlipStream accelerates your internet access through
proprietary text and image compression, content caching
and other network optimizations.
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Will I
benefit from using RCN Dial Accelerator service?
If you have a dialup connection
you will experience a significant degree of acceleration.
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What types
of content does RCN's Dial Accelerator service speedup?
The RCN Dial Accelerator
service significantly speeds up web page access. To
achieve this speedup, proprietary lossless compression
is applied to text, html, xml, javascript and style
sheets. Proprietary image compression is applied to
gif images, jpeg images and Flash content. RCN also
accelerates email traffic (POP3 and SMTP)using lossless
compression. RCN’s Dial Accelerator service does NOT
speedup file downloads (over FTP or file sharing programs),
streaming audio/video and HTTPS (secure websites). RCN’s
Dial Accelerator service does NOT accelerate secure
transactions. Secure websites will continue to work
by bypassing the acceleration component.
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How do
I use Internet Explorer with RCN’s Dial-Up Accelerator?
Internet Explorer is automatically
configured to use the RCN Dial-Up Accelerator. Use
Internet Explorer as you normally would.
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How do
I use other browsers with RCN’s Dial-Up Accelerator?
Netscape Navigator is automatically
configured to use the RCN Dial-Up Accelerator. Use
Netscape as you normally would. For other browsers such
as Opera and Mozilla, RCN Dial-Up Accelerator works
with any web browser that allows you to specify an HTTP
proxy. You must set the HTTP proxy host to be "127.0.0.1"
and the port number to be the local listening port of
the SlipStream Client (5400 by default). Consult your
browser's documentation for information on how this
can be done. RCN does not support Opera and Mozilla
browsers.
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Does RCN
Dial-Up Accelerator speed up email access?
Yes, SlipStream automatically
accelerates your email traffic (POP3 and SMTP) for all
popular email clients such as Eudora, Outlook, Outlook
Express and Netscape Mail. Other email clients should
work transparently as well but they are not supported
by RCN.
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What operating
systems can RCN’s Dial-Up Accelerator be installed on?
RCN's Dial-Up Accelerator
can be installed on any of the following operating systems:
 |
Windows 2000 |
|
Windows XP |
|
Windows Vista |
RCN Dial-Up Accelerator requires at least Internet Explorer
4.0 and Netscape 4.0 or any later version of either browser.
Note that the SlipStream Email Acceleration component
requires Windows 98 and above, and that the SlipStream
Popup-Blocker component requires Internet Explorer 5.0
and above. For Windows 95 users: Currently, Microsoft
does not permit Windows 95 users to install Internet Explorer
6 or greater, however Internet Explorer 5.5 is available.
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What are
the Minimum System Requirements?
The minimum system requirements
are a Pentium 200MHz with 64MB RAM, at least 5MB of
hard-drive space, and Internet Explorer 4.0 as well
as Netscape Communicator 4.0 or any later.
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More technical frequently asked questions
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