Is "High Speed Dialup" an Oxymoron?
 

Hi, I live in an area where broadband is absolutely unavailable. Are there any applications or services that work with Linux (or any OS for that matter) that actually help to "accelerate" my connection? There's ad's all over the internet for "Web Accelerators" like Propel (for Windows), and proxy services that cache and compress data. But do they work? Anything free would be best, but I'd pay a bit for any really good services. Thanks for the help!!

Any web service that caches data is not going to help much with downloads but may make it a bit faster when surfing the web. I am not sure about in linux, but you might look into modem bonding (might be under different terms). this allows you to use two modems on two phone lines and effectively double your speed (or close to). Not all ISP's support this. so be sure to check up on this first.

ezra143 is right. Those ISPs basically just cache data so that it appears that you are getting your web pages faster. They will not help at all when it comes to downloading big files. FCC regulations prevent data from being transferred over a normal phone line any faster than 52.9kbps...or some goofy number like that. Modem bonding is in fact the only way to truly increase your dial up speed.

Yes, I suppose you're right. Thanks for helping me not waste my time anyway! The only problem with modem bonding is.... doubling my throughput from 1.8 KB/s to 3.6 KB/s would hardly be noticeable. :rolleyes: I guess I'll wait for BPL to get approved by the FCC. Thanks!