Recently, NetZero released a new version of its acceleration software, called 3G. It is advertised to be as fast as brodband for loading webpages, and pictures. I just downloaded it a couple hours ago, and I can tell you that it is not as fast as brodband, and it is slower that their origional web accelerator. I put it through tests on their own website, and it is faster to load their test page without the hi-speed on. I have a couple friends who also tried this, and they came up with te same result. This would be the only thing I learned new today, thus I'm posting this in "What's New..."

I haven't used NetZero for a very long time. Found another free program without the ads. But since then, I switched to DSL service.

Is this really "accelerated speed"? From what I gather it's not actual speed increase at all. By this, I mean if you download actual files online it doesn't go any higher than dial up. It's only fast if you go to a frequently visited website. I think they cache lots of websites from NetZero customers and then if other customer's visit the same sites, the content itself (images, text, etc.) loads up quicker than usual (thus giving that supposedly "faster" speed). But I don't think it's good for downloads at all.

Just my 2 cents

NetZero may seem a good price, but if you have problems, they charge $1.95 a minute for live support.

From their website: "How does NetZero HiSpeed 3G work?

Before the text and graphics that make up Web pages get sent to you over your phone line, NetZero HiSpeed 3G compresses them using a proprietary technology. Less data is sent so the download of pages and your surfing experience are that much faster! In addition, NetZero HiSpeed 3G stores elements of the Web sites you visit frequently so you do not have to re-download them every time you visit these sites."

I've heard people talk about this and it doesn't always seem to work for everyone.

I'm wondering if the difference might be someone with a faster cpu, too.

I knew I left out something Yep, they compress them also. Thanks for the additional info there Brian.

I doubt that the CPU speed will matter. Maybe just a little if the web page is huge, but still I think it really depends on the users line (which is dial up ).

Last time I saw this, it was $9.95 per month. I think SBC Yahoo has their DSL service for $19.95 for 6 months now. So if you don't mind forking up and extra $10 for blazing speeds , I say go for it. Otherwise, your downloads will still be slow, only you might see a little faster loading time for some of the more popular webpages.

if the high speed is on then the download of a web page is slowed because the "high Speed" is really caching frequently visited websites from other 3g users thus when you visit a webpage a tally is started and netzero then knows what padges you are visiting most allowing them to cache that page thus making it "faster to load"