Checking Your System

Propel Accelerator works with a wide range of Windows systems and browsers. Refer to the Propel Accelerator for information on compatibility and Propel Accelerator system requirements.

You may have downloaded Propel Accelerator or received it on a CD. Either way, before you can start accelerating your Internet experience, you need to run the WNYpropelsetup.exe program.

Here is a summary of installation options and default settings:

Installation Option	Purpose	Default
Location of the Propel Accelerator directory	Specifies the location of files associated with Propel Accelerator	C:\Program Files\Propel Accelerator
Start menu location	Specifies the location of the Propel Accelerator entry in the Windows Start menu.	Start-> Programs-> Propel Accelerator
Level of Graphic Image Acceleration	Specifies the initial degree of graphic acceleration	"Low acceleration"

Starting and Restarting Propel Accelerator

Propel Accelerator is designed to be available at all times. A small icon (shown below) appears in the Windows taskbar area near the clock when Propel Accelerator is running.

If Propel Accelerator is not already running, you can start the program from the Windows Start menu.

Programs -> {Propel Accelerator program group} -> Start Propel Accelerator

By default Propel Accelerator is located in the Propel Accelerator Program group.

Propel Accelerator commands available from the Windows Start menu include:

Option	Meaning
Help	Propel Accelerator Help offers troubleshooting tips in the unlikely case that you experience problems with Internet access after installing Propel. Help also contains information about using Propel Accelerator with supported browsers including Internet Explorer, AOL, SBC Yahoo! Dial, Netscape, Opera and CompuServe.
Readme	Technical information about Propel Accelerator and its compatibility with other products.
Start Propel Accelerator	Starts Propel Accelerator.
Stop Propel Accelerator	Stops Propel Accelerator and removes the program from active memory.
Uninstall Propel Accelerator	Removes Propel Accelerator from your system.

Propel Accelerator Icon

The Windows taskbar contains an area near the system clock for programs such as Propel Accelerator that are designed to always be active.

The Propel Accelerator icon has several "states":

Icon State	Image	Meaning
Enabled		When running and enabled the Propel Accelerator icon depicts a blue-on-blue propeller.
Active		When actively sending or receiving information or other data to the Internet using HTTP, moving arrows replace the propeller.
Disabled		When Propel Accelerator is disabled, the propeller icon has a red circle around it and a line through it.
High Speed Connection Detected		Propel Accelerator is not active when you are connected to the Internet using a high-speed connection or you failed to sign on with your ISP acceleration service.
Temporarily Unavailable		A special state can occur if the Propel Accelerator is temporarily unavailable. A small yellow triangle (shown below) appears to let you know that Propel Accelerator is still enabled, but your Internet experience is not being accelerated.

Note: The Propel Accelerator icon may not immediately reflect state changes. This is normal. For the most accurate and up-to-date information run Propel Accelerator diagnostics. Propel Accelerator Menu

Whenever you click on the Propel Accelerator icon, a small menu pops up:

Each of these menu options is described in the following sections.

• Version number. The Propel Accelerator version number.
• Web site link. One or several links to relevant Web sites are provided.

When Propel Accelerator is enabled, this menu item will appear as Disable Propel Accelerator. When disabled, the menu item will appear as Enable Propel Accelerator. By default, Propel Accelerator is enabled, meaning that your Internet experience is accelerated. When you choose the Disable option, the Propel Acceleration Service will be bypassed and you will access the Internet at regular speed.

Note: Even if Propel Accelerator is disabled, the Propel Accelerator menu is still active. You can check performance or change settings in Options...

To completely inactivate Propel Accelerator, choose Stop Propel Accelerator from the Windows Start menu:

Programs -> {Propel Accelerator program group} ->
Stop Propel Accelerator

The Performance Meter window helps you track the degree to which Propel Accelerator improves the performance of your Internet dial-up connection when accessing Web pages.

Here are the details:

• Average speed-up. Propel Accelerator keeps track of the average virtual speed-up you receive. In the above example, the average speed increase is computed to be 2.8 times faster using Propel Accelerator. The 2.8 value is obtained by dividing the effective Web access speed of 66.2 kbps by the average physical connection speed (in this case 23.8 kpbs).
  
• Web page access speed. The effective Web page access speed is based on the compression of text and graphics. So, in this example, you would have an effective connection speed of approximately 66 kbps when using Propel Accelerator.

The following table shows the Web content types that are sped up by Propel Accelerator:

Content Type(s)	Primary Use of Content Type
Text	Words that appear on standard Web pages, including browser-based email.
HTML, CSS, markup, and javascript	The computerized instructions that cause pages to be displayed with a particular look and functionality, such as tables and borders.
JPEG	A very common format for photographic images. JPEGs appear on Web pages and browser-based email. Depending on the level of graphics acceleration chosen, the quality of the JPEG on a Web page sped up by Propel Accelerator will be affected.
GIF	GIF images are often used for Web page graphic elements such as buttons, as well as animated images. GIFs appear in banner ads and browser-based email as well. Propel Accelerator speeds up GIFs without impacting quality (lossless compression).
Flash	Flash images and animation are used in banner ads for other images.

There are a number of types of Internet content that Propel Accelerator does not speed up:

• Streaming media including audio (MP3), and video (AVI, movie, etc.).
• Secure pages (https), such as those used for online banking and credit card payments.
• Standalone mail programs like Eudora or Outlook.

When you choose Options, the following window appears:

Propel accelerates the downloading of Web page images by first pre-compressing the graphics they contain.

By default graphic images are delivered to your Web page in slightly compressed form (High acceleration, third option) that balances speed of delivery with graphics quality. However, there are four other Graphic Image Acceleration options. Here is a summary of all of the options:

Low acceleration. This setting maintains the original quality of the graphics on the Web pages you view. You will still get good overall acceleration because Propel Accelerator speeds up text, HTML, and some graphics through a technique called lossless compression, but graphics acceleration will be limited to about 1.2X (20% improvement with no loss of quality).

Medium acceleration. At this setting you get better graphics acceleration (2.0X or 100% improvement) with minimal effect on the actual appearance of the image.

High acceleration. This setting has increased acceleration with slightly more image quality degradation. It has usable graphic setting of approximately 3.0X improvement.

Very High acceleration. Even more graphics compression (~6.0X).

Maxium acceleration. This is the maximum or fastest graphics acceleration setting. At this level, you will find the typical Web page with lots of graphics appearing very significantly faster than without Propel Accelerator. However, there is a trade-off in that most graphics will be slightly fuzzy (~9.0X). In addition, some pages have functional graphic elements that can be affected by loss of color. (Please consider trying several levels so you can find the one that best suits your needs.)

As you move the slider between the various graphic acceleration level options, you'll notice the three images changing. These changes reflect - in fact, they actually exaggerate - the effect graphics acceleration has on the images.

Viewing a Page with different Graphics Acceleration Settings

If you are using a graphics acceleration option above Low acceleration and you want to view the page at, say, original quality, change to the higher-quality setting in the Options window and following these procedures:

Internet Explorer:	Select the Refresh option while holding down Ctrl (Ctrl-Refresh).
Netscape:	Select Reload (Ctrl-R) from the View menu.

The images in the refreshed (or reloaded) URL will reflect your new settings.

Note that if you do not use refresh options on recently viewed pages, changing the Graphics Image Acceleration setting will not affect these pages if you look at them again. For example, if you view Page A at Maxium acceleration, then switch to Medium acceleration Graphics Image Acceleration, then view Page B, page B will be at Medium acceleration Graphic Image Acceleration. However, if you then view Page A, only elements of the page which have changed since you last viewed it will appear at Medium acceleration.

Refreshing an Image or Page with Internet Explorer
If you are using Internet Explorer, there is an easier way to retrieve the original image or Web page. Simply move your mouse over an image on a Web page and click the right mouse button. You'll see that two new options are available:

• Refresh Page with Full Quality. This option has the same effect as a Ctrl-Refresh from your browser window.
• Refresh Picture with Full Quality. This option is only available when your mouse is over a graphic. If you select this option, Propel Accelerator will replace the compressed graphic image with an original quality version. Depending on the size of the image, this may only take a few moments. When the Propel Accelerator icon arrows stop moving, the new image is in place. In many, but not all cases, the difference will be noticeable.

Temporary files.

This option allows you to change, at any time, the amount of disk space available for Propel Accelerator temporary files.

If you have sufficient free disk space, Propel Accelerator will set the default amount of disk space to 128 megabytes (MB). You can adjust this from a minimum of 20 MB up to a maximum amount allowed for your system. In the above example, the maximum is approximately 2 gigabytes (2040 MB).

If you generally visit only a few (<5) Web sites daily, the minimum settings may be sufficient. If you are an active Web surfer and regularly visit dozens or even hundreds of sites, a setting of at least 256 MB is recommended.

Delete Files. Propel Accelerator manages temporary files for you. However, a Delete Files... button is available in case you want to manually remove the temporary Propel Accelerator files stored on your system.

Note: Under normal operating conditions, there is no need for you to remove temporary Propel Accelerator files.

An Advanced... tab is also available from Options.

The following advanced options are available:

Performance Summary Report. As a subscriber to Propel Accelerator, you can, at your option, regularly get a summary of the level of acceleration you are receiving. Summaries appear at the conclusion of a given dial-up session in a message that will briefly appear above the taskbar system tray icon. You can adjust the frequency with which these messages appear, ranging from "every time" to "never".

Port number. A "proxy server" is a technology that allows Web content to be pre-processed by another application before being sent to your browser. A proxy server that runs on the same machine as the Web browser is called a "local proxy server". Propel Accelerator is based on proxy server technology. Since it runs on the same computer as your Web browser, it qualifies as a local proxy server (sometimes called a "client proxy").

Client proxies have an address and a port number. Propel Accelerator uses an address of "localhost" and a port number that is determined by Propel; by default port 8080 is used.

Propel Accelerator automatically chooses a different port number if there are conflicts with other network applications that you have running on your computer. Under most circumstances, there is no need for you to specify a different port number. However you can specify any available port number in the range of 1025-65535. If you change the port number Propel Accelerator automatically restarts.

Note: If you are using Netscape, Opera, or Mozilla, see Propel Accelerator menu Help for additional details on setting, verifying, and removing proxy server settings.

Launch Propel Accelerator at startup. In the Advanced tab window you can change a default setting that launches Propel Accelerator every time your system starts up. This option is available in case of a need to isolate potential startup problems on your computer.

If you choose not to launch at startup, you can start Propel Accelerator from the Windows Start menu:

Programs -> {Propel Accelerator program group} -> Start Propel Accelerator

Microsoft Internet Explorer connections. The information in this section only applies if you are using Internet Explorer with Propel Accelerator.

When Propel Accelerator is installed, updated, restarted, or re-enabled your system is checked for incompatible Internet connection configurations. Since Propel Accelerator uses Internet Explorer proxy server settings, any Internet connection that also uses proxy settings is considered to have a potential conflict.

In the Advanced tab window, Internet connections with and without proxy setting conflicts are displayed.

Two options are available to you:

• Only accelerate connections without proxy conflicts.
• Accelerate all connections.

If you choose to accelerate all connections, all connections (including any with potential conflicts) will be temporarily reconfigured to be compatible with Propel Accelerator. This means that the Propel Accelerator proxy settings will be substituted for whatever settings may exist for that connection. Whenever you disable or exit Propel Accelerator, the original settings will be restored.

Accelerating connections that have proxy conflicts may or may not work. A good approach is to look at the list of incompatible connections.

• If you are not using any connections identified as having potential conflicts with Propel Accelerator, choose the "Only Accelerate Connections Without Proxy Conflicts" option.
  
  
• If you want to try accelerating a connection that has proxy conflicts with Propel Accelerator, choose the "Accelerate All Connections" option. If another software program is using a proxy for acceleration or other such services, substituting the Propel proxy settings may allow you to accelerate your Internet experience.
  
  However, if your Internet connection is dependent on another proxy (such as a firewall), accelerating that particular connection will most likely not succeed. (You can restore your system to the previous proxy setting by selecting Stop Propel Accelerator from the Windows Start menu.)
  
  
  Programs -> {Propel Accelerator program group} -> Stop Propel Accelerator

Diagnostics can be useful if you are having problems connecting to the Internet or if the degree of Internet acceleration is less than expected.

Note: More detailed information about the meaning of each diagnostic step, and suggested actions in case a particular test fails can be found in your local Propel Accelerator Help. A link to this file appears on the diagnostics window.

Here is the top portion of the Diagnostics window after the diagnostic test has been run:

Information reported by Propel Accelerator diagnostics includes:

• System resources.
• Basic Internet connectivity.
• Packet loss (phone line integrity).
• Current line speed.
• URL of the Propel Accelerator Service to which you are connected.
• Client version and the status of your subscription or free trial.
• Advanced speed tests for text and graphics for use by Propel Customer Support.
• Graphic acceleration setting.

To run diagnostics:

• Click the Propel Accelerator icon.
• Select the Diagnostics menu option.
• Click the Run Test button.

Run Test/Stop Test. This command starts or stops the 8-step diagnostic test.

System Info. If you select System Info from Diagnostics, information about your system will appear:

Copy log. Copies the contents of the Diagnostics window to your computer's clipboard.

Clear log. Clears the Diagnostics window of any previously run diagnostics, including System Info.

Help. Opens Propel Accelerator menu Help to the Diagnostics section.

Each of the diagnostic tests are described in detail in Propel Accelerator Help.

Programs -> {Propel Accelerator program group} -> Help

Sending the Diagnostic Log to Customer Support

If you experience technical difficulties when running Propel Accelerator, you may be asked to send diagnostic information to Customer Support. If this happens, please follow these steps:

• Press the Clear Log (if diagnostics have already been run during the session).
• Run diagnostic tests (Run Test).
• Get system information (System Info).
• Copy the diagnostic log to your computer's clipboard (Copy Log).

Runs a two-minute Web-based tutorial that explains how acceleration works, what content is accelerated and what is not, how to use the Propel Accelerator menu, and how to measure your acceleration.

The Help menu option launches local help. Propel Accelerator Help contains:

• System requirements.
• Internet access troubleshooting tips.
• Special configuration information for Netscape and other browsers that require adjustments to the proxy settings to use Propel Accelerator.

Accesses the Propel Accelerator Web site.

To uninstall Propel Accelerator, follow these steps:

From the Windows Start menu select:

Programs -> {Propel Accelerator program group} -> Uninstall Propel Accelerator

Whether the program is running or not, you will be asked to confirm that you want to uninstall the product.

Alternatively, Propel Accelerator can be uninstalled using the Add/Remove Programs control panel.

Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs

Important: See Propel Accelerator Menu Help for details on additional uninstallation steps you need to take if you are using Netscape or another browser that requires manual adjustments to proxy settings in order to use the browser with Propel Accelerator.