#Netscape
5 messages in this thread
Guy —
That 38.4kbs you are talking about is not really the rate between your modem
and the one at Teleport. It is your computer to your modem rate. The speed
between the modems is the higest both modems can support (2400, 14.4, 28.8
etc). Unless I am downloading something, I have found it cheaper to call CIS at
the 2400 number but I still get the "CONNECT 38400" message when I first log
on.
I don't know about Windows internet software since I use a Mac. Netscape pretty
much does WWW, FTP, Usenet News & Gopher but it doesn't do mail. Like Mosaic,
the hypertext words are blue (or red if you have already been to that location)
and clicking on those words take you to where ever the page represented by
those words are located. If it happens to be a Gopher or FTP site, Netscape
turns that ugly Unix interface into file and folder icons so you can just click
on the blue words next to the icons to go into a folder or download a file.
The usenet news reader is a little weak as it doesn't support >>automatic
quoting<< in replies or those cute signatures you see at the bottom of
messages. It does sort the message threads so the replies and replies to
replies are indented in the message lists. Here is a feature that almost made
me fall out of my chair – If you were reading a newsgroup and someone left a
message like "You can download Netscape at http://home.mcom.com", that address
would be in blue and you can just click on it to go download the program.
— Bill
Hi, Bill
> That 38.4kbs you are talking about is not really the rate between your modem
> and the one at Teleport. It is your computer to your modem rate.
That's absolutely right, but the fact that the data seems to come in over
twice as fast than at 14.4 tells me that the V.42 bis compression must be
doing some good. That's not available (as far as I know) with a CI$
connection. I don't expect to get the 4X compression that the V.42 bis
standard promises, but every little bit helps. (so to speak <g>)
I'll have look into Netscape some more, not sure at this point if it's
available in a Windows version. The other person that brought it up is also a
Mac person. Stay tuned….
> … and someone left a message like "You can download Netscape at
> http://home.mcom.com", that address would be in blue and you can just click
> on it …
I _like_ that!
Thanks, Guy
Note also that you can get more than 1440 char/s over a 14.4 kbit/s modem, even
without V.42bis compression. In the good old days, "bits per second" meant the
same thing for the serial port as it did for the modem's connection over the
phone line, but that's no longer true.
What matters, of course, is how many characters you can transfer each second.
To get a character across the serial port, you must send ten bits, but the
modem needs only eight bits to get that character across the phone line, if
it's using the V.42 protocol; so you get a 25% increase in speed just by using
modems with V.42, even without V.42bis compression–providing, of course, that
both ends' serial ports are running faster than the modem-to-modem bit rate.
Of course, there's some protocol overhead, so the improvement isn't quite that
large.
Hi, Gary
> .. the modem needs only eight bits to get that character across the phone
> line, if it's using the V.42 protocol; so you get a 25% increase in speed ..
> Of course, there's some protocol overhead, so the improvement isn't quite
> that large.
Ah-ha! That explains why I regularly get 115% efficiency when I download
weather maps. And here I was told that GIFs don't compress! <G>
Thanks, Guy
Guy —
Netscape for Windows is available for download at that "http://home.mcom.com"
address.
— Bill