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OnSpeed is a heavily advertised service for dial-up users to use on top of their ISP, that claims to make your connection work at broadband speeds for £25 a year. Technically what it does, rather than speeding up your connection is decrease the amount of info you need to download. This does make that you receive using compression software. While this doesn’t come close to broadband speeds, most dial-up users say it does speed things up somewhat.
However the best feedback is what MoneySavers using it have and will write below!
*Affiliated link: Click via this link and a contribution is made to MoneySavingExpert.com, which helps it stay ad-free, sponsorship-free and free to use. This in no way impacts any editorial decisions (what I write), costs you anything or changes the product. For an identical link which doesn’t help the site go to www.onspeed.com. For more on how it works and the site’s non-profit driven ethical and financial policy read this
Last edited by MSE Wendy; 15-05-2007 at 11:25 AM..
The Following User Says Thank You to brandx For This Useful Post:Show me >>
I tried Onspeed ages ago when I was on dial up..the offer I tried came off a cover disc in a pc magazine. It definitely did speed up web pages loading and emailing and general surfing but it doesn't help for downloading mp3 etc. Every pc magazine review I've seen re Onspeed has given glowing reports!
Yes, it does speed up things. Recommended when you are on dial up, it doesn't speed up downloading files though. It costs me £2 a month. I subscribe to FAST4 for £6.99 unlimited. All in all £9 for a broadband (non downloading) experience. I probably won't subscribe to it if I am on broadband as it should be speedy enough without onspeed.
Try the following link http://www.onspeed.com/en/?MgM=afbchgfaa
It has 24 hours of online interactive support too which is really cool!
I've been using OnSpeed for a few months now, and in conjunction with Flexi-Surf ISP at £5 for 60 hours per month, and using either Opera or Firefox browsers, I get pretty good response on normal web pages.
The biggest difference is the quality of non-text.
At full speed, picture quality is poor, but there are six speed settings that you can adjust at any time, to improve the quality but slow the speed.
Security pages (https) are not loaded via OnSpeed so they are at original speed and quality.
However, I do have a couple of quibbles.
Firstly, sometimes OnSpeed doesn't function properly and I may have to disconnect and re-dial my ISP or even re-boot my PC, but this doesn't happen very often.
Secondly, if a web page is loaded at full speed and it contains a picture that I would like to be of better quality, I haven't found a way of achieving this. If I reset the speed setting to "original" and reload the page, the quality doesn't improve. I've tried deleting the page from my Web Page History, but this doesn't seem to work either.
Anybody know if there is a way around this?
The Following User Says Thank You to scurrier For This Useful Post:Show me >>
Been using ONspeed now for a year or so. Very good and fast if you are happy to compromise on image quality for a quick download of text. In response to Scurrier, the only way to reload a page with a better quality set of images is to delete all Temporary Internet files via Internet properties > Delete Files and select delete all offline content and click OK. This will clear the cache and allow you to reload the pafge at the desired quality level. Hope this helps.
The Following User Says Thank You to Julian MF For This Useful Post:Show me >>
Secondly, if a web page is loaded at full speed and it contains a picture that I would like to be of better quality, I haven't found a way of achieving this. If I reset the speed setting to "original" and reload the page, the quality doesn't improve. I've tried deleting the page from my Web Page History, but this doesn't seem to work either.
Anybody know if there is a way around this?
In IE6 you can right click on an image and select "View Original Image" to get the full quality picture. I haven't found a way to do it in Firefox though.
I've been very impressed with Onspeed and bought it for those times I'm away from my normal Broadband connection. I use a Bluetooth link to my Mobile phone and a GPRS connection. Onspeed delivers a remarkably fast service with compression ratios of 6-7 times. This has the dual benefit of giving me 6-7 times as much data transfer for my money on the GPRS data rate I get from my ISP (Orange). This is what I really call win-win
According to my Onspeed Performance record, I have now had it for 5 months, 1 week and 16 hours. My savings have been a meagre 44 minutes. I only pay 1 p/minute for internet usage 24/7 so I reckon even by the end of a year, I'll still be heavily out of pocket.
The Following User Says Thank You to kjfmuttie For This Useful Post:Show me >>
That comparison is for continuous traffic on the connection, not random browsing. However it is extremely low; has Onspeed been switched off some of the time?
On this single call it has compressed 23MB to 2.52, which would save an hour if continuous traffic.
I have Onspeed installed on one computer and, being one of Tiscali's customers, their Accelerator software on another.
I can't find any difference in performance between the two. The big bonus is that Onspeed charge £25 for a one year licence whereas the Tiscali version is free to download, and use.
I have been using onspeed for almost a year now it does speed up your connection the only hiccup is if the settings are too fast any pictures you download degrade in quality.However that shouldnt put you of trying it.I have it on-top of my broadband to give me some extra kick when surfing.
It drove me and my husband mad coz it messed up our computer, luckily we cancelled within 7days due to the problems,No it didnt seem to make our dial up any better, but thank goodness for broadband.I would not recommend onspeed.
Hi I have recived a disk from tiscali telling me they now offer all their customers free compression software sounds just the same as on speed, I haven't tried it yet but you can download from their site if you are a customer. I give it ago when I have a bit of time and let you know
Annie
I've been using OnSpeed for a few months now, and in conjunction with Flexi-Surf ISP at £5 for 60 hours per month, and using either Opera or Firefox browsers, I get pretty good response on normal web pages.
The biggest difference is the quality of non-text.
At full speed, picture quality is poor, but there are six speed settings that you can adjust at any time, to improve the quality but slow the speed.
Security pages (https) are not loaded via OnSpeed so they are at original speed and quality.
However, I do have a couple of quibbles.
Firstly, sometimes OnSpeed doesn't function properly and I may have to disconnect and re-dial my ISP or even re-boot my PC, but this doesn't happen very often.
""Secondly, if a web page is loaded at full speed and it contains a picture that I would like to be of better quality, I haven't found a way of achieving this. If I reset the speed setting to "original" and reload the page, the quality doesn't improve. I've tried deleting the page from my Web Page History, but this doesn't seem to work either.
Anybody know if there is a way around this?""
With regards to reloading pages with pictures that you want to see I've had similar problems, the way around I've found is not to delete from the history but to navigate yourself to your internet CACHE file and delete the pages from there - then click on reload "after setting Onspeed to the desired setting" and it works perfectly every time.
Onspeed is essentially a great tool for those times when one is not bothered about the quality of pictures being downloaded. Another way around it is to set your browser to block pictures anyway (I use avantbrowser which has an easily accesible button on a toolbar to utilise this function). I have also recently acquired a new bluetooth modem which is allowing me to connect to my dial-up ISP at consistent speeds of 115kps which is noticably faster with Onspeed off and even better when Onspeed is turned on again.
One more comment about Onspeed in my experience...turn it off before trying to perform a live update with any Norton product as the downloads either take forever or they fail potentially leaving you unknowingly inadequately protected.
I've installed the recently released PocketPC version on my Ipaq 2210 PDA which I connect to the internet through Bluetooth and my Sony mobile when away from home. It's obviously better and cheaper to speed up this access as it is even slower than normal dial-up. Onspeed noticibly improves the speed of browsing (perhaps not as much as I hoped) but when switchd on I cannot access my Email Inbox in Pocket Outlook. I have to switch off OnSpeed which rather defeats the bject if there are any attachments I want to download. Contacted OnSpeed via the on-line real time help line but the lass quickly got out of her depth but got a senior techie to phone me, which was great service. He said he would simulate my problem and phon me back by Monday at the latest. I'm still waiting. Not so great service!
Pls be nice to all MoneySavers. There's no such thing as a stupid question, and even if you disagree courtesy helps. Take care over copyright. Use excerpts and links rather than copying long text. This site asserts copyright on all comments posted on the board.
Pls be nice to all MoneySavers. There's no such thing as a stupid question, and even if you disagree courtesy helps.
Has anyone tried Onspeed?
Onspeed definitely worthwhile for dial-up
Has anyone tried Onspeed
Yes Weve tried Onspeed
It drove me and my husband mad coz it messed up our computer, luckily we cancelled within 7days due to the problems,No it didnt seem to make our dial up any better, but thank goodness for broadband.I would not recommend onspeed.
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