Performance Meter

The Performance Meter option helps you track the degree to which Propel Accelerator improves the performance of your Internet dial-up connection when accessing web pages. The window displays the performance meter and associated information:

• Average speed-up. Propel Accelerator keeps track of the average virtual speed-up you receive. The average speed is obtained by dividing the effective web access speed by the average physical connection speed.
  
• Web page access speed. The effective web page access speed is based on the compression of text and graphics.
• Measured time and estimated savings. Propel Accelerator also tracks the amount of time with and without acceleration. It estimates (in hours and minutes) the time you saved between using acceleration and without acceleration.

Propel Accelerator speeds up the delivery of the following content types:

Content Type(s)	Primary Use of Content Type
Text	Words that appear on standard web pages, including browser-based e-mail, and e-mail that uses the POP3 protocol (Post Office Protocol 3).
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	JPEG is a widely-used format for images that appear in web pages and in browser-based e-mail. Depending on the level of graphics acceleration chosen, the quality of the JPEG on a web page accelerated by Propel Accelerator is affected. JPEG images sent in e-mail are accelerated using lossless compression, meaning that they retain their original quality.
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 e-mail as well. Propel Accelerator speeds up GIFs without impacting quality (lossless compression). At all acceleration rates higher than Low, Propel Accelerator reduces the colors in GIF images to reduce the file size, without affecting visual quality. At an acceleration level of Medium or higher, animated GIFs are disabled.
Flash	Flash images and animation are used in banner ads for other images.

Download Acceleration

Propel Accelerator speeds up the downloading of MP3 files, executable programs, and other files downloaded from within your browser. Results depend on the quality of your connection. This feature works by checking for file mirror sites, segmenting files for parallel downloading if possible, and by retaining partially loaded file data across dropped connections.