The truth behind the "Modem Booster" software ads!

Recently I downloaded a program from the Internet called eAccelerate that boasted it would help to speed up future downloads. All it did was connect me to a new homepage when I logged on to the net and give me unwanted advertisements!! After finding out the claims were BOGUS (I should have known) I used the un-install to dump the program. After the un-install, the unwanted homepage continues to appear when I log on! I have searched for anything connected with 'eAccelerate' without success. Can you help?

- Linda

This question was answered on February 23, 2001. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.

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According to Advertising Age’s NetResults, one of the most frequently viewed banner ads is one that has the message “Your Internet Connection is not Optimized! Download “XXXX” now!” Because it is presented in a box that looks very much like a Windows error message box, it gets a lot of action

Most companies try to sell you a piece of software for around $30 dollars that will “magically” boost your Internet speeds, which they typically don’t Another way these companies generate revenue is by creating Adware, which is what it sounds like you installed Adware is free to the end-user but it generally changes the Internet “Start Page” in your browser, then bombards you with ads when you connect to the Internet.

First, let’s deal with optimizing your dial-up modem for maximum Internet speeds It is true that most Windows 95/98 computers in their default configurations are optimized for Local Area Networks, which can cause a modem to deal with larger “chunks” of data than it was designed for The MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit), MSS (Maximum Segment Size), RWin (Default Receive Window) and the TTL (Time to Live) settings are the main areas that control this aspect of Internet connections By adjusting these settings, you can optimize the data transfer for your dial-up modem, but rarely does it result in a real noticeable increase in performance.

Other minor changes such as the protocols that are assigned to your modem can reduce the time it takes to initially connect to your ISP.

What these companies don’t want you to know is that there are dozens of truly free programs that do the same thing without taking your browser hostage.

Theses changes are known as “tweaks” or slight adjustments so don’t expect much if you do make the modification I have posted the exact steps for making the modification for Windows 95/98/ME users at <a href="http://www.datadr.com/dun" target="_blank"><font color="#003399">www.datadr.com/dun</font></a> For those not wanting to manually change the settings, there are a whole host of “freeware” programs that will perform these modifications, which are also posted at the site.

Getting your start page back to your desired site is fairly simple If you are using Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, click on the “Tools” menu and then on “Internet Options” In the “Home Page” section at the top of the Internet Options window, simply type in the web address that you would like to be your start page.

In Netscape’s browsers, click on the “Edit” menu and then select “Preferences” Click on the “Navigator” option in the left column and change the “Location” in the Home Page section to the desired start page.

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Posted by Ken Colburn of Data Doctors on February 23, 2001

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