Dialup Accelerator Guide

Installation Instructions

A. Download.

• Go to the Download page and select the version for your operating sytem.
• Download the installer, if offered the option to “open” or “save”...
  • “Open” will download, then decompress and launch the installer immediately
  • “Save” will allow you to download the installer and save it so you can begin the installation later
• Once the download has completed, proceed to B. Install.

B. Install

Downloading the Dialup Accelerator installer onto your Desktop, will leave you with an icon named accelinstall.exe (PC) or accelinstall.dmg (Mac) on your Desktop.

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Windows: Double-clicking on the icon will launch the installer.

Macs: Double-click the .dmg file to mount the Accelerator disk image. Inside the disk-image folder is the SoVerNet-Accelerator.pkg file. Double-click the .pkg file to begin installing.

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The installer will guide you through the complete setup process.

Once the installation finishes you will be prompted for a username and password. Enter the login username and password used in your dialer configuration. Note, you'll need to append “@sover.net” to the dialin username.

To avoid having to keep entering your username and password each time, ensure that the “Save Password” box is checked. (Note: Unchecking the box will make it necessary to enter your password in order to access the accelerator service. You may see asterisks in the password field, but they are “dummies” and you type over them when entering your real password.

C. Starting

The Dialup Accelerator software is automatically started when your computer starts up.

• Acceleration will begin as soon as a supported browser (such as Internet Explorer, Netscape on the PC, or Safari on the Mac) or a supported email client (PC only—Microsoft Outlook, Eudora, or other) accesses the Internet.
  
  
• On some Windows platforms a bubble icon will appear when the Accelerator Service has been established. On other Windows platforms, you can verify that Accelerator Service has been established by hovering over the Accelerator tray icon (you should see a “Accelerator Service Enabled...” message).
  
  
• On Macs, click the Dock's Accelerator icon. The rotating ball on the Status tab, while loading a page, indicates acceleration in progress.

D. Using the Accelerator

• Browse the web as you normally would.
  
  
• Opera, Mozilla, Firefox—IE/Netscape (Windows) and Safari/IE (Mac) work automatically with the Accelerator. The Accelerator works with any Windows web browser that allows you to specify an HTTP proxy. You must set the HTTP proxy host to be “127.0.0.1” and the port number to be the local listening port of the Accelerator Client (5400 by default). Consult your browser's documentation for information on how this can be done. Mac users can use the Accelerator with Safari and IE, although Firefox may also work.
  
  
• When finished, simply close your web browser, as you normally would, and Dialup Accelerator will remain idle in your system tray or the Dock.
  
  
• If you want to stop the application after browsing select Stop Accelerator from the pop-up menu, or if you desire to exit the application completely, click Exit from the pop-up menu.

E. Further Assistance

1. If you experience problems downloading, installing or running the Dialup Accelerator, consult the Troubleshooting sections for further assistance.
2. Still having trouble? Feel free to contact Support: 877-877-2120

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Applications which might conflict with the Accelerator
Some antivirus, firewall, parental control, and spyware applications might conflict with the Accelerator. Examples are OPTENET, Windows Media Player 9, iTunes Music Store, AdSubtract Pro, New.net client, older versions of Zone Alarm, Venturi Accelerator, old versions of Norton AntiVirus (2001 and below), PC-cillin, some Hotmail-to-POP proxy programs, Ontrack System Suite. Some compete with the Accelerato to set the browser proxy settings, others compete for port access.

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Launching the Dialup Accelerator

Dialup Accelerator launches automatically each time you start your machine. It operates in the background to accelerate your Internet connection. No user intervention is required.

If the Accelerator is not running and you need to launch it manually, an icon titled “Accelerator” is located in the Windows Start Menu under the Accelerator folder.

Macs, look under “Go” in the Finder's menubar—look for the SoVerNet Accelerator either in the Applications folder or under “Recent Folder.”

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Accessing the User Interface

Once launched, the Accelerator will remain in the system tray (PC) or in the Dock (Macs—you can set it to always be in the Dock if you wish). For the most part, during web browsing there will be no need to access the user interface. You can use the interface to change settings, view connection status, or (PC only) check acceleration statistics.

To access the user interface features, click on the Accelerator icon in the system tray or Dock.

• Windows—A pop-up menu will appear, providing access to all the features of the product. Selecting and single-clicking any of the menu items will access that particular feature.
  
  
• Mac—A tabbed window will pop-up, providing access to the options.

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Setting Username and Password Information

Your username and password information is located in the Connection Tab of the user interface. To set your username and password:

Windows—

1. Right-click on the Accelerator taskbar icon and select “Settings...” from the menu.
2. Click on the “Connection” tab.
3. Enter your username (appending “@sover.net”) and password in the fields provided. To avoid having to do this each time you connect, ensure that the “Save password” box is checked.
4. To save your settings, press OK.

Mac—

1. Launch the interface by slecting “Accelerator” from the Applications Menu or clicking the Accelerator icon in the Dock.
2. Click on the “Connection” tab.
3. Enter your username (appending “@sover.net”) and password in the fields provided. To avoid having to do this each time you connect, ensure that the “Save password” box is checked.
4. To save your settings, press “Apply.”

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Changing the Image Quality Setting

The image quality setting changes the quality of images that appear in your browser and the apparent speed of the display. The higher the quality you select, the longer it will take the image to load. For slower Internet connections, it is recommended that you lower your image quality. This slider can be adjusted anytime while browsing.

You can easily obtain full image quality for a particular image (described below), so don't be overly conservative about lowering your image quality setting.

PC—

1. Right-click on the Accelerator system tray icon.
2. Select “Settings...”.
3. Select the “Image Quality” tab.
4. Use the slider bar to adjust the image quality setting.
5. Press OK to save the settings.

MAC—

1. Click on the Accelerator's dock icon.
2. Select the “Image Quality” tab.
3. Use the slider bar to adjust the image quality setting.
4. Press Apply to save the settings.
5. Refresh the browser.

Tip: Getting Full Image Quality—Internet Explorer (Windows & Mac)
While browsing, if you would like to request the full quality image, simply right-click on the desired image from within Internet Explorer and select “Show Original Image” or “Reload Image” from the menu.

The full quality image will appear in place of the lower quality image.

Mac—Note: The Accelerator has not been fully optimized for use with IE, therefore changes to settings may not always take effect despite refreshing, or you may notice erratic behavior regarding when changes take effect. You may need to restart the browser.

Windows—If you want to see the full quality version of all images on the current page, simply right-click on any image from within Internet Explorer and select “Show All Original Images” from the menu.

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Changing the Pop-Up Blocker Settings

PC only—Dialup Accelerator can prevent pop-up windows and floating flash advertisements from appearing while you browse the Internet. This behavior is disabled by default, but you can enable these features at any time.

A limited number of web sites, including SoVerNet's, require pop-ups in order to function correctly. The Accelerator allows you to specify a “White List” of sites where pop-ups will not be blocked.

You can also see a list of all pop-ups that were blocked. This information is in the “Logging” tab and may be useful if you suspect a web site is not functioning properly because pop-ups are being blocked.

Enabling and Disabling the Pop-Up Blocker

1. Right-click on the Accelerator system tray icon.
2. Select “Pop-Up Blocker...”.
3. Select the “Options” tab.
4. To hear a beep whenever a pop-up is blocked, check “Notify blocked pop-up by PC speaker beep”.
5. To enable the blocking of floating Flash advertisements, check “Block Floating Flash-Ads”
6. To enable all pop-up blocking for all sites, check “Enable PopUp Blocker”.
7. Press OK to save the settings.

Disabling the Pop-Up Blocker for Specific Sites (WhiteList)

1. Right-click on the Accelerator system tray icon. See the user interface section of the product guide if you are unsure how to do this.
2. Select “Pop-Up Blocker...”.
3. Select the “White List” tab.
4. Type the URL for the site you wish to add. Or, from within Internet Explorer: Right-click on any text while browsing; select "Add to Whitelist" from the menu to add the current site to the White List.
5. Use the “Add”, “Remove” and “Remove All” buttons to manipulate the White List.
6. Press OK to save the settings.

Be sure to keep a list of the items in your listso you can replace if necessary.

Viewing the Pop-Up Blocker Log

1. Right-click on the Accelerator system tray icon.
2. Select “Pop-Up Blocker...”.
3. Select the “Logging” tab. To add a web site to the “White List” so that pop-ups are no longer blocked from that site, right-click on the site and click “Add to Whitelist”

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Bypassing the Dialup Accelerator for Selected Sites
If you wish to bypass the Dialup Accelerator for certain web sites (web sites on your local corporate intranet, for instance--or if downloads of certain files, such as MP3s are blocked), This is how:

Windows—simply select the “Proxy Exclusion” tab on the “ Settings” dialog. You have two options for bypassing sites:

1. If you have already defined a proxy exclusion list in your web brower, select “Use browser's proxy exclusion settings” to configure the Accelerator to exclude these sites as well.
2. You may also “Specify a proxy exclusion list” by selecting this option. In the given text field, list all the web sites, separated by semicolons, that you wish to have bypass the Accelerator (follow the format displayed by the existing list of excluded sites already in the list).

Be sure to keep a list of the items in the list so you can replace if necessary.

Stop and then restart the Accelerator.

Note: In option 1, Netscape does not support the wildcard (*) operator.

Mac—Go to System Preferences>Network, and click the “Proxies” tab

• In the “Bypass proxy settings for...” text field, add the web sites you want to exclude from acceleration, one per line. Wildcards (the * ) accepted as shown (there will already be a list of sites displayed in the box, some will have a wildcard, some won’t—just add your site(s) to the list following the format of those already entered)
• Click “Apply Now” and close the window
• Stop & restart the Accelerator

Be sure to keep a list of the items in the list so you can replace if necessary.

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Starting and Stopping the Acceleration Service

When the Accelerator is launched it connects with the first http:// request. Occasionally, you may need to stop or start manually.

To Stop:

Windows—If you are connected and you want to manually disconnect, right-click on the Accelerator system tray icon to access the pop-up menu. Select the menu item “Stop Accerator”.

The system tray icon will now have a red “X” through it.

MAC— Right-click the Accelerator's Dock icon. Select “Quit” from the popup Menu.

To Start:

Windows—If the Accelerator is stopped and you want to manually start, right-click on the Accelerator system tray icon to access the pop-up menu. Select the menu item “Start Accelerator”.

The red “X” through the system tray icon will disappear.

MAC— If you have stored the Accelerator's icon in the Dock, click it to open the dialog window and start the service by Selecting “Start Accelerator” from the menu bar. If there is no icon in the Dock, look under Applications or recent Folders in the Finder's “Go” menu.

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Closing the Dialup Accelerator

Right-click on the Accelerator system tray or Dock icon and select “Exit” (or “Quit”) from the pop-up menu. The Dialup Accelerator will disconnect and close. Doing this will not close any open browser windows, nor will it close your dialup connection to the Internet. it simply cuts off the acceleration service.

Note: the Accelerator will automatically launch again the next time you reboot your computer.

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Changing Your Connection Settings
Normally, the connection settings that are set during installation do not need to be changed. However, you may change the preset ones using the “ Settings” dialog.

1. Click on the Accelerator system tray icon or Dock icon, to access the dialogs.
2. Select “Settings...”.
3. Click on the “Connection” tab.
4. Press “Advanced...”.
5. Change the “Remote Server Hostname”, “Server Port,” or “Local Listening Port” as necessary.
6. Click “OK” to close the “Connection” dialog box
7. Click “OK” or “Apply” to save your new connection settings. These settings will be used next time you connect with the Accelerator.

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Accelerating Email
Windows only—The Dialup Accelerator can reduce the amount of time it takes to send and receive email. The Accelerator accelerates email transparently without any user intervention, so you can use your mail program exactly as you normally would. It is compatible with any Windows-based POP3/SMTP client, including Outlook Express, Eudora and Netscape Mail. Email acceleration is disabled by default.

To enable email acceleration:

1. Right-click on the Accelerator system tray icon. See the user interface section of the product guide if you are unsure how to do this.
2. Select “Settings...”.
3. Select the “Email” tab.
4. Select “Enable for all applications”.
5. Press OK to save the settings. The changes will take effect the next time the Accelerator and your mail client are restarted.

WebEmail—Windows and Macs—The Accelerator should allow you to see a significant improvement in the display and screen redrawing of HTML-based email. NOTE: Secure email sites (or other secure sites) will not be accelerated because the encryption used to secure the site prohibits the compression algorythms from compressing the contents.

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View Your Acceleration Statistics
Windows only—You can view the acceleration statistics and how they change dynamically using the Statistics dialog.

• Click on the Accelerator taskbar icon to access the pop-up menu.
• Select “Statistics...”, to display the Statistics summary dialog.
• Click “Reset” to reset the statistics. You may do so at anytime while browsing without affecting the Accelerator's performance or operation.
• Click the “Details” button to view more detailed statistics information.

Consult the following table for a description of the values.

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Accessing Product Version Information
You may view the product version in the About dialog.

Windows—Right-click on the Accelerator taskbar icon to access the pop-up menu. Select “About” to display the About dialog.

Mac—Open the Accelerator, select “About...” from the Accelerator's menubar

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Updating Software [Windows/Mac]
AutoUpdate will inform you of any major or minor software upgrades to the Accelerator Service and auto-download the newest version to your machine. You will have the option of installing immediately or later.

If you want to manually update the Accelerator (Windows only):

1. Open the “Settings” dialog.
2. Click on the “Update” tab.
3. Select “Update Now” to upgrade to the latest version.
4. Press OK to save the settings.

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Uninstalling the Web Accelerator
Windows users, note: do not simply drag the software into the trash. Doing so leaves fragments of the installation behind (notably in the Registry) which will prohibit reinstallation and may cause other problems. Always use the Add/Remove Control Panel)

• Under the Windows Control Panel, select “Add or Remove Programs”.
• Select the Accelerator and click “Remove.”
• The uninstaller will launch and guide you through the uninstallation procedure.

• Open the Applications folder and drag the Accelerator to the trash. Restart your machine.

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