Should I “enable software compression” on my modem?
I’m running IE5.5, new PC, 56k modem.
But I don’t know if “software compression” is new or old technology. Was it replaced by hardware compression?
If so, I probably have that, since my machine is new.
I have two settings that seem to contradict.
Under the “Advanced Options” tab I have
Enable Software Compression
Under the “Use Flow Control” option I have
Harware(RTS/CTS)
Software(XON/XOFF)
So the 2 questions I have are:
1)Do I have Software Compression turned on?
2)If so, is that a good thing?
Really depends on who you are connecting to (i.e. your ISP). The compression/decompression must be turned on at both ends of the connection for it to do any good.
If the check box is checked, then it is enabled, but tested when your connection is first made and not used if the other end does not have it turned on.
Yeah, it makes the data transfer faster, although I have no hard numbers on how much of a gain it is.
It depends. Software compression is the functional equivalent of saying “zip everything before you send it, and unzip it when you recieve it”. Web pages are mostly text and pictures. Text compresses great, pictures are already compressed. When you try to compress something that’s already compressed, it often ends up bigger than it was before you tried to compress it again.
So if you go to a lot of graphics-intensive sights, or download .zip files, software compression might actually make it a little slower.
Plus, your connection almost invariably uses hardware compression. So enabling software compression really shouldn’t help much.
All of this is completely different than flow control, which should always be set to hardware unless it causes problems.