Web Accelerator Help

Introduction

Welcome! Getting started with SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator is easy and automatic. Following installation, the product is running and ready to speed up your Internet experience.

If you are using a browser other than Internet Explorer, some additional configuration is necessary. This Help file can help users of such browsers get started with SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator. This Help file is also useful if you are have Internet connectivity problems after installing SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator.

Please note that most technical and other information about using SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator is available online:

• Using SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator (online reference on product features and usage).
• Quick Tour

Starting SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator

When you install SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator it automatically becomes active. If you see an accelerator icon in your Windows taskbar (near the system clock), SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator is active.

This icon:

• Tells you that SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator is running, ready to accelerate your Internet experience whenever you want to browse the web.
• Tells you the state of SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator on your system: enabled, disabled, actively browsing, not enabled due to a high-speed connection, or that the service is temporarily unavailable.
• Provides access to the SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator menu.

If SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator is installed but you do not see the SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator icon in the taskbar, it is not active and not accelerating your Internet experience. You can make it active from the Windows Start menu:

Start -> Programs -> SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator -> Start SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator

SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator Icon and Menu

Note: The online document Using SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator provides a complete description of the SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator icon and menu system. A brief description of the SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator menu is in the following table, in case you are not online.

Supported Browsers

The following table identifies Web browsers that you need to configure to use SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator. Click your browser for additional details about configuration, if necessary.

Internet Explorer

You should not need to make any changes to Internet Explorer. Simply start browsing. In the unlikely event that you do experience problems connecting to the Internet after installing SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator, Click Here.

Netscape

Some changes to the Netscape browser Preferences are required if you want to use SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator with Netscape. See Checking and Changing Proxy Settings below for details.

Other Browsers (Including Opera and Mozilla)

You should be able to get an accelerated Internet experience through any modern browser. See the next section for detailed instructions.

Checking and Changing Proxy Settings

Note: If you want to try SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator without changing any proxy settings, you can use SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator with Internet Explorer. No proxy changes are needed and Internet Explorer should already be set up to work with SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator. There are some additional graphic acceleration options available to Internet Explorer users as well. You can continue to use your default browser, but until you set the proxy address and port number, there is no acceleration.

Although Internet Explorer and browsers based on it account for the great majority of browsers in use, there are many other Web browsers. The most popular of these are Netscape, Opera, and Mozilla.

If you are using a non-Internet Explorer browser, you need to change some Preference settings in your browser. This is necessary because SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator creates and uses what is called a proxy server on your computer to accelerate web traffic to your computer. Changing preferences is a one-time activity that only takes a couple of minutes.

Determining SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator's Port Number

By default, SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator uses 8080 as its HTTP proxy port number. However, SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator may automatically substitute another number if it detects a conflict. You can also manually change the SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator proxy port number as long as that number matches the HTTP port number in your browser.

Follow these steps to check or change the proxy port number that SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator is using:

1. Click the accelerator icon in the taskbar, near the system clock.
2. Click Options.
3. Click Advanced.
4. Note the port number.
5. Optionally enter a different port number in the range of 1025-65535.
6. Click OK.

Note: The Advanced options choice of accelerating all connections or just connections without conflicts only applies to browsers based on Internet Explorer.

Setting Your Browser's Proxy Address and Port Number

Next, you need to locate your browser's configuration section (often called Preferences). For example, Mozilla locates Preferences under the File menu. Then you want to find the location where proxy settings can be adjusted.

The following instructions apply to Netscape. Proxy configuration for Opera and Mozilla browsers is similar.

1. Click the Netscape Edit menu.
2. Select Preferences.
3. Click the mark next to the Advanced category or double-click Advanced.
4. Click Proxies.
5. Select the Manual proxy configuration button if it is not already selected.
6. Click View [Netscape 4.7 only].
7. In the HTTP Proxy area, enter localhost.
8. In the HTTP Port area, enter the SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator port number (by default this is 8080, but you should verify this number, as described previously).

Resetting Your Browser's Proxy Address and Port Number

Here are the specific instructions for resetting your proxy address and port number using Netscape.

1. Click the Netscape Edit menu.
2. Select Preferences.
3. Click the mark next to the Advanced category or double-click Advanced.
4. Click Proxies.
5. If there was a proxy address in use prior to installing SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator, [Netscape 4.7 only: click View first] enter that address and port number. Otherwise, click Direct Connection to the Internet.
6. Click OK.

The changes are effective immediately.

Checking and Changing IE Proxy Settings

SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator normally takes care of checking and changing Internet Explorer proxy settings for you. However, in rare cases, you may need to check or change Internet Explorer proxy settings as follows:

1. With the SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator running and enabled, click the Tools menu.
2. Select Internet Options.
3. Click the Connections tab.
4. Select the connection you are using and click Settings (if you are connecting via a Local Area Network, click the LAN Settings button).
5. In the Proxy Server section, select Use a proxy server for this connection.
6. Click Advanced in the same section.
7. Under HTTP:, set the proxy address to localhost.
8. Set the HTTP port number to the exact port number that SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator uses.
9. Click OK several times to exit the Tools menu.

The changes are effective immediately.

Deciding Which Connections To Accelerate

In the SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator Advanced Settings window, Internet connections with and without proxy setting conflicts appear. Two options are available:

• Only accelerate connections without proxy conflicts
• Accelerate all connections

If you choose Accelerate all connections, connections with potential conflicts are reconfigured to be compatible with SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator. This means that the SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator proxy settings are substituted for whatever settings may exist for that connection.

Accelerating connections that have proxy conflicts may or may not work. Look at the list of incompatible connections.

• If you are not using any connections identified as having potential conflicts with SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator, choose the only accelerate connections without proxy conflicts option.
• If you want to try accelerating connections that have proxy conflicts with SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator, choose the Accelerate all connections option. If another software program is using a proxy for acceleration or other such services, substituting the SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator proxy settings may allow you to accelerate your Internet experience.

Note: If your Internet connection is dependent on another proxy (such as a firewall), accelerating that particular connection will probably not be successful. (You can restore your Internet Explorer based system to the previous proxy setting by selecting Stop SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator from the Windows Start menu.)

Start -> Programs -> SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator -> Stop SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator

Resolving Internet Access Difficulties

The following topics can help you if you temporarily lose the ability to browse the Internet after you install SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator.

Checking Your Internet Connection

SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator can only work when you are actively connected to the Internet. Here are some basics to consider:

• Is your modem on and ready? (If you are unsure, refer to your modem or system manual.)
• Has your dial-up connection expired?
• Are you connected to your ISP?
• If you are using Netscape, Mozilla, or Opera, is your HTTP proxy set up to work with SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator?
• Is the particular site you are trying to view available?

Before concluding that you do not have Internet access, try accessing several web sites that you expect are nearly always available. Examples include: google.com, microsoft.com, amazon.com, or yahoo.com. If that is unsuccessful, you may want to disable SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator and try accessing these sites again.

Checking Your System

SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator may not install if certain minimum requirements are not met. The following table shows suggested and minimum system requirements beyond the basics of a phone line, an analog modem, and an available and active Internet connection. The second column in the table suggests how to check your system. (As noted, many of these values are available from SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator Diagnostics.)

Checking Diagnostics

Diagnostics can help you identify problems you may have with accessing the Internet when running SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator. When running Diagnostics, make sure that you are not running any other Internet processes (such as downloading a large file), as this will cause erroneous results. To start Diagnostics, follow these steps:

1. Click the SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator icon (the accelerator icon near the system clock).
2. Select the Diagnostics menu option.
3. Click Run.

An eight-part diagnostic test will run. The Diagnostics dialog box displays the results of the tests as they run, along with System Information. In all cases, if a test fails repeatedly and there is no other specific remedy, contact your ISP or reseller for further assistance.

Details of each diagnostic test follow:

Test 1: Checking system resources

This test reports the amount of available and used disk space and memory (RAM).

For disk space:

• Pass: Disk space is OK.
• Fail: Warning: We recommend that you have at least 256 MB free disk space to get the full benefit from SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator.
• Suggested action: Free some disk space on your system or consider obtaining a larger hard disk. (In some cases, defragmenting your hard disk can improve overall performance of applications, including SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator.)

For memory (RAM):

• Pass: RAM space is OK.
• Fail: Warning: We recommend that you have at least 8 MB free RAM space to get the full benefit from SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator.
• Suggested action: Run fewer programs or add more memory to your system. For optimal results, try running SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator with 32 MB or more available (free) RAM.

Test 2: Testing basic Internet connectivity

This diagnostic tests your connection to the Internet and DNS (Domain Name System).

• Pass: Internet connectivity has been verified.
• Possible failure conditions:
  • Test FAILED. Your Internet connection seems to be down. This message indicates an inability to establish a simple connection to any of a set of known good Internet addresses. Suggested action: See Checking Your Internet Connection.
  • Test FAILED. Your Internet connection seems to be blocked from normal Web browsing. Your computer may be unable to access the Web if you are behind a firewall that requires you to access the Internet through a proxy server (sometimes used in corporate or educational firewalls). Suggested actions:
    • If you have an available Internet connection that is not behind a firewall, switch to that connection and retry.
    • If you have a personal firewall, disable it temporarily and retry. If that fixes the problem, you will probably be able to use the firewall in conjunction with SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator after identifying SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator to the firewall as a service that needs access to the Internet. Some firewalls allow you to enter the product name. See the documentation for the firewall you are using for details regarding allowing local services access to the Internet.
    • Finally, if you are on a local area network (LAN) check your network configuration and/or contact your system administrator.
  • Test FAILED. You may have a DNS problem. Please retry after a few minutes. DNS stands for Domain Name System. DNS allows you to access numeric Internet addresses using alphabetic addresses such as www.propel.com. Since DNS-related problems can be temporary, we suggest that you retry in few minutes.

Test 3: Testing your Internet connection for packet loss

This test measures packets of data sent to and received by SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator in minimum, maximum, and average time (in milliseconds).

• Pass: Packets: Sent = NN, Received = NN, Lost = NN (NN% loss). An example message is: Sent = 20, Received = 20, Lost = 0 (0% loss). Significant packet loss represents either a problem connecting to your ISP, Internet routing issues, or a modem/phone line problem.
• Fail: Packet loss test FAILED.
  • 1-4 packets lost: It appears that there is occasional packet loss on your Internet connection. This level of packet loss, while not normal or optimal, usually does not have a significant impact to your Internet performance.
  • 5-10 packets lost: It appears that there is intermittent packet loss on your Internet connection. This loss can be caused by a poor quality phone line, a bad connection, temporary problems with your ISP, or temporary problems somewhere on the Internet. Try running Diagnostics several times. Lost network packets must be retransmitted and thereby cause degradation of your Internet performance. If the problem persists, try reconnecting to your ISP.
  • 10-19 packets lost: It appears that you have a bad connection to the Internet. The preceding comments listed under 5-10 packets lost apply.
  • 20 packets lost: The packet loss test is not working properly. Either you have a very bad connection to the Internet or, more likely, your ISP may be blocking the specific type of Internet activity that is used to measure packet loss. If Web browsing seems to be working normally, then you can probably ignore this result. If not, then most likely you have a bad connection and should try reconnecting to your ISP.
• Further suggestions:
  • SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator in general and Diagnostic results in particular can be affected by other running Internet processes such as file downloads, playing Internet radio or video, or file sharing. For maximum acceleration benefits, please consider temporarily eliminating these activities when using SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator, especially when running Diagnostics.
  • If your ISP provides more than one dial-up number in your area, try another number. This can often make a significant difference in terms of line quality and connection speed.

Test 4: Determining current line speed

SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator sends some specific data to your system and measures the speed with which it was received. It reports the effective line speed in kilobits per second (Kbps).

• Pass: Measured speed in NN.NN Kbps. (Example: 33.43 Kbps)
• Fail: Line speed test FAILED. Note: High-speed connections are not accelerated. If your actual line speed is greater than 200 Kbps (a fast dial-up modem is 56 Kbps; often expressed as 56K), SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator will be automatically disabled. Another reason why the line speed test might repeatedly fail is if content filtering, parental controls, or a privacy manager is in place that restricts access to the Network. Note that some ISPs pre-filter content in a matter which could also cause this test to fail. Generally speaking, in the U.S. pre-filtering is a service you would pay for and be aware of.
• Suggestion actions:
  • If the test fails because you are on a high-speed connection, try again when you are connected via a slower (less than 200 Kbps) connection.
  • If parental controls are in place, temporarily disable them to see if this is causing the problem.
  • If a privacy manager or local firewall is in place, temporarily remove or disable it to see if this is causing the problem.

Test 5: Looking for SouthEast Telephone Acceleration Service

This test attempts to locate the SouthEast Telephone Acceleration Service.

• Pass: Service found at rcluster.propel.com.
• Test FAILED. Problem locating SouthEast Telephone Acceleration Service at rcluster.propel.com:7797. (Note: SouthEast Telephone Acceleration Service uses port 7797 to access the Internet.) This condition can occur if the Service is unavailable or if a firewall is preventing your computer from accessing the Service.
• Suggested action: Retry in a few minutes; if problems continue, check (or ask your system administrator to check) to see if your local firewall is blocking Internet access through Port 7797.

Test 6: Connecting to SouthEast Telephone Acceleration Service

This test verifies that the SouthEast Telephone Acceleration Service can successfully identify and communicate with your machine.

• Pass: Connecting to SouthEast Telephone Acceleration Service using Client version (number) ee.ff.gg.hh. Connection accepted is reported.
• Possible failure conditions: The authentication method used by your ISP or reseller has not authenticated this computer to be accelerated. Please contact your ISP or reseller.

Test 7: Advanced diagnostic tests

This diagnostic performs text and graphics acceleration tests. All the tests involve sending data from the SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator Network to your system.

• Tests A-D send text data (words) to your system. Test A is with SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator active, Test B is without SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator active. These two tests are then repeated.
• Tests E-H send graphics data (an image file) to your system. Test E is with SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator active, Test F is without SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator active. These two tests are then repeated.
• The system displays the time it takes to receive each test.
• It is unusual for tests 1-6 to succeed and test 7 to fail. If this happens, please run Diagnostics again before contacting your ISP or reseller.

Test 8: Graphics Acceleration setting: n (1-5)

This test reports the level of graphics acceleration you are currently receiving, with Level 5 representing the maximum. You can adjust the level of graphics acceleration using the SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator menu Options command. See Using SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator (online reference) for details on adjusting graphics acceleration for individual images, pages, and overall content.

Disabling SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator

If the steps above do not restore Internet access, do the following:

1. Click the SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator accelerator icon in the taskbar near the system clock.
2. Select Disable SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator. When disabled, a red circle will appear over the SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator icon.
3. Using your browser, go to a highly-available site such as google.com, microsoft.com, amazon.com, or yahoo.com. If you now have Internet access, open the SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator menu by clicking the accelerator icon and select Enable.
4. Try accessing another highly-available site. If the problem reappears it is likely due to the presence of SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator. In this case, you can activate SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator. From the Windows Start menu find the SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator program (by default you will find this in your Programs group, under SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator). The sequence is:
   
   Start -> Programs -> SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator -> Stop SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator

Troubleshooting Guide

This Troubleshooting Guide may help you resolve some of the more common problems that users encounter.

I downloaded SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator but it did not install.

When you clicked the Download Now button, you were prompted to open or save the file. If you saved the file, after the download completed, you need to locate the file SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator setup.exe and open it to begin the installation. If you cannot locate the file, download it again. Log into your account and select the link to download SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator.

I cannot open the SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator file.

If you get an Invalid win32 application error when you try to open the file, you need to delete the file and download it again. The file was not completely downloaded, which caused the file size to be smaller than the original source file. If you see a box with a list of applications to open the file, it is possible that the file extension .exe was somehow lost from the SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator installation file. You can easily check and add the .exe if needed. Right-click on the file and select rename to add the .exe file extension.

I do not see the Accelerator icon in the taskbar

First see if SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator was successfully installed. Click Start, then Programs. Do you see SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator? If you do not see SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator in the menu, it is not installed. Refer back to your download instructions and download the software again. If you do see it, you may have some firewall software running that prevents SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator from loading until you register SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator with the personal firewall software. Click Start, then Programs to see if you have personal firewall software installed on your system.

I do not see alternating arrows on the SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator icon when I surf.

As part of the acceleration process, SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator uses a proxy server on your computer. A proxy server is a local program that manages web traffic to and from your browser. The proxy server is configured in your browser. If the proxy server is not configured correctly in the browser, you may not be able to browse. See the steps that follow to check the configuration.

Internet Explorer

1. Click the accelerator icon in the taskbar and select Options. Choose the Advanced tab. Write down the port number. Click Cancel.
2. From Internet Explorer select Tools, then select Internet Options. Choose the Connections tab and select the connection you are using. Click Settings.
3. Select the Use a proxy server for this connection check box. Then select the Advanced tab.
4. Make sure that the proxy address for the HTTP port address is set to localhost and the port is set to the port number found in step one. Click OK. Now test to see if SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator is working.
5. You can verify that SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator is working when the accelerator icon near the system clock shows moving arrows when you browse the Internet.

Netscape

1. Click the accelerator icon in the taskbar and select Options. Then choose the Advanced tab. Write down the port number. Click Cancel.
2. Click the Netscape Edit menu and select Preferences.
3. Double-click the Advanced category.
4. Click Proxies.
5. Click View (Netscape 4.7 only)
6. Select Manual proxy configuration.
7. Click in the HTTP Proxy area and enter the word localhost.
8. Click in the HTTP Port area and enter the SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator port number (by default, the port number is 8080, but you should verify the number as described previously).
9. Click OK. Try accessing your favorite web sites; your Internet experience should be accelerated.

SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator was working, but the icon disappeared or acceleration stopped.

This problem may be caused by several factors:

• You may have personal firewall software installed that is preventing SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator from launching or providing acceleration.
• ZoneAlarm can cause partial or incomplete page loads. This issue has been fixed by Zone Labs. If you are using ZoneAlarm, upgrade to ZoneAlarm Pro version 4.5.xxx.xxx or later.
• Norton Internet Security 2004 will shut down the port associated with SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator. Configure Norton Internet Security 2004 to not monitor port 8080.

Graphics appear degraded after I installed SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator.

SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator accelerates the downloading of web page images by first pre-compressing the graphics they contain. This is just one of many techniques that SouthEast Telephone Web Accelerator uses to improve web page load time. By default graphic images are delivered to your web page in slightly compressed form that balances speed of delivery with graphics quality. In some cases you may notice a degraded graphic and want to see the original quality.