A Review About Propel from CBS News

Only about 10 percent of Americans have signed up for a cable modem or DSL even though such broadband services greatly increase the speed of surfing the Net. Some people just don't want to spend the money -- typically between $39 and $50 a month -- while others live in an area where service isn't available.

Now there is an alternative that, though not as fast as broadband, is at least twice the speed of a standard modem. And you don't need any special lines or equipment to use it.

Installation is a breeze. I had the software installed and was enjoying the extra speed in a matter of minutes. The service works on Windows XP, 98, ME, 2000 and NT 4.0, and Mac.

Unlike many programs that claim to speed up Web surfing, this one actually works.
It does it in three ways. First, it compresses graphics and text so that they are delivered more quickly to your PC. It also caches (stores) frequently used Web pages so that they pop up almost instantaneously. Finally, while you're online, the Propel software maintains a persistent connection between your PC and the company's servers so that you don't have to re-establish a connection each time your browser makes a request.

There is nothing unusual about any of these technologies. Internet Explorer and Netscape already cache pages, and there are lots of programs out there that will compress graphics. Yet Propel is able to do these things far more intelligently because of the cooperation between the software on your machine and the company's servers.