Ofcom consumers quiz on ISP bosses
By Jamie Clouting | October 10, 2007
Bosses at six of the UK's top net providers are being asked to explain why consumers do not get the broadband speeds firms advertise. They will be questioned by Ofcom's Consumer Panel which, acts as the regulator's customer champion.
The panel has proposed that the net firms should look to improve how they sell and advertise broadband. The panel wants consumers to get more information so they are not misled about the speed they sign up for, as many providers are failing the speed tests.
Failing to deliver
Chairwoman of the Ofcom Consumer Panel, Colette Bowe, said
"We believe that broadband customers are not at the moment getting enough information."
In the letter to the net firms, Ms Bowe recognised that there were understandable technical reasons for the difference in the speeds advertised and those actual recieved.
She asked the net firms to find ways to 'deal with' the technical issues so that consumers could be better informed about the likely broadband speeds in their neighbourhood. One of the shock suggestions was the idea that net providers should allow customers to terminate a contract early and without penalties if speeds are well below what is advertised.
Its approach comes after a series of events that have highlighted the gulf between the net speeds firms claim and what consumers experience. In response Ofcom said it was "aware" of the issue and was investigating what could be done about it. Research by analyst firm Point Topic has shown that few people will be able to enjoy the top speeds advertised by broadband firms. It estimates that only about half the UK's population will be able to use the web at speeds of 8Mbps.
Looking for a new ISP?
So how do you decide which Broadband to go for?
Which ISP review the main broadband providers so you can compare not only on price, but also customer service, the average speed achieved compared to speed advertised. Which ISP has a regularly updated Best ISP List to help users to understand how well their ISP performs against other internet providers. They also point you in the direction of speed tests to help you test what speeds you are really getting.
Topics: ISPs | No Comments »
UK Broadband ‘fails’ speed tests
By Jamie Clouting | August 2, 2007
A report out today by Which? Consumer Group reveals a massive gap between the speeds that are offered by the UK’s leading broadband providers and the actually speed reported by customers.
In the survey Which? tested 300 consumer lines and found that the average broadband speed was 2.7mbs, a far cry from the 8mbs advertised my many of the providers.
The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) has investigated several cases of misleading promotions, most recently asking one provider to make it clear in its adverts that speed was dependent on how far away from the exchange people lived.
A BT spokesman confirmed that 8Mbps would be a rarity for users.
"Virtually no-one will get it. The laws of physics start applying as soon as it leaves the exchange and you would have to live on top of the exchange to get the full 8 megabits"
he said.
Beating Physics
Dynamic imaging technology allows Netfury Broadband Accelerator to load web pages much faster than normal with no trade off in quality. Although images appear degraded when a web page first loads overtime the quality improves to near original image quality. The more visits you make to specific website the better performance you will receive.
Which ISP?
If you'd like to find out more information about Broadband Internet service providers, compare prices, speeds and read other consumer reviews then read more at which? ISP.
Topics: Broadband accelerator, ISPs | 1 Comment »
Netfury Brings Internet Acceleration to Mobile Devices
By Jamie Clouting | August 1, 2007
Growth in Mobile Handsets Fuels Propel Software’s Entrance to the Market
Our partner, Propel, has just unveiled a new acceleration technology specifically designed for Internet-enabled mobile handsets such as smart phones and PDAs. Propel is offering a preview of the new Propel Accelerator for mobile devices, which is built on the same infrastructure as the company’s award-winning Propel Accelerator, at ISPCON. It will be available to demo to wireless carriers at the Propel booth. The platform will accelerate both graphics and text.
"The demand for mobile Internet access is growing steadily, so this is a natural evolution of our technology and our business", said David Murray, co-founder, president and chief operating officer of Propel. "Now wireless carriers around the world can use Propel and Netfury Accelerators to offer their customers reliable, fast Internet access no matter what device they’re using or where they are. All that adds up to happy customers and reduced churn, which are magic words in the extremely competitive global wireless market."
The growth of mobile handsets
According to recent Gartner reports, demand for smart phones and PDAs continue to grow. Smart phone sales grew 50 percent in the last quarter of 2006 to 73.9 million units. Gartner defines a smart phone as "a large-screen, voice-centric handheld device designed to offer complete phone functions while simultaneously functioning as a personal digital assistant."
Netfury is proud to have the UK distribution of Propel’s flagship product, Propel Accelerator, an award-winning Internet acceleration product that provides an optimised experience for users of 802.11 hotspots, wireless mobile data, low-speed broadband and dial-up connections. It is currently deployed by hundreds of ISPs and other Netfury users in more than 75 countries, making available an improved Internet experience to more than 34 million subscribers.
Topics: Development, Propel, Mobile Accelerator | No Comments »
Netfury Accelerator Version 6.1
By Jamie Clouting | May 26, 2007
The boys and girls at Propel have been working hard to deliver the very latest version of the Netfury Accelerator. Currently this version is only available for Windows users, but a Mac version will follow shortly.
The latest version of Netfury Accelerator is proven to load pages three to seven times faster, and can sometimes load 25 times faster or more, while delivering near-original final image quality.*
So what’s new in 6.1?
Improved Compression: Netfury’s dramatic compression improvements for HTTP and POP3 uploads/downloads take acceleration to new levels of performance. The compressed data allows wireless broadband providers to support more subscribers on their networks, and it also benefits wired providers by enhancing network throughput and efficiency.
Connection Optimisation: Netfury has tuned its connection optimisation for greater performance on high speed and wireless connections, while maintaining performance for dial-up and lower speed customers.
Improved Mozilla Firefox Support: Netfury Accelerator 6.1 eliminates the need for users to manually change the proxy settings in Firefox. In addition, Firefox users can now view the original quality, uncompressed images through the right-click menu, a feature previously only available in Internet Explorer.
Dynamic Imaging: Dynamic Imaging enables browsers to quickly build usable versions of Web pages by first loading lower-quality preview images and then filling in details as they become available. This results in a much faster, improved browsing experience.
Enhanced Vista Compatibility: Vista users now enjoy enhanced compatibility with Netfury Accelerator 6.1.
* Results vary depending on where and how you surf.
Topics: Development, Propel, Dial Up accelerator, Broadband accelerator | No Comments »
Slow Internet Connection?
By Roy Wilding | April 24, 2007
Slow Internet connections are a thing of the past aren't they? Well, no they're not. Not everyone has converted to broadband and not everyone with broadband enjoys a connection speed as fast as they'd like.
With only 30 exchanges within the UK yet to be converted to broadband it's easy to assume that no one suffers from a slow Internet connection and everyone is enjoying high speed ADSL Internet Access but it's simply not true.
First off there are the people that live within those 30 exchanges that can't convert to broadband, then there's everyone who simply doesn't want to. For some people the Internet isn't a fundamental part of their life and is just a tool they use occasionally to find this, or check that, but nothing more. For these casual occasional users, committing to £Xs a month for high speed Internet access just doesn't make economic sense but slow Internet connections can be a problem.
Next are broadband users that suffer slow Internet connections due to poor service, network congestion, over subscription, peak time use and bandwidth restrictions.
That's where the Netfury Internet Accelerator comes in. Anyone that suffers from a slow Internet connection should consider using the Netfury Internet Accelerator. Our Internet Accelerator can increase your Internet connection speed typically making it 3-7 times faster.
If you suffer from a slow Internet connection then give your connection speed a test and consider improving it by using the Netfury Internet Accelerator.
Topics: Dial Up accelerator, Broadband accelerator | No Comments »
Our Network of Websites
By Roy Wilding | April 10, 2007
I thought I’d clear up any confusion about the various Netfury websites and what they’re about.
The Netfury Blog - www.netfury.info
Well you know this exists because you’re here already. The idea behind the Netfury blog is it allows us to report on developments with the various Netfury products and gives us a platform to engage with you the end user. We welcome feedback via our blog and encourage you the user to get involved in the progression of the products.
The Netfury Accelerator End User Website - www.netfury.co.uk
This is the end user site for Netfury Internet Accelerator. If you’re looking for a dial up Internet Accelerator or broadband Internet Accelerator or you’d like to register your interest in our future mobile phone Internet Accelerator then this is the website you need.
The Netfury Accelerator End User Website For Mobile Devices - www.netfury.mobi
If you’re browsing this blog with a mobile device then hopefully the wordpress mobile device plugin has kicked in and you’re viewing an appropriate version of this blog for your mobile device. We’ve a vested interest in Mobile Internet due to our planned Mobile Netfury Internet Accelerator in the near future so we’ve developed a version of the end user site specifically for mobile devices.
The Netfury Accelerator ISP / Reseller Website - www.netfury.eu
If you’re an existing ISP or run affiliate websites and you’re interested in reselling the Netfury Internet Accelerator to your customer base then this is the site for you. There’s loads of information on the benefits to the ISP / reseller and the benefits of using the accelerator for your end users.
Topics: General, Development, Mobile Accelerator, Dial Up accelerator, Broadband accelerator | No Comments »
Opera and Accelerated Mobile Internet
By Roy Wilding | April 4, 2007
If you haven’t visited our site yet then you may not be aware of our planned mobile internet accelerator which we hope to launch later in the year. During the initial planning stages of course we checked out any competition and Opera Mobile Accelerator seemed to be a potential major competitor. Launched in June 2004 the software was discontinued last year with existing contracts expiring at the end of their period.
During my morning delete, add sender to block sender list, move to junk mail box clean up of the daily spam I noticed an email advertising beta version 9.2 of the Opera browser. In the following brief description it said,
“One browser that has always been a strong contender–but somehow flies below the radar of the other big-name browsers–is Opera. This week, we have the beta release of version 9.2, and I highly recommend you give it a look. Developers just added a new feature to Opera called Speed Dial, which lets you get to your favorite sites quicker than ever. Check out Opera.”
What’s that? I thought, have Opera ventured into Internet acceleration services again?
Upon further investigation it seems they haven’t but they have added a new feature they’re describing as a speed dial feature which allows you access to your 9 most visited sites. Why it’s 9 and not 10 I have no idea.
“Opera is a fast, fun, and easy way to browse the Web. Opera 9 comes loaded with the tools to keep you productive and safe. Version 9.2 beta adds a new Speed Dial feature that allows easy access to your nine favorite Web addresses.”
UPDATE: 12/04/2007 There’s a demo showing how this works available now on the Opera website for anyone interested. Here’s the demo.
Topics: Mobile Accelerator, Browsers, Opera | 2 Comments »
Mac Users Get Ready
By Jamie Clouting | April 2, 2007
At present we do not have a mac compatible version of the Netfury Accelerator available for download. We are aware that some of the information on our website has caused some confusion to Mac users who purchased the Windows version.
I am glad to say that there is a mac version is in development and that it will be with us very shortly. We will do our best to keep you up-to-date on further developments.
Watch this space.
Topics: Development, Mac | 2 Comments »
So What is the NetFury Internet Accelerator about?
By Simon Wharton | March 29, 2007
The first post in a blog is always the hardest. How do I set the tone for this blog? What should that tone be? Can someone else set the ball rolling?
Well, it’s up to me. The first thing to to understand is the purpose of this blog. It’s to document the development of the NetFury Internet Accelerator and to engage with clients and resellers throughout the UK. We want your feedback. We want to know if it does the job we intend it to do or if it doesn’t. Is something broken? Is something just plain wrong? We’d like to know and to be able to deal with it openly. Rules for the blog are pretty minimal and hopefully clear. We’ll be straight up. Any contributers/commenters should be straight up as well. No flaming. Respect. We’ll take the route of moderation of course but there will be no censorship.
If you’ve come across this blog and you don’t know what a NetFury Internet Accelerator is, then in brief, it’s an application that can be loaded onto a PC and will redirect data you request from the web via our servers, compress that data and then feed it to you in what we think is a logical sequence. This gives an apparent increase in speed of connection and considerably reduces the amount of data you receive. I’ll save a better description for someone a little more technical than me
You should know that we don’t build this product. In the US it’s known as Propel, a lovely bunch of people based out in San Jose. NetFury has the UK rights for the product. NetFury itself is made up as a separate business run by a couple of organisations that run a number of ISP brands in the UK. I myself am a Director of VirtuAffinity who run the following ISP brands:
Our colleagues at Pack Net also run a few brands, most predominantly
We think this is a nice fit. Propel develop the product, we deliver it in the UK to our client base and also via affiliates. We also support it locally.
Propel, PackNet and ourselves will be contributing to this blog so you’ll have access to everybody within the organisation.
That’s probably enough from me
Topics: General | No Comments »