Note: This FAQ is also useful if you are simply interested in figuring out exactly how much acceleration you are getting. With Webcelerate Accelerator in place you should be seeing a very noticable increase in surfing speed -- an average of 3X acceleration, with some pages appearing up to 5 times faster. To get a better idea of the types of speed improvements you should expect to receive, see the Webcelerate Accelerator Technical Overview. It contains a table showing typical speed improvements accessing several popular Web sites such as Amazon, c/net, and Priceline, among others, over dial-up modems. In our studies Web page performance can be significantly influenced by a number of factors including:

• Amount of data required to display a Web page. If you haven't already done so, try a higher Graphics Acceleration setting such as Level 4 or 5.
• Connection speed, which can vary significantly even when you are using the same ISP and dialing in to the same phone number.
• Available memory (RAM), which can vary depending on the number of applications you are running. Even though Webcelerate Accelerator can run with very little available RAM, acceleration benefits can be further optimized if you have plenty of free RAM available.

If you are not seeing a very noticeable increase in surfing speed with Webcelerate Accelerator (or perhaps no improvement at all), please take the following steps:

1. First you need to make sure that Webcelerate Accelerator is working properly. When you browse a typical Web site you should see arrows moving over the Webcelerate Accelerator icon (blue Webcelerateler in the Windows taskbar, near the clock). If you are not seeing the arrows or are getting little to no acceleration for important Troubleshooting Tips. It only takes a few minutes to make sure that Webcelerate Accelerator is working for you.

2. If Webcelerate is working properly, the next step is to measure the performance increase you are getting:

• The mouse-over. The quickest/fastest way to determine the amount of acceleration you are getting is to move your mouse over the Webcelerate Accelerator icon. A small pop-up will appear telling you that Webcelerate Accelerator is enabled and reporting the average speed up you are getting.
  
• Performance meter. Click on the Webcelerate menu and choose Performance Meter and Test Page... In addition to displaying your average speed-up, you'll also see your effective speed in kbps (kilobits/second) based on Webcelerate's compression of text and graphics.
  
• Enable/Disable Webcelerate Accelerator. You can use the Disable Webcelerate Accelerator menu command to turn off Webcelerate Accelerator for an hour or two of surfing, then turn it back on and use it for a similar amount of time.
  
• Independent verification. Numion provides a "stopwatch" for timing page loads as well as many other interesting timing tools:

To use the Numion stopwatch to test Webcelerate Accelerator:

1. Choose Disable Webcelerate Accelerator from the Webcelerate Accelerator menu
   
2. Go to the Numion StopWatch page
   
3. Enter the URL of your choice to be measured
   
4. Click Start StopWatch
   
5. Write down the results
   
6. Enable Webcelerate Accelerator
   
7. Time the same URL
   
8. Compare the results.
   

Try the test several times. You can also experiment with clearing your browser cache and the Webcelerate Accelerator cache.

Numion has another interesting test involving popular Web sites:

1. First, disable Webcelerate Accelerator
   
2. Go to the Numion home page
   
3. Click on the Yourspeed button
   
4. Choose a location (or the world)
   
5. Click Start!
   
6. Write down your results
   
7. Enable Webcelerate Accelerator
   
8. Run through steps 2-6
   
9. Compare the results