The company is using technology from Propel Software Corp to offer EarthLink Plus, which offers web page downloads up to five times faster than its 56Kbps dialup service for about $7 extra per month.
Propel’s system combines a content delivery network of caching and compression engines, and an invisible client application that does local caching and decompression using a proprietary algorithm.
The client and the Propel Network also talk over persistent connections to cut out some protocol fat. The client routes requests for previously viewed pages to the CDN, which only returns modified elements, meaning subsequent visits to pages load much faster.
Propel has about a dozen ISPs using its service, but EarthLink is the largest to date. EarthLink is bundling the service with premium tech support, eight mailboxes and 10MB of web space for $28.95 per month, compared to $21.95 for dialup and $49.95 for DSL.
Source: Computerwire
