PipeBoost Internet Information Server (IIS) Content Compression Product

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<p><span lang="en-us"><b><font face="Verdana">How does it work</font></b></span><font face="Verdana"><b><span lang="en-us">?</span></b></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span lang="en-us">    How does 
it work?  If you think about it the .htm, .asp, etc. files being served by 
IIS are not very efficient...they are basically bulky text files.  If you 
could compress them before sending them out, your download times would be 
greatly shortened. </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span lang="en-us">   I didn't know 
this before, but the HTTP 1.1 standard actually already includes support for 
this sort of compression.  This standard is supported in 95% of 
browsers...IE4.0+, Netscape 4.0+ and Opera 4.0+). However, you do need the right 
software on your internet server to recognize the browser and serve it out 
compressed content...and most servers don't have this.</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span lang="en-us">    Microsoft 
included such a feature in IIS...but if you've used it, you know that it's a 
little buggy and it only works on static HTM pages...not your dynamic ASP pages.</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span lang="en-us">    That's 
where <a href="http://www.pipeboost.com/psc.asp">PipeBoost</a> comes into play.  It can compress content on the fly and 
serve it to the browser, which un-compresses it and displays it.  It is so 
simple to implement...you just run a short 3 minute install program and its 
ready to go...no configuration required on either the server or the browser (of 
course if you want to get fancy you can tweak the server GUI for hours...but for 
most installations the default install will be more than adequate).</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana"><b><span lang="en-us">Test Results</span></b></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana"><span lang="en-us"><b>    </b>
<font size="2">Before rolling out PipeBoost, I tested it in the lab.  I 
downloaded the trial version and installed it on a server here in Tampa, 
Florida.  Then I put a test 9.12 Mb Excel Spreadsheet in a test directory 
and downloaded it from a browser located in Boston, Mass.  (this was done 
via terminal server) and measured the results.</font></span></font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span lang="en-us">    The 
improvement was eye-popping.</span></font></p>
<center>
<table border="0" cellpadding="2" style="border-collapse: collapse" bordercolor="#111111" width="80%" id="AutoNumber1">
 <tr>
 <td width="33%" bgcolor="#000000"> </td>
 <td width="4%" bgcolor="#000000"> </td>
 <td width="63%" bgcolor="#000000">
 <font color="#FFFFFF" face="Verdana" size="1"><b><span lang="en-us">Time to 
 download</span></b></font></td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td width="33%"><span lang="en-us"><font size="2" face="Verdana">No 
 compression</font></span></td>
 <td width="4%"> </td>
 <td width="63%"><span lang="en-us"><font size="2" face="Verdana">1 minute 2 
 seconds</font></span></td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td width="33%"><span lang="en-us"><font size="2" face="Verdana">PipeBoost 
 compression</font></span></td>
 <td width="4%"> </td>
 <td width="63%"><span lang="en-us"><font size="2" face="Verdana">23 seconds</font></span></td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td width="33%"> </td>
 <td width="4%"> </td>
 <td width="63%"> </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td width="33%"><b><font size="2" face="Verdana">Difference:</font></b></td>
 <td width="4%"> </td>
 <td width="63%"><b><font size="2" face="Verdana">3.7 x speed increase</font></b></td>
 </tr>
</table>
<p><font size="2" face="Verdana">    After rolling it into 
production, I immediately saw a 27% decrease in bandwidth usage...or about an 
entire T1 worth of data.  Planet Source Code actually has alot more 
compressed .zip files than most sites do (which of course can't be further 
compressed by PipeBoost), so most sites should see an even <b>larger</b> decrease in 
bandwidth.</font></p>
<p align="left"><b><font face="Verdana">Trying it on your own</font></b></p>
<center>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2">    
<a href="http://www.pipeboost.com/psc.asp">PipeBoost</a> has a great tool 
on their web site that lets you test their product on your own web site, without 
having to install it...to get an idea of how much it can compress your content 
and save you.  Just go to PipeBoost and click on "Request Report" and then 
type in your URL.  The Planet Source Code home page showed that it could be 
compressed 73%!</font></p>
<p align="left"><b><font face="Verdana">My Conclusion</font></b></p>
<center>
<p><font face="Verdana" size="2">    This is one of the few 'must 
have' products for IIS.  I your website does anything more than trivial 
traffic, you should seriously 
consider this program.  To download this program , go to
<a href="http://www.pipeboost.com/psc.asp">PipeBoost</a> and click on 
'Downloads'.</font></p>