How TrafficCompressor works

On-the-fly Traffic Compression.

TrafficCompressor compresses data received and sent over the Internet. When you open a web page or receive an e-mail with TrafficCompressor the data is not transferred directly from the web or e-mail server to your computer. The data is transferred through the TrafficCompressor server located on a high-speed Internet backbone. TrafficCompressor server compresses the data and sends it in compressed form to your computer via your dial-up, GPRS, or other slow connection. That results in your Internet traffic decrease. That has a side effect - the data is transferred faster.
TrafficCompressor program running locally on your computer receives the compressed data, decompresses, and delivers it to your web browser, e-mail client, or other local software.

Let's examine in details how it works when you are opening, for example, http://www.google.com page in your web browser.

1. You are typing www.google.com address in the address bar of your web browser.
2. TrafficCompressor is sending the web page request to the TrafficCompressor server.
3. TrafficCompressor server is downloading the page from www.google.com web server.
4. TrafficCompressor server is compressing the page and sending it to your computer.
5. TrafficCompressor program is receiving the page, decompressing, and delivering it to the web browser.

The process is similar when you receive/download some other kind of data from the Internet or when you send/upload something.

Persistent Server Connection.

TrafficCompressor does not establish a new connection with the TrafficCompressor server each time you receive or send data. When TrafficCompressor starts it establishes a persistent network (TCP/IP) connection with the server and keeps it open until you close TrafficComporessor, reboot the computer, or end your modem connection. Some web servers support similar technique which is called "Keep-Alive".

Each time you open a web page or receive/send any other data TrafficCompressor uses the already established server connection instead of establishing a new one. That technology helps to save some time and, consequently, speeds up your Internet access because each new network connection causes some time delay needed to establish it. Persistent connection technology eliminates that delay.

The persistent server connection technology also helps to decrease Internet traffic besides traffic compression. When you receive or send data from several Internet servers simultaneously (for example open a web page, receive e-mail, and read Usenet messages) the data is actually transferred over single TrafficCompressor server connection. That results in combining of some data packets in a single packet. The total number of data packets decreases, the overhead of TCP/IP protocols also decreases, and the traffic volume may be reduced additionally by up to 10% in some instances.

Note: to use single TrafficCompressor server connection and gain an additional traffic decrease set the "Aggressive traffic saving" option in TrafficCompressor preferences.