Setting up WebsterXL for your Internet Connection

    You may well find that you never need to do any extra setting up for your computer, but at some point you may wish to have more control in order to squeeze extra performance out of the system. WebsterXL uses a separate program called WebFetch to get the pages for you, and this can be configured in a number of ways. Before you start to change its settings you should go to an off-site page, as this will load WebFetch for you automatically.

    Changing your Proxy Settings

    The proxy settings are probably the only ones that 99% of users will want to change. By default, WebFetch will not use any proxy when fetching pages. Some Internet Service Providers offer their own, much faster "Cache" machines, known as proxies, which hold many commonly accessed pages on huge hard drives just at the end of your phone line or network connection. Demon offer a particularly good proxy service, although be warned, many proxies can be slower than accessing pages directly.

    The easiest way to change Proxy settings is to press menu over the WebFetch icon on the iconbar, and go off "Proxies" and select the one you want from the predefined list. You can then save the settings if you want to. Several common UK proxies are provided on this list.

    The WebFetch Options

    **** We do NOT recommend changing any of these settings, unless you consider yourself to be an expert user ****

    Press the menu mouse button over WebsterXL’s icon on the iconbar. Move to the right off Configure, and choose WebFetch. In fact the setting up of WebFetch is done through a web page created by the program - well, this IS a web browser!

    The first option you can set is the number of connections WebFetch has open at any time. Simply, this is the number of pages and images which it tries to fetch at the same time. A low setting means that WebFetch will put all its effort into downloading a limited number of images, and this will increase the speed for those images, but the overall speed may be lower because the images may not be coming down very quickly, so WebFetch is left twiddling its thumbs when it could be fetching more down. Similarly, a large setting for this will mean that WebFetch spends all its time switching between the different files being downloaded. In practise 6 connections will probably give you the best overall performance, but 4 or 8 may be worth trying.

    The next two options govern WebFetch’s iconbar behaviour. Most users will want to see WebFetch when it is loaded, but for it to quit as soon as they have finished using WebsterXL.

    The next section is the main area that you may wish to change. WebsterXL can get web pages either directly or via a so-called Proxy. This is a computer with a large amount of memory and disc space, with a very fast internet connection which acts as a cache in between you and the page you wish to get. If the page is already cached on the proxy machine, then the page will appear much more quickly than if it was fetched by hand. For the most part, you will want to use a proxy, as this will speed up your browsing. By default a public UK proxy has been selected, but you may prefer to use one allocated for you by your own Internet service provider. Please note that FTP addresses must be fetched via the proxy machine.

    There may be times when you wish to use a different proxy, or none at all (if your usual proxy appears to be running slowly, or is broken). In this case you will want to fill in the second (or third etc...) proxy. You will be able to select which to use from the WebFetch icon bar menu. Please note that if you do not wish to access a page via proxy, the proxy should be set to ?. That’s right, a question mark!

    By default, WebFetch is set up to offer you a choice between a UK proxy and no proxy.