Traffic Compression?

[ElectroPulse]

Hello, all!

I recently have been exploring the world of VPSs... I hadn't realized how inexpensive they are. Now that I am starting to look into them, different uses have been popping into my head.

One of them is this: I have read that different organizations use some sort of traffic compression when transmitting information over a dedicated line, or whatever solution they have to connect different campuses.

Now, next year I am probably going to be transferring to a university that, unfortunately, starts aggressively throttling bandwidth after 4GB of download/day. Now, here is my idea... Set up a VPN between my computer and a VPS that I rent, and have the VPS compress the internet traffic on its way to me. I know this could increase ping, but for downloads and streaming that shouldn't matter.

I've done some googling, and haven't been able to find any software solutions for this... Are there any that are available?

Thanks!
ElectroPulse

 

[jjeff1]

The applications you've heard about basically rely on the fact that in a client-server model, the same data is sent repeatedly across a WAN from a server to the clients. So you setup an appliance at each end of a dedicated link. The appliances keep track of the data and do a substitution.

http://www.silver-peak.com/products-solutions/vxoa/maximize-bandwidth

But for a single user, that situation doesn't occur, unless whatever you're doing is extremely repetitive.

 

[TCM2]

First, you're better off running a local caching proxy that caches most static content on websites you frequently visit.

Downloads and streams don't benefit from compression because streams are video and incompressible and downloads are likely to be archives or installers that are likewise incompressible.

 

[Grentz]

The applications you've heard about basically rely on the fact that in a client-server model, the same data is sent repeatedly across a WAN from a server to the clients. So you setup an appliance at each end of a dedicated link. The appliances keep track of the data and do a substitution.

http://www.silver-peak.com/products-solutions/vxoa/maximize-bandwidth

But for a single user, that situation doesn't occur, unless whatever you're doing is extremely repetitive.

Correct. And we use them in exactly this way. They also tend to only make a big difference on very slow or highly congested links.

 

[ElectroPulse]

Thanks for the replies!

Ah man, that's too bad... Was hoping there was some way to reduce bandwidth usage. Well, thanks for setting me straight on it!