MODEM BOOSTER 4.0

by Bob Ashen, LACS

Modem Booster purports to increase the speed of your Internet connection by automatically optimizing modem settings. Trying to set up and use the program was surreal: a major mystery just about every step of the way. Maybe it will improve the operation of your modem, but maybe it will not, or maybe it will make it worse.

The download and installation was quick and easy, but it was all down-hill from there. The set-up and operation are so automatic and simple that you cannot tell what is happening, the nature of problems, when things are done, and what are the results are.

For set-up you can choose between (1) manual tune-up of one or more of four features:(for advanced users), or (2) auto-tune-up of all four features. To avoid interference during tune-up, I attempted to remove all other programs. This did not go well, maybe because of Modem Booster or maybe because I used the "EndItAll" program. Just after I started a tune-up I got an error message and had to shut down. After this repeated several times I used control-alt-delete to individually close programs, and at least the tune-up progressed for a time.

The automatic tune-up involves 36 tests (with no explanation of what they are) and takes several hours, I did not get to the end. First there was "test canceled because failure to send request." I changed a configuration setting and hoped. No way to continue from the problem point (wherever that was since all you have is the error message screen). So start over with 1 of 36. Another "test canceled" screen. Here is where inconsistencies began (but did not end). The program lets you look at the "Last Result," so I did. "Congratulations, completed tune-up suite" and here are the test results. (I thought it was serious when it said test canceled; guess not.)

The results were pretty unintelligible:

Extreme performance.....up 42%

Average performance ......up 1%

Best of the Best.................up 0%

I found some definitions, and I could understand the one for "Average performance." If there was no significant increase in "Average performance," your modem settings before optimization were already OK. This "seemed" to be the case for me. I could make no sense out of the other two definitions.

You simply click on an icon on the Windows Task Bar and a small window says that the modem is being optimized, and very quickly then tells you that the optimization is completed, and that you should make your Internet connection as usual. No clue as to what was done, and the program does not track or effectively indicate what, if any, improvement was achieved.

Modem Booster does not tell you what the optimization changed, by how much, whether the change impacts other operations/programs, or any choices about anything. Even when I chose to do a manual tune-up as to do only one of the four possible features, I got no such information or choices.

Modem Booster purports to let you check your modem speed. So I tried. Sometimes the speed was almost 300 Kb/sec ... sometimes about 75 Kb/sec, and sometimes 2-4 Kb/sec. Most confusing was sometimes getting a low speed when I thought I was checking after optimization, and sometimes getting a high speed when I thought I was checking before optimization, and getting totally different speeds when I rechecked without changing anything. As I said, you may be getting something, but you may not be.

At some point (in FAQ #18), I found a suggestion to use Internet Explorer 4.0/5.0 and a different Website, i.e., www.altavista.com. I had been using Navigator 6.1, so I changed and managed, I think, to get the tune-up to complete. When I tried to check speeds, the same confusion.

There is no documentation, no readme file, and the most minimum of on-line help (which includes about 20 FAQs).

There is no telephone support (I would have settled for a long distance call), no e-mail help, etc. There is an online fill-in-the-blanks question support form at: http://www.inklineglobal.net/support/mb-faq.html. A notice said that they might be too busy to respond to all inquiries, but that registered users would get preference.

Pentium 90 and above, 12MB of RAM, and 8MB of hard disk space. Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP. Internet Explorer v. 4.0/5.0 or perhaps 6.

While this program may work, based on my experience I doubt it. My suggestion is to avoid it.

Modem Booster, Version 4.0

Can download. $25.00 to register.

InKline Global, Inc., www.inklineglobal.net.