Dial-up Acceleration is based on two major components
 
1. “Compression” technology.
(software robots that squeeze web page content, pictures, and downloadable files into smaller "packets")

2. “Proxy” server networks.
(groups of servers that are spread around the world, and handle the compression work for you)
 
The two biggest Acceleration Networks are Propel and Proxyconn.

Dial-up acceleration networks do not replace your current ISP.

Instead, they combine with your ISP. You would still maintain your current ISP subscription, and just add on a second subscription to the acceleration service for another six to ten dollars a month.

Once subscribed to a dial-up acceleration service, your ISP will no longer connect to the Internet directly. Instead, your dial-up connection and ISP will connect to the acceleration servers. Those acceleration servers, in turn, visit web pages for you. Acting as intermediary machines between your ISP and the rest of the Internet. [these acceleration servers are called “proxy” servers]

Proxy acceleration servers try to learn your common web destinations and then do "store-and-forward" transmissions. This means that the servers will store logs of what web pages you prefer, and then will often visit those pages in advance for you, storing recent copies of those pages, ready to forward to your screen upon your request. While maintaining your privacy, this store-and-forward format helps to double, if not triple, your experienced web speed because the content is already waiting for you.
 
The real speed gain is in "compression" algorithms. This is when the proxy acceleration servers use special proprietary technology to compress web pages and emails into smaller “packets”. If a web page is normally 800 kilobytes total size, compression can squeeze it down to perhaps 200 or 250 kilobytes. These smaller packets are sent to you through your dial-up modem, and then expanded back to full size on your computer with special software at your end. A few years back, this compression would normally have the side effect of poorer quality graphics.

But now in 2006, compression technology has improved dramatically, and graphics do not degrade significantly when compressed-decompressed.

The compression-decompression process also applies in the “up” direction. This means: when you upload files or send emails and attachments or text messages, those items also get compressed-and-decompressed for faster transmission.

So, if you are trying to speed-up a slow dial-up connection, and cannot get satellite or high speed, then dial-up acceleration may be the best low-cost option for you at this time.
[Try Propel or Proxyconn for a week and see if 6 times the modem speed is worth 10 more dollars a month to you . . . and let us know]

I can vouch that Propel really does help with dial-up. Download speeds no. Browsing yes. It caches and if you want it to compresses the data.

Yah. That was probably just your download manager calculating wrong or something. Dial-up can only go so fast, and there is not a program out there that can change that.

I don't think the 53.3Kbps is set by the modem but by the phone company.They are required by the FCC to do this.Mostly because higher speeds from dial-up in the frequency range dial-up works in interferes with voice quality.If not for this a new type dial up modem(not currently manufactured ) could do DSL speed but the telephone users on the line would hear a high pitched squeal on their telephones.This would not be just on the modem users line.Then multiply that by all the dial-up modems & you would not be able to communicate on or to a land line.
The different frequency DSL uses is the reason it can get the speed it does over the same phone line.It is also why you can use DSL & the phone at the same time.
That's my understanding anyway.

you also want a faster dns server
see www.opendns.com  {free}
ping times are faster than my ips's dns


good luck

They also use cache.