| The FAQs'
A Few Pointers on using TurboSite Loading TurboSite onto your server
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TurboSite Quick Setup Guide This guide will assist you in setting up TurboSite as quickly as possible. Every attempt has been made to cover necessary topics fully but if you find this guide to be unclear or incomplete please write to TurboSite Questions ([email protected]) and we will respond as soon as possible.
Loading TurboSite onto your server First you will need to create a text file and name it 'mylist.txt' or whatever. In this file you may enter up to 50(or 10 if a demo version) items that you wish to accelerate. Please enter the full addresses of the items and enter only one item per line. Because of Java applet security restrictions, you can only enter items that are from YOUR site. Also, you may enter up to 50 items. If you do not need 50 items then just stop entering new lines and save the file. Please see the example file called mylist.txt if you need more assistance. Second you will need to upload the text file that you just created and the TurboSite class (TurboSite.class) file to your server using your preferred FTP program. These files should be uploaded to the same directory that your html documents reside in. This is for simplicity as this avoids using additional html parameters to make TurboSite function. Next you will need to upload all of the *.gif files that came with your TurboSite package to the same directory that you just placed the TurboSite class file in. If this is not done then TurboSite will stall out when you attempt to use it. After the class file and all *.gif files are placed on your server then you will need to move on to the html code necessary to use TurboSite.
Necessary HTML code for using TurboSite Now that all of the necessary files are on your server you will need to modify your webpages to use TurboSite. First we will look at an example and then attempt to explain each item of the code: <CENTER> <APPLET code=TurboSite.class id=TurboSite width=110 height=32> <PARAM name=UserName VALUE="http://www.intellisoft-inc.com/mylist.txt"> <PARAM name=Copyright VALUE="(c)Copyright 1998 Intellisoft, Inc."> TurboSite needs Java to run. </APPLET> </CENTER> This is the code that you would use. You would need to modify the parameters and etc... For each page that you wish to use TurboSite on you will need to copy this code and paste it on your page so that it appears at the bottom of the page. Some assumption has been made that the user of TurboSite is at least familiar with HTML code. If you are not familiar with it or not very comfortable with it then please send a brief email stating that you would like a personalized example for one of your pages and include the address for that page in the email. Also, please include a list of pages or graphics that you would like accelerated and the directory in which your HTML documents reside with the email. We will copy the page from your site, add the TurboSite code to the page, and email the example page back to you free of charge. Now to the code. <CENTER> is simply for centering the applet in the center of the document - it is not necessary but is preferred. If you decide not to center then also remove the </CENTER> tag as the two are used as a pair and whatever is between the two tags is centered. <APPLET code=TurboSite.class id=TurboSite width=110 height=32> The <APPLET code... > tag is what tells a browser about the Java applet. This line must be typed in exactly as it appears for TurboSite to work. This line basically says "go look for TurboSite.class in the directory that I am currently in and make sure that the file actually is TurboSite and not a renamed file and give TurboSite 110 by 32 pixel space to display in on the screen." It is recommended that this line be copied and pasted to each page that TurboSite will be used on so that typing mistakes and problems may be avoided. This line remains the same for every user of TurboSite. <PARAM name=UserName VALUE="http://www.intellisoft-inc.com/mylist.txt"> The <PARAM name=UserName ...> tag is used to tell TurboSite the name of the authorized site using TurboSite. The tag should appear as shown with changes made to the VALUE= to reflect the full address of your site as shown above and the location of your list. In the case above if you typed in the address shown then you would see the list of addresses that are accelerated at Intellisofts' site. <PARAM name=Copyright VALUE="(c)Copyright 1998 Intellisoft, Inc."> The above line needs to be included in the HTML code exactly as shown or TurboSite will not start. TurboSite needs Java to run. </APPLET> The line line above needs to be included in the HTML code as a courtesy for your sites visitors. This line lets any visitors that come to your site know that TurboSite is on your site but that they need to enable Java in their browser or use a Java capable browser. The </APPLET> tag at the end of the line is necessary to close the <APPLET> code and must be included. After filling in all of the tags all that you need to do is upload your pages to your site just as you normally would. TurboSite may be used on multiple pages on your site - as a matter of fact it is strongly encouraged. On each page simply paste in your applet code and upload each page to your site.
It may be necessary to troubleshoot TurboSite or you may wish to verify that TurboSite is indeed working. The easiest way to see that TurboSite is working is to access any of your pages on your site with Netscape 3.0 or higher. Netscape will show you in the status bar at the bottom of the browser window what TurboSite is doing. It will tell you if TurboSite is attempting to read a file from your site. Also with Netscape you may select 'Show Java Console' from the 'Options' menu. This will show you any errors that TurboSite may have handled and will show if TurboSite is not running because of an incorrect password. An easy way to see if TurboSite is working is simply to view the TurboSite icon that appears on the page that TurboSite is on. The needle on the gauge moves every time a page is accessed. If you have a slow connection then the needle will move slowly as the needle can only move as fast as TurboSite accesses pages. One of the best ways to see that TurboSite is working is to use Netscape 3.0 and the Windows Explorer together. You simply open up the directory on your hard drive where your cache file is and then go to Netscape and clear cache then check your hard drive to make sure that the cache is indeed empty. You should set the memory cache as low as possible to be able to see the effect that tells you that TurboSite is working. Now use Netscape to go to one of your pages that uses TurboSite. You will see the cache begin to fill up as the page loads but you should see files being added to the cache as the TurboSite needle moves. You can double click on any of the files in the cache and open them up. Some of the files in the cache will be files from your TurboSite parameter list that is part of the page that you are currently viewing. You may use Internet Explorer 3.0 and up for troubleshooting but you will need to enable "Java logging" and review the log file that Internet Explorer writes.
1) Do not use TurboSite for accelerating large graphic files. Any file larger than about 75k takes a while to download and prevents other items in your list from being accelerated. If you do wish to accelerate large graphic files then please put them at the end of your list. This will allow all of the small stuff to be accelerated first. Also, most browsers now support progressive loading of images so that the image slowly becomes visible. It is much more effective to have all graphics and text loaded on a page with a large progressive image slowly appearing than it is to have a large image immediately visible while all of the text and small images slowly appear. 2) TurboSite is most effective on pages where a visitor may spend a lot of time such as a large index page or a page with a lot of text. This is simply because the longer the user is on a TurboSite page the more items that TurboSite can load from your list. On these type of pages you may want to take advantage of the time to load those large graphics that you may have. 3) Banners take time to load from other sites. If you can avoid the use of banners you will find that TurboSite will begin much more quickly as it does not have to wait as the users browser finishes accessing another site to load the banner. If you must use banners and you can do it, try putting the TurboSite code before the banner code on your page. This will load TurboSite first and let it begin rather than waiting for a banner to load first from a busy banner site.
1) My site is hosted on a UNIX server - will it work on my site? 1a) Absolutely! TurboSite is a Java applet. This means that it does not depend on your server to operate but it depends upon the websurfers browser. If a visitor to your site has a Java enabled browser then TurboSite will run and begin caching pages. All that you need to do as the webmaster is place the Java class file on your site and add the html code to each page that you wish to use TurboSite on. 2) Will my sites visitors need to be running Windows for TurboSite to work? 2a) No. Java is a platform independent language. The TurboSite applet is platform independent and will run under any browser that supports Java. There are different flavors of Netscape and Internet Explorer for the different platforms such as UNIX and OS/2 but if your visitors have Java enabled TurboSite will work. 3) How does TurboSite deal with graphics or frames that appear on multiple pages? Does it reload them every time? 3a) TurboSite uses the websurfers browser to cache the pages that it grabs. If a websurfer visits a page and leaves only to return later then that same page appears more quickly in their browser because it was already in their browsers disk cache. TurboSite works very similar to this by loading the pages that your visitors might visit next in the background. These pages are stored in the browsers cache and when the browser needs to display them, it calls them up. Therefore a repetitive graphic throughout a site is efficient because it only needs to be grabbed by TurboSite once. 4) How many links may I enter on my list of objects that I would like accelerated? 4a) The demo version is good for 10 links. If you choose to order TurboSite you will be able to enter 50 links. The upgrade is simple - you will only need to add links to your existing list and upload the new Java class file. 5) Can I use TurboSite on multiple pages thus giving me more than just 10(or 50) accelerated items? 5a) Yes and no. It is strongly encouraged that you use TurboSite on more than one page because it will continue downloading links that it did not get if it has not finished all of the links on your list. But TurboSite works from a central list so it will only load what is on the list. 6) Can I use TurboSite more than once on one page? 6a) This is definitely not recommended. 7) Why isn't there a version of TurboSite with more than 50 pages and items? 7a) Through trial and error it was found that anything greater than approximately 50 items is not efficient because visitors leave before everything is accelerated. 8) What is the largest graphic that I should try to accelerate? 8a) Anything greater than 75k becomes inefficient as TurboSite spends all of its' time downloading one graphic and steals precious time from other items. The most efficient use of TurboSite is to use it to grab multiple smaller items or the page and allow the browser to download the large graphic. This allows your visitors to begin reading your pages much more quickly as most everything else is already on screen. 9) If I want to accelerate more than 50 pages is there a way that I can do it? 9a) Yes there are several ways of obtaining more than 50 accelerated links. If you would like, we can make a special version for you with as many links as you would like. There is also another technique that is available which we will not explain here. 10) Do I need to enter 50 links on my list or can I only enter what I need? 10a) TurboSite will handle up to 50 links so if you only need 15 at the time then simply enter fifteen links and leave the rest blank. It will not hinder performance or cause any errors. 11) What if I have other questions about TurboSite? 11a) Please feel free to email TurboSite Questions. An answer will be sent to you as soon as possible and the question and answer may be added to this page.
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