Compression porcentages

Can you be a tad more specific?

Not all of us have double computer icons nor do we know what program that represents.

It sounds like you're seeing the transfer rates as something is being transferred to/from your PC and the internet.

The compression is the amount of empty space in the file. The program was able to squeeze 13% of the file size into a more compressed file before transmitting. The transmission is in progress and the 3% lets you know that you've received 3% of the file and have 97% remaining to be transferred.

This is all based on guesswork since I don't know what the double computer icon is all about.

Perhaps I'm missidentifying the icon. To me it looks like two computer moniters one behind and to the right of the other. When I double click it a window pops up titled "My IPS Status". "Compression" sent/recieved is included with other information about the connection shown on that windo.

To pass more data down a data path (i.e. a telephone line) teh modems have a firmware algorithim built in that "compresses" the data.

For example if I was sending you a file I could send you the file bit by bit and your system could then rebuild it bit by bit. But if a lot of the data is repetative I could use a compression algorithim that looks at the data and instead of sending you 100 "1" bits one at a time I could send a command that tells your PC to simply insert 100 "1" bits. If that command takes 10 bits to send then I'd have acheived 90% compression on that segment.

What that window is telling you is how well your modem is working in compressing the data you are transferring. The higher the compression the faster your data transfers will appear. Some datas doesn't compress well at all though (or is to small to bother compressing) so the compression built into your modem is useless.

Thank you. That is a very helpfull explanation. Now I know.