Version 1.5.2

March 9, 1998

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1.0 General Information

2.0 System Requirements

3.0 What's new

4.0 Release Notes

4.1 Readahead Browsing

4.2 Importing Bookmarks from the Current Browser

4.3 Backing up the Blaze WPP Database

4.4 Limitations on Working with Browsers

4.5 Working With Proxies

4.6 Uninstalling the Product

4.7 Known Problems in this Release

5.0 Contacting ASi

1.0 General Information

The Blaze Web Performance Pack(tm) ("Blaze WPP") is a suite of integrated software tools designed to allow users of 32-bit Microsoft Windows(r) to more efficiently and quickly access the World Wide Web. When you install Blaze WPP, you can:

Preload web pages linked to the page you are currently browsing (known as "readahead" browsing), which makes the pages you are likely to access next load more quickly.
Perform fast, efficient searches from a single, user-friendly interface, without knowing the syntax used by the various search engines available on the web. You can also organize the search results, clearly and logically, for later access.
Create, manage, and Organize bookmarks in a simpler, yet more powerful, way than is possible with the native facilities available in your web browser(s).
Automatically index web pages as you retrieve them, so that you can search the content of those pages (we call this searching "Everything I have seen so far").
Create local copies of web pages, so you can browse them even when you are not connected to the Internet (off-line browsing).
Schedule searches, bookmark checking (to see what bookmarked sites have changed since you last accessed them), and web page local copying, to run unattended whenever you like, including late at night or during off-peak hours. You can later view the results, at your convenience, including when you are not connected to the Internet.

Visit the Blaze WPP web site, at http://www.SpeedItUp.com, for answers to your questions about the operation of various features in Blaze WPP. An on-line tutorial is available at the Blaze WPP web site, which you can access by selecting Support from the Organize Help menu, then choosing the Welcome link on the technical support page (this corresponds to http://www.SpeedItUp.com/help/welcome.html).

2.0 System Requirements

Blaze WPP requires the following software:

one of these operating systems:

Microsoft Windows(r) 95
Microsoft Windows NT(r) version 4.0

one of these World Wide Web browsers:

Netscape Navigator(tm) version 2.0 (or higher)
Microsoft Internet Explorer(tm) version 3.0 (or higher)

with the following minimum hardware configuration:

66 MHz 80486 Intel (or equivalent) CPU (or higher)
8 MB RAM (16 MB or more recommended)
6.5 MB hard disk space (this is an absolute minimum requirement; you should allow Blaze WPP anywhere from 12 to 20 MB to allow the database to grow as you add bookmarks, run searches, etc.)
An active Internet connection, such as is already used in conjunction with your web browser

3.0 What's New

The following items have been added or corrected since release 1.1

Dynamic program updating has been added. The program now has the ability to check if a newer version is available and if so, download and install the updated version.
Corrections were made to the "ReadAhead" algorithms to correct a number of various problems.
Support for Internet Explorer version 4.0 and Netscape Communicator were added.
Search engine scripts were updated to support new features in the various search engines.
Many graphical images and icons have been updated or revised.
Corrections and additional information have been added to the help topics.

The following items have been added or corrected since release 1.5

A ReadAhead Status dialog was added. This allows the user to visually see what is happening with the ReadAhead cache.
Multiple Agent processes are no longer created when launching Agent from Organize.
The "Blaze Organize" menu is now only added to the Browsers that are configured to use Blaze.
The "View Organize" menu item in the Browser will now launch Organize if it is not currently running.
Help button on Search now correctly links to the Search Query language page on the xSpeed web site.
Organize is now able to schedule a Search to occur.
All Search Scripts updated.
Automatic update when Organize is launched.

4.0 Release Notes

The following are some things to remember when using Blaze WPP:

4.1 Readahead Browsing

You may wonder why Blaze WPP reads ahead some pages (before you request them or click on a link for them), while others are not. A number of factors go into the decision to successfully readahead any given web page:
Since Blaze WPP attempts to read each link on the page you are currently viewing, there simply may not have been enough time to readahead the page you select.
Blaze WPP is server-friendly, which means it is designed not to overtax web servers with readahead requests, and it does not request pages that the server indicates are inappropriate for such actions.
Readahead incorporates logic to determine which pages are appropriate to use. Some pages simply may not be suitable for efficiency reasons.
The browser may already have pages loaded into its disk or memory cache. Any page the browser retrieves from its own cache is not visible to the xSpeed(tm) readahead software and cannot be read ahead. If you force your browser to reload that page completely, the xSpeed(tm) readahead software can begin to process it. (To force a complete reload in Netscape Navigator(tm), for example, press the Refresh button while holding down the Shift key.)

The readahead browsing feature of Blaze WPP temporarily caches (stores) pages in memory so that they can be quickly sent to the browser.

4.2 Importing Bookmarks from the Current Browser

Rather than forcing you to re-enter your current bookmarks from your browser, Blaze WPP can import them directly. This is available from Blaze WPP Organize's Tools menu; just choose Import Bookmarks and let Blaze WPP do the work.

Blaze WPP automatically detects which supported browsers are installed on your system, and gives you the opportunity to choose the browser(s) from which to import. Blaze WPP imports your browser's bookmarks into its database, after which they may be used by any of Blaze WPP's functions.

4.3 Backing up the Blaze WPP Database

Blaze WPP stores all bookmarks, schedules, and searches in a database on your hard drive. We recommend backing up these items periodically. The database is located in the Blaze WPP installation directory in the subdirectory called, users\yourname\db, where "yourname" is your login ID. For instance, if your login ID is bob and you installed Blaze WPP in the default installation directory, the name of this directory will be:

C:\Program Files\ASi\Blaze Web Performance Pack\users\bob\db

If you are running Microsoft Windows(r) 95 without user logins, the name of this directory will be:

C:\Program Files\ASi\Blaze Web Performance Pack\users\default\db

Blaze WPP keeps the index for Everything I have seen so far in the subdirectory called, users\yourname\vh, where "yourname" is your login ID. For instance, if your login ID is susan, and you installed Blaze WPP in the default installation directory, the name of this directory will be:

C:\Program Files\ASi\Blaze Web Performance Pack\users\susan\vh

If you are running Microsoft Windows(r) 95 without user logins, the name of this directory will be:

C:\Program Files\ASi\Blaze Web Performance Pack\users\default\vh

4.4 Limitations on Working with Browsers

You may notice that while you may have several versions of a particular browser installed (for example, Netscape Navigator(tm) 3.0 and Navigator(tm) 3.01), only the most recently installed version is presented as a choice to be used with Blaze WPP. This is due to the way those products store their configuration data. While these may even occupy different areas on the hard drive, they will use many of the same common areas (in the registry and elsewhere) to store configuration information.

If you install Blaze WPP with one version of a particular browser, and then uninstall a different version of that same browser, you may get unpredictable and undesired results that are totally independent of Blaze WPP's operation. If that uninstall leaves the configuration data alone, recognizing that another version of the browser is currently using it, Blaze WPP will have no problem.

If you should uninstall the version of your browser that Blaze WPP has been using, invoke the Configuration dialog (choose Configure from the proxy's content menu-right click the red X icon in the system tray-or choose Configuration from the Tools menu in Organize) and just click OK. This will cause Blaze WPP to recognize that your browser settings have changed.

The bottom line is that you must be very careful when maintaining multiple versions of the same browser on your system with Blaze WPP.

4.5 Working With Proxies

Blaze WPP supports proxies. A proxy is a special hardware or software product that acts as an intermediary between your machine and the Internet. This is sometimes done in businesses to provide the outside world with a single machine's address, to restrict traffic that may enter or leave the local network, or perhaps to isolate host name lookups. Proxies used for security reasons are often called firewalls. In most circumstances, Blaze WPP's setup program automatically detects your proxy settings and adapts itself and the browser to that environment.

The only known situation where Blaze WPP cannot work with your existing proxy configuration is where the proxy settings are automatically configured by pointing the browser to a special file (this is called Automatic Proxy Configuration in Netscape Navigator(tm)). Blaze WPP does not support automatic configuration.

4.6 Uninstalling the Product

While uninstalling Blaze WPP, you may be prompted to delete certain files(DLLs) in the Microsoft Windows(r) 95 or Windows NT(r) system directory (often something like c:\windows\system). The operating system may mistakenly indicate that these files can be removed safely; however, deleting them may prevent other programs from running. The problem arises from some setup programs' failure to register that the applications they installed use these DLLs.

We strongly recommend that you remove none of the DLLs from the Microsoft Windows(r) 95 or Windows NT(r) system directory during the uninstall. You may wish to move those files to a temporary directory to test whether any of your applications stop working. If none fail after a few weeks of use, you can probably delete the files after all.

4.7 Known Problems in this Release

MSIE 4 has bookmarks for 'Channels'. These are not imported correctly when you import bookmarks into Organize.
If you uninstall a previous version of Blaze before installing this new one, make sure you reboot your computer before the new install. Failure to do so will cause problems and you will have to install Blaze again.
Selecting the Add Bookmark item on the Organize menu in Microsoft Internet Explorer(tm) may not add the current web page as a bookmark to Blaze WPP (This only happens when adding a bookmark to the root "Bookmark" directory in Organize).
While you can turn Organize into just a toolbar, there have been some problems on certain machines when doing so. The symptoms include the toolbar refusing to assume the correct shape and appearance for its current screen position. Closing and restarting Organize eliminates the problem.
Certain multiple-selection operations (e.g., selecting several bookmarks or search hits), like drag and drop, and delete, do not work currently. However, these operations work fine with individual items.
Organize does not currently save and restore its current window size and position. That is, Organize does not remember its last size and position when you start it each time.
Create Shortcut in Organize does not work properly in Microsoft Windows(r) 95, if you did not log onto the machine with a specific user account.
Bookmarking non-HTML URLs (such as those beginning with ftp://, etc.) may cause unpredictable results.
The "Blaze Organize" menu will not be added to Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 (tm).

5.0 Contacting ASi

We welcome and encourage comments, problem reports, and suggestions. Please email us at blazesupport@asizip.com. Additional information is available through our web site at http://www.SpeedItUp.com.

Blaze Web Performance Pack, xSpeed, and xSpeed Server Extension are trademarks of ASi. Windows, Windows 95, Windows NT and Internet Explorer are trademarks of Microsoft, Inc. Navigator is a trademark of Netscape, Inc.