Free Surfing for Ricochet Subscribers

Owners of Metricom’s Ricochet wireless modems can get a free Web browsing boost thanks to a recent deal with Connectix Corporation. (See Jeff Carlson’s "Tied Down No More: The Ricochet Wireless Modem" in TidBITS 366 for more information.) Metricom is offering a free downloadable copy of Connectix’s Surf Express, software that caches Web pages more efficiently than current Web browsers. According to figures taken from an evaluation study by UTSI International Corporation commissioned by Metricom, Surf Express provided the best smart-caching solution. The deal is being offered to current and future Ricochet subscribers; you must provide your modem’s serial number and your billing zip code for validation before downloading the 1.8 MB file.