Few things are as frustrating for users as counting bytes in an attempt to stay within their data plan. This is especially irritating when relying on a mobile connection via tethering, and the compression options built into browsers have their limits. Bandwidth Hero is a more robust alternative that allows regulating the level of compression on images, and even delivering black and white versions for a more advanced data savings.
The Battle Over Net Neutrality
Across the pond, companies and users alike are fighting a hard battle against the FCC and the desire of its executives (virtually bought and paid for by providers) to eliminate net neutrality. This means that the masterminds with control over Web access in the United States will be able to fragment that access at will (among other things), and that includes hard limits on the monthly amount of data that can be downloaded, a detail that already exists in various forms. The situation is even worse in the mobile space, with data packs becoming increasingly smaller and more expensive. That installs the obligation to "count bytes", that is, think twice before entering a heavy site or playing a video.
Browsers at the level of Opera and Chrome offer their own resources to compress and save bandwidth during sessions, but there is another option: Bandwidth Hero.
Features of Bandwidth Hero
Bandwidth Hero is an extension compatible with Chrome and Firefox that attacks the most critical point of data transfer: images. Bandwidth Hero gives us the possibility to compress images at four different levels (20, 40, 60, and 80 percent), and enable their conversion to black and white, which deepens savings. It also presents a "whitelist" feature so it ignores certain sites, and works on both HTTP and HTTPS connections, something that does not happen with Google Chrome's compressor. Bandwidth Hero comes configured with its own compressor out of the box, but if the user wants to replace it, they can do so by changing the URL.
Open Source and Privacy
The extension is open source, and the compression service (technically a proxy) does not store images, although it can generate logs with the original URLs of the images and the user's IP number. That means that no one should expect anonymity when using Bandwidth Hero, however, the connection between the extension and the service itself is made via HTTPS.
How Much Can You Save?
How much can we save? That depends on each session, but in my tests it was 10 megabytes in just a couple of minutes, and those gains accumulate quickly.
