Excerpts from the Preface:

One measure of the growing disparity between the developed and developing worlds is the speed of the Internet. For example, the speeds of connections from North America to Africa are slower than those to Europe by a factor of 50 or so. Such assessments have been made by measuring the round trip time that it takes for a digital pulse sent over the Internet to return to the sender.

The reasons for this disparity include the availability of Internet access only via slow satellite connections, and the lack of communications infrastructure in the remote parts of the world. Bandwidth and computing equipment are expensive as a result of weak currencies, high transport costs, small budgets and unreasonable tariffs. Bandwidth in some developing countries can be so costly that even their prime universities cannot afford speeds equivalent to the average western household with an ADSL connection. Thus universities and other institutions cannot afford a decent link, or are simply unaware of existing alternatives.

This book attempts to provide practical information on how to gain the largest benefit from existing connections to the Internet, by exposing readers to the latest techniques to optimise the use of low-bandwidth network connections. By applying optimisation techniques based on open source technologies discussed here, the effectiveness of available connections can be significantly improved. Access to more bandwidth will facilitate better exchange of scientific information, data and literature among researchers all over the world. One hopes that the process will enable every scientist to become part of the scientific enterprise no matter where geographically she is located with respect to the main centers of modern science.