Eudora Internet Suite comes with a 106-page manual, but only about 16 pages deal specifically with the EudoraWeb application. Those pages act exclusively as a user manual with almost no technical information. A little technical capability and compliance information is available on the product's Web page. As a result, I largely based the technical assessment of EudoraWeb on trial and experience. There are an additional five pages of documentation addressing the EudoraWeb Conduit, but this adds little value to the core browsing application.

Proxy Servers
Although all of the products support connection through a proxy server, such as your corporate caching proxy, EudoraWeb and PocketLink do not require a proxy server to operate. I don't necessarily see this as an advantage. In fact, given the ways in which Xiino and Blazer user their proxy servers, they gain some advantages.

Xiino uses a proxy server only for images. The default proxy server is Ilinx's server in Japan, which raises questions of performance for non-Japanese browsing. My spot checks during relatively light Internet usage hours indicate a measurable latency, although you may not notice over dial-up lines as part of a page. The Ilinx proxy server scales images to fit the handheld screen and reduces the color depth to the Web safe 256-color palette.

Blazer uses the proxy server even more aggressively. In addition to image scaling, image color depth is determined by the browser settings. Blazer also adapts the HTML content, such as tables, to the display size of the handheld.

In general, the proxy-based approach will lead to faster page response through image reduction, content adjustment, and possibly caching. On the other hand, it introduces another element in the communications chain that could fail and impede your browsing. Although I haven't experienced proxy failures, I don't feel that my usage has been sufficient to be an authoritative indicator.

Standards support
Even at a high level, there are clear differences between the four browsers. EudoraWeb doesn't specify the versions of HTML supported. The other three support at least HTML 3.2. PocketLink and Blazer also both support the cHTML standard. Further, Blazer supports xHTML, WML 1.2, and HDML 3.0.

Image support is another major differentiator. EudoraWeb doesn't support images at all. PocketLink only supports .GIF images, but that covers a lot of ground. Xiino adds converted .GIF and .JPEG, covering even more ground. Blazer has the most extensive support, adding .BMP, .WBMP, and .PNG to the mix. None of the browsers support animated .GIFs or rich content like Flash, QuickTime, or audio.

All four browsers support both cookies and secure connections. Typically, secure socket support includes SSL 2.0, SSL 3.0, and TLS 1.0.

Only Xiino supports any form of client-side scripting, with considerable support for JavaScript. On the one hand, there are a number of sites that use JavaScript for dynamic menus and rollover images. On the other hand, a lack of JavaScript lets you avoid pop-ups and pop-unders.