I'm not sure of my terminology, so I will simply explain what I did in my own words:
1) At first, I had been using the IB trading software that one can download to one's computer from the IB site. This is the IB software that limits you in that you can only use it on the site that you downloaded it to.
This is different than the software IB offers on their website, that that accessible is from any sufficiently-strong online PC computer at any time.
I had selected this download-to-my-desktop alternative because I had heard bad stories about "browser-based software."
2) I have never had smooth, good, fast and consistent results with the IB software I downloaded to my computer. I have reinstalled it. I have rebooted the machine many times over the weeks. i have cleaned out the caches. I have deleted unecessary programs. I have used Norton Utilities. I used MemTurbo, which cleans up memory leaks. despite all of these measures, I would still get terribly-delayed executions; screen freeze-ups; the frequent inability to access account data; and generally clunky execution.
I evne wrote IB about my problems, and they hadn't a solution (or have not yet provided one). They did seem genuinely concerned. I am running an AMD 800mHz with 256K RAM and a big hard drive. The culprit might be that I am running Windows ME. (I have yet to install Windows Pro 2000.)
3) Anyway, one morning my system locked up while having a big scalp in play. Long story short, I ended up logging straight onto the IB website and used the IB software through that channel. This involved the downloading of an applet of some kind, if I recall correctly; but this was diffrent from their other software, in that the software didn't remain resident on my computer.
Since then, and it has only been about 2 days, IB is working the way I have heard it can work--VERY FAST.
********
It appears that the dirty word (actually, phrase) "browser-based software" may conjure up notions of seniding your equities orders to workers who handle your online orders in the same way that they would handle an e-mail, which they then route to a market maker. It appears quite possible that IB is not that way; it appears that somehow they somehow hook you right into Direct Access Trading through their website.
*********
As I mentioned before, my technical knowledge is limited, so my explanations and discussion of this topic may be off-base at times.
Bottom line: Since going through IB's website, things have been much MUCH zippier for me. Ahe same time, it has been only two trading days since I made the switch.
hope this helps,
blackjack