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Tips On How To Boost Internet Speed
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Gnomie Fear Qabandi writes:
I’ve just seen your video Optimize Your ISP’s Slow Internet Connection, and I’m kind of an expert on this subject because I have been using dial-up and slow speed connections for all my life and I have only recently updated to a wireless HUAWEI 2G and 3G connection. Anyway, during my time using dial-up I came up with different ways to speed up my connection and here are some of them. By the way, these can also be used for any slow connection speed. I used these techniques when I “upgraded” from dial-up to GPRS via cellular Bluetooth, which was 1KB faster than dial up. Anyway, here we go.
- Firewalls:
Blocking some programs from connecting to the Internet (like WinAmp player, which automatically tries to check for updates). You’d be surprised how many applications try connecting to the Internet behind your back. I’ve caught my Windows Explorer connecting to the Internet; after looking up the IP thinking it was some Trojan, It turned out to be windows.com. Many people have complained about this, claiming it’s spyware. This is one reason I think Open Source operating systems are much better! - Internet Browsing/Images:
Setting up your Internet browser to not download or show images during browsing will open up pages much faster, which enables you to read articles and blogs without having to wait ten minutes for the page to load. This can be done in Microsoft Internet Explorer and I’m sure it can be done with Firefox and other Internet explorers.In MS-IE this can be done by going to Tools / Internet Options / Advance Tab / scroll down until you see “Show Pictures”; just uncheck that and enjoy. - Download Managers:
Make sure you have a program that has a resume option. The resume option is a great feature that enables you to continue downloading a file even if your connection was lost during downloading. Some download links are not direct, which means they don’t support resuming. RapidShare and Megaupload are file hosters that don’t provide direct links. - Cache:
Don’t delete your cache too often — or not at all, since you’re on a slow connection. Your cache wont build up to gigabytes anytime soon, so don’t freak out if you get 200 MB of files cached after a month and think that’s too much, its OK. - Stop It!
Stop using dial-up! Upgrading your current Internet connection is the best way to optimize and boost your connection speed. There is probably no good excuse nowadays for using dial-up unless you live in the middle of the wilderness; ask your mobile phone company if they offer any Internet connections like PCMCIA cards or HUAWEI cards. Ask if your area provides fiber optic connections, DSL, or better yet, ask your neighbors if they are using a fast connection. If they are, ask them if they can give you their network password so you can use their wireless connection — pay them if you have to! If they don’t have wireless, buy a long DSL cable and pay them monthly. Do anything — just drop the dial-up.
7 Comments
Brian W. Humbrecht
January 30th, 2008
at 3:15am
Yes - I “live in the middle of the wilderness.” Applacian Mtns of WV!
The mtn ridge is in the way of ‘line-of-site’ to Hughes Satellite. DSL coverage currently stops ~3mi fm my home. Cell phone requires I walk to the top of the mtn ridge to get a connection & there is NO cable outside the only incorporated town in the County! Phone company told us last yr that their long range plan is to extend DSL coverage to this area of the County sometime in 2008; but, will provide no specifics to our County gov’t rep. So I will be glad when I can get it; but, who knows when that will be! So Dialup is my ONLY choice; unfortuantely, there are some of us left w/o any broadband options! Also a couple of sfw I use to help make my connection more efficient are:
1. Cacheman - optimize my cache & other settings.
2. Propel Accelerator - provides ~4x equivalent increase in speed w/o significant degredation to graphics in downloading emails & webpages.
Barry Taylor
February 13th, 2008
at 11:27pm
You have a good informative web site.
I thought I would let you know about something that would probably interest you:
Have you tried Versis ‘Full Speed’ software?
I have tried all Internet boost products and they all pretty much do the same tweaks and get rubbish results…….but Full Speed doesn’t and it has a dramatic effect on broadband Internet speed, Browsers speed and download speed.
It is totaly automatic and fool proof. One click and it is done.
Just thought you might want to know about it for your web site.
You can see it on Youtube or the main web site is http://www.getfullspeed.com
Thank you
Jeannie
February 21st, 2008
at 4:32pm
I recently changed from Vrzn DSL which wasn’t too bad for the price, to TWC broadband package …..
I decided to try this, what did I have to lose?
It nearly doubled!
about 4Mbs up and down now, I am a happy girl. Tried it on my xphome ofc PC and XPPro lap at home at the other end of the house……both great! Before you do this, go to a couple speed tests online like
speedtestonline.com
and
another one, refresh it three or four times, writing down your speeds. Then do below and after reboot, do the same speed sites again 3-4 times
There IS an increase.
By default (even with QoS disabled) Windows XP reserves up to 20 percent of your connections bandwidth. To override this reserve take the following steps.
Make sure you Log on as Administrator, not as a user with Administrator privileges.
* Start-> Run-> type gpedit.msc
* You will see [Local Computer Policy]
* Expand the [Administrative Templates] branch
* Expand the [Network] branch
* Highlight [QoS Packet Scheduler]
* Double-click [Limit Reservable Bandwidth]
* Check [Enabled]
* Change [Bandwidth limit %] to 0 %
* Click [Apply] [OK]
* Restart
Effect is immediate.
Zap
February 27th, 2008
at 2:10am
Great site, and while I haven’t notice anything major in terms of my internet speed (wireless), I’m glad I was inspired to figure out how to finally stop all those annoying programs from running in the background. Cheers bud :-}
Megalarus
October 9th, 2008
at 4:27pm
I have a problem with DSL. We already have AT&T Elite connection which is the highest speed for DSL on AT&T and from time to time the latency goes from over 2 MB to like 10KB which is kinda annoying and i need help on how to fix it.
M
November 29th, 2008
at 3:41pm
Could someone suggest a good download manager with a resume feature?
-M
Christopher
May 11th, 2009
at 1:07pm
Cool tips, they work well… Thanks :)!