Dial-up, ISDN, and low cost DSL and Cable can be very slow or not fast enough to use since they download web pages in Kbps instead of Mbps like most faster connections like DSL and Cable.
If you still use dial-up, and slower connections, I have a few tips for improving your slow internet experience by adjusting how you use your internet like using a Download manager to download files from websites.
Even if you use a faster internet connections, these tips will help you save a few seconds off your website load times for your browser, or make using the internet not as big of a time waster by doing internet related tasks like checking e-mail faster and almost effortless.
By following some of these tips on optimizing your internet habits for slower internet connections, you might even save a few MB to GB of bandwidth, so you won’t have to pay overage charges if you are using metered/limited internet where you can only use a limited amount of bandwidth like 40 GB before your internet provider charges you extra per GB of data downloaded or uploaded.
Plus, your internet surfing experience will be less frustrating by optimizing the way you get, send, and experience your information online. This mean you spend less time browsing through ads, poorly written articles, annoying animation, and other things on websites which make surfing the web a hassle.
1. Close your instant messenger, e-mail client, and other programs if you are not using them since they may be using some of your internet connection to check for updates, new e-mail, download information, and send information.
Some newer Instant Messengers , toolbars, and programs like Windows Live Messenger 2011, Tweet Deck, Twhirl, etc notify you if you have new e-mails, Twitter messages, Facebook messages, weather forecast, news, and other types of messages, so you can just open your instant messengers, and they will notify you if you have any new messages for your E-mail and social networking accounts.
Using Instant messengers which also are connected to your social network accounts let you save time by not having to visit 3 or more social networks a day to read and update status updates on a daily basis.
2. Use a tabbed browser like Google Chrome, Internet Explorer 7+, Firefox, Opera, etc. While you are reading one website visit another website in a second tab, so when you are done reading your first article, you can go to the second tab to start reading the next article. If you click on a wrong link, or the website is not what you are interested in, click the close tab button which is usually an X on the left side of the tab, or you can just click the stop button which is also an X or red octagon on your browsers toolbar to stop the loading of the page.
Opera 10 web browser also has a turbo mode which makes websites load faster by reducing the quality of images by compressing images file size.
Some web browsers and browser add-ons allow you to block pop-ups, javascript, images, flash videos, and other objects from loading which saves you time when loading a website.
If you watch YouTube videos, watch them in standard quality instead of HD quality. You can change the setting in the YouTube player on the bottom right of the player.
Some browsers let you subscribe to your favorite blogs, websites, etc very easy via RSS subscriptions, or E-mail subscriptions, so using RSS, and E-mail subscriptions can save more time then manually visiting websites to see if they have new stories.
Use bookmarks on your web browser, so you are not constantly spending time using search engines, directories, or guessing addresses to find your favorite websites which you forgot the address to.
If you forgot to bookmark a website, view your browsing history unless you deleted your browser’s history in your browser’s history to try to find the website which you visited in the past.
3. Don’t empty your internet browser’s temporary files folder as often. The temp folder makes loading websites faster when you revisit websites since images, and other files will be loaded from your computer hard drive rather then from the internet which can improve your website load times by a lot.
Although, if you are having problems loading a website, your web browser feels slower then usual, you’re experiencing system crashes, or certain websites don’t work properly, and video is not loading for certain websites using CCleaner, or some other similar temp file cleaner may make visiting websites and your computer run faster.
4. Use a Download Manager like Free Download Manager since FDM lets you schedule downloads to times when your PC is on, but you are not using the web. Also, Download managers can speed up your download speed by downloading your files in pieces from multiple websites. Most importantly, download managers can sometimes resume failed downloads which means it can download the remaining parts of the files where the download fail, so you do not have to re-download the entire file again. It is best to schedule downloads at night since you won’t be using the internet, and if you use Cable internet, fewer people in your town will also be using the internet in your town, so your downloads might be a little faster. You can also set Free Download Manager to use less bandwidth in the Settings > Downloads > Network options, so your downloads won’t slow down your internet browsing speed too much, but your download times will be slower.
If you use online storage services, or video sharing sites like Mozy, Dropbox, Mediafire, YouTube I recommend to upload your files when you are not using your computer to browse the web, but your PC is on. Some online backup software let you schedule when you want to upload your files for safe keeping. Most online backup software also should let you adjust the maximum upload and download speed for transferring your files to and from your computer to your back up server, so if you notice that when your online backup service is slowing down your web browsing experience, you should lower the maximum upload and download limit for your online backup software to a lower number.
Some websites have multiple locations also called mirror servers which you can download from. It is best to pick the closest download server, or at least a mirror server in the same country which you live in. This will make downloads faster. Some Universities and colleges also have download servers to let the public download free open source programs and other media, so it is best to download from schools since their servers can be faster then private servers owned by individuals and small companies.
Using FTP servers like ftp://ftp.ch.debian.org/ or ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/ can be pretty good for browsing and downloading files via a web browser or FTP client like FileZilla on a slower connection since the pages are all text based meaning browsing for files to download is fast since no images need to be loaded.
5. Use webmail like Gmail, Yahoo mail, and Hotmail instead of an E-mail client since you do not have to physically download all your e-mails, and e-mail attachments to your computer. All you do is visit a website, and login to your e-mail account.
If you mainly use your internet for E-mail, installing an E-mail client would be a better idea since you can read your mail when you are not connected to the internet by downloading all your E-mail from your webmail account like gmail.
6. Scan your computer for virus, spyware, and malware programs with your antivirus, and antispyware programs since some virus, spyware, and malware program uses your internet connection to send information to and from your computer to send you ads, and steal your info.
Keep Windows 7 PC or older PC safe Online and on Network Video!
7. Use a video accelerator program like Speedbit Video Accelerator which can speed up Flash videos on YouTube, and other websites loading times by a few seconds or minutes.
8. When possible, download or buy songs, video, and pictures instead of going to websites all the time to watch or listen to media like videos and songs. If you go to File, save page as, or print page, you can save a copy of the website from the internet, or print it on paper for reading even when you are not on the internet.
Copying files from a temporary internet files folder or just a single website in Internet Explorer 8
9. Change your DNS server to a faster, or more reliable DNS server which may make your internet more reliable.
10. Uninstall Toolbars, Plug-ins, and other add-ons for browsers which you don’t need or use anymore since some browsers check for updates for your add-ons when you use your web browsers. Plus, add-ons can make your website feel kind of slow.
- Adjusting Internet Explorer 8 for Speed Video
- Optimizing Mozilla FireFox for speed video
- Lower Avant Browser Memory Foot Print in seconds without restarting Avant Video!
- Make Internet Explorer 8 display website correctly by reseting IE8 to the default settings
- Making Flash Games and Online Apps Run Faster
Extra Tips:
1. Install TuneUp Utilities 2011 on your computer if you run Windows XP to 7 since it can tweak your web browser, and internet networking related settings. TuneUP also keeps Microsoft Windows operating systems running at its best which increases your overall computer performance with a few clicks of the mouse.
2. If you blog, or maintain a website online consider using a desktop software based website builder like Adobe Dreamweaver, or Microsoft Front Page to maintain your website, and upload it when you are done. Windows Live Writer is made for bloggers who can use a program to publish blog posts online, but work on your computer until you are ready to publish.
Some blogging websites like WordPress, Blogger, etc let you blog from your E-mail.
By using an offline software based website editor or blog editor, you do not have to visit a website by opening a browser, and waiting for your online website builder to load which can take a few minutes to load on slower connections.
4.Use social bookmarking sites like Digg, Stumbleupon, Reddit, etc to look for articles, videos, and pictures online since it shows which pages are being recommended, and how many people recommend you to read the article, so you are less likely to read an article which is not good. Also, social bookmarking sites are usually pretty fast loading pages since they do not have a lot of pictures, videos, etc which can load slowly on a slower internet connection.
Forums are also good places to communicate, and read articles about a certain topic since forums usually load fast, and don’t have a lot of images, ads, flash, and stuff compared to websites, social networking sites, and blog which slow down your website load times because of using too many images, flash video, and other plug-ins. Plus, with forums, you can make new topics, and reply to old topics by being a member which is usually free for most forums.
groups.google.com is also a good place to stay up to date about your hobbies, news, and many other topics which you are interested in by joining groups like groups.google.com/group/ubuntu-user-community . Google Groups loads fast on most slower connection since the website does not have a lot of images, and files on it to slow down your website loading times.
Also, using an E-mail client like Outlook, Windows Mail or Mozilla Thunderbird to access your ISP’s Usenet Newsgroup server to read about news and reply to news can be an effective way of getting informed while you are on a slow speed internet connection since usenet is mostly text based. Learn more about Usenet at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet .
It is very easy to set up, and use, but you need to find out what your ISP’s usenet server is before being able to use USENET.
Although, there seems to be a lot of spam, and unwanted advertisement on some forums, Google Groups, and Usenet groups because of poor moderation by the owner of the groups because he or she did not delete the spam messages.
Using portal/homepage websites like google.com/ig can save you time when using the web since you only need to use one website to stay informed about weather, news, RSS blog feeds, e-mail, News, social updates and you can even add more apps to keep you updated, or entertain yourself with games you add to iGoogle.
5. If your school, library, family, and friends have faster internet connections, you can borrow their computer to download large files to a USB drive to bring home, burn to s CD. You can also bring your laptop with wireless internet capabilities over to their home to download big files by using their wireless internet connection or carry a long a network cable to plug into their modem, router, switch, hub or networking plugs/outlets.
You can use a download manager like Free Download Manager to schedule or manually start your downloads to a time when you are at someone’s house or place with high speed internet if you own a laptop.
6. If you own a mid-high end cell phone or smart phone like the iPhone made in the last few years, you can install apps or its mobile browser, to easily access your Facebook, Twitter, E-mail, and other accounts on your cell phone’s internet connection which can be as fast as low-mid end high speed internet. Most high end cell phones can also use faster wireless internet which is free at most public places like libraries, colleges, etc. Tablet computers like the iPad, Google Android Tablet, and some MP3/Video players like the iPod Touch, PSP, etc also work for browsing the web on a faster connection via wireless internet.
Note: If you are not on an unlimited or high bandwidth plan from your cell phone company, using too much bandwidth can cost you a lot of money, so it is best to connect your cell phone, mobile modem, or tablet computer to a public wireless hot spot like a library with free internet.