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How to get the most out of Faster Broadband internet connection for speed and enjoyment!

Cable, DSL, ADSL, and Fibre optic internet is fast, but there are a few tweaks and tricks you can do with your computer settings, wireless internet settings, and changing how you use the internet to make Broadband feel more fast, and fun to use.

I’ll also post about how to have the most fun with your broadband connection by using your fast internet to watch HD videos, listen to music, play games, and stay connected with Friends and Family online.

By making some small changes to your computer, web browser, computer usage changes, you can get more done in a shorter amount of time.

First, you should learn how fast your internet service provider is by learning how to measure and benchmark it.

1. Use a better and faster Web Browser like Google Chrome which seems a lot faster then Internet Explorer when I use it.

Note: If you use Windows, you should check for updates for Google Chrome on a monthly basis, by clicking the wrench button on the top right of chrome, and clicking on the “About Google Chrome” option which will check for, and install the latest version of Google Chrome. You can also download the latest version of Chrome at google.com/chrome New versions of Chrome usually include performance upgrades and bug fixes which make using Google chrome faster and more reliable.

Read my post on Making Flash Games and Online Apps Run Faster on Windows 7 to learn how to make flash games and online Apps run faster on your computer.

If you notice Google Chrome or other web browsers in Windows, or other Operating System are running slowly, try emptying your web browser and operating system temporary files.

2. Scan your computer for computer virus and spyware programs if you use Windows since Virus and spyware can make your computer and internet feel slow. Microsoft Security Essentials is a decent and fast anti-virus program for Windows XP to 7.

Download MS Security Essentials at microsoft.com/security_essentials/

The paid version of Malwarebytes is a very good program for blocking, and removing virus, trojans, spyware from infecting your computer with its realtime shield, automatic scheduled malware scanner, and automatic updates.

3. Use Free Download Manager which can accelerate your downloads for files by using multiple threads to download a single file. If you use Bittorrent, download torrents which has a lot of peers and seeders so there are more people to download from.

4. If you spend a lot of time on YouTube, and other video sharing site use ByWifi or SpeedBit Video Accelerator to speed up your video download speeds. Although, Speedbit only speeds up non-HD videos for the free version while ByWifi speeds up both HD and non-HD videos on most flash video sites.

Hulu, YouTube, Dailymotion, Netflix, Veoh, Vimeo, Amazon Download store, iTunes, Ustream, BlogTV, etc are all sites for watching online video. With YouTube, Dailymotion, and more advance video sharing websites there is an option to watch videos in HD or Higher quality if the owner of the video uploaded his video in HD.

In Youtube, you can also change the playback settings in your Account settings to “Always play HD when switching to fullscreen (when available)” in the Playback setup settings, and save it, so you can watch the highest quality version automatically.

If you want to view your TV shows while you are away from home, use NetFlix, or Hulu. But, if your local news and shows are not on NetFlix, or Hulu you can use Slingbox PRO-HD to stream your favorite TV shows via your high speed broadband internet connection or record to your Personal video recorder (PVR) from anywhere with high speed internet.

There is usually no need to upload two versions (HD and non-HD version) of a video for video sharing sites these days since most popular video sharing sites convert your video to lower quality for people with slower connection, so you should upload only one version which is the HD version of your video, and YouTube will be smart enough to also convert smaller low quality versions of your video files for people with slower connections to watch.

To upload HD quality videos, you need to tell your video editing software like Windows Live Movie maker, or iMovie to save your video in 720P or 1080P wide screen format then upload it to your YouTube account using your web browser by going to YouTube.com and clicking the upload link on the top of the YouTube homepage.

shoutcast.com is good for finding and listening to online radio which plays pop, rock, classical, rap and many other types of music. Radios which stream their stations at higher bitrates like 96-192kbps+ sound better then low bitrate music streamed at 24-64kbps.

Last.FM , SoundClick.com , Purevolume.com , Myspace, and Facebook are all good sites where you can find, listen, stream, download songs and music videos from singers and musicians.

5. Use bookmarks instead of manually typing in websites which you visit on a common basis, so you can quickly visit them with a click of the mouse. For bookmarks which you use a lot, save them to your bookmark tool bar, so you can visit them quickly by clicking them on the bookmark toolbar.

6. Use a e-mail client like Outlook, Thunderbird, or Windows Live Mail to download and read all your E-mail accounts, so you do not have to visit and log-in to a lot websites to check them all.

7. Make sure to password protect your wireless router if you use one, so no one, but yourself, friends, and family can use your wireless internet, so they won’t be slowing your internet down by using yours.

While you are in your router settings, see if you can change some other settings as well to make it faster or go farther.

8. Close unused programs and turn off other computers which are using the internet since they might be using your internet connection to upload/share files or info via bittorrent, peer to peer file sharing, or streaming online radio or TV streams, send notifications, etc which can slow down your internet connection.

9. If your internet seems slow or unreliable, try switching to Google DNS which is fast and reliable for using as a DNS server for your home internet connection.

10. Update to the latest version of Adobe Flash player, and Java plug-in since a lot of websites use Adobe Flash and Java.

The latest version of Adobe Flash player, and Java might open Flash and Java files faster. You can download flash at get.adobe.com/flashplayer and Java at java.com .

11. If you use Windows XP to 7, get TuneUp Utilitiesâ„¢ 2011 which is very easy to use to optimize your Windows, Web browsers, and internet settings for maximum speed and reliability while using your computer on the internet.

 

12. Consider using Ubuntu Linux for going online since you do not have to worry about getting infected with Windows computer viruses, and spyware. Plus, Ubuntu is a very stable operating system which crashes less then Windows operating system in my experience.

13. If your internet connection is fast and reliable enough, you can use it to play streaming cloud games.

14. Buy a game console which can go online to play games with people who also own the same game console and game. I recommend the Xbox 360 250GB slim because of its huge library of games, and Netflix video streaming service capabilities.

If you prefer free online play for consoles, the Sony Playstation 3, or Wii would be better choices, but the online game play and features might not be as good as Xbox Live. However, both the Wii and PS3 can go online to view Netflix, and they both have web browsers while the Xbox 360 does not have a web browser.

If you prefer online game play on a portable handheld console, the Nintendo DS, Sony PSP will be good for online gameplay in a portable console.

Google Android powered tablet computers, also are also capable of playing Flash like games, browsing the web, watching videos, and playing songs.

15. Steam is a good place to purchase downloadable Windows games for a fair price.

16. Ninite is a great website for downloading and installing free or trial software for Windows with just one installer file which saves you a lot of time from having to individually visit many websites to download the installer to install a program in Windows.

17. Tweetdeck, and Flock are good browser apps and browsers for staying in touch with friends and family on various social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Foursquare, Google Buzz and more.

Ping.FM is a great website which make it very fast, simple, and easy to change your status updates for Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, Blogger,LinkedIN, Bebo, and more by using one convenient posting app on Ping.FM website.

18. Use Pidgin instant messenger to keep in touch with all your friends you added to AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, QQ, IRC and more instead of having multiple browsers open.

Skype, and Google Voice are good to use to chat with friends although Skype has video calling features while Google Voice does not. I think Skype lets you call regular phone numbers and long distance numbers for a small fee while Google Voice is free for local and US calls, but you have to pay a small fee per minute to call international phone numbers.

K7.net is a free voice mail and fax service which gives you a online voice mail, and fax number which you can use as a free voice mail and fax number for storing and accessing your voicemail and faxes online.

19. If you are mostly using wireless networking/wi-fi to get online, upgrade your router to at least Wireless G since Wireless B routers and wifi cards are slow and less secure. Wireless N is currently the fastest wireless standard.

You also might speed up your internet for wired network connected computer since your newer wireless router with wired ports for wired internet connected computer might be more optimize to work with your existing wired network cards on your computer. Most Wireless routers also have around 4 or more ports on the back of it for your existing wired internet connected computers and laptops.

In the future, faster then 100Mbps to Gigabit 1000Mbps internet might be more popular, and affordable, so if you ever upgrade to Gigabit internet make sure to upgrade your network cards to Gigabit Ethernet cards or Wireless N or Gigabit routers and wifi card to N if you use wireless. However, these days very few people have internet which is faster then 100Mbps which is the fastest speed most older routers and network cards can handle because of the high cost of Fibre optic internet. Cat 6 is also more expensive, but is backwards compatible with older standards like 10/100 MBps routers, and wired Ethernet network cards.

Category 6(CAT 6) Gigabit Ethernet networking wire/cable is best for Gigabit networks which run faster then 100 Mbps. If you use broadband slower then 100 Mbps, make sure your router, wired cards are CAT 5 or CAT 5e which both have a maximum speed rating of up to 100Mbps.

Note: the type of cable is usually written on the side of the cable, or the packaging for your cable.

20. If you notice your internet connection is unreliable or drops a lot, phone up your internet service provider to see if they can troubleshoot if your internet modem, or cables, are the problem. If there is a lot of electrical interference in your house from large motors, using shielded network cable might make your internet and network more reliable.

21. You can also try updating your wired or wireless network card drivers by going to your network card company website, and searching for your model of network card to see if there are any new drivers are available. But, if your internet and network is fine, it is safest to leave your network card drivers a lone unless you want to see if the new drivers for your network card makes any difference.

22. Sometimes updating the firmware for your router can make it more reliable, and perform faster, so updating the firmware can increase your router’s speed, add new feature and make it more reliable. But, if there is a power outage, or you used the wrong firmware version, you could break your router, so if your router is fine, it is safest to just leave it a lone.

Note: Sometimes just unplugging your modem and router from the wall’s power outlet for a few minutes, and replugging in both your router and modem back in to the power outlet can fix and reset your internet related problem. Also, try restarting your computer to see if it makes a difference in internet speed and reliability since a lot of computer related problems can be fix with a simple restart.

23. Subscribing to more expensive Cable, DSL, ADSL, Fibre and other broadband and wideband connections from your internet service provider can also increase your download speed by a lot. But, you’ll be paying more for the speed boost, and extra bandwidth.

24. Sometimes it is your computer which is slowing down your computer. Consider buying a computer that is running on Windows 7 or the latest version of Mac, or Ubuntu Linux since newer computers will have a better operating system, more RAM, a faster CPU, and video card which makes your online, and regular desktop software run a lot faster.

25. Be sure to read your Internet service provider contract since some ISP are metered meaning if you use too much bandwidth like 60-200GB per month, they can fine you with overage fees, or disconnect you for abuse of service.

Read stopthecap.com to learn more about metered/limited broadband internet.

Extra tip: One of the great things about Broadband, is it makes uploading and sharing big files with friends so much faster, so you can use your internet connection to upload files to websites like Megaupload, Yousendit, Dropbox , Mozy, MediaFire, Tinypic, Photo bucket, image shack, Google Picasa, Flickr, Ubuntu One, Google Docs, Live Skydrive, etc to have gigabytes of files stored online, so you can download your files from any computer with a web browser and internet connection. You can use some online file storage sites to backup your files while others are made for sharing since download links expire after a few days meaning your files would be deleted, but your friends will have a few days to download your files. Dropbox, Mozy, and Ubuntu One uses online backup software to make sure your files on a specific folder like “My Documents” is the same as the online version on “My documents” folder stored on their websites. Your files stored on their website is user name and password protected, but you can also set the file to be visable by everyone online by changing the visibility settings.

If you prefer using free e-mail to send and receive attachments, you can send an attachment up to 25 MBs in size with Gmail, and Yahoo mail, and 20 MBs in size with Hotmail.

If you are looking for free web space to share your life with the world, I recommend Blogspot, Tumblr, WordPress.com, Xanga, or Multiply since I used them all and they seem very reliable in my experience.

Note:Only Blogspot allows you to earn money with your blog easily by inserting Adsense ads, and Amazon Affiliate links and banners like my Blogspot blog at pctutorial.info .

If you have anymore tips for improving your broadband for maximum speed, and enjoyment, please leave a comment below.

7 comments… add one
  • 3D Printers March 13, 2011, 5:59 am

    Thanks for the information…great post and informative too…

  • LansingPCRepair March 13, 2011, 9:52 am

    We should kept in mind, that you have described various tips in your blog, regarding the fast processing of internet connection. These tips are very useful to me.
    LansingPCRepair

  • Ashley Stingley March 18, 2011, 2:44 am

    Awesome work your putting in! check out this guide. This might help

    1. Go to desktop->
    My computer-(right click on)->properties->
    then go HARDWARE tab->
    Device manager->
    Now u see a window of Device manager then
    go to Ports->
    Communication Port(double click on it and Open).
    After open u can see a Communication Port properties.
    Go the Port Setting:—-and now increase your “Bits per second” to 128000 and “Flow control” change to Hardware.
    Apply and see the result.
    2. click START > RUN > type gpedit.msc
    go to local computer policy > administrative templates > network > QOS PACKET SCHEDULER > double click LIMIT RESERVABLE BANDWIDTH , it will say it is not configured, but the truth is under the ‘Explain’ tab
    click enable then set the value of bandwidth to “0” ZERO.

    tested on windows xp GOODLUCK!:)

  • Johnson Yip March 18, 2011, 1:12 pm

    Awesome tutorial reply Ashley, I got to try your tip for improving the communication port and gpedit.msc .

  • Ben April 5, 2011, 4:46 pm

    Nice work, do you use a capture card for the videos?

  • Johnson Yip April 5, 2011, 7:37 pm

    Hi Ben, I just use CamStudio to capture my video. It works pretty good for capturing video. Thanks for the comment.

  • Plugin For Blogs November 30, 2013, 4:05 pm

    Hey there! This post couldn’t be written any better!
    Reading this post reminds me of my old room mate!

    He always kept chatting about this. I will forward this article
    to him. Pretty sure he will have a good read. Thank you for sharing!

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