Dial-up connections are slower than DSL or broadband connections. A dial-up connection uses a telephone line to connect to the internet.
There are several free ways to improve your dial-up connection. While
these techniques may make your browsing and download speed 10 times
faster than usual, they will never compare to the speed of a broadband
or DSL connection. Note that you may require administrative rights to
perform this task.
Difficulty: Moderately Challenging
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Clear
your Web cache. Click the Start menu and select "Control Panel." Click
the link "Classic View." Double-click "Internet Options." Click the
"General" tab. Hit "Delete..." under "Browsing History." Check
"Cookies" and "Temporary Internet files." Click the "Delete" button.
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Minimize
the number of open browser windows. Certain websites, even when unused,
tend to use up bandwidth while they auto-update their content.
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Stop downloading files while browsing the web.
Downloads use up a lot of bandwidth, thus slowing down your
already-slow dial-up connection. Similarly, do not browse the Web while
downloading files.
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Increase
your dial-up modem's maximum port speed. Click the Start menu and
select "Run..." Type "devmgmt.msc" and press the "Enter" key. This will
launch your "Device Manager." Scroll down to find "Modems."
Double-click to expand the contents. Right-click your dial-up modem
device and select "Properties." Click the "Modem" tab. Click the
"Maximum port speed" drop-down menu and select the maximum setting
available for your dial-up modem.
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Contact
your dial-up Internet service provider to see if they offer free
accelerated plans. NetZero offers "HiSpeed 3G" at no extra cost.
Similarly, EarthLink offers an accelerator engine called my "My
EarthLink Accelerator." Bell also provides a free dial-up accelerator.
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Download
"Download Accelerator Plus (DAP)" to significantly improve your dial-up
browsing as well as download speed (see Resources). It is free for all
users. DAP uses multiple connections of different file segments to
speed up your download and browsing experience.
How to Increase Firefox's SpeedFirefox is an internet
browser that is preferred by many web designers and internet savvy
people because they know that it is more secure, more standard
compliant, and allows better customizations. Although Firefox is a very
fast browser it can be better. In this article we will give you some
good tips to make your Firefox preform better and faster.
You
can tweak Firefox's cache handling, page load, and stop it from taking
all of your r file, but don't worry, even if you are not familiar with
the Firefox configuration you can make these changes. If you want to
you can write down the changes you made to make sure that you can
revert back to what you had. Good luck.
Difficulty: Moderately Easy
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Access The Firefox Configuration Open
your browser and type "about:config" in the top address bar, not the
search, but the actual address bar. You will be prompted the be
careful, this is just Firefox's warning that you can do something bad
to your browser....if you follow the instructions you should not have
to worry about this.
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network.dns.disableIPv6 In
the filter address bar type the following: "network.dns.disableIPv6".
If you have not made any modifications to your browser yet this setting
should read "false" in the value column. Double click it to change it
to "true".
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network.http.pipelining In
the filter address bar type the following: "network.http.pipelining".
If you have not made any modifications to your browser yet this setting
should read "false" in the value column. Double click it to change it
to "true".
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network.http.proxy.pipelining In
the filter address bar type the following:
"network.http.proxy.pipelining". If you have not made any modifications
to your browser yet this setting should read "false" in the value
column. Double click it to change it to "true".
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network.http.pipelining.maxrequests In
the filter address bar type the following:
"network.http.pipelining.maxrequests". If you have not made any
modifications to your browser yet this setting should read "4" in the
value column. Change that value to "8".
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nglayout.initialpaint.delay You
need to create a new integer now. To do this you need to right click
> New > Integer. In the text box that comes up you need to type
"nglayout.initialpaint.delay" and hit the ok button. Next, enter a
value of "0" and click the OK button.
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config.trim_on_minimize You
need to create a new Boolean now. To do this you need to right click
> New > Boolean. In the text box that comes up you need to type
"config.trim_on_minimize" and hit the OK button. Next, select "true"
and click the OK button.
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browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewer In the filter address bar type the following: "browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewer". Change that value to "0".
Uninstall
or disable unused and/or old extensions. Select the "Tools" menu, click
"Add-ons," and disable or uninstall each add-on that you don't use or
find to be slowing you down. For useful add-ons, try disabling them one
at a time, then restart Firefox to see if you notice a difference in
the page-loading speed. If a specific add-on causes a slowdown, then
evaluate whether or not the add-on's benefit is worth the slowdown.
Disable the Java Console and the JavaScript Debugger; they are rarely
used and can be re-enabled later if necessary.
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Clear
your download list by selecting the "Tools" menu, clicking "Downloads,"
then clicking the "Clear List" button on the "Downloads" pop-up window.
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Create
a new profile. The older your profile is, the more likely it is to slow
down Firefox. Whatever operating system you're using, appending "-P"
after the command to start Firefox will open up the Profile dialog box,
allowing you to create a new profile. Using Windows, select the "Start"
menu, go to "All Programs," scroll up to the "Accessories" folder and
click on "Command Prompt." Type in "run firefox.exe -P" in the "Command
Prompt" pop-up box.
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Launch
Firefox using the new profile, and see if you notice a difference in
loading speed. If the speed has improved, you can import your bookmarks
into the new profile, though you might lose some history information
and other data. It might be worth the loss in order to have faster page
loading.
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Download
and install add-ons such as NoScript, Adblock Plus and AFOM, which can
all significantly improve Firefox's page-load speed. All of these
add-ons are free.
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Install
Comodo Firewall and Avast Antivirus as your firewall and antivirus
software, respectively. Firefox developers recommend these programs for
faster browsing in Firefox. Both programs are free, but you may
purchase more advanced versions.
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