SPEED.
Author/s: Gail Robinsan
We might not have Web pages that download instantly and DVD-quality
movies streaming in real time over the Net yet, but there's nothing to
stop us from dreaming. And there's nothing to stop you cranking up your
connection right now. So here's how to accelerate every stage of your
Net experience, from your phone line to your browser. It's about time
reality caught up with your imagination
Show me someone satisfied with the speed of their Internet connection
and I'll show you someone in denial. It's a plain fact of life that you
soon get used to any speed improvements and start to hunger for more.
But it's important not to stop pushing further. Until the day that
even the most Flashed-up pages download instantly and we can all watch
DVD-quality movies in real time over the Internet, there's still work to
be done.
Though most of us are a few years off that kind of performance, you
can still get some impressive results with today's connections-speedy
page downloads and smooth streaming video are possible even with dial-up
connections. In the pages that follow, we'll work through every aspect
of your Net connection from your Net connection to your browser, giving
you all the speed tips and advice you need to help make sure such
results are the norm rather than the exception.
The most obvious place to start if you're after more nippy Net access
is with your connection itself. Broadband will give the biggest
improvements, but is it worth binning your 56k modem just yet? We've
analysed the options available to help you decide which one, if any, is
for you. We've also figured out whether the speed improvements you get
are really value for money.
If you reckon broadband's not for you just yet, there are plenty of
ways of tweaking a dawdling dial-up connection o squeeze out that last
kilobit of performance. We guide you through the ins and outs of the
latest V.92 modem standard, as well as tell you to how to optimise your
Control Panel settings and how to get the most out of proxy servers.
But to reap the benefits of proxy servers, you'll need an ISP that
supports them, and not all do. The way different lSPs are run and the
resources they have can make a great difference to the speed of your
connection, as our monthly provider tests (see page 124) reveal. We arm
you with the questions you need to ask your ISP to make sure it's
offering you the fastest possible service,
And finally, the way you browse affects the speed up your Net
experience just as much as the resources behind your connection. So
you'll also find we offer you a list of hints, tips, and tweaks for both
Internet Explorer and the new Netscape 6 to help you browse at lightning
speed. We even take a quick peek at what other browsing options are
available. Right now, if you want to seriously speed up your Internet
connection, and get a permanent line to the Net into the bargain, you've
got two options-an ADSL or a cable connection.
ADSL, or to give it its full title Asymmetric Digital Subscriber
Line, works over your normal phone line and, for home users, offers
download speeds of 512kbps and a tardier upload speed of 256kbps. That's
nigh on 10 times faster than the good old modem, so a 5Mb MP3 file that
would take 12 minutes to download over a standard dial-up connection,
would take just over a minute on a shiny new ADSL line. Your connection
will also be able to handle massive improvements in the quality of
streaming video and audio. You can get faster ADSL upload speeds-
Easynet and Zen Internet for example are offering 2Mbps services - but
the monthly cost leaps considerably, so they're more suitable for
business users.
ADSL worls by splitting your normal phone line, which means you can
use the phone, fax, or even a modem, while you're connected to the Net.
But this approach has its downsides -- some customers have found that if
the ADSL line goes down, it can take your voice line out too.
ADSL is available for both PCs and Macs. People with PCs will need to
be running Windows 95, 98, 98SE, NT4 or 2000 Professional, while those
with Macs need OS 8.6 or higher. Installation involves screwing an extra
box on to your wall that you plug an ADs USB modem into, which in turn
plugs into the USB connector on your computer.
Gimme ADSL now!
BT claims that if you're already connected to an ADSL exchange and
you've got a standard BT phone line, you could be joining the 35,000 or
so existing ADSL customers within 15 days. The problem is not everybody
in the UK can connect to an ADSL-ready exchange. Type in your phone
number at www.bt.com/openworld to find out if you're one of the lucky
few.
Currently most of the ADSL action is focused on big cities- BT has
upgraded around 600 exchanges covering Birmingham, Belfast Cambridge,
Cardiff, Coventry, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, London, Manchester, Milton
Keynes and Newcastle. Plans are afoot to extend ADSL into Wales and
Scotland once this initial upgrade phase has been completed. BT's grand
plan is to cover 70 per cent of the UK's home and business addresses by
the end of 2002.
Who's offering ADSL?
There's been a big hoo-ha about the speed at which BT is offering
other ISPs access to its ADSL exchanges. A spat broke out recently when
BT claimed it could add up to 2,000 new ADSL customers to its Openworld
service a week. Meanwhile it was limiting Freeserve to adding just 100
new ADSL customers a week. Freeserve's CEO John Pluthero claims this
behaviour is ani-competitive: "At the current pathetic levels of
allocation granted to us by BT, it would take us three to four years to
get to where BT Openworld says it is today." BT countered this
attack by claiming that every ISP is guaranteed 40 per cent of its ADSL
orders.
All of which means that if you want ADSL quickly, your best bet is
probably to go with BT's Openworld service. However, the bigger ISPs -
including Freeserve, ClaraNET, Easynet, Madasafish, PlusNet and Demon -
alt now offer ADSL services. A ball park monthly rental figure for ADSL
is [pound]40, but on top of that you'll probably have to pay an
installation fee of around [pound]150. Check out the table above to
compare services and prices.
ADSL downers
There are some people who will never get ADSL. If you're further than
3.5km from a local exchange, the service degrades significantly. BT
claims around 85 per cent of the UK population live within 3.5km from
their exchange, but that's little comfort for the other 15 per cent.
The pricing of ADSL services has also been criticised - compared with
the rest of Europe, [pound]40 a month seems too much. According to Oftel
figures for October last year, the typical monthly cost of ADSL in
France is [pound]37, in the US it's [pound]32, and in Germany it's
[pound]31.
Call in the cable guy
The other choice for speed fiends is cable - but to get cable
Internet access you'll need to be in a cable operator's franchise area,
which is around 13 million households in the UK right now. Like ADSL,
cable gives home users download speeds of 512kbps. However, upstream
speeds are more sedate, at 128kbps. NTL can go as fast as 2Mbps using
current technology, but the company has only just got around to
evaluating a 1Mbps service, so it looks like we'll have to be content
with 512Kbps for the time being.
To use any cable service, you'll need to have a cable modem
installed, and you'll need a network interface card to connect to the
modem. The two big contenders in the cable market are NTL and Telewest.
NTL has in excess of 40,000 broadband users, whereas Telewest is a
smaller operation with around 7,000 subscribers to its Blueyonder cable
Net access service. NTL supports Windows 9x/ME and Mac OS 8.5 and above,
while Telewest supports Windows 9x/2000/NT/ME and Mac users. To find out
if Telewest is supplied in your area, check out
www.btueyonder.co.uk/info/availability.html and head over to
www.askntl.com/broadband to see if you can get NTL broadband services.
NTL's pricing is good, starting at [pound]19.99 a month, but you'll
have to shell out [pound]149 to buy a cable modem outright to get such a
good deal. Telewest's service costs [pound]33 a month. For more pricing
information, check out the table on page 47.
Cable downers
The big problem with cable Net access right now is that not enough
people have access to it. NTL covers 50 per cent of the UK (around 12
million homes), but it admits that high demand has meant those wanting
to sign up have to put their name on a waiting list.
And popularity will bring with it a further problem -- contention.
Right now, because there aren't many people using the cable-based Net
access services, the average speed each user gets is good. But this
could all change depending on the number of users connecting to the
Internet simultaneously. So the more users, the slower the service could
get.
Gail Robinson
Speeding up your computer
Without doubt the biggest performance gains for dial-up users will
come from the impending V.92 modem standard. Obviously your ISP also
needs to support the standard -and thankfully most V.90 modems will be
firmware upgradable.
So what gains flow from V.92? Well, there are three key features.
First is automatic negotiation - with a typical V.90 modem it can take
as long as 30 seconds to connect to your ISP, but with V.92's
QuickConnect, the entire process can take as little as 15 seconds.
Second, the V.92 standard also includes V.44, a newdata compression
standard that's been optimised for Web content and can double the
effective speed of your Internet page loading. Finally, the V.92
standard increases the upload speed by as much as 30 per cent, from
33.6kbps to 48kbps.
Convenience is also improved -V.92 supports call waiting, so that
you're notified of incoming voice calls and given the option to pick
them up while leaving the Internet on hold.
Before you can tweak your settings in earnest, you need to know what
sort of data throughput you're getting from your current setup. Remember
that modern modems can dynamically adjust the line speed to take account
of changing line conditions and while your modem might have connected at
50kbps, it could be running more slowly. A good way to accurately
determine modem performance is to visit some Web sites that test your
modem. Try http://homepage.eircom.net/[sim]leslie/testPage.htm and
www.cnet.com/internetservices/g/bm/msn/0001.html.
Online gainers are fanatical about ping times, so drop into the test
page at the PC Pitstop site (www.pcpitstop.com/internet/pinger.asp),
which pings seven different sites repeatedly on your behalf and serves
up a colour-coded results chart of the minimum, maximum and average ping
round-trip time (RTT). This helps you determine if your ISP's lines are
stopped up, or if there's a problem out in the greater Internet.
It's also important to check your modem is running at maximum speed.
To do this, open Control Panel, double-click System and click on the
Device Manager tab. Locate Modem, double-click on it, then double-click
your modem. On the your modem tab, make sure the maximum speed is set as
high as possible- typically- 115,000bps - click the Connection tab and
the Advanced button. Make sure your modem is using hardware flow control
and that the Use error control box is ticked. Also tick the compress
data box as this allows more data to be sent down the line for a given
speed. Next go back a level, click the Port Settings button and slide
the transmit FIFO buffers all the way to the right.
If you're still running Windows95 you might want to optimise your
arcane TCP/IP settings-Windows 98 and ME both automatically set the
optimal values. The best way to do this is to use software that does it
for you - iSpeed from High Mountain Software (www.hms.com) and EasyMTU
(http://easymtu.tripod.com) are both good quality freeware programs.
Quite a few ISPs, such as Freeserve, run proxy servers which can help
accelerate your Web browsing. They do this by cacheing popular Web pages
locally at the ISP and intercepting all pages requests to see if they
can fulfil any direct from the cache.
You might need to reconfigure your Web browser in order to take
advantage of proxies. Check the details of your ISP's proxy server then
right click the Internet Explorer icon on the Desktop, select Properties
from the pop-up menu and click the Connections tab. To access your Proxy
settings, click the Settings button and to turn the proxy cache on, tick
the Use a proxy server box, and click the Advanced button. Type the
appropriate addresses into the Proxy settings fields and click OK and
Apply.
Finally, Web accelerators are add-ons for your browser that make more
efficient use of bandwidth. The most common ones are link-based -when
your browser loads a Web page, the accelerator simply hits each of the
links on that page and downloads those pages in the background so
they're ready when you want to view them. More sophisticated
accelerators use your browsing history to determine what to download,
rather than download pages you'll probably never look at. Free examples
include NetSonic (www.web3000.com) and NetAccelerator LT
(www.imsisoftcom/free) - and there are plenty more at www.hatfiles.com
and www.downtoads.com.
Useful Web sites
www.speedguide.net/index.shtml -forum for speed tips
www.modem-help.freeserve.co.uk-a UI( site from Alex Kemp
www.modemhetp.com - general Net connectivity advice site RogerGann
Just about every ISP in the world will tell you it offers the fastest
and most reliable access to the Internet. But the truth is not all ISPs
are created equal, as the monthly Intern et Magazine ISP performance
tests on page 124 show, some are faster than others. We spoke to some of
the top performers in our six-month performance tests (page 129) in an
attempt to find out just why their services are so fast.
The BBC's ISP Freebeeb resides happily in our performance top 10 and
it uses Thus/Demon Internet to provide its service. Matthew Turmaine,
Freebeeb's head of PR, told us it carefully monitors the traffic on the
service to keep it up to speed: "We manage growth in the user base
with network access and levels of service. And we have a comprehensive
service level agreement with Thus for access speeds and download
speeds."
Portland Communications has slowly worked its way up to the top of
our performance charts. Justin Clements, Portland's director, reckons
this success is down to careful investment in the network and location,
location, location: "We're based in Telehouse Europe, and have been
right from the start. This gives us fast links to our upstream at little
cost. It also gives us high reliability. No other building can really
match Telehouse." In case you're wondering exactly what this
mystical Telehouse does (www.telehose.co.uk), it's a huge facility in
London's Docklands paclced full of computers and big fat Net
connections, and at some point, most of the UI('s Net traffic passes
through these systems. Clements also stresses the importance of user to
modem ratios: "If you get a busy tone then we're not doing our job
properly."
Tiny Online has also pushed its way into our performance top 10 and
its services are provided by Affinity Internet. Colin Greene, MD of Tiny
Online, puts its success partly down to managing contention ratios
"to make sure we reach 99.75 per cent or higher call success rates.
The other important factor is that Affinity uses three different telcos
-- Cable & Wireless, Colt and BT which helps us spread the load
across our 245,000 active subscribers."
Peering is another vital area to consider when it comes to checking
out the speed of an ISP. Service providers rely on agreements with other
networks to transfer traffic around the globe. This sharing of resources
is known as peering. Sensible peering arrangements can make a real
difference to the quality and speed of your Net connection, U-Net has
recently been taken over by TIANET WORKS and it's often at the top of
our sixmonth performance test results. The quality of the network has a
lot to do with the company's impressive performance figures -- TIA owns
its own network and also peers in all the primary peering points,
including LINX in the UI( and MAE-East and MAEWest in the US. This lets
them dynamically route traffic over the network according to which
provider can deliver the data in the fastest and most efficient way. It
also means that if one part of the TlA system goes down, it can reroute
traffic elsewhere.
THE BROADBAND OPTIONS COMPARED
Name of service Supplier
CONSUMER ADSLOPTIONS- prices are inc VAT
Home 500 BT Openworld
Clara.DSL.Solo ClaraNET
Demon Express Demon
FreeservePlus Freeserve
Dazzlefish 500 U24 Madasafish
BUSINESS ADSLOPTIONS- prices are ex VAT
Business 500 BTOpenworld
Business 1000 Plus BTOpenworld
Business 2000 Plus BTOpenworld
ClaraDSL 1000 ClaraNET
ClaraDSL 2000 ClaraNET
Demon Express Plus Demon
Demon Express Gold Demon
EasyDSL500 for business Easynet
EasyDSL1000 for business Easynet
EasyDSL2000 for business Easynet
Multi user ADSL Zen Internet
Multi user ADSL Zen Internet
Multi user ADSL Zen Internet
CABLE OPTIONS - Prices are inc VAT
Blueyonder Telewest
Hi-speed package NTL
Hi-speed package 1 NTL
Hi-speed package 2 NTL
Name of service URL Downland
speed
CONSUMER ADSLOPTIONS-
Home 500 www.btopenworld.co.uk 512kbps
Clara.DSL.Solo www.clara.net 512kbps
Demon Express www.demon.net 512kbps
FreeservePlus www.freeserve.co.uk 5l2kbps
Dazzlefish 500 U24 www.madasafish.com 512kbps
BUSINESS ADSLOPTIONS-
Business 500 www.btopenworld.co.uk 512kbps
Business 1000 Plus www.btopenworld.co.uk 1Mbps
Business 2000 Plus www.btopenworld.co.uk 2Mbps
ClaraDSL 1000 www.clara.net 1Mbps
ClaraDSL 2000 www.clara.net 2Mbps
Demon Express Plus www.demon.net 512kbps
Demon Express Gold www.demon.net 2Mbps
EasyDSL500 for business www.uk.easynet.net/products 512kbps
EasyDSL1000 for business www.uk.easynet.net/products 1Mbps
EasyDSL2000 for business www.uk.easynet.net/products 2Mbps
Multi user ADSL www.zenadsl.com 512kbps
Multi user ADSL www.zenadsl.com 1Mbps
Multi user ADSL www.zenadsl.com 2Mbps
CABLE OPTIONS - Prices
Blueyonder www.blueyonder.co.uk 512kbp5
Hi-speed package www.askntl.com/broadband 5l2kbps
Hi-speed package 1 www.askntl.com/broadband 512kbps
Hi-speed package 2 www.askntl.com/broadband 512kbps
Name of service Installation Rental costs
fee (per month unless specified)
CONSUMER ADSLOPTIONS-
Home 500 [pound]150 [pound]39.99
Clara.DSL.Solo [pound]176.25 [pound]49.99
Demon Express [pound]150 [pound]49.99
FreeservePlus [pound]150 [pound]39.99
Dazzlefish 500 U24 N/A [pound]55.95
BUSINESS ADSLOPTIONS-
Business 500 [pound]150 [pound]119.97 a quarter
Business 1000 Plus [pound]260 [pound]389.97 a quarter
Business 2000 Plus [pound]260 [pound]479.97 a quarter
ClaraDSL 1000 [pound]300 [pound]170
ClaraDSL 2000 [pound]300 [pound]220
Demon Express Plus [pound]250 [pound]95
Demon Express Gold [pound]250 [pound]290
EasyDSL500 for business [pound]255 [pound]79
EasyDSL1000 for business [pound]275 [pound]99
EasyDSL2000 for business [pound]275 [pound]119
Multi user ADSL [pound]260 [pound]110
Multi user ADSL [pound]260 [pound]150
Multi user ADSL [pound]260 [pound]190
CABLE OPTIONS - Prices
Blueyonder [pound]50 [pound](includes cable
modem rental 3 )
Hi-speed package [pound]25 [pound]31.98/[pound]36.98
(buy/rent modem)
Hi-speed package 1 [pound]25 [pound]29.98/[pound]34.98
(buy/rent modem)
Hi-speed package 2 [pound]25 4 [pound]19.99
(1)plus phone rental deal NTL, (2)and cable modem deal, (3)You'll also
need a network card (which will cost [pound]25 to supply and install),
(4)Plus [pound]149 to buy the cable modem outright.
NEWER AND FASTER
How the latest versions of the big browsers can save you time
With a new browser in the form of AOL's Netscape 6 on the market,
there are new ways of speeding up your browsing. Netscape 6 was first
released in November last year, but it was buggy and behaved more like a
beta release.
Thankfully, the latest version, 6.01, is much improved. When you load
it up you'll soon see that it's powered by Netscape Gecko. Gecko is the
rendering engine that translates HTML to create a Web page and according
to tests carried out by CNET (www.cnet.com) it's considerably faster
than Netscape 4.X. It's also nearly as fast as IE 5.5 in loading mixed
pages and graphics on the PC, although it's slower at loading cached
pages.
Netscape 6.01 is very customisable and has alot of functions that let
you speed up your browsing. We've highlighted the best.
Although lE 6 has also been released, it's only a beta and as these
tend to be full of bugs it's too early for us to take a proper look.
Activate your profile
The first time you load Netscape 6 it asks you to create a username
and password. This will save you time if you want to personalise your
Netscape start page or use Netscape's Web-based email and Instant
Messaging software.
Use prefill forms
Netscape 6's Form Manager tool automatically captures the data you
enter in Web page forms and uses it to prefill similar forms on other
pages. You can also take the form manager Interview which lets Netscape
save your info for online form filling. Go to Tasks/Privacy And
Security/Forms Manager/Interview.
Use History
To access a list of all the sites you've visited in your present
online session, click Tasks/Tools/History. On the list, you can click
sites you've visited, sort them by a range of criteria including
alphabetically and last visited, and you can even search them - click
Search/Search Bookmarks/History.
Customise My Sidebar
My Sidebar is a customisable frame in the browser. It lets you have
the sites you visit most often immediately to hand. When you load it for
the first time you'll see the various tabs for News, Buddy List, Weather
and Travel. You can even rename the Tabs completely- click Tabs (located
next to the words My Sidebar)/Customise Sidebar/Add/Remove.
Quick searching
The main toolbar URL field in the new Netscape Navigator now doubles
as a search field. That means that from anywhere on the Web you can type
what you want and click Search, The results are presented both in the
main window and My Sidebar. The handy bit about the latter is that My
Sidebar lets you bookmark the search to view later.
Advanced searching
If want more precise searching go to Edit/Preferences/Navigator/
Internet search - results appear in your my Sidebar. The default search
engine is Lycos, but you can replace this with Google and Excite or Alta
Vista.
Faster searching in categories
As well as searching the Web, Netscape 6 lets you to search two
specific databases --shareware and music. The music database is based
around Spinner (www.spinner.com), while the shareware database is
Netscape's own. Go to Search/My Sidebar Search Tab/Advanced to get into
the advanced searching box. Type your request in the search bar and then
click the Within box and pick music or shareware. Then click Search.
Using a mouse wheel
A mouse with a wheel can speed up your browsing a lot. With Netscape
6, you can control how it operates. To specify the behaviour of your
mouse wheel go to Edit/Preferences/Advanced /Mouse Wheel.
Automatic updating
You can get the latest downloads sent to you automatically and even
have them installed for you. Edit/Preferences/Advanced /Software
Installation. Put a check mark next to software installation.
Manage usernames and passwords
The new password manager stores and automatically enters your login
information for password-protected Web sites. To use the Password
Manager select Edit/Preferences/ Advanced/Passwords and click the
tickbox to enable it. The next time you visit a site that requires you
to log in, you'll be prompted to create a master password. If you want
to see all your stored passwords, select Edit/Preferences/
Advanced/Passwords/View Saved Passwords.
Cookie Manager
Cookie Manager is an excellent new function that lets you view and
remove cookies that are on your computer. You can remove individual
cookies and never allow them back again and even ban specific sites.
Click on Tasks/Privacy and Security/Cookie Manager
Translation service
If the Web page you want isn't in English, Netscape can translate it
for you. Although the translation isn't perfect, it should give you an
idea of what's going on. Go to the Web page you want to translate and
click View/Translate and you'll be taken to the site of Gist-In-Time.
Set your language
Some sites are available in several languages. If you want to read a
site in English rather than American then set your language preferences.
Go to Edit/Set Language/English (UK). Some things don't change and here
are some tips that work for both Internet Explorer 5.5 and Netscape 6
which will really speed up your browsing.
1 Increase your cache
Allocate at least 10Mb of your hard disk to the browser. To do this
in Netscape go Edit /Preferences/ Advanced /Cache and enter 10Mb in the
Disk Cache section. In Ego to Too[s/ Internet Options/General/ Temporary
Internet Files and drag the slider to the right. On a Mac select
Edit/Preferences/Web Browser/Advanced and type in 10Mb.
2 Turn off images
Get rid of pictures and streaming multimedia - it will really speed
up your browsing. To do this in IE select Tools/Internet Options
/Advanced. On a Mac go Edit/Preferences/Web browser/Web content. In
Netscape, go to Edit/ Preferences/Advanced/Images and uncheck
Automatically load images.
If you want to see an online image on a PC, right click on your mouse
and pick View Image. Mac users can just click and hold.
3 Get a new home page
Time spent waiting for a flashy page to load up every time you start
up your browser is time wasted. In IE, select Tools/Internet
Options/General and you can type in the URL of your chosen site or just
leave it blank. On a Mac click Edit/Preferences/Web Browser/Browser
display. Netscape 6 is slow to start up, but having a blank page can
help. Go to Edit/Preferences/Navigator and click blank page.
4 Customise your toolbar
Just in IE 5.5, if you want quick, one-click access to IE's search,
cut and paste functions, just add shortcut buttons to IE's toolbar.
Right-click the toolbar, then click Customise. On a Mac go to
View/Customise Toolbar
5 Organise your Favorites/Bookmarks
In IE you can add, remove and move your favourite sites by going to
Favorites! Organise Favorites - it's the same on a Mac. In Netscape,
Press Ctrl or Apple B (for Macs) and you can then delete and rearrange
your Bookmarks.
6 Browse with hot keys
IE uses many standard Windows shortcuts, plus a few browser-specific
ones. Ctrl 0 pulls up an address bar for you to type URLs into. Try
Apple Lon a Mac for the same effect. One of the most handy Netscape ones
is Ctrl L (Apple L on Macs), which opens a location box and letsyou type
ma URL without moving your mouse. Another is Alt Home, which gets you to
your home page, but it only works for PCs.
7 Make sure you AutoComplete
IE's AutoComplete can save you time when filling in info online. Set
it up at Tools/ Internet Options/Content/ AutoComplete. On a Mac it's
Edit/Preferences/ Forms AutoFill/Forms! AutoComplete
8 Kit out your browser
There are dozens of Web accessories available for IE. Explorer bars,
customisable wallpapers, toolbar buttons, menu items, and other add-ons.
Go to www.microsoft.com/Windows/1E/WebAccess/default.asp. Mac users
should head over to MacTopia at www.microsoft.com/mac /download.
9 The one you want
It's amazing how many Netscape fans have IE as their default browser
and vice versa. If it isn't already your default, Netscape 6 asks if
you'd like to make it so at startup.
10 Use the Links toolbar
In IE, the Links toolbar is a quick way to access your most used Web
pages without entering your Favorites. Turn it on by right-clicking any
toolbar and selecting Links from the pop-up menu. To add a new button to
the toolbar, drag and drop any URL link from the address field on to the
toolbar. This is also easy with Macs-next to the URL in the location bar
you'll see an @ sign. Click and hold that with your mouse and drop it on
your Favorites bar.
11 Customise your Search Assistant
In IE, the Search Assistant helps you locate sites, places, and
people online by accessing several different search engines. Click the
Search button on the toolbar and a pane opens on the left side of your
browser window. By default, IF 5 uses UK Plus to run searches, but you
can change this to MSN, Excite or Voila. On a Mac, if the Search
Assistant isn't showing go to View! Explorer Bar and click the Search
tab, Then click the large customise button.
12 Use IE as your FTP Client
As well as letting you viewing standard HTTP Web pages, IF also
operates as an FTP client. Type the URL of an FTP site into the address
bar (be sure to type ftp:!! instead of http://) and click Go. If you
need to enter a username and a password, select Login As from the File
menu and enter your name and password. Once you're in, you can drag and
drop files from your hard drive to the site or vice versa.
They might not be as well known as the big two, but there are other
browsers out there. And some of them are bloody quick.
Opera 5.02
Claiming to be the fastest browser on earth', Opera was shown to be
up to a third faster than Fin independent tests It comes with an
integrated Web search function, into which you can enter search strings
in any URL field and save searches as bookmarks. You can specify which
search engine you prefer with every search, and also set the default
engine in your preferences. www.opera.com
NeoPlanet 5.2
NeoPlanet is a parasite browser which aims to give a sexy interface
for IE. You can download 'skins' just like you can with Netscape 6 to
make it look good. One of its best features is the modem speed booster
(MSB) which adjusts your Internet settings for an optimal connection.
Unfortunately, Windows 98 does this anyway, rendering MSB ineffective.
The software is free (although not available for Mac) and you have to
look at some pop up ads which can slow you down. www.neopla neLcom
Sun Hot Java 3.0
HotJava is suited for devices ranging from digital set-top boxes to
thin clients. It's a small download, but speed fans won't how long it
takes to download HTML. http://java.sun.com/products/hotjava
Lynx 2.8.3
Lynx is a free text-based browser that runs on Unix, VMS and Windows
9x/NT with a beta version for the Mac. It's lightning quick and even
shows the text descriptions of images. The bad news is that you'll need
to learn a host of command keys as you can't use a mouse with Lynx. It
can also be tricky to configure. http//tynx.browser,org
Steve Hill
BROADBAND VS DIAL-UP -- WHERE'S THE VALUE FOR MONEY?
Bellow we've shown the typical costs of the four main Internet access
options based onthe best deals available to UK Web users. While the
figures are quite telling, they don't give the whole story, At present,
the best dial-up deal for home users who'd don't use the Net that much,
and don't require much speed is likely to be BT's evening and weekeds
SurfTime offering. A measly {U.K. pounds)6 a month gets you all the
connection time you want between 6 pm and 8am during the weekend and234
hours a day at weekends. This is certainly good value for moneym, but
there are several factors to consider which aren't easily represented by
simple mathematics. While the best broadband deal might cost a little
over four times as much as the best dial-up deal, you can expect a
connection that runs around 10 tomes faster. Downloading a 50 Mb game
demo takes a few minutes instead of a few hours, streaming video starts
quickly and runs smoothly at a good quality level. For many, this alone
will be worth the additional [U.K. pound]19 per month, but there's more.
While a dial-up connection prevents you from makin voice calls while
you're online, there are no such worries with a broadband connection.
Perhaps the most compelling feature of a broadband connection is its
'always on' nature. No more dialling up your ISP three or four times to
get a connection, no more dropped connections, no more twiddling your
thumbs while you're logged on no getting chucked off after a couple of
hours, no more logging on for that matter. Switch on you PC and the
Internet's ready and waiting for you.
Where broad band starts to look bad next to dial-up connections is in
startup costs. Most people will already have a 56k modem in their
systems, and they can be bought for under [pound]50 in any case for all
of the ADS and most of the cable services we've seen, you have to pay
[pound]150 for the required hardware and usually have to buy from the
service provide - 50 theres no element of competition. The only
exception to this is NTL's package which includes a rental fee for the
hardware in its monthly charge. By purchasing the hardware up front for
[pound]150 the monthly fee is reduced to [pound]20, NTL is to be
commended for offering this choice, and we believe its options represent
the best value broadband in the UK - for those fortunate enough to live
in an area covered by the service, that is.
Lance Concannon
Connection type Service times Provider
Cable Aiways on NIL
ADSL Always on BT
Dial-up 24/7 Freeserve Anytime
Dial-up Evenings and weekends BT SurfTime
Connection type Modem costs Line (per month)
Cable Included in rental fee [pound]25
ADSL [pound]150 [pound]40
Dial-up [pound]50 [pound]13
Dial-up [pound]50 [pound]6
Connection type Line (per year)
Cable [pound]300
ADSL [pound]480
Dial-up [pound]156
Dial-up [pound]72
How fast is your ISP? The questions to ask
Do you have a proxy cache?
A proxy cache stores copies of popular sites locally which can make
you surfing mach faster. As Madeline Phelan, manager of Beeb.net
says" "If you want to perform general internet surfing of
reasonably popular sites, you want an ISP that catches at the server
level."
Where are you servers based?
If they're based right in the hub of it at Telehouse, this should
mean faster access.
What's your user to modem ratio?
You'll be lucky if you get a straight answer here but it's worth a
go, The lower the ratio, the speedier the service should be.
What peering arrangements do you have?
An ISP with a good set of peering arrangements with other ISPs around
the world should provided a more efficient and more resilient service.
COPYRIGHT 2001 EMAP Media Ltd.
in association with The Gale Group and LookSmart. COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale
Group |