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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
     
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