Making the most of your 56k dial-up internet connection.

Despite the rapid spread of broadband in many countries, are large proportion of internet users, still use a dial-up connection. Broadband may simply be unavailable in their area, too expensive, or they may not feel that they would benefit greatly, as they do not wish to download large files, videos etc.

For general surfing, emailing and smaller downloads, a dial-up connection should be fast enough for most people, providing the small amount of bandwidth is used efficiently.
On a 56k connection you should expect a connection speed of around 30k - 45k, although depending on the quality of your phone line you may get a higher or lower connection speed.


The first thing to check is the hardware.

Your extension cable from your modem to the phone point should be as short as possible, the extension cable should be a high quality one, preferably stating that it is suitable for use with a modem. Also avoid knocking or jiggling your phone connections while you are online.

Only your modem should be plugged into the phone line, unplug any phones etc, you want all the available line capacity. Also note that some modern phone features such as call waiting can affect your modem badly, check to see if they can be disabled while online.

Although 56k modems are available very cheaply, the more expensive makes do give a better connection and upgrading to a better quality modem can give a noticeable increase in connection speed. Better quality modems also allow you to continue surfing without errors, while downloading a file. (albeit rather slowly)

Increasing your computers Ram memory can also help your browsing speed, with Windows 98se, 128Mb should be sufficient, while with XP, 256Mb is usually regarded as the minimum.
Note: The actual connection speed will not increase, but the computer will be able to display the pages more quickly and surfing will be more pleasant.

The quality of your phone line is of course the most important factor in deciding your connection speed, if there is a lot of hissing and clicking when using the phone, then a modem connection is going to be poor.
Your telephone provider has a responsibility to provide a reasonable phone connection, but not a good modem connection, but if you have a very poor connection, contact them, explain the problem and they may be able to help, although there may be a charge for any improvements, check beforehand.


Your ISP (Internet Service Provider).

The big advantage of using dial-up, is that you can sign up for as many different pay-as-you-go services that you want, as you only pay for the cost of the phone call. So you can try different ISP's, to see which one gives the best quality connection.

There can be a considerable difference between providers, with some being difficult to connect to and prone to cutting you off frequently.
If you find that the connection with your chosen ISP gradually becomes less reliable over time, complain, they will probably give you a new number to call, if not, vote with your feet.

Note: You usually do not need a installation CD to sign up to an ISP, just a user name, password and phone number, although most good ISP's will provide a tiny file to download, that once run sets up your internet connection for you.

Useful web site -- Find ISP.
A site listing available ISP's by country, along with features and comments. Very useful if looking for a new ISP. http://www.freedomlist.com/find.php3


Using the right browser can make a difference.

Independant tests at Browser Speed have shown that the fastest browser currently available is Opera Its greatest advantage over Internet Explorer is not the speed at which it displays pages, but how it stores previously viewed pages (caching), this enables it to instantly return to previously viewed pages, something IE struggles with.

You can also turn off some web features, such as sounds in web pages, java and plugins such as Flash. This reduces the amount you need to download and reduces the work your browser has to do.
Do not turn JavaScript off, as this will affect the way that many pages display, although you can stop some of its affects, such as resizing windows.
You can place a tick box on your toolbar, to turn any of these options on and off, which can be useful if you like Flash games, as I do.

The very popular Firefox browser is rather slow to load initially, but once running performance is on a par with Internet Explorer for loading new pages and significantly faster than Internet Explorer when loading previously viewed pages. Firefox is however quite heavy on resources and not the best choice for older computers, although tweaks are available to streamline it somewhat.

Note: Some web pages will only work with Internet Explorer, for instance if you are registering or buying something online, it is wise to use Internet Explorer to ensure the transaction completes successfully.


Keep it streamlined.

Avoid having too many applications running at once while on the internet. This is particularly important if you are using a older computer.
For best performance have only your browser, firewall and antivirus running, only run your email program if you need to check for messages. If you use an instant messenger program, use a multi protocol one, that is light on system resources, such as Miranda.
Close any browser windows that you no longer need.


Turn off automatic updates.

Far too many programs automatically check for updates in the background consuming bandwidth, so always set update checks to manual, this includes Windows and antivirus updates. Manually check for updates once a week, downloading once you have finished browsing the internet.
Note: Despite the dire warnings of security experts, providing you practice safe surfing it is not necessary to update your antivirus program every few hours, if an alert is released for a particularly virulent virus, do an extra manual update as soon as possible.


Tweaking your internet settings to boost speed.

There are lots of programs available that claim to be able to tweak various settings ( mtu, ttl, etc) on your computer and make your internet connection more efficient and thereby faster.
Sadly unless you are using Windows 95 you are unlikely to see any improvement, later versions of Windows handle the internet connection very well themselves and in my experience are more likely to be slower after being "tweaked".
If you would like to try an internet settings tweaker, the freeware program Easy Mtu is as good as any other and is free of the malware that tends to be rife in this type of program.
Download size 360k, Win 95/98/NT
Program info: http://members.tripod.com/~EasyMTU/easymtu/
Download links: http://members.tripod.com/~EasyMTU/


Download accelerators.

Some programs claim to be able to speed up file downloads by splitting the file into several parts and downloading them simultaneously, increasing the overall speed of the download.
After some experimentation I have not been able to measure any reliable improvement and believe that although the download may look faster, because the multiple download bars give the impression of more activity, in actual fact, the download speed is the same as a single download.
Note: As with internet tweakers this type of program tends contain a lot of malware, so be careful in your choice of program.


Download managers.

Most modern browsers incorporate some kind of basic download manager, allowing interrupted downloads to be resumed, which can be very useful.
But if you download a lot of files you may wish to use a proper download manager, these can queue downloads to take place after you have finished browsing the internet, so your surfing is not slowed to a crawl, by downloads happening in the background.
There is a review of my favorite download manager WackGet, in this issue.


Paying a little to boost your dial-up connection.

It is possible to give your dial-up connection a boost by using a content compressor such as the popular Onspeed program. (£24.99)
This gives you a faster connection by compressing some components of web pages, before they are sent to your computer.

Tests using pages from my site showed that the html code is compressed to about a third of its original size.

Images are reduced in size by reducing the quality. I found that dropping the quality/speed slider lower than halfway made the images too poor, even by my lax standards, but on the middle setting quality was acceptable.
Depending on your browser, it is possible to reload images at full quality for saving, or viewing.
Note: Using Opera it is not possible to reload individual images, you need to disable Onspeed and reload the entire page, Onspeed also does something strange to the reported sizes of gif images, increasing them in size.
Onspeed can also block banner adverts and compress Flash files.
File downloads are not speeded up by Onspeed.

The Onspeed advertising claims increases of up to ten times on dial-up, this is a bit misleading, it is probably possible with images set to the lowest quality, but they are then so poor, they might as well be absent.

With the images set to a reasonable quality there is a noticeable speed boost of perhaps twice normal speed in general surfing, although if your ISP or phone line does not support modem compression, you may notice a larger increase.

After my trial period with Onspeed, I definitely noticed its absence and missed it, particularly if I downloaded a file while surfing.
I did have one problem with Onspeed initially, I could not access Google, but a quick email to the support desk, gave a solution the very next day, nice to see a company with good customer care.
If you are on pay-as-you-go dial-up, I would definitely recommend Onspeed, as the increased page loading speed, will cut your time on the internet, thus effectively paying for the program.

Seven day trial of Onspeed at Zdnet
Note: It is a little out of date, but will update itself on its first connection to the internet.

The Onspeed web site: http://www.onspeed.com



Removing page content to boost speed.

A freeware program I use is the Proxomitron, this is a fairly old program, but still useful. It was initially designed to block adverts and although most browsers now have pop-up blockers, it can still be useful in blocking in-page adverts, thus speeding up page loading.

The program has an enormous amount of settings, but I just use it on the default, with one addition, in the "Web page" filter I check the box for "kill off-site images". This has the effect of blocking any images that are not hosted on the originating web site, which includes almost all adverts.
This can help to considerably reduce page loading times on some sites, while pages retain their original layout.
The Proxomitron can be easily bypassed if you wish to see the complete web page.

The Proxomitron has a comprehensive (if chaotic) help file and only requires a simple change of your browsers proxy settings to work.
Note: Experienced internet users should find browsing the filtered pages hardly any different to normal, but new computer users may be confused by some items.
Note: The program interface is rather gaudy by default, but you can change this, as I have done.
Download size 1.1Mb Windows(all)
Web site: http://www.proxomitron.info/


In Conclusion.
Hopefully this article has shown that with a little effort and inventiveness, browsing on a 56k connection need not be a negative experience. Even with a slow connection it is still possible to play Flash games, download files, be active in forums, run your own web site and generally have fun.

Rob Goldfish Web Site

Copyright 2005 Rob Goldfish.