- Direct inquiries to
[email protected]..
- Do it yourself? You can install any of the four types of broadband connections yourself, but there’s no guarantee that doing so will save you time or money..
- In practice, you can’t count on it..
- If you’d rather not open your system’s case, ask your cable, DSL, or wireless provider for an external.
- visit www.belkin.com for additional information..
- If you use videoconferencing or other data-hungry.
- you may think you’re already getting peak performance from your Internet link, but chances are good that you could squeeze at least a few more kilobits per second out of your setup..
- If you’re upgrading to a high-speed connection, keep your dial-up modem functioning..
- You’ll also want your dial-up modem at hand as a backup when your broadband connection goes on the fritz—which it will..
- Prepare your PC.
- (Typically, your PC must be within 20,000 feet of the central office to qualify for DSL service.) Ask the tech- nician what your location’s best rate is so you can avoid unrealistic expectations..
- Is there something that you can do to make it better? Definitely..
- These offer quick downloads, but who knows what’ll happen when sunspot activity picks up or some other atmospheric phenomenon interferes? Finally, there’s the venerable dial-up modem.
- Whatever kind of connection you use, you can get more performance out of it.
- find.pcworld.com/19785.
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- find.pcworld.com/19783.
- find.pcworld.com/19784.
- find.pcworld.com/19781.
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- bandwidthplace.com/speedtest.
- www.dslreports.com.
- The larger the cache, the more Web con- tent you can store and the faster you can access it.
- To maximize the rate at which data flows on and off your hard disk, run Windows’ Disk Defragmenter utility (in most versions of Win- dows, you can locate it under the menu Start•.
- To change the settings, open Windows’ Device Manag- er (in most versions of Windows, you can do this by right-clicking My Com- puter, choosing Properties, and clicking the Device Manager tab.
- To get the most out of any device, Windows needs to use the most appropriate driver available, and you can’t expect that driver to be the one already installed on your system..
- To identify the driver you’re currently using, open Windows’ Device Manager and dou- ble-click the entry for your modem or net- work card.
- If the manufacturer’s name and the product’s model name and number don’t match those of the device you’re using, go to the vendor’s Web site and download the latest driver for that device.
- If you hear static and other background noise when you’re talk- ing on your phone, demand that your phone company replace the wires run- ning to your house.
- If you can’t get new wires, try dialing a different access number for your ISP..
- Go to find.pcworld.com/20061 for more on this issue..
- Visit find.pcworld.com/.
- in addition, try to ascertain the transmission speed you can expect, the prob- lems you’re likely to encounter, and the reputation of your service providers.
- as www.leos-muffler-repair.com) to a massive list of names and their corre- sponding numeric IP addresses (such as 127.0.0.1).
- You can speed up your connection by shortening this lookup step.
- o n e d a y y o u ’ r e racing around the Internet at breakneck speeds, and the next you feel like you’re hauling a double- wide trailer.
- Browse to the company’s Web page if you can get online.
- If you can’t, call the company’s tech-support line.
- ber you’re dialing matches the speed of your modem.
- dslreports.com) for pricing in- formation on the various flavors of DSL available..
- If you’re a satellite broadband cus- tomer, you probably use an analog modem to upload data.
- direcway.com), from Hughes Network Systems and its partners, offers a two-way satellite-Internet service that costs about.
- The StarBand (www.starband.com) two- way satellite service is available through the Dish Network and other partners at about the same price for equipment, installation, and monthly service..
- You can prob- ably get online faster by instructing your modem not to perform unneeded tasks.
- If you experience intermittent data-transfer slowdowns, something may be hindering your DSL signal.
- If you’re having prob- lems, install microfilters anyway..
- If you hear scratchy sounds or static.
- Unfortunately, you can do little to control problems originating in external phone lines.
- But you can do sev- eral things to help your internal lines:.
- Disable call waiting: If you don’t, every incoming call will dis- connect you.
- If you subscribe to a cable television service, turn on your television.
- Still, if you have no satellite television signal, it may justify a call to your service provider..
- YOU CAN KEEP an eye on your Internet performance with Vital Signs Software’s Net.Medic, a free utility that monitors the flow of data into, out of, and around your PC..
- Point your browser to find.pcworld.com/18121 to download a copy..
- If all is well, the ‘Device status’ box will say ‘This device is working properly.’ If the device isn’t working properly, an error message will describe the nature of the problem..
- If you receive a response, you know a connection can be made.
- For troubleshooting purposes, however, you need only send a Ping request to an Internet address that you’re pretty sure will respond, such as your ISP’s address.
- (You can find the address in your TCP/IP settings under Control Panel’s ‘Network’ or ‘Network Connec- tions’ heading, depending on your ver- sion of Windows.).
- Visit find.pcworld.com/18141 to download Sam Spade..
- If you send a ping request to 127.0.0.1 and don’t get a reply, the problem may be due to your PC’s network settings.
- If you do get a reply but continue to experience connection problems, send a Ping request to your default gateway.
- (You’ll also find your default gateway listed in your TCP/IP settings’ properties in Control Panel under ‘Net- work’ or ‘Network Connec- tions’, depending on your version of Win- dows.) A successful Ping signal here suggests that your connection problems lie outside your PC and local network, perhaps with your ISP..
- Trace it: If you’ve determined that the source of your problem in connecting to a Web site is external to you but isn’t your ISP, you may find some useful informa- tion about it by running a DOS utility called Tracert.
- Usually you can’t do much about Inter- net delays and bottlenecks.
- If you experience constant slowdowns or a failure of one of these routers, call your ISP and pass along this information.
- Sometimes you can’t connect to a Web site because your data dies prematurely.
- You can use Regedit to do this manually if you’re Registry-savvy, or you can take the easy route and work with a utility such as Hagel Technologies’ $20 TweakMaster..
- Go to find.pcworld.com/18161 to down- load a free trial version..
- FAST TIP: Restart Your PC.
- IT’S AMAZING how many times you can make your problems disappear simply by restart- ing your PC.
- Since it first came to light sever- al years ago (see Steve Gibson’s welcome rant on the subject at grc.com/optout..
- In some cases, you can opt out of installing the spy- ware during the host program’s installation process.
- Spychecker (www.spychecker.com) is one such ser- vice, and Camtech 2000’s Spy Chaser (find.pcworld.com/18261) is a nifty down- loadable database of nearly 1000 spyware- infested apps (see FIGURE 1.
- have you downloaded a new version of Netscape Communicator or RealPlay- er, only to discover that you received an uninvited “download manager” in the deal? If you think a download manager sounds useless, you’re mistaken.
- And those programs aren’t the only nosy parkers in town.
- If you.
- Finally, download and run Lavasoft’s free Ad-aware spyware detection and re- moval utility (www.lavasoftusa.com).
- spanbauer.com.
- If you use America Online 6’s browser, choose Settings•Preferences•(Internet Properties) WWW, click the Security tab, select the Internet zone, and follow the same steps described for Internet Explorer above..
- Since most pop-ups are created in Java- Script, you can prevent the popping by turning off your browser’s JavaScript sup- port.
- Fortunately, however, you can turn off this default compression setting:.
- You’ll probably have to open several of the found files to figure out which one you want.
- As long as the .swf file type is associated with your browser, you can play the animation sim- ply by double-clicking it..
- www.analogx.com/contents/download/network/pow.htm software.xfx.net/utilities/popupkiller.
- www.panicware.com/product_dpps.html spywaresucks.org/prox.
- If that’s information you’d like to keep to yourself, it’s time to start hunting down and exterminating the bugs..
- If you use ad- or cookie-blocking soft- ware, you may already be able to block Web bugs.
- Programs such as InterMute’s AdSubtract (the free SE version of which can be downloaded at find.pcworld.com/11743) and Guidescope’s free Guidescope utility (available at find.pcworld..
- warning when it detects a Web bug in a page you’re browsing (see FIG- URE 1.
- You can install Bugnosis in a.
- You’ve munged your e-mail.
- nections, by going to the home page at www.bugnosis.com and clicking Install..
- if you’ve been paying any attention to Internet privacy, you probably know about cookies—small text files that Web sites put on your hard disk to identify you and perhaps remember your preferences..
- The W3C (World Wide Web Consor- tium—the folks who set many of the Web’s standards) is finalizing a standard that will automatically describe a site’s privacy practices.
- FIGURE 1: FIND HIDDEN WEB BUGS (like this one discovered on CNN.com’s home page) by using the Privacy Foundation’s free Bugnosis plug-in..
- IE eventually gets around to alphabetizing them for you, but you can hasten the process: Choose Favorites, right-click any item in the list, and select Sort by name..
- a f t e r r e a d i n g the tip on overcoming problems associated with e-mailing long URLs in the June 2001 Internet Tips col- umn (see find.pcworld.com/11747), sev- eral readers submitted tips of their own..
- Internet Explorer seems to do just as well, and I’ll bet you’d be hard- pressed to find a URL that’s too long for your subject line.
- You can even password-protect sensitive sessions..
- Download the 1.43MB program from find.pcworld.com/13400 or the author’s page at www.nqli.com/browserrecorder.