Life without surfing the Web is as unthinkable as life without the telephone.No matter what you’re doing in any given day, whether it be shopping, checking the weather, or catching up on the events around the world, we all have a tendency to go online to get the scoop on these matters.

Whether you’re thinking about starting your first Internet connection or you want to get the most out of your existing connection (Increase Internet Speed), knowing how to accomplish this can boost that connection and make your web surfing much more enjoyable.

If your starting out for the first time, you must find an ISP or Internet Service Provider in your area that serves as a middleman between your PC and the Internet.

Once you have found yourself a reliable ISP, you have two choices of Internet connections. The slower of the two is the Dial-Up connection but its also the cheapest.If you can afford to pay a higher monthly fee, a broadband connection is the way to go.

Whichever connection you have or start first, it can probably run faster with a little optimization. In order to improve your current Internet connection, it would be to your advantage to know your current connection speed.

You can go to such search engines as Google or MSN and perform a search for let’s say, “Internet Speed Test” and you will have a ton of software allowing you to test your Internet connection and many are free.
Run a few speed tests to objectively test the connection and its best to run tests at different hours of the day. These test sites report their values in different formats.

In the evening Internet traffic is much higher and you want to know how fast your connection is during this time. With this data written down and safely put away, you should want to find out how fast your modem is at other times, especially in the mornings.

This values may be reported in 1kb or 1 kilobyte or 1MB which is 1 megabytes. Look at the site’s reporting values and take careful, detailed notes of each connection speed test.

To optimize either connection you will need to tweak Windows Settings and install optimization software. If you have a Dial-Up connection and use Windows 98 or Me, click Start, Settings, and click Control Panel. Then right click the Modems icon.

Now click Properties, and choose the General tab. Use the Maximum Speed Drop-Down menu to select 115200. If this setting causes your Modem to no longer connect, change it to 57600.

Windows XP users should click Start, Control Panel and switch to classic view. Double-click the Phone And Modem options and choose the Modem tab.
Change the maximum settings port speed to 115200 and if the Modem responds poorly or not at all, change the speed to 57600.

When considering the price for High Internet Speed access, many wonder if paying such a price is truly worth it. If you're looking at Internet providers and still unsure if DSL, Cable or Satellite access is right for you, ask yourself the following:

• Is my dial up service fast enough to access streaming video & music?
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• Could I use the Internet more if web pages and downloads moved at faster speeds?
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• Do I have to free up a phone line in order to connect to the web?
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• How long does it take to receive digital photos & large email attachments?
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• Could I work from home if I had a faster connection to my information?

Time is money! And using High Internet Speed access will save you more than enough of your time to justify its cost. However, there are still many pitfalls (internet browser problem)& problems to avoid when choosing between different High Speed Internet access and the different types of connections currently available.

And that is the purpose of our free guide - to educate consumers and businesses regarding the different aspects of faster web connections and to help them.

While most people wouldn't know we have a national broadband policy in place.

The president claims that not only do we have a plan, it's working spectacularly welll. "That's the main conclusion of the just-released 'Network Nation: Broadband in America 2007'

Improve Internet Browsing Speed

Broadband speed varies widely across. The differences are based upon the location, type of broadband and the service providers, themselves.

Speed is based upon connection, download and upload of information. Speed also varies based upon individual factors. All the factors come together to help give a rough estimate of the overall broadband speed.

The following list explains all of the factors that goes into the final result of broadband speed.

- Type of Broadband. There are numerous types of broadband connections. ADSL and cable are the fastest. Other types like satellite are slower, but still faster than dial up. Even at the slowest rate broadband is still at least 10 times faster than dial up connections.

- Service provider. Some service providers can supply higher speeds. This can be due to better technology, equipment or location. Each provider will list their tops speeds for subscribers to see and this is an easy way for a person to ensure they are getting the best speed possible.

- Web Traffic. The internet is often referred to as the information highway. The reason for this is that all the information online travels through lines that work much like an actual highway. When there are a lot of people online these lines get crowded and the internet runs slower than usual. These times are referred to as peak hours. Peak hours usually occur after 7 am until 9 pm on weekdays and all weekend.

- Hardware. Hardware a person uses, from modems to cables can effect the internet speed. If a person is using outdated or damaged hardware then this will effect the efficiency and in the end, the speed of the connection.

- Personal computer. It is up to the individual to make sure that they optimize computer for running smoothly. Each person should make sure that they clean their web browsers history, temporary files and cookies on a regular basis. This helps the computer to be able to work quicker. Also older computers do not have as much memory and therefore need to be cleaned more often so the internet can run quickly.

These four factors all come together to make broadband speed hard to pinpoint. One location could get greatly different results than another simply because of the varying factors.

When looking at broadband access speeds and all the factors that can effect them it is easy to see why it providers can not guarantee a speed.

Many providers give a range of speed where the connection speed will fall.

Most users will rarely, if ever, get the top speeds, due to the factors above. Even someone will the best equipment, location and service may not see the top speeds because some factors, like web traffic, can not be controlled by anyone.

This tip is designed for increased BROADBAND speed in Windows XP while using standard Network Interface cards (NIC) that are connected to ADSL modems, or when using any directly-connected USB ADSL modem.

To speed up the Internet connection speed we need to configure a special buffer in the computer's memory in order to enable it to better deal with interrupts made from the NIC or the USB modem.

This tip is only recommended if you have 256MB RAM or higher.

Step #1 - Identify the IRQ used by the NIC/USB modem

Follow these steps:

1. Open the System Information tool by running MSINFO32.EXE from the Run command.

2. Expand System Summary > Hardware Resources > IRQs.

3. Look for the listing made for your NIC (in my case - a Intel(R) PRO/100+ Management Adapter). Note the IRQ next to the specified line (in my case - IRQ21).

In case of USB modems you will first need to find the right USB device used by your modem. Follow these steps:

1. Open the Device Manager tool by running DEVMGMT.MSC from the Run command (or by right-clicking My Computer > Hardware tab > Device Manager button).

2. Scroll down to Universal Serial Bus controllers and expand it.

3. Right-click the USB Root Hub and select Properties. Note that you might need to do so for all listed USB Root hubs (if there are more than one) in order to find the right one.

4. In the Power tab, look for your USB ADSL modem.

5. In the Resources tab look for the assigned IRQ (in this case - IRQ21).

6. This is the IRQ we're looking for.

Lamer note: IRQs and modem names might vary...

Step #2 - Modify the system.ini file

Follow these steps:

1. Run SYSEDIT.EXE from the Run command.

2. Expand the system.ini file window.

3. Scroll down almost to the end of the file till you find a line called [386enh].

4. Press Enter to make one blank line, and in that line type IrqX=4096

where X is the designated IRQ number we found in step #1, in my case it's IRQ21.

Note: This line IS CASE SENSITIVE!!!

5. Click on the File menu, then choose Save.

6. Close SYSEDIT and reboot your computer.

Done. Speed improvement will be noticed after the computer reboots.

Update: The most speed improvement is visible with USB A/DSL modems, however there are reports that this tweak also does good for regular NICs. In any case, it won't harm your system, so why not try it yourself and let me know what you find.

Broadband services are available from a large array of providers. There are many types of services out there so deciding on the right product for your business may be difficult.

Broadband is a term that is used to describe high-speed connections for voice or data. Broadband connections allow for large data transfers and the ability to run applications such as streaming video easily. And therefore requires a frequent computer optimization

When choosing an Internet service for your business one consideration is the speed you need. Various services offer different speeds. For example, a T1 is a high-speed digital connection that transmits data at a speed of 1.544 Mbps. A T1 has 24 channels. The T1 is an engineered circuit that is monitored at the central office. The circuit is brought into the customer premise on fiber cable that allows it to transmit at this high speed. Once on premise, the T1 is then connected to the customer's data equipment.

A T3 line is a larger, faster T1. The T3 Internet line can transmit data at a rate of 43.232 Mbps. This speed is sometimes needed for large applications such as large data file transfers along with other bandwidth intensive uses such as web hosting and streaming video. The T3 is equal to about 28 T1s and is used for large business applications, campus environments and network backbones.

A DSL is another type of broadband connection. It is slightly slower than a T1 - the speed is based on distance from the central office to the customer premise. An advantage of the DSL is that it can typically be brought into smaller locations, sometimes even residential. However, pricing is not much less than the T1, which is also a more stable connection.

Some companies also offer OC lines. These optical carrier lines run over a SONET fiber network and can transmit at speeds of about 51.84 Mbps. There are larger OC lines also available with configurations such as OC3, OC12, OC48 and OC192. The number indicates the size of the OC circuit. OC192 lines are the largest and fastest connections available. An OC192 has transmission speed of up to 1976.64Mbps.

The choice for your business connection should be based on current and future needs as well as price. For the money, T1 circuits are typically the best buy for the small business. They provide fast transmission speeds to allow most applications as well as the ability to accommodate future applications. The T1 is a leased line so monthly charges will apply. Most companies see an immediate savings over standard line connections. The T1 is a reliable circuit. It is monitored from the central office so if a problem is detected it can easily be corrected, sometimes remotely.

This Tips & Tricks series, which incorporates regular software updates and reviews, is aimed at enhancing your broadband experience.

Q: How can I make web pages load faster?

You can speed up your browsing experience by using a web accelerator. A web accelerator can be a proxy server used by the Internet Service Provider (ISP) to reduce web access times. It can also be a hardware appliance or a browser extension that you can install on your computer. In this blog, we will look at simple, cost effective ways to speed up your browsing experience using free, installable browser extensions.

What is a web accelerator?

Web accelerators are tools that can help speed up the download of web content such as plain text, HTML, markup and java script, as well as common forms of graphics such as GIF, and JPEG images, Flash and file downloads. Although they do not accelerate other forms of Internet content such as video and audio streams.

Examples of web accelerators

Two popular web accelerators are FasterFox for Firefox and the Google Web Accelerator.
FasterFox is a Mozilla Firefox extension that tweaks network connections and caches web pages so that the pages can be loaded more quickly.

How it works

Whenever you request for a web site, your ISP's computer will work out the Internet address of the web site and go to the relevant web server to download the requested file. Web accelerators can help speed up this process in several ways:
1. Tweaking the network. FasterFox allows you to tweak many network settings such as the number of simultaneous connections to the server.

2. Caching. The web accelerator stores frequently or recently accessed web sites in the cache memory on your computer. When you type in the address of the web site you want, the web accelerator will load the file from the cache instead of going to the web server, reducing the time needed for you to access the site.

3. Pre-fetching: Web accelerators like FasterFox for Firefox have a pre-fetch mechanism that makes use of idle bandwidth to load and cache all the links on the page you are browsing so that these linked sites can be downloaded faster when requested.

4. Compressing documents. Web accelerators may compress documents to a smaller size or send only what has been changed since the document was last requested. They may also filter out ads or other unwanted content so that the web site can be loaded more quickly. For example, FasterFox for Firefox includes a popup blocker for popups initiated by Flash plug-ins.