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A Faster computer does not equal faster Internet

Just as Rick mentioned that people often expect the computer to run faster once they have faster Internet, the opposite is also expected.

Often people on dial-up or slower DSL ask me once they have a new computer whether their email will go faster or their websites will load quickly. Typically the difference between a new computer and a Windows 98 machine with sufficient RAM will be barely noticeable.

It may take longer for programs like Outlook Express or Internet Explorer longer to start up on an older machine, once the program has loaded the actual reaction time for the Internet is pretty much unchanged.

Faster Internet does not equal faster computer

A common misconception I run across often is that getting a faster Internet
connection will make the computer faster. The Internet is just one of many
functions a computer performs. Whether you connect via a phone line, DSL,
or cable has absolutely NO bearing on how quickly the computer boots up or
opens a particular program.

A faster Internet connection will allow you to receive large email
attachments faster, surf the web faster, and download updates faster, but
it does nothing else for speeding up other computer functions. If your
computer feels slow, that can be due to one or more factors including; not

Do you really have that much time on your hands?

I hate to beat a dead horse, but I need to know. One of the most common responses I get from people who don't have a high speed Internet connection is, "I have plenty of time to wait and am in no hurry." While I admire the Zen like focus and calm nerves of these folks, I have to ask the obvious. "Really?"

Today, I worked with a customer who lives literally in the middle of the mountains…the nearest town (about 200 people) is more than 20 miles away and the phone line sounds like popcorn in a microwave and there is no cell service. She has been patiently using dial-up Internet service for more than 7 years connecting at speeds of between 12 kbps and 14.4 kbps on a good day. Yes, you read that correctly…12-14 kbps!!! That is half the speed of a poor dial-up connection…good dial-up connections range from 44 kbps to 52 kbps. An entry level DSL connection starts at 256 kbps. When I setup her new computer today, it took almost thirty minutes to download and install the flash plug-in for her browser. I ended up disabling graphics from showing in her browser and showed her how to view a graphic if she really needed to since a 54kb graphic would take nearly two minutes to load.

Alphabetize your Favorites (or Bookmarks)

Sort menus alphabeticallyThis question came up a couple of times on the show on Saturday and numerous times recently via email; How do I alphabetize my favorites or bookmarks?

Internet Explorer

  1. Click Favorites from the menus
  2. RIGHT Click on any item in the favorites list
  3. Click Sort by Name from the menu

Mozilla Firefox

  1. Click Bookmarks from the menus
  2. RIGHT Click on any item in the bookmarks list
  3. Click Sort by Name from the menu

That's it! You can do that as often as you need to keep your lists in order. Incidentally, you can apply this same technique to your programs menu…

DSL Reports

DSL Reports is a great web site for testing your Internet speed and tweaking Windows settings to take better advantage of your high speed connection.

Will the world end on March 11?

We have had several calls from people concerned about something they have read or seen on the news about how the new daylight savings time changes will cause computers to crash around the world.

If you are using Windows XP or Vista or Mac OSX, you need not worry. The changes will be made through regular updates.

If you are using Windows 2000 or 98 there may be patches on the way that will fix the problem, but even on systems where the problem goes unfixed, there shouldn't be any major problems.

Most of the problems it may cause can be resolved by changing the system and Windows clocks to the correct time on older machines. If your computer isn't trying to sync its clock with the Internet then your computer really doesn't care what time zone it's in. Windows 98 machines and most Windows 2000 machines don't sync time with the Internet without additional software.

Rick posted a link and a short article as well on this subject earlier this year. Click here to read that article.

Temporary Internet Files – Don’t let them stack up

Cleaning out temporary files on our computers (see the archives for Disk Cleanup) remains an extremely important step in keeping them running clean and error free. Programs and Windows create temporary files, when needed, to perform certain functions. The Internet uses temporary files to store cookies, and recently visited web sites and their graphics.

Temporary Internet files serve a useful function when you visit web sites on a regular basis. By storing the graphics and some of the text, our browser doesn't have to re-download the files, thus the page loads faster. On the other hand, these files are extremely small and too many of them on our computer (10's of thousands in some cases) can cause a sever performance drop in our computers.

Would you rather have your TV or your computer?

Lately I have had a lot of clients call me in a panic because they are having a computer emergency. These calls are getting more frequent every year.

Is there a such thing as a computer emergency? Yes. In fact, I would be willing to wager that most people I work for, if given the choice, would choose to live 24 hours without running water or a fridge than they would without their computer.

Having a good computer guy is as important to most people as having a good mechanic or doctor. Computers are more complex than any other device in most people's homes (there are still a few people with old fashioned pinball machines).

Internet Neutrality

We have not spent enough time here on the site or on the show discussing "Net Neutrality". Up to now and including today, the Internet has been a "free" space. We all have the ability to access anything we want at any time we want and at the speeds we choose to pay for through an Internet provider. Large telco companies in the United States want to impose certain restrictions on what, when, and how fast we see things on the Internet unless we agree to payer higher fees. Congress has been debating a "Net Neutrality Act" for a few years, but nothing has come of it as of yet.

Dial-up users: Are you tired of waiting for email with large attachments?

I have been utilizing this tip much more lately as dial-up users get pummeled with email containing pictures that haven't been resized and an endless parade of forward spam with large attachments from friends and family with high speed connections. For every one megabyte of space an attachment contains, it takes 5-8 minutes for a dial-up user to download it. Many joke emails, slide shows or movies being passed around today can be 5mb or larger…tying up the dial-up users phone line for an hour or more!  If you don't want to tell the offending parties to take you off their list, you can do one or both of the following procedures to gain some control over you email again.