-When your internet’s far less Usain than you would have it
11 August, 2012
“My Internet is running slow”. I couldn’t count the number of times we hear this each week. Unfortunately there are such a range of issues which effect how fast your internet ‘runs’ which are far more complex than for instance ‘Word’ or ‘Excel’ running slow. If either of the latter are running slow then pretty much either the PC is too old or it has a virus or failing hard drive.
However if your Internet is running slow then it could be the above reasons or any of the following – a faulty modem/router, a slow plan, bad signal strength if on wireless, a capped plan which has reached its limit for the month, someone else on the same connection downloading large files, a bad phone line if on ADSL or even just a bad ADSL filter. As you can see this can take more diagnosing and is often the source of extreme frustration for many.
We also often see this level of frustration leading to people installing a different Internet browser to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer – again with the hope of speeding up their Internet. Some people swear by browsers such as Google’s Chrome and Mozilla’s Firefox as they are sure that these have sped up their connection. What is normally the case however is that they had installed too many toolbars and plugins into Internet Explorer which made it run slow.
We are still great proponents of not installing software unnecessarily – as this is one of the main factors of overall computer slowness. So why have two or three browsers installed? We also find that Internet Explorer can be better configured to delete Temporary Internet Files, Cookies, Downloaded History, Form data and such every time the Internet is finished with. In Internet Explorer you can also go to ‘Tools’ – ‘Internet Options’ – ‘Advanced’ – and ‘Reset’ to the default condition – with deleting ‘personal data’. If this doesn’t fix any problems that you think you are having with the Internet then just installing another browser won’t help either.
The last tip is to do with your Internet ‘home page’ which unfortunately gets set to BigPond if you install any of their software or often Nine MSN if you haven’t changed it yourself. Both of these sites feature a HUGE amount of information that has to be downloaded just to display the home screen. We suggest setting www.google.com.au as your home page as it is bare of junk and downloads near instantly.
Future Byte Me topics can be emailed to [email protected] and Bruce is contactable at Kerr Solutions, 205 Musgrave Street or on 07 49 222 400.
We have developed a brilliant self-help troubleshooting section on our website – so if you are having computer problems, but can still browse the web, please check it out. Click here to go to Kerr Solutions IT Troubleshooting
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