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Speed up my downloads?

Posted By : Robert of Chandler-Gilbert Community College on April 16, 2001

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When i first got my computer, with a 56k modem, i could connect to compuserve and download almost anything at about 6.00K per second. Now, after a year of use, this speed has slowed to about 2.5K second for everything that I download. can you possibly suggest anything to help bring the speed back up? thank you very much.

This question was answered on April 16, 2001. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.


Hi!

Your question is pretty general but that's fine I'll give you several things to do Two general things first to make your computer happy:

1 Defrag your hard drive if it hasn't been done regularly or in a long time By itself it won't help much for the download, but any program you need to access while surfing will be accessed quicker, allowing your processor to return to its tasks more quickly.

2 Clear your history and temporary internet file cache Again not much help on download, but your surfing will be better Go to Start, Settings, Control Panel, then doubleclick Internet Options In the 'general' tab, click Delete Files...OK under the temporary internet files section and also Clear History.

OK now your downloading speed:

1 Are you sure you are connecting to a 56k line? Sometimes the line you are used to calling changes the protocols (set of rules for talking)that it uses to talk to your computer Call your Internet Service Provider and tell them to confirm which phone number you should be connecting to with your modem Have your modem model number handy Tell them your problem They can tell you in moments if this is the cause of your slowness.

2 You may have a degradation in the quality of the phone wire to your home or in your home--bad connections cause the modem to take longer to communicate with the web servers.

3 Try a different time of day to download your files If your service provider for access has heavy usage times, avoid them Call and ask them for light usage times.

4 You may just be accessing a web server that is very popular and has lots of people accessing it at the same time Again, try different times.

5 There are some download accelerators on the web you can get which work pretty good, but you want to be careful about going only to trusted sites to find them, like zdnet.com (PC Magazine website) 6 There are also utilities like godzilla that are download assistants (this is not an accelerator) that can search and usually find more than one website that has the file you want, and will tell you which link is fastest, and godzilla can also schedule your download for offhours or anytime you want I use it alot and really like it I don't suggest using godzilla AND an accelerator together though.

MORE? Search the google.com website--type in "speed up my downloads" I got lots of hits you can browse for hours Have fun!

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Posted by Robert of Chandler-Gilbert Community College on April 16, 2001

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