What Ways Have You Used To Speed Up Your Internet Connection

[ksamuicom]

Not the most technical inclined person on this matter but as we all know thailand's internet infrastructure isn't worth a darn especially here in samui, closest thing to hi-speed I get is by going to IT complex where i can get up to 300kps most of the time, anyway I was am curious to know besides upgrading your internet package which doesn't seem to do much at least on my end I have TOT goldcyber and my speed is just fastest enough to download an 80mb file in an hour. What have you done to try to speed up your internet connection I tried mine by giving my router an alternate DNS server to connect to which seemed like it help. Anyone look forward to hearing your ideas thanks

[bangkokrick]

Not the most technical inclined person on this matter but as we all know thailand's internet infrastructure isn't worth a darn especially here in samui, closest thing to hi-speed I get is by going to IT complex where i can get up to 300kps most of the time, anyway I was am curious to know besides upgrading your internet package which doesn't seem to do much at least on my end I have TOT goldcyber and my speed is just fastest enough to download an 80mb file in an hour. What have you done to try to speed up your internet connection I tried mine by giving my router an alternate DNS server to connect to which seemed like it help. Anyone look forward to hearing your ideas thanks

I use open DNS which was suggested by the techies on this forum and its certainly speeded up the web page loading.

search open dns because i dont think that i am allowed to post the link on this forum.

Cheers, Rick

[mac.wheeler]

I have used Propel Accelerator for 2 years now, and it has saved me thousands of hours in that time. A quick look at my usage stats just now shows an 84% compression ratio over the last 30 days.

[sniffdog]

Download Managers like Flashget and Internet Download Manager.

Download 80Mb per hour .... I feel for you ... I do 800MB per hour (on GoldCybe too).

[Steve2UK]

If you're using Firefox (if not - why not?), do yourself a favour and download Advanced SystemCare (free) from www.iobit.com. It includes a Firefox TCP optimiser - dead easy to use. The other elements of it will help your system, anyhow.

In terms of free download managers, I personally favour Orbit - as fast as anything I've seen.

[unomi]

Yeah, orbit is surprisingly good.

[torrenova]

Sorry but from a dimwit here just what do these things do to make it faster ? Is my machine capable enough (P4)

What is this Firefox add on ?

I currently use bitorrent on TOT gold but get nowhere near 800mb / hour !

[monty]

Sorry but from a dimwit here just what do these things do to make it faster ? Is my machine capable enough (P4)

What is this Firefox add on ?

I currently use bitorrent on TOT gold but get nowhere near 800mb / hour !

Download managers open several connections simultaneously, i.e. it downloads several parts of one file simultaneously and then puts everything together when done.

Doing this most times greatly increases speed.

Obviously this only works for direct downloads, it does not have any effect at all on bitorrent...

[NHJ]

Not the most technical inclined person on this matter but as we all know thailand's internet infrastructure isn't worth a darn especially here in samui, closest thing to hi-speed I get is by going to IT complex where i can get up to 300kps most of the time, anyway I was am curious to know besides upgrading your internet package which doesn't seem to do much at least on my end I have TOT goldcyber and my speed is just fastest enough to download an 80mb file in an hour. What have you done to try to speed up your internet connection I tried mine by giving my router an alternate DNS server to connect to which seemed like it help. Anyone look forward to hearing your ideas thanks

if you use opendns, you'll get a slower internet than with the regular dns of your provider, maxnet DNS give me an average 30ms ping while opendns give me an average 300ms, DNS are just used to translate the internet names in IP adresses so each request will be 10 times slower than compared to your provider dns(note that this doesn't slowdown your surf by 10 time, request of DNS is only a small part of the transaction).

TOT is known to be very bad, so you better switch to maxnet, i got the indy at home and at peak time it's slow, wich is normal and written in the contract(limited BW outside of thailand) but for the price the connection is worth, using a download manager i get 200k aswell as for bittorent download outside the peak hours(5PM-1AM).

if you have a bisuness, you may consider taking the premier or bisuness package, i'm in samui to and i was using yesterday a premier 3meg connection at a friend's shop, i didn't even notice i was in peak hour as the surf and download speed were very good.

[klikster]

Not the most technical inclined person on this matter but as we all know thailand's internet infrastructure isn't worth a darn especially here in samui, closest thing to hi-speed I get is by going to IT complex where i can get up to 300kps most of the time, anyway I was am curious to know besides upgrading your internet package which doesn't seem to do much at least on my end I have TOT goldcyber and my speed is just fastest enough to download an 80mb file in an hour. What have you done to try to speed up your internet connection I tried mine by giving my router an alternate DNS server to connect to which seemed like it help. Anyone look forward to hearing your ideas thanks

if you use opendns, you'll get a slower internet than with the regular dns of your provider, maxnet DNS give me an average 30ms ping while opendns give me an average 300ms, DNS are just used to translate the internet names in IP adresses so each request will be 10 times slower than compared to your provider dns(note that this doesn't slowdown your surf by 10 time, request of DNS is only a small part of the transaction).

TOT is known to be very bad, so you better switch to maxnet, i got the indy at home and at peak time it's slow, wich is normal and written in the contract(limited BW outside of thailand) but for the price the connection is worth, using a download manager i get 200k aswell as for bittorent download outside the peak hours(5PM-1AM).

if you have a bisuness, you may consider taking the premier or bisuness package, i'm in samui to and i was using yesterday a premier 3meg connection at a friend's shop, i didn't even notice i was in peak hour as the surf and download speed were very good.

I just upgraded from standard to premier and it's much better. 200K is pretty common (recent Comodo and other downloads of 5+ mb). How much better is the business package?

[Head Snake]

If you're using Firefox (if not - why not?), do yourself a favour and download Advanced SystemCare (free) from www.iobit.com. It includes a Firefox TCP optimiser - dead easy to use. The other elements of it will help your system, anyhow.

In terms of free download managers, I personally favour Orbit - as fast as anything I've seen.

I started my new computer on IE and it started to bog down. SLow as hel_l really.

I downloaded the Firefox browser today and its much faster.

So the Advanced SystemCare . You only use the TCP optimiser to increase speed? What is that?

[sniffdog]

Sorry but from a dimwit here just what do these things do to make it faster ? Is my machine capable enough (P4)

It's my opinion that Internet uses very little resources and processor speed plays a small role (except for maybe machines with a very old processor). Your P4 would probably the job as well

as my Quad Core.

What is this Firefox add on ?

I currently use bitorrent on TOT gold but get nowhere near 800mb / hour !

Me neither if I would use Bittorrent. That's why I have a Premium Rapidshare account. Almost 24 hours full download speed .... (224-225 KB/s) for a mere US$8 per month (or less). Edited October 20, 2008 by sniffdog

[Head Snake]

I tried the Advanced SystemCare. I went ahead and let it fix all the recommended issues on the front page. I didn't know what I was doing, just trusted the software.

Overnight IE is faster. It is more noticable on IE because that was really bogging down. I notice my CPU sidebar gadget is a lot less active. I wonder if spyware was being used.

Does this work on all browsers at once? Or do I have to specify a default browser.

I read that updating the modem could help so because I am on ADSL, I will ask to have this updated.

I am very happy with the Advanced SystemCare recommendation.

Edited October 21, 2008 by Head Snake

[JetsetBkk]

I tried the Advanced SystemCare. I went ahead and let it fix all the recommended issues on the front page. I didn't know what I was doing, just trusted the software....

I would be very careful about taking this approach. I just ran the TCP Optimiser and noticed that it was recommending changing the MTU value to 1500. I didn't allow it to change anything.

This thread here describes problems with TT&T/ToT DSLAMs (a network device, usually at a telephone company central office) with MTU settings that high. It stopped my Internet Banking working properly - almost a disaster for me trying to transfer money from one account to another.

[Head Snake]

I tried the Advanced SystemCare. I went ahead and let it fix all the recommended issues on the front page. I didn't know what I was doing, just trusted the software....

I would be very careful about taking this approach. I just ran the TCP Optimiser and noticed that it was recommending changing the MTU value to 1500. I didn't allow it to change anything.

This thread here describes problems with TT&T/ToT DSLAMs (a network device, usually at a telephone company central office) with MTU settings that high. It stopped my Internet Banking working properly - almost a disaster for me trying to transfer money from one account to another.

I don't know. I just performed it on my second computer and am amazed at how fast the internet response is.

I just noticed that my modem wireless was much faster than the line speed from the modem. I need to check that again.

Thank you for your information. I will try my banking and read up on the MTU issue and let you know. just real excited to see speed back on my work computer.

[Steve2UK]

I tried the Advanced SystemCare. I went ahead and let it fix all the recommended issues on the front page. I didn't know what I was doing, just trusted the software....

I would be very careful about taking this approach. I just ran the TCP Optimiser and noticed that it was recommending changing the MTU value to 1500. I didn't allow it to change anything.

This thread here describes problems with TT&T/ToT DSLAMs (a network device, usually at a telephone company central office) with MTU settings that high. It stopped my Internet Banking working properly - almost a disaster for me trying to transfer money from one account to another.

I don't know. I just performed it on my second computer and am amazed at how fast the internet response is.

I just noticed that my modem wireless was much faster than the line speed from the modem. I need to check that again.

Thank you for your information. I will try my banking and read up on the MTU issue and let you know. just real excited to see speed back on my work computer.

Great that the advice helped . Having used Advanced System Care (previously called Advanced Windows Care) for about a year now since it was recommended on the forum, I've grown to trust what it does - except that I learned to stay away from its driver update function...... that just doesn't (I should say didn't) seem to pull in the right updates for me. Driver Detective does a much better (paid for) job.

Having said that, I also have to agree with JetsetBKK - be careful with all of these programmes and monitor what they're doing. As a basic principle, you should think twice about letting anything change settings if you're not reasonably clear about what it's doing and why - and never do it if it won't let you "roll back" to your previous settings in the event of a problem (e.g. what JetsetBKK described). One of the reasons I rate ASC so highly - apart from the fact it performs 99% well for me - is that the roll back safeguards are built into it. Failing that, you should at least note the original default settings before you change them/allow them to be changed.

Few things in life are "one size fits all"..........

[JetsetBkk]

... One of the reasons I rate ASC so highly - apart from the fact it performs 99% well for me - is that the roll back safeguards are built into it. Failing that, you should at least note the original default settings before you change them/allow them to be changed.

Few things in life are "one size fits all"..........

Good post! I tried the utility for the first time last night and will have a further look today. I let it create System Restore points before changing anything, but haven't looked into what other "roll back" safeguards there are.

The problem I have with "noting the original default settings" is that it is not always clear exactly what or where these settings are. Typically they are in the registry, but sometimes they are easier to get to using, for example, "display settings", so to be absolutely sure I know what the utility is doing, I will need to find out where these settings are.

I remember another optimiser utility - coincidentally also concerned with TCP performance: (TCP Optimiser) - that actually produces a report showing all the registry settings that it wanted to change, including the "before" and "after" values. So even if the 'roll-back' function failed for any reason, you could always change things back manually.

I will check more, but I don't believe Advanced System Care produces such a detailed report, so it's up to the user to find out where these settings are or trust that the roll-back or system restore functions will work if there are problems. I suppose if these utilities did report everything they were changing, they would be guilty of giving away all their secrets - anyone else could produce a utility that did the same. That is why I was so impressed by the "TCP Optimiser" utility.

My usual attitude to these tweakers/optimisers is: "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". But periodically I am tempted by the promise of extra performance especially if recommended by trusted sources. I try not to believe their own marketing blurbs.

[Naam]

I have used Propel Accelerator for 2 years now, and it has saved me thousands of hours in that time. A quick look at my usage stats just now shows an 84% compression ratio over the last 30 days.

works unfortunately only for north-american websites.

[Steve2UK]

... One of the reasons I rate ASC so highly - apart from the fact it performs 99% well for me - is that the roll back safeguards are built into it. Failing that, you should at least note the original default settings before you change them/allow them to be changed.

Few things in life are "one size fits all"..........

Good post! I tried the utility for the first time last night and will have a further look today. I let it create System Restore points before changing anything, but haven't looked into what other "roll back" safeguards there are.

The problem I have with "noting the original default settings" is that it is not always clear exactly what or where these settings are. Typically they are in the registry, but sometimes they are easier to get to using, for example, "display settings", so to be absolutely sure I know what the utility is doing, I will need to find out where these settings are.

I remember another optimiser utility - coincidentally also concerned with TCP performance: (TCP Optimiser) - that actually produces a report showing all the registry settings that it wanted to change, including the "before" and "after" values. So even if the 'roll-back' function failed for any reason, you could always change things back manually.

I will check more, but I don't believe Advanced System Care produces such a detailed report, so it's up to the user to find out where these settings are or trust that the roll-back or system restore functions will work if there are problems. I suppose if these utilities did report everything they were changing, they would be guilty of giving away all their secrets - anyone else could produce a utility that did the same. That is why I was so impressed by the "TCP Optimiser" utility.

My usual attitude to these tweakers/optimisers is: "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". But periodically I am tempted by the promise of extra performance especially if recommended by trusted sources. I try not to believe their own marketing blurbs.

I did actually mean the System Restore function as the "roll back safeguard". I see there is a Recover option, but it's still not really clear what that does - this is still a Beta release and the Help page isn't there yet. There's always going to be a trade-off between ease of use and complexity. AWC/ASC is clearly aimed at those who want it easy/simple - and some might regard that as a limitation; others will welcome the "Trust me, I'm a doctor" approach. My taste falls between the two. If I did get into trouble, I reckon to be able to Google for the appropriate info (e.g. MTU, TCP optimise etc) in order to dig deeper and display settings for modification. I think it also depends on the source of the software - i.e. I'm relaxed about trusting stuff from Iobit and rather more wary with utilities written by one-man bands....... innovative and outside the box as they may be.

[mac.wheeler]

I have used Propel Accelerator for 2 years now, and it has saved me thousands of hours in that time. A quick look at my usage stats just now shows an 84% compression ratio over the last 30 days.

works unfortunately only for north-american websites.

Incorrect, they have two products, Propel Accelerator which is the one I use, and Propel Accelerator HT which is specifically designedto speed up North American sites for broadband users.

[JetsetBkk]

I did actually mean the System Restore function as the "roll back safeguard". I see there is a Recover option, but it's still not really clear what that does - this is still a Beta release and the Help page isn't there yet. There's always going to be a trade-off between ease of use and complexity. AWC/ASC is clearly aimed at those who want it easy/simple - and some might regard that as a limitation; others will welcome the "Trust me, I'm a doctor" approach. My taste falls between the two. If I did get into trouble, I reckon to be able to Google for the appropriate info (e.g. MTU, TCP optimise etc) in order to dig deeper and display settings for modification. I think it also depends on the source of the software - i.e. I'm relaxed about trusting stuff from Iobit and rather more wary with utilities written by one-man bands....... innovative and outside the box as they may be.

re. System Restore - OK, I understand. I think your approach is very similar to mine The problem I had with the MTU value completely defeated me though. I tried all sorts of Google searches but got nothing because I didn't know what I was searching for. Once the guy at the bank mentioned "MTU" it was easy .

I've been busy tonight with the XP Password Recovery utility mentioned here: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/-t218488.htm...t&p=2285541 , but I will investigate ASC further when I get the time. It surprises how much of this stuff is given away for free - I can only presume that the "Pro" versions is where they make their money - even if free now, then in the future they will probably start charging for it.

But, as you say, the important thing is to know which sources you can trust. There's so much dodgy stuff out there, you have to Google it to see what others say before you run it.

[Steve2UK]

I did actually mean the System Restore function as the "roll back safeguard". I see there is a Recover option, but it's still not really clear what that does - this is still a Beta release and the Help page isn't there yet. There's always going to be a trade-off between ease of use and complexity. AWC/ASC is clearly aimed at those who want it easy/simple - and some might regard that as a limitation; others will welcome the "Trust me, I'm a doctor" approach. My taste falls between the two. If I did get into trouble, I reckon to be able to Google for the appropriate info (e.g. MTU, TCP optimise etc) in order to dig deeper and display settings for modification. I think it also depends on the source of the software - i.e. I'm relaxed about trusting stuff from Iobit and rather more wary with utilities written by one-man bands....... innovative and outside the box as they may be.

re. System Restore - OK, I understand. I think your approach is very similar to mine The problem I had with the MTU value completely defeated me though. I tried all sorts of Google searches but got nothing because I didn't know what I was searching for. Once the guy at the bank mentioned "MTU" it was easy .

I've been busy tonight with the XP Password Recovery utility mentioned here: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/-t218488.htm...t&p=2285541 , but I will investigate ASC further when I get the time. It surprises how much of this stuff is given away for free - I can only presume that the "Pro" versions is where they make their money - even if free now, then in the future they will probably start charging for it.

But, as you say, the important thing is to know which sources you can trust. There's so much dodgy stuff out there, you have to Google it to see what others say before you run it.

Yep, I put Iobit on a par with Comodo (firewall, anti-malware, anti-virus etc) - they both seem to have the right balance of providing good quality freeware (usually for home/academic i.e. non-commercial use) that performs well and is very user-friendly - with the option to go for more powerful "Pro" versions if you want/need. This contrasts with the "crippleware" or "demoware" approach of some others. That said, it's not hard to see the potential for them switching at some stage to maybe charging for updates - once their status and user-base has grown sufficiently. For now, AWC/ASC is (IMO) a really good free resource - probably better than paid-for alternatives like Tune-Up and Registry Mechanic that I have used before.

It's still progressing - the updates seem to come at the rate of about twice a month..... so it wouldn't surprise me if they later incorporate more of a simple/advanced feature to give you the option of displaying before/after values for things like TCP optimising. As it is, I have always appreciated that they give you the option of which checking/clean-up modules you want to run. So, I don't use the spyware/malware function - given that I have that base covered to my satisfaction with Spybot S&D, AdAware and Comodo BOClean. I will also continue to rely on the paid-for Eset Nod32 for anti-virus.

BTW, we're also alike in attitude regarding "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", but I do like to keep my set-up well-maintained - thus hopefully putting off the black day when I would have to do a clean re-install. So far, that approach has worked for me.

[JetsetBkk]

...I have that base covered to my satisfaction with Spybot S&D, AdAware and Comodo BOClean. I will also continue to rely on the paid-for Eset Nod32 for anti-virus....

I also have the first three (Spybot S&D, AdAware and Comodo BOClean), but currently using the free "Avast!" for AV (cheap-Charlie ). My System Tray is looking very busy and colourful at the moment

[Steve2UK]

...I have that base covered to my satisfaction with Spybot S&D, AdAware and Comodo BOClean. I will also continue to rely on the paid-for Eset Nod32 for anti-virus....

I also have the first three (Spybot S&D, AdAware and Comodo BOClean), but currently using the free "Avast!" for AV (cheap-Charlie ). My System Tray is looking very busy and colourful at the moment

Yep - love Copernic Desktop Search for that........ very colourful icon brightens it up!

Edit: Just noticed as I downloaded the update to my Smart Defrag from Iobit............ big slogan saying "Free forever!" - so maybe there is a free lunch?

Edited October 22, 2008 by Steve2UK

[JetsetBkk]

... Just noticed as I downloaded the update to my Smart Defrag from Iobit............ big slogan saying "Free forever!" - so maybe there is a free lunch?

Yes, I noticed that too - amazing! I'm running the Smart Defrag on the old PC now.

It has just over 1.2 GB free space now. I deleted nearly all of the $NTUninstallKBxxx folders and log files - just left the last couple of months worth. I also ran Advanced System Care and got some more space back.

The Defrag program complained about not having enough free space to defrag a lot of the files. The defrag level was about 32% before running it and 29% after (not sure if I remember that correctly, but it wasn't much of a change).

I'll keep repeating the defrag - maybe each time there's more space and it'll do more.

This old PC has probably never been defragged in it's life so I'm not surprised the program is having problems .

Edit:

Second defrag has finished with no change - it's "stuck" on 29.66% fragmented. Looks like I'll have to research how to get it going again.

Edited October 22, 2008 by JetsetBkk

[JetsetBkk]

...Edit: Just noticed as I downloaded the update to my Smart Defrag from Iobit............ big slogan saying "Free forever!" - so maybe there is a free lunch?

Maybe...

OK, more on the Advanced Windows Care / Advanced System Care utilities...

I originally installed the Advanced Windows Care Personal, and then recently installed Advanced System Care 3 RC 2. This appeared to be a "PRO" version and allowed me to do all sorts of extra stuff. The bit I like is the "Automated Care" when the system is idle. There are other things it'll do, too.

This was installed for only one day when I got the message "RC 3 available". So I downloaded it and let it install itself. I discovered that this was the FREE version and didn't let me do the extra stuff!

So I don't know what is going on there! I can't believe somebody at IObit accidentally allowed the PRO version to be downloaded and then quickly covered their mistake by releasing an "update" which was in fact the "Free" version.

Anyway, I un-installed "RC 3 Free" and re-installed "RC 2 Pro".

[1900]

If you're using Firefox (if not - why not?), do yourself a favour and download Advanced SystemCare (free) from www.iobit.com. It includes a Firefox TCP optimiser - dead easy to use. The other elements of it will help your system, anyhow.

In terms of free download managers, I personally favour Orbit - as fast as anything I've seen.

Yes, AWC does have a good FF set up patch. I readjusted mine today and got a nice boost. I had my TCP set too high and over-rated my computer's CPU speed. I clicked SPEED BOOST and it did just that. Set them both to the lowest setting.