Slow internet speed and its Solutions

Before we get panic saying my internet connection is very slow let us first follow few steps to make sure that really you have got a slow connection from your internet provider.

Step-1 : Check what is the speed provided to you?

    # Is it 256kbps? Or is it 512kbps?
Let us understand what exactly is kbps. It is nothing but Kilo Bits per second. Let us take the example of 512kbps.
When you download it shows the speed in KBps i.e. Kilo Bytes per second. And one byte is equal to 8 bits. So if you have a connection 512 kbps then you will get a speed not more than 64KBps. (i.e 512/8) .If you getting above 50KBps download speed than its pretty good speed. If you are getting less than 20KBps speed while downloading than you have to concerned about it.

Step 2: You are really getting less speed.
If you are getting really less speed than ask yourself few question?
Q1. Do I have a good antivirus software whose virus database is up to date?
Q2. Do I have a good anti-spyware software installed which has the most recent updated spyware definitions.
Q3. Do I have a good firewall like that of zone alarm to prevent external intrusion by hackers?
Q4. Do I have sufficient hardware to support the high speed internet connection? Like sufficient RAM and CPU speed?
Q5. Is my computer fully optimized for a good speed?
If all the answers of the above questions are yes then you have the rights to concern about your internet provider (ISP).

Step 3: Suppose everything is in place and you want some tweak to enhance the internet speed then follow the following steps. Did you know a whopping of 20% bandwidth is reserved for Windows update service? Of course it will slow down your internet speed when the update process is going on in your computer. You can disable it. So that window can’t act like a king and ask for a reservation in bandwidth share.

For this follow the following steps.
1.Log into the Administrator account. (Remember to log into "Administrator" account, This is important) (How to log into Administrator account: Log off from your account.After it logged off press Ctrl+Alt+Del then log into the Administrator account using Administrator as user name and the password given during the installation of the windows XP)
2.Click on start - click run - type gpedit.msc
3. Expand the "local computer policy" branch.
4. Expand the Upper "administrative templates" branch.
5. Expand the "network branch"
6. Highlight the "QoS Packet Scheduler" in left window
7. In right window double click the "limit reservable bandwidth" setting
8. On setting tab check the "enabled" item
9. Where it says "Bandwidth limit %" change it to read 0 .

Reboot the system.
Most probably it will not slow your internet connection while windows service update its program. Because now windows can't ask for a reservation in bandwidth,it has to share internet with other programs.

Step 4 : If you have not taken a high speed connection then it is a good idea to block java and flash components of a web page.Because these components use a lot of bandwidth.

#Internet Browsing without images.
If you have a slow connection,set up your Internet Explorer not to download or show images during browsing. It will help to open up pages much faster, which enables you to read articles and blogs without having to wait ten minutes for the page to load.In Internet Explorer this can be done by going to Tools / Internet Options / Advance Tab / scroll down until you see “Show Pictures”; just uncheck that.

Step 5: Delete Index.dat files:
These files will significantly slow down your computer's speed on the internet in most cases. These were designed re-record all your internet history. These files can grow up to 100MB! These large files requires a lot of CPU time and bandwidth. Microsoft claims the files were designed to increase internet speed . But most of the times it does the opposite, because to populate these files CPU wastes a lot of time making your system as well as internet slow. . Speed up your PC on the internet by eliminating these files.
Don't waste your hard earned money on softwares to speed up internet connection. They simply remove your internet history and index.dat files and just change few registry setting. I will discuss about all those setting at a later point.

Step 6: Always use a download manager to download. You can go for Free Download Manager. This is free and has really good features.I personally like this software.

Step 7: If your internet speed is hampering your browsing activity then,always make the automatic update features of all software disabled except for Anti-virus and Anti-spyware programs. But don't forget to update those manually on a regular basis when internet is idle. It definitely increase your internet speed. Even make the windows automatic update as manual. Don't forget to update it regularly by manual process.

Step 8: Reduce Web Cache Space : You need to reduce your web cache space to the minimum because this way your browser does not need to search much in the temporary files.

For this you need to do the following :
Click Start > Click on Control Panel > Double Click on Internet Options > Click on Setting option under the Browsing History[Delete temporary files, history, cookies, saved passwords and web information.
Now reduce the cache size to the minimum recommended disk space which is normally 50Mb disk space. This way your internet connection speed will increase to some extent.

Step 9: Internet Service Provider Issues:
Internet speed ultimately depends on the service provider. Your ISP may change their network's configuration, or suffer technical difficulties, that inadvertently cause your Internet connection to run slow. ISPs may also intentionally install filters or controls on the network that can lower your performance. Don't hesitate to contact your service provider if you suspect they are responsible for a slow Internet connection.

Please comment if it helped you, to encourage me.

Slow Computer Problem and its Solution

All most all face this problem many times in their history of windows computing. These symptoms seen once any one or more than one of the below happens with your computer.
1> Hard disk is running out of space.
2> Not enough memory.
3> Hard disk fragmented severely.
4> Too many applications/services loading during start up.
5> Conflict between two or more running programs.
6> Virus.
7> Spyware
8>Others
Solutions :
a) Disk/Folder Properties:
Check the properties of the drive
1> Right click on C:\ drive icon in my computer.
2> Choose properties.
3> Ideally minimum of 25% free space should be there. If it is not there then you may have to delete unnecessary files and folder to release disk space.
4>Keep a minimum of 15% free space in all the drives.(Believe me it will help) Download ccleaner from http://www.ccleaner.com/download . And release memory dumps and and unnecessary file. We have seen it releases in a tune more than 10% of the hard disk space.
b) Not enough memory:
1>Ideally minimum of 256 MB RAM is needed to run a windows XP OS.If yours RAM is less than that you may have to upgrade memory to get good speed.
To check memory size:Right click on the My Computer icon. Select Properties.In the general tab you can see the System memory size. It should be like *** MB of RAM.
c)Disk Defragmenter:
It is a good idea to run defragmenter on a regular basis ideally every month. It will help to keep your drive live longer and healthy.
How to do it:
1>Right click on a drive icon you want to defrag.
2>Select properties.
3>Select the tools tab.
4>Click on the Defragment now... button.
5>Click on the Defragment button. Then wait until it completes defragmentation. During this period your system will be slow.
d) Conflict between two or more programs:
To avoid such unwanted situations you should properly go through the compatibility issues documentation. Usually it is provided by the software vendor itself. For example Zone Alarm has compatibility issue with Cisco VPN client. You can't use both at the same time.
e) Too many applications/services loading during start up
Remove unnecessary programs from start up. Go to Start > Run Write 'msconfig' and enter Select the startup tab. Uncheck unnecessary programs from there except the anti-virus like program which is needed to run automatically.Press OK Restart the system.
f) Virus:
The most deadly program that makes your system slow is Virus. Check your system with a good antivirus software after updating the virus definition.
g) Use a Firewall:
It will help to protect your system from virus and other malicious programs.
h) Spyware:
Spyware considerably reduce the computer speed and internet speed. Use a anti-spyware software to scan your system and remove all the spywares. regularly update spyware database.
i) Scandisk/checkdisk
Run scandisk/checkdisk in Safe Mode by pressing F8 while booting. Have it repair anything it finds.
j) Swap File
When XP runs out of physical RAM, it uses a swap file, also called virtual memory or the paging file. XP swaps information from RAM to this temporary file and then pulls it back as needed. This can slow down your system. Having a large quantity of RAM will minimize the use of a paging file.
k) Increasing Graphics Performance
By default, Windows XP turns on a lot of shadows, fades, slides etc to menu items.They just slow down the computer performance.
To turn these off selectively:
Right click on the My Computer icon Select Properties Click on the Advanced tab Under Performance, click on the Settings button To turn them all off, select Adjust for best performance. My preference is to leave them all off except for Show shadows under mouse pointer and Show window contents while dragging.
l) Bootvis
There is a nice tool provided by Microsoft. It helps in optimizing the booting time. The link to download is as follows http://download1us.softpedia.com/dl/26f ... ootvis.msi
m)Registry
Keep your registry clean. It will help your programs run faster there by increasing your overall computer performance. You don't need to pay for it.There are many free registry cleaners available. You can try RegSeeker. This is a free tool to clean the registry. But before cleaning take a back up of the registry. You can download it here http://www.hoverdesk.net/dl/en/RegSeeker.zip
n) System File Checker
If you have XP installation cd then check if all system files are intact. To do that insert the XP cd into cd/dvd drive. Then type the following command in run elevated prompt. sfc /scannow and press ok. The system will automatically check if any system file is corrupt and it will repair it automatically making your system more stable.
If none of the above helps you in recovering your computer speed, We will suggest you to go for the last option, i.e formatting the OS drive and re-installing XP again. ( many computer experts suggests to reinstall XP at least once in a year. It will help in maximizing the computer speed and some times life too, because it will eliminate all the conflicting programs in your system otherwise which are virtually undetectable)
Please reply to this if you find it was helpful to resolve your issue. Please suggest what else more we can add here. Or just criticize me, that will help me to improve. It will take only one or two minutes for you. But it will be great help to me to do still better job.
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Folder option missing from tools option

This can be enabled very easily. Follow the following steps. Steps 1: Enabling in registry editor: Type "regedit" in the run dialog box then find "NoFolderOptions" in HKEY_CURRENT_USER. If it exist, set the value of it to 0 or delete it. Step 2: Enabling in Group Policy Editor:Now, try to check in the Control Panel if the Folder Options icon is already there. If still not exist. Try this step: Type gpedit.msc then goto:User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Component -> Windows Explorerin right-side pane, set "Removes the Folder Options menu item from the Tools menu" to Disabled. Then try to check it again in the Control Panel if the Folder Options icon is already there.

Eliminate the visual effects for better performance in XP

This will help you to increase the performance of your computer by eliminating the needless visual effects. By default windows XP gives you many options in the graphics fields to enjoy maximum graphics. For example, you can add pictures on folders and drop shadow on icon to give you better look but it will effect on the performance of your computer, especially on a computer with less speed and memory. How to do that ? Right click on the My Computer icon that is there on the desktop.Select properties.Select Advance tab.Select setting in the Performance Box. When you have done then "Performance Options" dialog box will appear with different options. Here select the Visual Effects tab and choose the settings you want to use for the appearance and performance of windows on this computer. You may select "Adjust for best performance" and this will unselect all the option. Do experiment, and keep the setting that will suit you. You can check the last three options that will show no general changes but increase performance.

Windows XP Password Recovery

1. Restart your PC and start pressing F8 immediately. 2. Boot into 'Safe Mode' 3.Login to Administrator account. We hope that you may not have set the password. 4. After login to the Administrator account you can change password, remove password of your previous account or you may create a new account. 5. Reboot and log in to the new account. or follow the following. 1. Boot off your XP disk.(Supposing that you have one handy with you) 2. Start an installation and 'Repair' your windows installation. 3. When the progress bar says 'Installing Devices', press Shift-F10 to get a command window. 4. Type NUSRMGR.CPL to get the User Accounts control panel and change what you like. or you may also do the following 1. Use a Windows 2000 recovery CD to boot the machine. 2. Start the 'Windows Recovery Console'. 3. Access anything you like. 4. Add a user with 'Administrator' privileges. 5. Even change the Administrator password.