4 Options To Save Bandwidth, Speed Up Web Browsing

There are certain situations where it may make sense to save as much bandwidth as possible while connected to the Internet. The most obvious is if you are limited to a certain amount of bandwidth per month, after which you are either cut off from the Internet or have to pay extra fees for all additional traffic that you have caused in a billing period.

A second if your Internet connection is not the fastest, to cut down on the time it takes before websites are completely loaded on the computer.

This guide looks at some of the options that you have at your disposal to speed up your Internet browsing and save bandwidth at the same time. Lets start.

1. Opera Turbo

Opera Turbo is a feature of the Opera web browser. It basically routes traffic through an Opera server where it is compressed before it is send to the user computer. The compressed web pages are considerably smaller, which saves bandwidth and speeds up the time it takes to fully render the page in the browser.

Opera Turbo offers two modes of operation. First an automatic mode which enables Opera Turbo whenever a slow network connection is detected by the browser, and second an always on mode so that the feature is activated all the time.

2. Faking the user agent

Many websites perform a user agent check during connection to determine the web browser and device a user is using to connect. Here on Ghacks for instance, you are either taken to the full site or the mobile site depending on the header.

The mobile site is often reduced to the bare minimum as the connection speed of mobile clients is on average lower than that of desktop systems. The advantage here is that mobile sites transfer a lot faster and use less bandwidth because of this. Faking the user agent of your desktop browser could provide you with these benefits. Keep in mind though that you may not be able to use all of a site’s functionality because of this.

This can usually be done quite easily with the help of browser extensions. Google Chrome users can for instance install the User-Agent Switcher in their browser, Firefox users the User Agent Switcher add-on for their browser.

3. Disable Features

A third possibility would be to disable features on some or all websites to save bandwidth. You could for instance disable all plugins to block plugin contents from being loaded at all. That’s for instance useful on sites that make use of Flash contents.

The options do not end here though. Most browsers let you disable images for instances or JavaScript to reduce the amount of data that is transferred further.

Google Chrome users can for instance block images, JavaScript and plugins in the browser’s settings.

Extensions like Adblock Plus or NoScript can also block some page elements from being loaded.

4. Disable Prefetching

Prefetching technology loads web contents that you may visit to speed up the page rendering time if you do. If you do not visit the prefetched web pages, bandwidth has been wasted.

Chrome: Enter chrome:\\flags into the address bar of the browser and hit enter. Make sure the following features are disabled:

Disable hyperlink auditingPreload Instant Search

Enter chrome://chrome/settings in the address bar, tap on enter and make sure the following features are not enabled:

Predict network actions to improve page load performanceAutomatically send usage statistics and crash reports to Google

Firefox: Enter about:config into the address bar and hit the return key. First time users need to confirm that they want to continue. Filter for the term network.prefetch-next and double-click it to set it to false if it is set to true.

Enjoyed the article?: Then sign-up for our free newsletter or RSS feed to kick off your day with the latest technology news and tips, or share the article with your friends and contacts on Facebook or Twitter. Save Network Bandwidth
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Bandwidth Caps for Time Warner Users ? About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Friday March 2, 2012 -
Tags:save bandwidth, speed up internet

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How To Change, Disable Opera Speed Dial

The question came up here whether it is possible to disable Opera’s built-in Speed Dial feature. Speed Dial displays a number of websites or Speed Dial extensions on the browser’s new tab page. Speed Dial was initially designed as the means to quickly access popular sites right away from the new tab page without having to enter the site’s name first or select the site from the bookmarks. Other browser vendors have started to integrate similar options into their browsers (the last to do are Mozilla with Firefox natively).

Speed Dial extensions are a relative new feature of Opera that allows users to install extensions to display dynamic contents on the browser’s new tab page.

Opera users who want to disable the new tab page, for instance to speed up the opening of new tabs in the browser or because they simply do not use the feature, can disable Speed Dial. The option to do so is however not listed in the options, but in Opera’s advanced configuration listing.

The easiest way to open the preference is to load opera:config#UserPrefs|SpeedDialState in the Opera address bar. This should put the focus on the Speed Dial State preference in opera:config.

To change Opera’s Speed Dial functionality or disable it, simply change the value of the parameter. Here are all values and their effect.

0 – This hides the Speed Dial on the new tab page. A Show Speed Dial link is displayed in the lower right corner of the screen. When you click on it, you see the standard Speed Dial tab page again.1 – The standard view mode.2 – Read only mode. This blocks all changes to the Speed Dial display, useful for Kiosk mode for instance.3 – A value of 3 disables Opera’s Speed Dial feature. A blank page is displayed instead.

If you want to disable Opera Speed Dial, change the parameter’s value to 3 and click on the Save button after scrolling down. The changes take effect immediately and without restart of the browser.

Enjoyed the article?: Then sign-up for our free newsletter or RSS feed to kick off your day with the latest technology news and tips, or share the article with your friends and contacts on Facebook or Twitter. How To Change The Speed Dial Size In Opera
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Speed Dial Firefox Extension About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Monday February 27, 2012 -
Tags:new tab page, opera-tips

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Speed Clicker, Computer Aided Mouse Clicks

The author of Speed Clicker has created the program to get more out of games such as FarmVille or FarmTown. While I have never played those games on Facebook, it appears as if players need to click the mouse as fast as possible in various situations like harvesting or fishing. Speed Clicker saves your mouse trigger finger from tiring out. It also gives you an advantage in those games which many will see as cheating, especially when competing against other humans in the game.

But Speed Clicker users can utilize the program for other purposes as well. For instance in other games where clicking performs an action that needs to be repeated a lot of times, or applications where selections are made with mouse clicks rather than entering a number or value with the keyboard.

When you fire up Speed Clicker for the first time, you see the main application window in front of you. Here you define the click rate and the variance. The default click rate speed is set to ten clicks per second. The variance value will move the mouse cursor into a random direction after each click.

You activate the computer aided clicking with a tap on the Ctrl key on the keyboard. It is currently not possible to change the hotkeys which is unfortunate as they interfere with other hotkeys on the computer (for instance Ctrl-T to open a new browser tab). The developer has however announced plans to integrate the option in a future release of the program.

Here is a short video that is showing it in action in the popular FarmTown game.

The application requires the Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 on the computer. Interested users can download the latest version of Speed Clicker from the developer site.

Enjoyed the article?: Then sign-up for our free newsletter or RSS feed to kick off your day with the latest technology news and tips, or share the article with your friends and contacts on Facebook or Twitter. Reduce The Computer Mouse Speed
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Computer Mouse Head Control About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Thursday February 2, 2012 -
Tags:mouse software, windows software

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Get the thrill of speed through Gas remote control cars

People are seen to get excitement through many different ways. There are some who have hobbies that excite them a lot. But some people who find one thing exciting will not see another in that same perspective. The thrill seekers are mostly into speed and what other better way to get it other than gas remote control cars.

These extraordinary machines have been designed to resemble their real life counterparts but in a smaller scale. The specialty in these gas remote control cars are their great controllability even in the higher speed ranges. That is why many people prefer them over the other types.

Although the electric models also produce a lot of speed, they are not used for racing each other because they are usually not designed for rugged use. That is what is great about these gas models is because they can be used off-road without any fear of breaking. There are many other benefits to the gas model over the electrical model as well.

The second benefit gas remote control cars have over the electric powered cars is that the gas car can run longer after a single refueling than the electric. The electric also takes longer to recharge, while the gas model can be refueled and sent out instantly. The electric powered car is relatively slower too.

Although there are many advantages, there are some setbacks to gas remote control cars as well. The first thing is that they prove to be a bit more expensive on running costs. Spare parts are also seen to be a bit costly compared to electric types. Unlike the electric type, these cars cannot be run out of the box and will need some assembly prior to running.

That may be the main reason for the manufacturers of these gas cars to recommend them for experts only and not for beginners. Beginners are not familiar with the various parts that consist in them and the user's manual will not me so easy to understand because they will not know what is specified by the words in it. Beginners are mostly instructed to start off with a slower electric model.

That is because an electric powered car will come ready to run and will be good practice to a beginner who wants to race in future. They are easy to control because they run much slower than the gas type. Spare parts are easier to install and will need very few tools such as a screwdriver and a pair of pliers at the most.

But even a beginner can choose a gas type if he prefers. He should however, understand the dynamics of gas remote control cars and how to use it carefully without injuring himself and others in the process. The user has to know how to refuel the car and start the engine. You will have to take off the body of the car in order to start it. You will find that there is no other thing to match the thrill it gives you in racing.

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Display Your Internet Connection Speed In Your Taskbar

Sometimes you may want to display information about your Internet connection right on the desktop, for instance to test the speed of a new dedicated server that you just bought, or to make sure that you are uploading or downloading at full speed. Having direct access to realtime stats can also be helpful if you are troubleshooting a particular connection.

We have reviewed programs in the past that display the network traffic in the taskbar and on the desktop, with Net Traffic being one of them.

NetSpeedMonitor is another professionally looking option for the Windows operating system. And unlike Net Traffic, it displays the upload and download bandwidth right in the taskbar.

The network monitor can keep a history of the network adapters upload and download speed which it will do by default. You can disable that during setup and later on in the options, which you may want to do if you are only interested in realtime connection speed information.

The program displays the upload and download bandwidth in kbit per second. You can customize the layout in the program options. Here it is possible to change the font type and size, rendering, prefixes, and the bitrate among other things.

The traffic history can be used to check a system’s monthly bandwidth utilization which can be useful to check that you do not hit bandwidth caps or to troubleshoot recurring issues with the Internet connection.

A data traffic menu is activated if traffic is logged on the system which details sent, received and total traffic per day or month.

The data is populated automatically when the program is running and monitoring is enabled. Monitoring can be turned off, which can be useful if you are working with a laptop in multiple locations and do only want to monitor traffic in some locations.

NetSpeedMonitor can display the list of active connections in another program window. Here you see the process, local and remote IP as well as the state of the connection.

The only downside here is that traffic information are not displayed in the window.

Windows users who like to display realtime traffic information in their taskbar, and those who want to record the bandwidth utilization of their Internet connection, can download the latest version of NetSpeedMonitor from the developer website.

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About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Wednesday January 11, 2012 -
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Does Speed Matter in Pokies? a advantageous rule of thumb

How quickly are you presently whenever you normally play pokies? Does one spin the reels 4 times in a minute, or simply faster than that? The important question that you should be questioning however is it one: Does it really matter?

In webpokies.com , people tend to pay at different paces. To generally be entirely honest, dependant upon the game itself the pace which you play may vary as different games take different time frames for your reels to spin before displaying the end result.

Should the game does so quickly, you'll have the capacity to play faster, but if it will do so slowly then you'll play slower.

For many players, the rate from which they play pokies certainly does look like they're a dilemma. That is why you'll often discover their whereabouts playing several game simultaneously - spinning the reels available as one game and then trying other games while watching for the first to display its results.

But does to help you in any respect? Does the interest rate when you play pokies have any pertaining to the results?

Here's the facts: Speed won't help to improve your odds at winning at pokies.

In order to that speed helps you when you're playing pokies is it helps you acquire the best use out of your serious amounts of fit more spins right into a certain length of time. So how you would possibly simply capable to spin the reels Four times a short time (i.e. 240 times in an hour) normally, in case you play fast with multiple machines you can receive triple that, or perhaps quadruple it!

In certain situations for just about any. For those who have a restricted time frame you could spend playing pokies and each and every second counts this can be to your very own advantage that you just play at the earliest opportunity in order that you gear right out of the time you've got.

The things they say not, you'll discover that most of the time exactly what is limiting the number of games of pokies you play is usually the budget - not your energy. This is particularly the case if you've chosen to experience a game of pokies that may be in the highest denomination that you feel you really can afford comfortably.

Still, because time is a dilemma for most people - many casinos have introduced games of pokies which have the 'stop spin' feature that enables players to skip beyond the spinning of your reels simply display the results. It's a nice alternative if you do need to play faster, so use it.

Remember - speed isn't visiting help your odds of winning after you play pokies though, so there's no reason to rush if you can't absolutely really need to!

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