No speed demons here!

Calvados · #1 October 13th, 2007, 01:14 PM

Unhappily, I'm married to dial-up, that's the way it is where I live. I try to not to obsess about it. The classic problem is the glacial speed of dial-up surfing. Recently, I switched to another ISP hoping to improve my experience, but matters seem to get worse — virtually every clink on a link brings out the spinning beach ball that takes an appreciable interval to disappear. I'd move on, but I'm very happy with my provider even if none of my 10 access numbers work well.

I guess what I'm asking is, is there anything I can do computer wise to hurry things up a little. I'm running Mac OS X 10.3.9 on a G3 iBook.

Mikuro · #2 October 13th, 2007, 01:48 PM

I would recommend installing content filters first of all. On dialup, just downloading ads takes up a pretty big chunk of time. You didn't mention what browser you use, but most of the common ones have some good filter add-ons.

For Safari, PithHelmet is an excellent filter. SafariBlock is much simpler, which can be a good or bad thing depending on your taste.

For Firefox, get the Adblock add-on.

You might also want to experiment with other browsers. Different browsers have different methods of displaying incomplete pages. Some will wait until everything is fully downloaded to display anything, which can be painful on dialup. If you use Safari, you might also find SafariSpeed helpful; it reduces the delay before displaying incomplete pages. It won't make pages finish loading any faster, but it will make them more usable before they do finish.

**Giaguara** · #3 October 13th, 2007, 05:05 PM

Oh, as well Safari Stand and Sogudi will do good for you. No loading flashy things unless you decide to see them, flash by flash.

Calvados · #4 October 13th, 2007, 07:21 PM

I knew I wasn't the brightest bulb around, but I hadn't realized how far I had fallen behind. I installed PithHelmet right off the bat. I installed the trial version of SafariSpeed, but so far haven't figured out how to set it properly.

I was never all that smitten with Safari and all I needed was a nudge to go ahead and install Camino or Firefox.

Safari Stand and Sogundi are in my sights and I intend to do my homework before I methodically proceed.

I am so indebted to you two, I can't thank you enough. I know my Internet experience is in for significant improvement.