Itna slow kyun hai, bhai?
Author: Rajiv Mathew
Bogged down by slow Internet speed? Heres how you can
tackle with Internet woes...
Our Internet junkies (techies or not) are often quite
unhappy! What does one do with slow Internet speeds
that make life difficult for those who spend a
lot of time on the web or even have to depend on it
for work?
Research shows that Internet services in India are
amongst the worst in the world. India, which is
supposedly the Silicon Valley of the East, is far
behind
China as far as broadband connection speed is
concerned. Statistics reveal that China is adding
broadband users at a pace that India will take years
to
match.
Its a known fact that large files like video
applications and music, clog connections because they
take so long to download. For techies who depend on
fast transmission of data, India can be extremely
frustrating. Lack of broadband services means Internet
advertisers are unable to beam pictures and
particularly
streaming video ads to consumers.
Accordingly, as many third-world countries have
bypassed land lines and gone straight to cellular
telephone systems, wireless Internet transmission is
starting to pick up some of the slack left by Indias
feeble wired infrastructure.
Bangalore, is expected to be virtually blanketed with
wireless broadband coverage within the next two years,
making it the only completely wireless city
in India. Despite the fact that Indias IT sector is
growing at an unrelenting rate of around 30 per cent,
most IT transmission is on dedicated lines,
not consumer broadband. For the public, the
disappointing results are due to a collection of
factors. Homes have limited access to telephone lines
and
ageing infrastructure means that copper wiring is
still in place.
The good news is that, India has taken to VOIP (Voice
Over Internet Protocol) or long-distance calling via
the web, with a vengeance. Statistics report
that more than half of the long-distance calls placed
from Indian telephones last year were over the
Internet.
Tips that work
Coming back to the point, if youre a victim of slow
Internet connection, here are a few ways to work
around it:
Configure your browser: A few small changes for your
dial-in session can make a big difference. Increase
the size of your browsers cache so that you
re-download
the same web page elements less often.
Block and disable bandwidth hogs: All of us dislike
every unnecessary pixel, advertisement and flash
movies on the web. So, install an ad-blocking
extension
(Adblock for example) to avoid losing precious minutes
of your life. If your podcasting software (like
iTunes) is set to routinely download new episodes
when you connect to the Internet, it will drain you of
a lot of bandwidth. Be sure to disable such automatic
downloads.
Work offline when possible: Online web applications
are all the rage with the techies these days, but the
fact is were not always online. The ability
to work offline makes a huge difference in
productivity when youre dependent on a slow
connection.
Use a desktop RSS reader: Save web pages for later
reading, using something like the Slogger Firefox
extension. Email users can install a desktop email
client like Mozilla Thunderbird and download messages
for offline reading. Compose blog posts on the
desktop instead of connecting to the web to write.
Download bank transactions or Microsoft Money instead
of connecting to your banks web site to pay bills.
A time-consuming connection on the Internet can be an
exercise in absolute frustration. Tweaking your
computer to handle sluggish speeds can be very useful.
Heres hoping that our bandwidth woes disappear almost
immediately. Till then, it looks like all of us have
to go through the pain of waiting for hours
on end to download stuff off the Internet.
Chat on a cool, new interface. No download required. Go to
http://in.messenger.yahoo.com/webmessengerpromo.php
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