Ten Tips for Better Web Surfing

Despite the wide availability of high-speed, broadband Internet service, some people still access the Web with a dial-up account. Waiting for media clips and content rich web pages to download can be frustrating. To make Web surfing more satisfying and productive, we offer these tips:

If you still use a dial-up account, it's time to upgrade. Consider getting a high-speed service such as DSL or a cable modem. It may cost a bit more, but it will greatly improve your experience and productivity.

When you access a website, what you are actually doing is downloading digital files. You can see how the download is progressing by looking at the status bar located at the bottom of your web browser. If you get tired of waiting, click the Stop button to view the files that have already downloaded. Then you can decide if you want to continue. If you do, click the Reload or Refresh button.

Files you download are stored in a cache (pronounced "cash") on your hard drive. That way when you return to a site, you don't have to download the files again from the web server, just access them locally from your cache. After a while though, the cache becomes full. Your web browser automatically deletes old files as you continue to surf the Web. But if you visit many of the same sites regularly, you can speed up access by caching more of them. To do this, increase the size of your cache. 10 MB is optimal.

With Internet Explorer 7.0 or 8.0, click the Tools button, and then click Internet Options. On the General tab, under Browsing history, click Settings. In the Disk space to use text box, type the amount of disk space (in megabytes) that you want to be set aside for temporary storage space, and then click OK twice.

With Firefox 2.0 or later, under the Tools menu, select Options, then click Advanced and then the Network tab. Now type in the amount of cache you want to allocate.

Web addresses or URLs can be unwieldy. Worse, if you type them wrong, you get an error message. To avoid these problems, save the addresses of sites you want to revisit. For details on how to do this, read the Bookmarks and Favorites article.

Once you've accessed a web page, use the Find feature under the Edit menu to quickly locate the content that interests you. Don't take the time to scroll through the entire document.