Any secrets on speeding my dial up windows Xp, with netzero high speed?

Answer 1

There is not much you can do. There are a few small tweaks that can *potentially* make the internet *seem* faster, but nothing highly noticeable.

One is to make smart use of your cache. Adjust the amount of space allocated for temporary internet files to a manageable size - not too big and not too small. Keep your computer clean of superfluous software, malware, spyware, etc. Keep your hard drives regularly defragged and do a clean wipe of your operating system periodically (I do one about every 3 months). These things will do two things: a) your computer will be able to retrieve cached items from the hard drive faster and b) your memory and CPU load will be lower with fewer background applications, making the browsing experience seem smoother.

You can also tweak your browser settings to allow more simultaneous connections. Most browsers are, by default, capped at 2 connections per host. So if you are trying to download a web page with 10 images on it, you will only be able to download 2 at a time. You can search for "browser connection limit" on Google, replace 'browser' with the name of the browser you use. This is something that speeds up connections on true broadband connections, but Netzero High-Speed most likely takes your 2-connection limit default into account and delivers web pages in the most optimized way already. Note that changing it can also cause an incompatibility with Netzero proxying so make sure you can change settings back if things stop working.

People make the mistake of thinking that with the right tricks, some magic fast internet speed can be pulled out of a slow internet connection. This is just simply false. Netzero is a dial-up ISP, which means you cannot download web pages, images, songs, or anything else any faster than 56 kilobits per second. Period. Major companies like Netzero have invested a great deal of time and money researching how to squeeze every last bit out of those 56 kilobits, but it's still 56 kilobits. It will never be more than that.

Ultimately, the only real answer is to upgrade to cable, DSL or the like. Since services like NZHS represent the pinnacle of what can be done with a very old technology, there is nothing you can do to squeeze any more than a few tiny increments in speed out of it.

Answer 2

unfortunately there is no such thing as "High Speed" dial-up service. even under perfect line conditions on local loop 1 you will still only see a maximum connection rate of 53.3kbps and you might actually be able to transfer files at 20kbps.