Optimizing Broadband|Windows|Firefox

As promised, here is my string of articles on optimizing Firefox. However, I figured that you have to move beyond the browser if you truly want to speed up your internet experience, so this series will focus on speeding up your internet connection (with a bias on broadband, though I will try to cover dial-up as well), Windows (mainly XP, but I'll mention Vista in places) and Firefox (I'll also discuss IE, Opera and Safari, but don't expect too much in that department). My goal: to turbo-charge your/my internet experience from an average user's point of view.As promised, here is my string of articles on optimizing Firefox. However, I figured that you have to move beyond the browser if you truly want to speed up your internet experience, so this series will focus on speeding up your internet connection (with a bias on broadband, though I will try to cover dial-up as well), Windows (mainly XP, but I'll mention Vista in places) and Firefox (I'll also discuss IE, Opera and Safari, but don't expect too much in that department). My goal: to turbo-charge your/my internet experience from an average user's point of view. I've done some heavy resource gathering for this adventure, and have come up with some pretty astonishing stuff that you can't easily google to. I dare say this is (past tense in advance!) the most comprehensive guide to speeding up your/my daily internet cruise, although you're the one to judge. This page will act as the table of contents (the list will grow as I add more and more articles), with all the relevant links given below: Is your broadband connection really as fast as promised? My Net's slow, do I dump my ISP? Why a 56K dial-up will never be even close to 56K Non-tech ways to improve your Net speed Antivirus reviews 2008 (part 1) Antivirus reviews 2008 (part 2) Antivirus reviews 2008 (part 3) Miscellaneous security software (part 1) Miscellaneous security software (part 2)

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Firefox is optimized for dial-up!

[Update: check out my latest string of articles on optimizing broadband, Windows and Firefox. Here's the page with the table of contents.] This came as a shock: the Firefox browser is optimized for dial-up and not broadband. I was reading the current issue of PC World last night when I came across Lincoln Spector's article, somewhat blandly titled 15 Undocumented Firefox Tips. Most of the 'tips' don't really even qualify as such, but the box item in the mag blew me away. You can read the optimization part online here. I tried out the steps and found out that my homepage (http://google.ca) was reduced to a blank page. I was ruing my decision of not backing up my Firefox settings as recommended, but editing my homepage (to http://www.google.ca) solved things. My browsing experience is now noticeably faster, and of course more pleasing. What a way to start the year!

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