by Henry Amon

Created on: September 18, 2009   Last Updated: September 19, 2009

A slow Internet connection is the bane of every web surfer. If you're tired of waiting minutes for web pages to load, and who isn't, you'll do everything you can to find ways to speed up your connection. There are a few easy things that you can do to speed up your connection and, while simple, they shouldn't be overlooked.

First, do a speed test to see how your speed compares to other users with similar connections.

DSL Reports has a good speed test that will evaluate your upload and download speeds and show you how you compare to other users with similar connections. If you are close to the speed of similar users, simple adjustments will help but not as much as if you are far below your potential. It may be worth paying more to get a faster connection from your provider when you consider the time you spend waiting for pages or programs to download.

Some things to consider are the limitations of your connection type. Dial up is inherently slow and no matter what you do to speed up your connection you won't notice much difference. DSL is limited by your distance from the closest phone company substation. Cable modems are usually quite fast, but if there are a lot of cable modem users in your neighborhood your connection will be slowed.

The easiest thing you can do to speed up your connection is to make sure you are not close to your limit on your hard drive space. If you are, start deleting programs and files you don't need. Make sure you have at least one gigabyte available at all times. Next, go to your web browser and choose "Tools" followed by "Internet Options." Go to your "Browsing History" and delete your temporary files and cookies. These two things should help improve your speed significantly if you have not done them recently.

Now make sure you have no viruses and malware on your computer. If you have anti-virus remover, run a thorough scan and remove any viruses. If you don't have anti-virus software download a free one such as Super Antispyware. Do the same with malware removing software. Malware Bytes is a good free malware remover.

If you have some money, upgrading your memory will also likely speed up your Internet connection. Anything you can do to make your computer faster will probably increase your Internet connection speed to some degree. If you have more money consider buying a faster processor.

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