Log in ....Tribune--Tips & Tricks

Monday, August 14, 2000		Tips & Tricks

Increasing your modem speed

For trouble-free browsing on the Internet, modem tuning, which involves fine-tuning of some common but important settings in a computer, is essential. No doubt, the condition of the telephone line is most critical for Internet browsing; yet by setting the modem correctly, one can overcome some of the problems under normal line conditions. This tip may help in solving the slow Internet connection problem.

In Windows 95/98, you may even feel that modem is working fine. The facts may be otherwise. If you have not configured your modem properly, you may still use it but may not get the optimum performance. The simple reason is that the default baud rate set by the installation procedure in most of the modems is 9600bps, whereas the speed of the com port allows a maximum of 1,15,000 bps. If the modem is restricted to a speed of 9600, no matter what connection speed is shown on the computer, the actual speed will not go beyond 9600 bps. In order to improve the speed you can follow this procedure.

Click on My Computer>click Control Panel>and Open Systems. Now in the Systems window, click the device manager tab and click the plus (+) sign. You can find this sign next to the ports that is Com ports and LPT1. Now select your modem port. Normally modems are installed on Com2. However, this is not a universal law and one must check the system for this. Once you know the port, click the Properties button, then click the ports Settings tab. Check out the bits per second rate selected by default, in your computer. If it is selected at 9600 bps, or anything other than 1,15,200, increase it to 115200. This is the maximum speed of the Com port. You also need to increase your modem speed in modem settings in control panel. You can do this by clicking modem icon in control panel. Now the modem Properties window will open. Under the General tab, set the speed at 1,15,200 in the maximum speed box.

But do not check the box : "Only connect at this speed". However, if you get some problem by such a high speed, reduce the speed to 56,000 bps at both places. The problems, if any could be checked from the systems monitor. If you do not have System monitor installed in computer, install it by using the Add/Remove programme in Windows setup under the control panel. Select the system monitor in the systems tool to install it.

Another setting that may prove helpful is related to the advanced settings in modem properties. Click My Computer>Control Panel>Modem. This will open modem properties window. Click on the modem name and click on the properties Button. This will open another window by the name of your modem. Now click on the connection Tab. And click on the advanced button. Now select the use flow control and click in the hardware. Close the control panel and try connecting to the Internet. This makes your modem fine tuning complete.

Reclaiming your hard disk space

NORMALLY when you install windows, it copies some files on your hard disk, which are not of much significance. However, they occupy a lot of space unnecessarily. One such example of insignificant file is Online User's guide in C:\ Windows\ Help. From this directory remove all .avi files or video clips. These video clips are basic in nature but consume a lot of disk space. By deleting these files one can reclaim the otherwise wasted hard disk space.

Removing files and folders directly

TOUGH Recycle Bin is a great feature of Windows, yet it unnecessarily increases one step when one is sure about deleting the files and folders. If you are not in a habit of emptying the recycle bin regularly, it may create problems by taking up the hard disk space and thereby making the system slow. As a short-cut to deleting files and folders, you can bypass the recycle bin by holding down your shift key, while deleting the files.