Monday, May 21, 2001		Article

Boost your PC’s performance
By Vipul Verma

DID you ever wonder why do two computers with the same hardware configuration and operating system perform differently? Well, every person would have his own logic to discern between the two. Some persons might say that the difference in speed could be due to its usability while others may conclude that it is so because one computer is an assembled one and the other branded. You may reach numerous ‘conclusions.’ However, if you tune your PC as per some tips and tricks, it may make a lot of difference.

PC may slow down primarily because of two main reasons:

1) Enlarging of registry due to too often installation and uninstallation of software and

2) Improper tuning of your hardware.

For problems related to too frequent installations and uninstallations, you can use registry cleaners and for fine-tuning of the hardware, no software is available.

If you want to boost the performance of your hard disk, then click on Start and then click on Settings > Control Panel > System. Now this will open Window by name of System properties. Click on performance Tab and then on File System. Look for the troubleshooting option and click on it. Now check the box disable synchronous buffer commits. This setting will boost the performance of your hard disk.

Similarly, you can also boost the performance of your CD ROM. For improving the performance of CD ROM, click on start and then click Settings. Now click on Control panel> System> Performance. Then select File System and CD ROM tab. Move the supplemental cache size slider to the right to allocate more RAM for caching data from the CD ROM drive or to the left to allocate less. Doing this will definitely improve the performance of your CD ROM.

When it comes to performance, the first thing, which comes to the mind of most of the computer users, is the Internet performance. Internet is an important part of the computer and it has rather become a synonym with computer performance.

However, there are a few tips, which can really help in improving the performance of the Internet connection. Normally we all use dial-up method to connect to the Internet. The process of getting connected to the Internet begins from the dialing the ISP. In some cases, this takes a lot of time and thus brings down the overall performance of the Internet. A good performance just does not include high speed Internet access. But it also means stable connection and smooth operation.

Thus for smooth operation it is also essential that there is a faster dialing to the ISP server. For this purpose, click on My computer and then click Dial-Up Networking. Now right click on the icon of your ISP connection and choose Properties. Now choose the Choose Server Type tab and then uncheck the Log on to Network checkbox. Here you can edit one more setting. Since for dialing up your ISP you are using only the TCP/IP protocol, thus you can uncheck Net Bue and IPX/SPX protocols. However, if you are on a LAN, then you must consult your system administrator before altering any settings.

This was primarily the first step in boosting the Internet performance. The next step is boosting the modem’s dialing properties. This can also be done with the help of a simple tip. Simply click on Start> Settings> Control Panel and click on Modems. This will open the Modem properties Window on your computer screen. If you have one modem driver installed on your system, then select the default modem (installed modem in your case) otherwise select your modem and then click on Properties. Now in the Properties Window, open the connection tab and click on advanced option.

In the space provided against the advanced settings for extra settings field, Enter S11=1. This will well-tune your modem for faster dialing. However, if you are facing the problem of frequent disconnection then you should use the extra setting S10=50. This will help in reducing the frequent disconnection, though it may not be able to check disconnections completely.

You can enhance the performance of the modem further by a simple tip, which involves a few settings. Thus to boost the performance of your modem, first disable compression on your modem. Then in SYSTEM.INI under 386enh section put in: COMxBUFFER=1024. In this case x would be your modem port number. So if your modem is on Com2 then x would be 2. In the next step add AT%C0 (zero), to the extra settings line of your modem’s properties and also witch error correction off.

Normally, people believe that by not clearing the memory cache and disk cache they are doing the right thing. However this is not true, since the memory cache and disk cache has a limited hard disk space. So if you do not clear it up regularly, the browsing will become slow. It can also impact the overall performance of your PC if these files are not cleared from the disk cache and memory cache. For clearing your memory cache and disk cache click on the edit menu in Netscape Navigator window and then click on Preferences sub menu. Now this will open Preference window on your computer screen, click on the advanced Tab. And this will decompress the various options. Click on the first option cache and then clear the memory cache and disk cache.

E-mail is another application, where speed matters a lot. You can speed up you e-mail work by using this helpful tip. If you are a Netscape mail user, simply right click on your desktop and from the drop-down menu select create shortcut. Now in the command line box enter mailto. This will create the icon for opening message composition Window directly without opening the browser and then the e-mail client. This is a useful tip for the people who communicate heavily using the email.

It is often said that the Internet is an ocean of information and digging out information from the Internet is difficult. It is even more difficult to recall the previously searched information. However, using a simple tip you can easily return to your previously searched information. Thus whenever, you find good search results, just store them by setting the page in your browser as a bookmark. Whenever, you require to search on the same topic again you can easily open it by clicking the saved bookmark. This way you would be saved from remembering or storing each and every page you find on the topic you searched for.

DE Network

DESIGN Expo Network Pvt Ltd (DE Network), a company that provides integrated e-mail and messaging solutions to the online business around the world, has geared up to increase its market share in India and abroad.

The company provides secure, scalable and cost effective mail solutions for businesses where communication is critical with employees, customers and industry partners. DE’s products offer value-added services such as spam tagging, search and authentication server also.
Founded in 1997, the company has its base in Thane (Mumbai). It works with its global customer and alliance base from small to medium size enterprises, data centres, ISPs, portals and online businesses.— TNS