I don't feel my Computer is processing as fast as it should. I have a
Cable Modem, and regularly perform all maintenance, including Scan
Disk and De-Frag. My Son was over yesterday, and commented how slow my
Computer was.

I operate on Windows 98- Pentium ll Processor- 32 Megs Ram- Resources
70% Free

How can I tell if the problem is in my Computer, or with the Cable
Company?

Hello,

even when 32 MB of RAM sounds "a little too little" for a typical
Windows 98, usually, for internet connections, the processor speed or
other hardware configuration (as opposed to what some advertising will
tell you) should be the least of your concerns.
This is regarding normal websites that don't rely on: Flash animation,
VRML (3D) Worlds, Java, and sometimes complex JavaScript (so called
"DHTML", for "Dynamic HTML"). You might not always know if these are
on a webpage -- but many "average looking" news sites should fare
well. Java, Flash and so on are embedded elements of a page that
usually fit into a rectangle (the Java box being typically gray while
loading).

However, if your internet connection is slow, then it will certainly
show on even simpler web sites. What is very important here:
- the number and size of images
- the complexity of so-called "table-layout" (in case that is used)

(Often, advertisements are the largest graphics on a page since they
use Flash or image animations, and they are displayed on top so might
load before the text content.)

Now there's several factors that would let you optimize your browsing
experience, in case that is your main concern. I don't know which
browser you use, but in many popular browsers such as Internet
Explorer, there's several options that will let you speed up the web
experience:

- turn off image animations in the options
- if you have a very slow connection, turn off images completely
- disable or remove plug-ins such as Flash (you can reinstall them on
a need-basis -- but please note that if you depend on Flash content,
to rather not remove it)
- turn off background-music in the options
- check your cache (Temporary Internet Files) settings, and put up the
cache size and turn on automatical handling of cache (if that's not
already selected)

For example, in Interner Explorer 6, you'd do this by:
- Go to "Tools" -> "Internet Options" from the browser menu*
- Click on the "Advanced" tab
- scroll down to "Multimedia"
- disable options such as "Play animations in web pages"

(*The "Tools" menu is in the "Extras" menu on Internet Explorer 5.)

Also you might want to find out which websites seem to load slow, and
which are faster, and try to chose the faster ones if you have the
choice. You'll often find sites overloaded with graphics that they
will slow down even the speediest connections.

You already do things like Scan Disk and defragmentation, which is
also very good. You might also want to check all the applications that
run side-by-side when you browse. Maybe there's some applications you
don't really need but installed in the past that now hide in the
Windows "Start" bar tray or in the Windows "Auto Start" menu. You can
usually disable these by right-clicking them and toggling with the
options, or going to the Software configuration of your computer and
deinstall them. (Some applications might hide a bit more, and you need
to manually start MS-Config -- tell me if you need help on this.)
 
Last not least, you might also want to find out if your cable company
offers better speed, or another company does, or if you can optimize
your modem/ connection.

I hope that helps!

I was hoping for a much shorter answer, but this helped, once I
figured out what he was saying.

Some practical advice on speeding up your computer:

1. Check for spyware. Lots of programs install secret programs with
them, and they can slow down your computer a lot. Search for
"Ad-Aware" on download.com.

2. Check for viruses.

3. Disable startup programs: Click Start, then Run, and type
'msconfig'. Under the startup tab, look to see if anything starts up
that you don't need. Uncheck those.

4. Upgrade your RAM. Especially if you have 32MB of RAM, just doubling
that can vastly improve your performance.

Hope this helps.

When your son commented that your computer seemed slow, did he just
mean in terms of browsing the web, or in more general terms? If you
know what speed your cablemodem is supposed to be performing at (the
most common is usually 512k/s) then you can fairly easily test whether
it's matching the cable company's claimed figures. Any of the
following sites provide easy ways to test your internet connection
speed:

http://www.dslreports.com/stest/0

http://www.cable-modem.net/features/oct99/speed.html

http://bandwidthplace.com/speedtest/

(this is just a small selection of the many sites offering a similar
service. For a list of many more, try a Google search for "broadband
speed test").

The three sites above should be enough to give you a clue as to how
well your connection is performing. If the speed is within about
10-15% of what your cablemodem provider claim then I would say that is
satisfactory, and look to improving your computer itself to increase
speed. However if these tests show that your cablemodem is
underperforming then your first point of contact should be your cable
company's internet helpline.

Good luck in sorting out your problems!

Don't bother with Scandisk. Only use it to identify problems on your
hard disk if you must. It only does more harm than good. For example,
if it finds a truncated file on your hard drive - instead of
completing the chain in the File Allocation Table thus restoring the
file, it just deletes the remainder of the file after the break in the
stated chain.

Use Norton Disk Doctor instead.

J

Hi,

I wanted to add a couple of things that may not have been mentioned.

If you tested your modem speed through one of the links that iaint-ga
has posted and confirmed that the speed is accurate, you may consider
the following suggestions.

First, it's hard for me to believe that your internet connection is
slow due to your current ram and other configurations. The actual
computer is more than adequate for browsing the web.

There are two common things that I find can significantly slow down a
computer.
1. While j_philipp-ga mentioned the actual temporary internet files,
there is also a general windows temp folder. Basically, when your
computer processes information, it places a temporary backup in the
temp folder which it removes after the transaction is complete. When a
computer crashes, the temp files remain. Enough crashes, and your
system will have a huge temp folder that will slow down all functions.
This is usually found in c:\windows\temp. Simply open the temp folder
and delete all the contents.

2. If you are currently running Norton SystemWorks, there is a feature
called "protected recycle bin" which saves files you delete in case of
an accidental deletion. If you are running SystemWorks, empty the
protected portion of the bin by right clicking/double clicking on the
recycle bin and following directions. (And in my opinion, disable this
feature.)

I hope I have been some help!

I agree with samrolken's point on increasing your RAM. Your system is
desperately short of RAM. Windows 98 uses more memory than this when
nothing is loaded! Upgrading your memory is likely to make the biggest
improvement to speed of your system. Ideally you will upgrade to 128Mb
or more. (Do you currently notice a lot of disk activity when the
system is going slowly?)

In the meantime you should set the swapfile size to have the same
minimum and maximum of about 300Mb. This will slightly improve
performance as disk space does not have to be allocated on the fly. To
do this go into:
Control Panel
    System
        Performance Tab
            Virtual Memory

Set the minimum and maximum values to 300.