Step 1 – On a PC, click the “Start” button and select “All Programs,” then “Accessories.” Open System Tools and choose the “Internet Explorer (No Add-ons)” tool. Restart your PC to activate the changes. This automatically closes and disables any add-ons currently running in your Web browser. Such add-ons can sometimes require extra data downloaded from the Web, effectively slowing your entire dial-up Internet connection.
Step 2 – Reset Internet Explorer. Open the Web browser and click “Tools” in the top menu bar. Choose “Advanced” in the “Internet Options” window, and selecting “Reset.” Close Internet Explorer and re-open the browser.
Step 3 – Click “Tools” in the top menu bar and select “Internet Options.” Click and hold onto the browser cache slider and drag the arrow to the right. This will double the capacity of Internet Explorer’s cache, enabling it to download more data to your hard drive and saving it locally so you don’t have to re-download it when you revisit a Website. This can shave several seconds off of the time it takes to load a single Web page.
Step 4 – Add additional DNS servers to your Internet connection settings. Click the “Start” menu and select “Control Panel.” Double-click “Properties,” then choose “Internet Protocol” before opening the second “Properties” window. Type “208.67.222.222” into the Preferred DNS Server field and click the “OK” button to close the window. DNS is the Internet technology through which all traffic is routed. When you type a Website address into your browser, a request is sent to your dial-up Internet service provider (ISP) and the ISP then sends a request to a DNS server. Adding additional servers can boost your dial-up Internet speed.
Step 5 – Consider switching to a third-party browser instead of the default Internet Explorer Web browser included on all PCs. Both Mozilla’s Firefox and Google’s Chrome Web browsers use newer Java technologies to decrease Web page load times (download links in the Resources section). Speed increases are most notable on dial-up connections, where media-rich Websites can take several minutes to load. For example, both Firefox and Chrome are specifically built to be more compatible with the many Web-only applications (e.g., Gmail and Gtalk, and the Twitter API) that are becoming standard fare on the Internet. You may also consider downloading a third-party browser and reserving it specifically for Web pages that are feature-heavy.