Tips for dial-up Internet Speeds?

[tomos]

I'm looking for any tips for how to cope with dial-up internet speeds
(Connection has been bad for a while but took a dive on Friday, was gone completely this afternoon, is at a snails pace this evening.)

Firefox doesnt even seem to have a stop-page-loading buttons any more...

1) I remember someone here talking here (I think not too long ago) about a text based browser i.e. it just showed text  - any ideas there?

2) or something that stopped images from loading -- but allowed you to choose to load an image -- that would probably be ideal.

FWIW, Gmail in the browser often works with the basic html interface, even when no other sites load properly.

TIA

[KynloStephen66515]

I'm looking for any tips for how to cope with dial-up internet speeds
(Connection has been bad for a while but took a dive on Friday, was gone completely this afternoon, is at a snails pace this evening.)

Firefox doesnt even seem to have a stop-page-loading buttons any more...

1) I remember someone here talking here (I think not too long ago) about a text based browser i.e. it just showed text  - any ideas there?

2) or something that stopped images from loading -- but allowed you to choose to load an image -- that would probably be ideal.

FWIW, Gmail in the browser often works with the basic html interface, even when no other sites load properly.

TIA

Try Opera, it has a "Turbo" function which worked VERY well for me when using horrific 3G internet, it also highly compresses images so they load MUCH faster.

[TaoPhoenix]

I'm looking for any tips for how to cope with dial-up internet speeds
(Connection has been bad for a while but took a dive on Friday, was gone completely this afternoon, is at a snails pace this evening.)

Firefox doesn't even seem to have a stop-page-loading buttons any more...

1) I remember someone here talking here (I think not too long ago) about a text based browser i.e. it just showed text  - any ideas there?

2) or something that stopped images from loading -- but allowed you to choose to load an image -- that would probably be ideal.

(Sorry for the lazy post!)

There are various ways to get the stop button back, depending. My (older) copy of Pale Moon still has it, and I think ClassicUI Restorer has a setting that puts it back too.

I didn't like the pure text browsers because for me, site layout is crucial to understanding what's going on. But I'd bet someone else has thought of a way to stop loading images ... the raw site layout is there, but the images are as-needed.

I also use QuickJS to toggle Javascript on and off to stop a lot of "overhead" that surely is affecting your experience. Simple examples are news sites and ones that keep looking for "ping.chartbeat.net" every 30 seconds.

[4wd]

Under Firefox options, do they still have Content->Load Images Automatically ?

Just disable it if it's still there, you can also disable on a per site basis, IIRC.

[TaoPhoenix]

Under Firefox options, do they still have Content->Load Images Automatically ?

Just disable it if it's still there, you can also disable on a per site basis, IIRC.

I don't think so aka not that easily. I just checked Pale Moon, Nightly, and DevEdition.
But sometimes the devs get grumpy when Marketing starts removing features, and it's still tucked away in that "about" thing with the million hidden settings.

[4wd]

Pale Moon still has it, but not the per site blocking.



Firefox has gone retarded but you can still do it, go to about:config and change permissions.default.image to 2.



Only thing is, you won't able to load images on demand.

For pure text based browsing: Lynx



It will drive you nuts though and it doesn't understand HTTPS, (not without adding the OpenSSL libraries).

And, Comodo Dragon still has per site image blocking.

[TaoPhoenix]

Pale Moon still has it, but not the per site blocking.

I thought that just blocking popups was different from blocking all images at all, which is what I thought we were trying to do here.

And yeah, I'd tried Lynx a ways back, and for the same reasons the effort is not normally worth it unless you have extreme cases like a mainframe with a terminal or something.

[4wd]

That setting handles loading of images, if you set it to Never it will block all images - nothing to do with popups, (unless they include images and you've allowed popups).

Here's my post above with it set to Never:

[tomos]

Thanks 4wd
was thinking I could have two Firefox profiles -- one which loads images, one not.

Loading images on demand would be the best solution -- but this is good

[4wd]

If you want to get really serious about stopping images loading, (or anything else), try the QuickJava addon.

Allows quick enable and disable of Java, Javascript, Cookies, Image Animations, Flash, Silverlight, Images, Stylesheets and Proxy from the Toolbar. This is great for increasing security or decreasing bandwidth.

Loading images on demand would be the best solution

Yes, I don't understand why the idiots at least don't allow the loading of an image when you click on the placeholder, just like you used to be able to.

Technology ... going backwards every day.  

[NigelH]

I came across this today - it looks quite interesting.
HTTP Switchboard

Available for Opera Chromium.
https://addons.opera.com/en-gb/extensions/details/http-switchboard/
Perhaps with Turbo mode enabled and some configuration with this extension, you'd could do some nifty browsing.

Also for Google Chrome.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/http-switchboard/mghdpehejfekicfjcdbfofhcmnjhgaag

[Renegade]

If you block ads, you'll gain a bit more speed for the main content.

[4wd]

There are people who don't block ads ...

[tomos]

There are people who don't block ads ...

yeah, had that one covered (thanks Ren) and flashblock too.


I'm just after installing QuickJava - "quick enable disable" sounds good - not going to chance restarting though till I'm finished here


RE technology going backwards:
I guess they've phased out all the dialup friendly stuff cause everyone has such a good internet connection these days

[TaoPhoenix]

There are people who don't block ads ...

yeah, had that one covered (thanks Ren) and flashblock too.

And then there's this thing, listed full size in all its pain!

[attachimg=#]

[tomos]

Yaaah, it's working again !! (my internet connection)
I can finally see Tao's super-big-screenshot and it doesnt make the page hang

Must. go. see. all. internet. bye.
(in case it goes again soon :p)

[app103]

I spent the better part of 2008 on an old Pentium I with 64mb RAM, accessing the internet over 33.6k dialup, so I did learn some tricks to help speed things up.

If you are not using a script/flash/ad blocker, you should.

And for general purpose browsing, when you just want to see the content and will not need to login, try this:

prefix URLs with the following: http://www.google.com/gwt/n?_gwt_pg=0&u=

It's not always the best experience for every page, but for most pages, it does work well.

You can grab the bookmarklet for it at the top of the sidebar on my old Snailware site. Use it whenever you hit a site that is taking too long to load.

You can also try using the mobile versions of sites you visit often. A lot of them do work on the desktop. You said the basic HTML interface for Gmail loads, but have you ever tried the even more basic one? I bet it will load a lot faster. 

For some sites, you won't be able to do stuff like that without changing your browser's user agent to something it identifies as a mobile device. And for many sites, there isn't a separate mobile version. They have opted to just have one version for all, and use a responsive design to make it fit small screens (resizing your browser window before you visit the site might help force those sites to load smaller, lower res images). A good user agent to use would be any iPhone one, since any site specifically designed for that device will be free of any flash content.

For blogs you like to visit often, try subscribing to their feed in a desktop RSS reader. This can be one of your best options, if the site provides full content in their feed. Just be sure to set your rss reader up not to automatically refresh the feeds. Do it manually, as needed, one feed at a time, as you are about to read them. Otherwise, all of your bandwidth will be sucked up by your feed reader and you will have nothing left for anything else.

[Target]

[app103]

For pure text based browsing: Lynx
(see attachment in previous post)
It will drive you nuts though and it doesn't understand HTTPS, (not without adding the OpenSSL libraries).

And, Comodo Dragon still has per site image blocking.

The privacy bar in K-Meleon makes it quick and easy to toggle images (and other things) on/off without having to dig through menus and options panels. Also has a user agent switcher on it, although I can't seem to get it to work in the latest version. It's supposed to have a popup menu when you right click the button for it, but it doesn't seem to want to show on mine.

And running it in this type of text mode is a lot better looking than Lynx...and it does understand HTTPS.  

[app103]

Another option is to get a copy of the old Sam Spade app and use its Safe Browser feature. But you'll need to be able to mentally render the HTML yourself. 

[tomos]

THanks App - not at home now, so things working...

I added snailify, the m.gmail looks good.
Found this - How to Access Mobile Websites Using Your Desktop Browser and added the suggested addon. Havent restarted yet, so will see.

@Target

Also downloading kmeleon as I type

[TaoPhoenix]

Heh I've seen Target's pic before. : )

Kudos to App for whatever that thingie is called from Google.
Yeah, the results look a little weird, but I can see that could be useful in a pinch not for just slow internet speeds, but maybe for a few of the sites that have gone too script heavy.

(Those sliders and other things are getting worse. You saw Wikipedia's grow like a tribble!! Increasing numbers of other sites CHEER IF YOU LIKE DONATION CODER! are really determined not to have you actually read their content!)

[app103]

Kudos to App for whatever that thingie is called from Google.
Yeah, the results look a little weird, but I can see that could be useful in a pinch not for just slow internet speeds, but maybe for a few of the sites that have gone too script heavy.

It was supposed to be for use by mobile phone users when they hit sites that don't work well on their phones, formatted to fit their smaller screens, and without all the scripting their phone might not support or be able to handle. I discovered it a long time ago, when looking around for stuff I could use with my old Pocket PC.

But the whole idea of it translates well to those on old slow computers and/or on slow connections, which is why I made frequent use of it back in 2008 when I was stuck using a seriously outdated machine. Funny how something meant for modern devices could work so well at giving an old pc from 1997 a new life. 

[4wd]

And then there's this thing, listed full size in all its pain!
(see attachment in previous post)

You do know you can avoid that banner by using the Wikipedia site in another language, don't you?