There are a lot of factors to consider. First there is your modem and than the internet provider which connects you to the internet. If the connection between you and your provider is not clean speed is compromised. For example a 56K modem is able to except data at up to 56K per second. If the line that is transferring the information was perfect with no defects, age, and even weather can slow down receiving rate. This is called a poor phone line. Second is the ISP sever its self. If a lot of users are making request from the server you will experience slower downloads. Thirdly the traffic which is flowing from the site that you are accessing maybe very busy by us users at that end. Four there maybe a lot of people on at the same time that have jammed it up. For these for situations you do not have any control over.

However you do have control over your browser may it be Internet Explorer, Netscape or other popular browsers. Two places where we can speed time up and that is when you first visit a page and when you later return to the same page.

When you first visit a page for the first time our ISP server is transferring the most information to our computers. In this transfer are text, graphics and sometimes video. Text is the fastest to download, followed by clip art, photos, music and video - which takes the longest. In Internet Explore go to view, than options to general and see multi - media we can tell our browser what to load on that page first and graphics if we want later. The page will load with the basics which is the text only. Where the image are to go is a box, if you right click your mouse a menu will pop up asking if you want to "Show Pictures"

This cache is a folder located on your hard drive. In this folder are fills from the most visited web sites. The cache is limited in how much that it will store. the reason for this is that if there was no limit data would completely fill your hard drive. So when the cache allowance is filled the oldest of data is sent to your trash. The information in the cache is used when we return to a web page. The graphics and text are stored in the cache. New material from that page such as an update is transferred from your ISP and the rest comes from the hard drive. You can find the cache in internet explorer by going to view> options> advanced. Now look for Temporary Internet files> view files. A listing of all the cache files are presented Under this tab there are some changes that you can perform to encourage better downloads. For instant in this first section you control if you want the page to refresh - which downloads new material.

Check for newer versions of stored pages

• every visit to the page
• every time you start internet explorer
• never

This next section gives you the option to have a small cache or a larger one which would need more space off of your hard drive. With more hard space you can store more web pages and in return runs download times a bit faster.

Amount of disk space to use

|-----||-------------------------------------    2% of drive

After you have made your adjustment here you will see an increase in downloading pages. Cause only the newest of information will download to older pages required.

On Netscape this what you do first. go to the Edit menu and look for preferences > Advanced > Cache

See Dish cache ( a blank space here ) kBytes under this you will find a button for clearing the cache. Clearing is sometimes used when java is acting up or to delete your cache. You will also find a button which allows for you to either scan your hard drive for a folder or create a new for storing downloads that you want to save on your computer.

The second part cache section will allow for you to indicate whether you want to cache or not.

Your options are

• Every time
• Once per session
• Never

So there you have it as to how you can speed up download time from the internet. You can use these same setting if you are using ADSL, DSL or cable as your hook up to the world wide web.