any software to boost cable internet connection?

Is there no way to search the messages when your in the support forums?? I cant find a search button. ANYWAY. My problem is I have cox cable and its so slow. Is there a good FREE software program to speed it up?

 

The search feature is located on the top toolbar at MajorGeeks.com - third item from the right (see attached pic)

 

> Any software to boost cable internet connection? Is there a good FREE software program to speed it up? msgarde <

While there's certainly numerous free so-called "web accelerator," "internet accelerator," and "browser accelerator" freeware software programs available out there; the problem is that most do not work at all or can function very erratically. In my experience; many of the types of 'freebie' software programs; which solely attempt to 'registry tweak' your computer to boost cable internet connection into speeding up web page loading, are basically well, useless.

The only type of software I have ever seen that actually works well is called "Ad blocking" software; which does not actually "boost" your cable internet connection, but they can speed browsing considerably by blocking the website ADS - which hog bandwidth and thus cause your web pages to load very slowly.

There are some freeware Ad blockers available out there but they're not very good, in my opinion. Ad-Block Plus is pretty good if you're using Firefox. It is actually a content filtering plug-in (add-on) for use with the Mozilla Firefox browser only.

The best ad-blocking software to use IMO is a shareware program called Ad Muncher. This program can speed your connection quite efficiently by blocking blinking and other annoying bandwidth connection-hogging ADS that tend to SLOW your ability to load the various web pages that you are trying to connect to. It also gives the user many options and choices as to what to block (and not to block) as well as many other useful features.

Since it is shareware, it is not free of course. The program comes with a 30 day trial and then you need to pay a fee to register but is well worth it IMO. I think the program cost me around $25-$30 US dollars when I originally bought it; but it was most definitely one of the best investments that I ever made; as it makes browsing the web basically "add-free."

Side Note: If you decide to try Ad Muncher; I'd definitely recommend a read-through of the help files in order to get the most out of using it; in order to get the most out of it.

Good Luck!

 

I don't agree with this. My DSL service is rated at 1.5 Mbps download/384 Kbps upload. I can run a speed test (I usually use a certain test location accessed from dslreports.com) with my main computer (Win XP, 1.8GHz Athlon XP 2200) or an old 200 MHz Pentium and get the same download speeds. Likewise, I get the same results with my Compaq Presario Notebook PC. Now, if you want to talk about web browsing, then, yes, there's a very noticeable difference. The old 200 MHz Pentium gets clunky when confronted with pages laden with Flash, streaming media, etc. But, that's a different issue.

 

Does the speed seem to vary by time of day? Cable speed is affected by number of users using the line at any given time.

Exactly what speeds are you getting? Have you run a test? If not, visit http://www.dslreports.com/tools and run a test. And, run their Tweaks Test; it can give you some tips on improving speed.

Another test site is http://www.speedtest.net/. I suggest repeating the test at different times.

 

I must agree with usafveteran above where he disagrees with the hardware statement made earlier by another member. While it is true that a PCs hardware specs play a part in the achievable download speeds, the difference should not be that drastic; a 500kbps difference from one PC to another on the same line and modem doesn't seem quite right, even if one of the PCs is considerably older. I have run many older PCs on a 10meg cable line. Even an old Pentium II 400mhz with 256mb of SDRAM running Win2000 gets download speeds as high as 5 or 6 mbps but it's usually around 500-800kbps. I get the same speeds when I use an Athlon64 X2 5600+ or a Core2Duo Pentium. If the 2 PCs have such different speeds, it may be due to lack of PC maintenance, a faulty/dying ethernet adapter, poor/outdated drivers, malware, etc....