As you know traffic is not cheap. Following are some tips that can help you cut your traffic usage.
Use of disk cache in your browser
The best way of saving yourself money is to increase your disk cache in your browser.
The default of 4Mb is way too small to make a dent in your traffic stats.
If you have spare disk space, increase it to 100-200Mb and you should notice that your
traffic stats will drop by as much as 40% over time. That's a massive saving!
Remember disk space is cheap compared to traffic.
Not only will you save money, but pages coming from your local disk will load as fast
as the browser can manage to read the data. This can be an order of magnitude faster then
getting it from the modem!
How?
- In Netscape 3 or below: Go Options, Networks Preferences and choose Cache. Set the Disk
Cache to at least 100000 kilobytes (100Mb), or as much space as you can spare.
- In Netscape 4: Go Edit, Preferences. Double click on advanced then on cache. Set the
Disk Cache to at least 100000 kilobytes (100Mb) as much space as you can spare.
- In Microsoft Internet Explorer (5): Go Tools, Internet Options and choose the Advanced tab. In
Temporary Internet Files click on Settings. Increase the Amount of disk space to use a
greater portion of your hard drive.
Use Recovery software if your download fails
Many users are at the mercy of poor quality phone lines which cause drop outs. This is
especially annoying when trying to download large files. The solution is to use some
recovery software such as GetRight which will attempt to restart a failed download from the point it stopped.
Change the packet size for your connection
Every time a packet is dropped, for example as a result of line noise or interference, the packet must be downloaded again. This can mean increased download times and traffic if there is a lot of interference on the line. Reducing the size of each packet means that if a packet is lost, then only a small packet will need to be re-downloaded instead of a larger one. The results can be quite significant, even on relatively clean lines. Further information is available at the Windows MaxMTU Fix page
Setup your own proxy server if you have a LAN
If you are running a LAN you should consider setting up your own proxy server for your
users. We use and recommend Squid. This is a freeware high performance caching
proxy server that can save you up to 50% of your web/ftp hits.
Use Australian mirrors where possible
Remember to check before you download if there is a local Australian mirror site. This will mean faster downloads and less money going to the international carriers.
