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slow internet and other problems
Ok I have dial up, and I download a lot of music and keep lots of pictures on my computer. I am gonna be taking online classes soon and my computer is so slow! I have a bunch of pop ups and I dont have a virus scan, which I know is bad because of me downloading music. How much does DSL or cable cost to set up and how much is it a month?
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Want to answer more questions in the Technology category?
Maybe give some free advice about: Computers?
Roadrunner is $30 a month. It may seem like a lot, but think of it this way - it's one dollar a day. That's a small price to pay for not having to deal with dial up! If you set it up yourself, it's free. I highly suggest that you do that. It's a matter of plugging in cables - VERY EASY. Plus, if you can't figure it out or need help with something, you can always have someone from the company come help you and pay then. Just try it yourself first!
You can also make your computer faster by getting rid of all the spyware that you probably have. Virus scans won't pick it up. You need a separate program. This one is great: [Link](Mouse over link to see full location)
Do a full system scan and then scan for ADS! You should then do a smart system scan once a week or so to keep your computer at top speed. You will love this program.
Even though viruses probably aren't your problem, you should also download a virus scanner just in case. AVG free is an AMAZING virus scanner. It picks up EVERYTHING. Even things that top names like McAfee and Norton won't pick up. Don't feel like you have an inferior virus scanner just because it's free. [Link](Mouse over link to see full location)
Good luck! :)
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Follow my guide:
[Link](Mouse over link to see full location)
It will remove all malware from your computer, speed up your computer, and optimize your internet.
I recommend everyone with Dial-Up use Free Download Manager, which automatically dials your connection and downloads things while you are sleeping. It even has bittorrent support:
[Link](Mouse over link to see full location)
Use Opera, K-meleon, or Firefox instead of Internet explorer to reduce popups:
[Link](Mouse over link to see full location)
[Link](Mouse over link to see full location)
[Link](Mouse over link to see full location)
DSL price depends a lot on your area. The ISPs like to charge you as much as they possibly can. AT&T has a $20/month plan. $40/month will probably be the average rate in your area. If you use limewire or similar, take a look at this list of Bad ISPs:
[Link](Mouse over link to see full location)
The bad ISPs on the list prevent you from using limewire, bittorrent, and other peer-to-peer applications.
Contact me by IM for more help.
**Freeing disk space and defragmentation won't help with speed at all. Cable is less reliable than DSL, and in PRACTICE it's slower(though in theory it should be faster). AVG is one of the worst antivirus applications, use antivir or avast instead.**
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How much it would cost depends on what kind you get. I don't know as much about that, but I can help you speed up your computer in general.
First of all you NEED virus protection! I didn't have it for a long time(almost a year) and I ended up having over 30 viruses by the time I scanned. Needless to say getting rid of those sped things up considerably :P
There are tons of free or free trial virus protection programs available online. A quick google search should give you tons of results. I have a free version of AVG - [Link](Mouse over link to see full location) Its really easy and it doesn't cause as much lag as I find that other programs have. :)
Second, what site are you downloading music from? If it is an illegal source like limewire you could be causing yourself a lot of grief without virus protection ^^; I don't know about itunes though. However I would definitely say NEVER download anything online(that isn't from an official site) without protection.
Third, how much free space do you have on your computer? If you aren't sure you should check by going to(This is how my computer works for it anyway. I have windows XP.) My Computer, then click one time on what is under Hard Disk Drives. Mine says Local Disk (C:)but if I recall it was something different for a friend of mine. A "Details" thing should pop up on the side of the browser telling you how much space your computer has total, and how much of that is free.
Deciding if you don't have enough is kind of dependent on how much you had in the first place, but I think its safe to say less than 20 percent of the whole, or if the number of GBs is in the single digits you could be in trouble.
If you find that you don't have enough free space go to Control Panel and into Add and Remove programs. Then...add or remove programs :P delete the ones you don't need or don't use any more.
Also go in to your pictures and delete the things you don't need or want! Pictures tend not to take up much space but after a while it adds up. Also if you have video - downloaded or self recorded - that can take up tons of space too.
If you have a computer game that allows you to download extras for it online - those extras take up space too. You may want to clean anything like that out if you find that you still don't have space.
Then theres defragging. Or Defragment...whatever. If you haven't done this in a while, or never have, it could really really speed things up as well. What defragging does is...well...imagine your computer as a garbage can. Every program, picture, and file is a piece of trash. After a while the trash can appears to be full, but this isn't always the case. There are pockets of space between pieces of trash that go unnoticed. Defragging is like pushing the 'trash' down flat to free up more space in the 'trash can'. Lame analogy I know. But it works.
To defrag go to My Computer, Control Panel, 'Performance and Maintenance'(My control panel is set up to show categories, I'm not sure if this option shows up specifically if you have it on classic view. Just click category view. its to the side of the browser.), then under "Pick a Task..." select "Rearrange items on your hard drive to make programs run faster". A window will pop up then and you can push "Defragment" :D
Computers need to be defragged every once in a while. Without it some computers can slow down to a crawl ><
If you don't have Windows XP some of the steps and labels may be different. If this is the case you can find this sort of information through google too.
You may also want to delete your temporary internet files. Those take up space too. The more space you have on your computer the faster things will run in general - programs, internet, start up.
But yeah. Dial up sucks and may slow you down regardless of how much space you have, while having a good amount of free space may help a bit.
I don't know much about different kinds of internet I'm afraid. I have...um...road runner..or something. XD Its super fast but also pretty pricey. There are lots of places that offer faster internet for reasonable prices though. My family has to have road runner because of our location...there aren't that many other people around so other providers can't really afford to have a server out here...or something like that. If you aren't in a very populated area then you may get stuck like us, but I really doubt it.
Soooo. Yeah. ^^;
Long answer. If you already know a lot of this stuff I'm sorry for explaining so extensively.
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