They are so many ways to connect to the Internet now: dial-up modem, broadband cable, DSL, ISDN, and T1 lines. Which one is the best for you? Lets find out!

Dial-Up/Modem (14 Kbps - 56 Kbps): Dial-up is run over normal telephone lines, which means it is avaliable to almost everyone. While your online, your phone line is unavailable for calls, so most people get a second line. You must dial a number to connect and will experience a slower connection with a dial-up connection.

ISDN (128 Kbps) is avaliable almost everywhere and is four times faster than dial-up. Again, you must dial a number to connect to the internet and may experience a slow connection. This is the best option if you are in a area that does not provide cable or DSL.

Cable (42 Kbps to 27 Mbps) is avaliable mostly in residential areas. Cable internet connections are always-on. Cable is a shared media, which means that as more people in your area use the cable line at any one time, speeds for each user will decrease. So your speed depends on the traffic on the system.

DSL provides high-speed internet access over copper telephone lines. There are different kinds of DSL available which provide different speeds. At its fastest, DSL can be up to 143 times faster than 56K modems and 62 times faster than ISDN. DSL is also surprisingly inexpensive. It is based on a flat monthly rate, with no per-minute charges. It is available in most metropolitan areas. The two most common forms are listed below:

1. Old programs that you haven't used in at least six months and don't plan on using again should be the first to go, but use the program's Uninstaller or Add/Remove in Control Panel to get rid of them. Go to Start>>Settings>>Control Panel>>Add/Remove Programs. If you're unsure about ANY files or programs, don't delete them until you check them out thoroughly and get a second opinion.

2. Regularly Scan and Defrag your hard drive. This is the best approach to keeping your machine at top performance, but it's the most commonly neglected. If you use your machine for business, set up a schedule to do this at least once a week. If you use your computer for home use, do it at least once a month. Scanning the drive alerts the problems and gets rid of them before they become potentially hazardous. Defragging reorganizes your drive clusters in a nice, neat package, preventing your hard drive from having to search all over the disk for information. You'll find these programs by clicking Start>>Programs>>Accessories>>System Tools>>Disk Defrag

3. Regularly delete old Temp files, then clear your Recycle Bin. Along with your schedule for scanning and defragging you should have a regular schedule for removing old, useless stuff from your machine. Also, regularly scan your folders and directories for old files--they take up nothing but space, and a major killer for hard drives is clutter. Regularly checking and dumping all the contents of the Recycle Bin is another one of those little details that lots of folks forget about, but it should be done on a regular basis.

4. Windows XP has a lot of Visual Effects that eat up alot of your performance.
--Open Windows Explorer
--Right click My Computer
--Click Properties>>Advanced
--Under Performance, click Settings
--Select Visual Effects, if necessary
--For fastest performance, select "Adjust for best performance." The default is "Let Windows choose what's best for my computer". If you're a do-it-yourselfer, click Custom and select the effects you like.

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