Speed Up Surfing

Q. Because of my location I’m stuck with a dial-up Internet connection and, as you can imagine, it doesn’t surf the Net, it crawls. How can I boost the speed?

A. One thing you can do is program your browser to omit graphics, which demand loads of downloading time. That will improve the speed, but, of course, you’ll miss out on the pictures. To omit graphics, if your browser is Internet Explorer, click on Tools , Internet Options and the Advanced tab. In the Internet Options dialog box scroll in the Settings window to the Multimedia category and remove the check at Show Pictures . Then click on Apply and OK .

Another alternative is to add an accelerator to your modem software. That subject was covered in this column in the April 2004 JofA , page 91 ( www.aicpa.org/pubs/jofa/apr2004/tech_qa.htm ).