MIS: Assignment 6

If I were hired by the university president as an IT consultant, what would I suggest in order for the internet connectivity be improved?

In order to improve the internet connectivity of university, the following factors should be considered:

Hardware
If computer is slow, it doesn't matter how fast your Internet connection is, the whole thing will just seem slow. You can only access the Internet as fast as your PC will allow you to. By replacing the hardware, with a newer or better version, in order to bring the system up to date or to improve its characteristics. Common hardware upgrades are installing additional memory (RAM), adding larger hard disks, replacing microprocessor cards or graphics cards, and installing new versions of software, although many other upgrades are often possible as well. Although upgrades are for the purpose of improving a product, there are risks involved—including the possibility that the upgrade will worsen the product. When hardware is upgraded, there is a risk that it will not be compatible with other pieces of hardware in the system. For example, an upgrade of RAM may not be compatible with existing RAM in the computer. Other hardware components may not be compatible after either an upgrade or downgrade, due to the non-availability of compatible drivers for the hardware with a specific operating system.


Type of Internet Connection
Broadband is often called "high-speed" Internet, because it usually has a high rate of data transmission.
Broadband is the transmission capacity with sufficient bandwidth to permit combined provision of voice, data and video. According to ITU report, it refers to DSL and cable modem services with band width greater than 128kbps in at least one direction. In determining the speed connection we should determine the bandwidth of internet type subscribe by the university. Bandwidth is the range of frequencies available to be occupied by signals. In analogue systems it is measured in terms of Hertz (Hz) and in digital systems in bit/s per second (bit/s), the higher the bandwidth, the greater the amount of information that can be transmitted in a given time.

Maintenance
Computer maintenance can include running a disk defrag, scanning disk, virus scanning, malware scanning, and clearing recycle bin. An unusually slow Internet connection experience is often the only sign that computer is infected with viruses or other malware. Delete old files and temporary files. Never allow the free space on C: drive to be less than 10% of the total size or twice the installed RAM (which ever is larger). A well maintained PC will operate much better than a PC that has never had any maintenance. You can google or your local computer repair store should be able to help you with this if you don't know how.



The use of Internet Speed Boosters
One way to improve internet speed is to use a internet speed booster software . It is indeed the solution for great power and web speed as it is capable of installing tweaks that lead to improved connection speed regardless of its nature - Dialup, LAN or DSL. It also monitors your computer silently in the background for processes that have been ended improperly, offering methods to free up unused virtual memory.
Boosting can be very helpful in speeding up internet connection. Like active speed, which dramatically improves any home or office Internet connection, including dial-up modems of any speed, and high-speed connections such as cable modems, DSL, ISDN, T-1, LAN, etc. It works with all Internet services, including AOL and local ISPs.



DSL and Cable Broadband Speed Tweaks

So-called broadband speed tweaks are techniques to improve performance of DSL and cable Internet connections. Home networking enthusiasts started experimenting with cable and DSL tweaks many years ago, when broadband Internet services first became popular.
Performance tweaks for low-speed (dialup) Internet often do not work for broadband links. Additionally, while broadband speed tweaks originally focused on increasing the performance of general Web surfing, speed tweaks are now more commonly made to tune specific applications like P2P file sharing systems and games.
Limitations of Broadband Speed Tweaks
First, broadband tweaks should be made only after your network is tested and running reliably. Speed tweaks are performance optimizations only, not designed to fix installation errors or basic network configuration issues.
You should expect broadband tweaks might yield only small speed increases, and then only in certain situations. For example, a tweak to improve the performance of one online game may only benefit that title and then only initially when it is loading. Broadband tweaks may help certain applications like games but at the same time slow down others like Web browsing. In general, assume any performance benefits you obtain may be on the order of 10-20% gain rather than 100-200%.
Finally, speed tweaks also can create instability on some networks. Depending on the type of equipment and Internet service you use, some tweaks will be technically incompatible and need to be avoided.

About Web Accelerators for Broadband Tweaks
Speed tweaks have been traditionally applied to the network by an administrator manually, one device at a time, but in recent years software applications have been developed to help automate and maintain tweaks.
So-called Internet download accelerators are pre-packaged software programs that automatically apply speed tweaks to a computer. Installing and running an accelerator program will automatically make the Registry, Web browser and other configuration changes. The more sophisticated applications collect information about your computers and network and apply tweaks intelligently to ensure maximum benefit.
While many Web accelerators are designed specifically for dialup networks, examples of accelerator applications useful for broadband are:
• Download Accelerator Plus
• Google Web Accelerator
• Netfury
• ONSPEED


Here are some tips on how to improve the internet connection

1 Ditch your modem. The first tip is to get rid of your modem and move to ADSL. Yes, broadband is available at low cost in most areas. Visit keyword broadband to see if it's supported by your exchange. If you are on broadband you can probably skip the rest of our top tips because you'll be enjoying life rather than fretting about your connection speed.
2 Update your drivers. Ah - still here? You must love your modem! Perhaps cash is limited or you don't have ADSL in your area - read on.
Driver files are updated regularly by most modem manufacturers. For some modems, you can also "flash upgrade" the software in the modem to provide the latest (and fastest) communications software. Even so, you should be sure the driver is right for your operating system. To find the latest drivers, just enter the modem details into a search engine such as aolsearch.aol.co.uk/ or www.google.co.uk with the word "driver". So, to find drivers for a USR Sportster modem, enter "USR Sportster driver" and follow any instructions on how to install it. You can check your current modem drivers from Control Panel. With Windows XP, Select Start | Control Panel | Phone and Modem Options | Modems | Properties | Drivers.
3 Surf when the yanks are in their PJs - the internet is much faster if the rest of the world is asleep. Try surfing while eating your bowl of breakfast corn flakes. It's much more bracing!
4 Tweak your settings. Your PC has some settings that may improve modem throughput. All data sent over the internet goes in data packets. The size of these packets is the Maximum Transmission Unit or MTU. The aim is to send packets that are as large as possible without them needing to be broken down into smaller packets which would slow down your connection speed. A modem user, should set the (MTU) to 1500, the RWIN multiplier to 10 and Time to Live to 35. Download Tweak-Me or Tweak-XP to get this done for automatically you.
5 Use FTP download wherever possible. If you want to download files, you can often choose between FTP or HTML download. FTP, (File Transfer Protocol,) is much faster for file transfers so you should choose that when you can.
6 Use a high speed port. This'll only apply to readers with really old computers. The serial port may use an old, slow chip called a UART. The answer is to fit a high speed serial port with a 16550 UART chip or to fit an internal modem which includes one of these beasties.
7 Use a download tool. There's nothing more frustrating than losing a connection near the end of a one hour download. The good news is that most downloads are resumable which means they can be restarted from where the connection failed. You need the right tool to manage the reconnection - one of the best is shareware Getright. Getright also searches for the fastest download sites and splits the download between several sites with the downloads running in parallel for the maximum possible download speed.
8 Use a faster browser. Once you've connected to AOL, you can start any browser and run it in a second window. Opera is one of the fastest so why not download a free copy and give it a test run?
9 Manage your cache. Every time you use the internet, images and other files are downloaded onto your hard disk. If a particular image or other file is needed in a subsequent session, it can be pulled from the disk faster than it could be downloaded again. They are kept in a "Temporary Internet Files" folder, often called Cache. When the folder is full, Windows deletes the oldest files.
You can vary the size of this folder by visiting Control Panel and selecting Internet Options. If you increase it, then more files can be stored on hard disk but if you go too far, then a slow PC may spend too long searching cache! You'll need to experiment to find the right level for your PC and internet connection speed.
10 Define a blank homepage. Each time you start a browser outside your AOL window, the browser will go to the defined homepage. If this is slow, you should change the home page to a fast web site. If you are a real speed nut, set it to blank. To do this, go to Internet Options as above, and select Use Blank. Now your external browser is up and running in record time.
#1 Don't display images. Text only windows are much faster to download. You can easily restore images when required. Here's how to set whether to display images: From Internet Options (see above) select the Advanced tab. Scroll down until you see the multimedia section, then select or deselect "Show pictures." Select Apply then OK to save your change.
Make these changes and you'll be cruising in the fast lane!

How to Improve Your Broadband Connection over a LAN line

Broadband Connection Speed
The only thing better than a fast broadband Internet connection, is a faster broadband Internet connection
. Broadband Internet speed tests allow you to measure your current broadband speed against that of faster broadband Internet connections. There are various programs and software packages that you can purchase through which you can increase the speed of your Internet connection. You can also make adjustments to the hardware components (Upgrade processor speed and memory levels) of your system maximizing your computer’s broadband connection potential.

If you’re not looking to purchase additional software / hardware add-ons, there are manual “tweaks” that you can make to your system through which you can boost your broadband speed.
Increasing Your Broadband Internet Speed

Let’s assume that you access the Internet via a broadband LAN line. The following are 3 examples of ways through which you can manipulate your network settings and increase your broadband speed:

Reduce your network latency by increasing the request buffer size

Tests of LAN broadband connections have shown that delays can be caused as a result of the default request buffer size setting of 4356 decimal. As it is, it has been proven that an increase to a 16384 decimal setting can allow for better performance. (Such an increase is only possible if you have the necessary memory) By utilizing this slight “tweak,” you can noticeably increase your Internet speed and broadband networking capabilities.

Altering your network task scheduler
If you’ve encountered long waits when trying to open network folders, then this “tweak” is for you. One of the default settings with broadband networking is that when you open a network folder, your system performs a test of the networked computer in order to search for scheduled tests. By disabling this option for a LAN connection, you can increase your broadband networking speed.

Increasing your network transfer rate
Transfer rate, also referred to as throughput, refers to the speed at which data can be moved from 1 location to another. Network redirector buffers serve the purpose of optimizing your disk performance, and therefore allowing for the fastest possible broadband networking speed. If you increase the number of network redirector buffers functioning on your system, you could greatly increase your throughput. An Internet speed test following this change will yield noticeable results.

References:
http://www.ehow.com/how_4602240_improve-internet-connection-speed-free.html
http://compnetworking.about.com/od/speedtweaks/Network_Speed_Tweaks_Connection_Speed.htm
http://www.computing.net/answers/networking/improve-my-internet-connection/16768.html

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