Save Internet Bandwidth (data usage) & Speed up Internet Connection

In this post we are going to learn how to save your internet bandwidth (data usage) while browsing all the web / internet or doing other stuffs. If you have very limited bandwidth and a very very slow internet connection, then you are in the right place. After reading this article, you will be able to save your bandwidth easily and load pages faster on slower internet connection.

This article is written for computer of individuals – but the tricks shown here will also work for computers of organizations.

1. Save Bandwidth while Surfing / Browsing the Web

i. Save Bandwidth using Opera Mini web browser

If you have extremely slow internet connection, pages are refused to load then I suggest you to use Opera Mini web browser. Yes, Opera Mini is a Mobile web browser and it is available for J2ME MIDP supported devices. But you can run Opera Mini on PC with download support and even with proxy support. Opera Mini can save your bandwidth upto 90% – Yes! Its a HUGE SAVE! If you request a web page in Opera Mini, then the page will be processed through Opera Mini server and returned back to you in much less size and highly compressed. To run Opera Mini on a Windows PC, please view this article: Run Opera Mini on PC / Windows at Fullscreen

But there are some limitations like – Opera Mini does not support multiple frames – it means you cannot see a running GIF image, it does not support flash, you may stuck at a JavaScript count down timer (to skip/bypass Opera Mini countdown timer, view this article: How to: Bypass Opera Mini Countdown Timer Tutorial).

For regular browsing, I strongly suggest you to use Opera Mini web browser – especially if you are on a very slow network.

ii. Save Bandwidth using Regular Desktop Opera Turbo Mode

In regular desktop version of Opera web browser, you may saw there is a special option – calledOpera Turbo mode. So, what is Opera Turbo? Opera Turbo mode can load webpages up to five times faster than other browsers. When Opera Turbo is enabled, webpages are compressed via Opera’s servers so that they use much less data than the originals same as Opera Mini. This means that there is less to download, so you can see your webpages more quickly.

Enabling Opera Turbo is as simple as clicking the Opera Turbo icon at the bottom-left of the Opera browser window. When you are on a fast connection again and Opera Turbo is not needed, the Opera browser will automatically disable it.

You can download latest version of opera from here.

iii. Save Bandwidth using Opera Mobile

Opera Mobile is neither fully featured as Opera Desktop version, not Opera Mini – Its in between them. Opera Mobile is mainly targeted for smart phones, but luckily there is a Opera Mobile Emulator available for developers by Opera itself. You can grab Opera Mobile Emulator from here. It does load pages much faster, and I suggest you to taste it.

iv. Save Bandwidth by Blocking Heavy Advertises

These days, annoying ads are everywhere. But they are not just only annoying but also consuming your precious bandwidth for no reason! Ads can be flash content, heavy video ads, image or text ads. Some ads are tricky, so you won’t even realize that they are actually ads. Thank God, you can get rid of them using a popular browser extension, called Adblock Plus (ABP). There are many ad blocker extensions available in the market but Adblock Plus is the most used and popular. Adblock plus is available for most popular browsers (Firefox, Chrome, Opera).

v. Save Bandwidth by Opening Mobile Version of Websites

Mobile version of a website is designed to render the site quickly on mobile devices even using low speed internet connection compared to high speed DSL/broadband connections on regular desktops. If you do not need features of a website that is only available on full version (desktop version) of that site, then I recommend you to open mobile version of that website no your desktop. Domain names are often prefixed with “m.” for mobile version of many websites (there are many exceptions like wap, mobile, etc.). Example: m.facebook.com, m.yahoo.com, m.google.com, etc.

If a website has it’s mobile version and you’re redirecting to desktop version even after opening desktop version from desktop, then you can use User Agent Switcher to force open mobile version.

Download / Install User Agent Switcher / Changer – Addon/Extension

• User Agent Switcher – Firefox Addon
• User Agent Switcher – Chrome Extension
• User Agent Switcher – Opera Extension

2. Save Bandwidth while Streaming Online Videos (like YouTube)

If you are on a extremely slow internet connection then streaming online videos must be a pain for you. These videos even won’t buffer at all – they are lagging so much. Instead of trying to buffer them, you can actually download them directly then watch without any loss. These videos are available in 240p to 2160p – in FLV, 3GP, MP4 depends on original video uploaded. There are many online video downloader extension plugin available for your browser. Or you can also download them by third-party sites like savefrom.net

I use Flash Video Downloader in Firefox. There are many available for different browsers.

3. Save Bandwidth while Downloading Files

Downloading files is a vital thing. Many of you are using browser’s built-in download manager. But default one is not good at all, especially the one in IE :p On slow networks, download can be failed, but the problem is you cant resume it. To download again, you have to start it from beginning. And the previous downloaded part of that file get lost, and eats your bandwidth. In this case, I suggest you to use a third-party download manager for resume support. I use IDM (internet Download Manager), and it’s the best one in it’s category I’ve ever used. DAP (Download Accelerator Plus) orFlashGet will also do the job.

4. Save Bandwidth by removing Viruses, Adwares, Malwares

Viruses, Adwares, Malwares can eat your bandwidth and can harm you. If you are connected to the Internet you must have a updated antivirus software installed – it does not matter if you are on slow or high speed network.

5. Save Bandwidth – Torrent Clients

If you have a torrent client installed, and if you’re not doing anything (downloading/seeding) with it, the its better to close it completely. If you have files in it as completed download, then it will seed automatically  if its turn on. After seeding a torrent delete/pause/stop it from the list.

6. Other Tips

i. Windows by default reserve approximate 20% of your bandwidth for System

To disable bandwidth limit, follow steps below

• Step 1: Press Windows + R > type gpedit.msc > press enter.
• Step 2: Now, select Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Network > QoS Packet Scheduler
• Step 3: In the right pane, double click on Limit reservable bandwidth and select Enabled
• Step 4: Select Bandwidth limit (%) to 0% and press OK button.

Done!

ii. Turn off Auto Updates if you are on slow network

On slower internet connection, I recommended you to turn off all software updates. The reason is it wont update fast, it will be very very slow and even update process can be failed. In the same time it will also eats your bandwidth and won’t let you do other things like browsing well. So, find and turn every single auto update off. You can update them when you are free later. Now you should turn off Windows Update, Anti-Virus Update, and rest depends on what you have.

Post will be updated if new techniques found.

Hope this article helped you. If you have any problem, please comment below.

Thank you for your time.