The Online World resources handbook

You pay little for a lot! http://home.eunet.no/~presno/bok/15.html
simultaneous users, and their applications. This also applies to online services. The load
is normally lowest, when most users are asleep, and during weekends. When the load is
low, you get more done per minute.
Planning and self discipline pays off
The actual cost of using a given set of services depends much on your self discipline, the
tools you use, and on how well prepared you are:
If accessing manually, use "quick" commands rather than menus to move at
maximum speed to desired sources of information.
On the Web, let your browser's bookmark feature take you directly to the desired
page rather than navigating down the tree from a home page.
Do not set your services to be used with colors, sound, or special methods for
displaying graphics, unless you have no choice, or are willing to pay the extra
cost. They increase the volume of transferred text, and lower effective speed.
Experienced Web users disable receipt of images to reduce the volume of data.
Later, all it takes is to click at "Reload Images" to get images you absolutely want
to see.
If your primary interest in the Web is text, then test out Lynx, if available on your
ISP's host (see Appendix 6). No windows based graphical browser can match its
speed.
Get the information you want and disconnect. It is often unnecessary to read
while online. Log off to read. If cost is high, call back for more to read,
disconnect, and then call back again.
Most popular Web browsers store received pages and images temporarily in a
cache on your hard disk. For example, Netscape stores them in the default
\NETSCAPE\CACHE directory. Make sure that your browser uses its cache. It
may increase speed considerably!
Internet's shareware libraries have many tools designed to let you read and use the
cached Web pages after your online visit. Look for programs with names like
Cache Master and WebSaver.
Learn how to write your mail offline, and send letters "in a batch" to your
mailbox. In addition to the time and cost benefits, your messages are likely to
contain fewer typing errors, and be better thought out.
Consider automating your communication (see Chapter 16). I use a local BBS this
way. A while ago, it gave me the following progress report: "Time on: 17 hrs 43
min, today 0 hrs 0 min, total 827 times." In average, I spend around 1.3 minutes
per call. The other day, I was connected for 2:48 minutes. The result was 106
kilobytes' worth of conference mail.
Modem speed and cost
2400 bps is a sensible modem speed for some applications, and used to be a good
starting point for new onliners. The benefits of using a faster modem may be marginal
when
navigating your favorite service considerably reduces the effective speed, and you
access the service manually.
you pay considerably more for access at higher speed.
the relative price of a faster modem in your country is prohibitive.
your network does not offer higher speeds.
On the other hand, a modem doing 14400 bps or more, will give you at least six times
faster communication. For some applications, this means much lower costs. Also, if
doing things faster is more important than keeping costs down, then it is a wise
investment.
If you plan to use the World Wide Web with a graphical browser, then
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