Expensive internet - is there an easy way to minimise download/upload volume??

[farsouth]

I spend part of the year in the Falkland Islands. The internet here is extremely expensive with very restrictive download limits and punitive surcharges if you go over your agreed amount.

(Depends on your contract - about £25/month for 300 Mb @ 256kb/s, then 16p/Mb, or £60/month for 1Gb @ 512kb/s then 14p/Mb, or £110/month for 3Gb @ 1Mb/s then 12p/Mb) (Which means that on the minimum package, if I go over by 1Gb, I get charged £160, compared to the £1/Gb that BT charge me on my UK account for over the agreed limit - that's what you get when Cable and Wireless have a legal monopoly on the provision of services here)

Does anyone know of an easy way to minimise the download volume when you are looking at the internet e.g. some way of reducing the amount of graphics displayed on webpages etc?? Any advice would be helpful.

I am using Windows Vista, and Internet explorer 8.

Thanks

[bsmasher]

An obvious thing to stop would be the auto update of patches from Microsoft - They quietly go on in the background and will chew through your allowance

D.

[Bushfiva]

Various routers allow you to set both bandwidth limits and quotas. In addition, third-party firmware such as OpenWRT and Gargoyle allow you to reflash the popular Linksys routers with more feature-rich firmware. I use dd-wrt which can apparently do this, but I've not looked into it. If you just want to count the bits, DU Meter runs on the PC but isn't free. Paessler has something if your router supports SNMP. None of my info is recent, though.
You can turn graphics off within the browser. Stopping flash, blocking adverts, animated GIFs etc. would all help. Downloading only mail headers or moving to IMAP would let you block/delete attachments before they reach you. Allowing update notifications but no automatic downloads would protect you from Download Tuesdays. Actually, as already mentioned, you might want to stop all your applications from routinely checking for updates.

[Golden Ticket]

I'm not sure if this suits your purpose, you could click on internet options and in the advanced tab and uncheck the Display Pictures Box. It does strip out everything even icons and buttons don't display. There is an empty space with a text message where the image used to be so you can still navigate most pages.
Try installing an adblocker and remove flash so none of those flash ads download.

[seacue]

1) The BBC news web site has a "low graphics" option. Invoke it in the upper-left corner. Then make a new "favorites" entry.

2) I use Mail Washer to evaluate my email before it is downloaded. It can tell you the size of each mail message. I avoid downloading a bunch of spam that way.

3) I always have Automatic Updates turned off since I don't like the idea of letting Microsoft push "whatever" onto my machine without my concurrence.

I use (2) and (3), even though I have "unlimited" high speed access.

Perhaps some of these can help.

seacue

[bnt]

I use a lot of these lo-fi news sites when on my iPod Touch, since they also fit the small screen better. Some of my faves:
Google (http://www.google.com/m/) and Google News (http://www.google.com/m/news/)
The Guardian | m.guardian.co.uk (http://m.guardian.co.uk/)
USA TODAY (http://m.usatoday.com/)
Times Mobile (http://timesmobile.mobi/)
Slate Magazine (http://mobile.slate.com/)
Salon.com Mobile (http://mobile.salon.com/)
Weather Underground for iPhone (http://i.wund.com/)

In general, try m.domain.com and see what happens.

Skweezer (http://www.skweezer.com/) takes any site URL and squeezes it till it squeaks, producing a stripped-down page.

Also: if using Firefox, install NoScript and AdBlock Plus add-ons. These stop all kinds of bolted-on crud from downloading.

[Saab Dastard]

Also: if using Firefox, install NoScript and AdBlocl Plus add-ons. These stop all kinds of bolted-on crud from downloading.

Are you sure they prevent the download, or just prevent them from displaying / executing?

I would suggest getting a black-list hosts file that maps the black-listed URLs to 127.0.0.1. That way the requests never even leave your PC!

SD

[bnt]

Are you sure they prevent the download, or just prevent them from displaying / executing?
Usually, the ad is an image, which takes up significant bandwidth. AdBlock has its own blacklist that is updated, and yes, it does stop embedded ads from being downloaded if they are caught by the filter. More details in their FAQ (http://adblockplus.org/en/faq_internal#policies).

With NoScript, it depends on the ads and how you configure it. I use it to target 3rd-party stuff specifically. and so I enable the "top level domain" option. This always allows scripts from the site that you navigated to, and blocks all others, unless you've created an exception either way. Some of the blocked scripts would have been downloading and displaying ads (among other stuff), so yes, I call that a major bandwidth saving.

[Saab Dastard]

Thanks for that bnt - I use both, but never really R'd TFM! :ok:

SD

[farsouth]

Thanks for all the suggestions. Will try them out.

[call100]

Some of the Satellite BB providers are lowering their prices...Have you looked into that possibility??

[Metro man]

These guys may be worth a try as the data is compressed and therefore the download volume should be reduced.

ONSPEED - The Alternative To Broadband, Speed Up Your Internet Access Without Hassle and keep your existing ISP (http://www.onspeed.com/en/index.php)

[seacue]

I've dealt with a small USA ISP for many years. They have been reliable and cheap and have access numbers all over the USA. I suppose you would have to use an international long-distance call to access them from the Falklands.

I mention them since they promote "19x faster dialup" performance. That must mean data compression.

I get very little spam on this account.

They are small enough that you generally reach someone who understands your question when you phone them. Note that they don't have 24/7 phone help.

TOAST.net Dial Up (http://toast.net/services/dialup/)
TOAST.net Customer Service (http://toast.net/support/)

As always, YMMV.

seacue