Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Reliance Data Card - Guide to Fast Internet Browsing!

As some of you may know, Roaming Wireless Internet access on a laptop is a big problem in India. Recently, I wrote a review of the Reliance Wireless Data Card. I have been using this card for the last 6 months, and I am only getting a speed of 2kbps!! An absolute nightmare. But what can you do? The serious competitors to Reliance are even worse. A lot of people have sent me messages and complained also of the slow speed. So, I figured I would write a post outlining some of the techniques that help me browse the Internet faster using the Reliance Data Card. These techniques would apply to most slow dial-up like connections. On the other hand, if you are lucky enough to have a fast and reliable Internet connection in India then ignore this post!

So, let's get started.

First thing you need to do is download the Firefox web browser if you don't already use it. Now, the great thing about using Firefox is the add-ons that you can easily install with a couple of clicks. Basically, add-ons provide extra functionality to your Firefox web browser. So go ahead, download and install the AdBlock and the FlashBlock add-ons after you have installed Firefox.

Now, our basic strategy is that we want to reduce the size of the webpages by somehow optimizing the images, Javascript, and extra plugins like flash. This would cause the overall download size to be reduced allowing you to browse the Internet faster.

*Flashblock is a Firefox add on that will block flash from webpages. Now, flash is notorious for being quite large in size. Flashblock will block all flash from a webpage and give you an option to view a particular flash by clicking on the play button. This is a must have tool!

*Turn javascript off! You can do this in Firefox by going to "Tools", then "Options". Click the "Content" tab and untick "Enable Javascript". Most quality websites will provide you with a html version if they detect that you do not have Javascript. Gmail is an example where you can view a html version if you don't have Javascript enabled. However, there are some websites such as Google Adwords, and others that cannot function properly without Javascript. In this case, you can always tick the "Enable Javascript" checkbox and refresh the page!

*Netbooster is a software released by Reliance that will allow you to view webpages quickly. The basic theory behind Netbooster is that it optimizes the images by reducing their quality. This causes the image size to be reduced. Now everytime, you view a webpage, you automatically download images. By reducing the image size, the total download size is reduced. Netbooster is a must have if you want to seriously browse the Internet with the Reliance Wireless Data Card! I personally couldn't live without it!

*And if all the above fails, then you can do the absolute extreme!! Block all jpg, and jpeg images from being displayed! You can do this with the AdBlock addon for Firefox. In the Firefox browser, click "Tools", and then click "AdBlock". There you will need to add an advertisement filter as follows:
*.jpg
*.jpeg

The above two statements will block images with the jpg, and jpeg formats. Notice that we didn't block gif images as they are generally low in size.

Well, I hope that the above helps you to browse the Internet quicker - it has certainly made my life a little bit easier!!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Its a nightmare and a poor piece of hardware for the past 3 months I dont have any signal on the card and the customer service is woeful. Its a living pity for Indians that we have to settle for poor quality cos like Reliance.

Unknown said...

I WILL EXPLAIN MY VIEW IN THIS WAY:
IF SOMEONE WANTS TO BUY ONLINE AIR TICKET/RAILWAY TICKET USING RELIANCE NET CONNECT IT WILL TAKE MUCH MORE TIME THAN GO AND BUY TICKETS MANUALLY.
NET BOOSTER IS LIKE A LOLIPOP FOR USERS IT DOSNT WORKS.
NET CONNECT SERVICE NOT MACHES THE STANDARDS RCOM LIKE COS.
NET CONNECT IS A WORST THING THAT RELIANCE CAN DO
I WILL SUGGEST EVERYONE WHO PLANNING TO BUY NET CONNECT
FORGET IT AND IT IS WORST THAN DIALUP CONN.