Do any one aware what is a bandwidth meter? Bandwidth meter is the device that measures the capacity of the information carrier between the client system and the server system. Once the capacity of the data carrier is tested then the process is said to be initiated to check the internet speed. The process involves different phases while checking the connectivity speed. The CNET bandwidth meter will first download an image to the computer and the image size may vary from connection to connection. The file size of the image will determine the throughput of the connection speed. Once the throughput value is achieved the server will display the stats based on the connection speed and the maximum connection speed of the service provider.

The CNET Internet speed test many not provide us the accurate results because of many factors. The factors include the distance between the client and the CNET’s server, conducting other operations of server download at the time of the speed test, running many services that use the bandwidth while testing the speed, Quality of the cable we use and the environmental changes and while checking the speed connection with the use of 56kmodes, the speed of the 56k modem is regulated to 53k by the FCC. Many of the users perform this test to check the throughput value of the connection regularly from the services provided by the internet speed testers. Here they check the performance and they learn with curiosity to improve the performance of the connection when they check the speed for the next time.

Try out our free internet speed test here on testinternetspeed.org!

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Google’s traffic has been observed as fast approaching as much as 10% of the total internet traffic in the world. This has probably given Google a significant advantage. It now has so much fiber optic cable at hand, that it is trading traffic with other ISP giants. This, in turn, is bringing down the expenses of Google. Craig Labovitz, Chief Scientist at Arbor, commented on the findings, saying, “I think Google’s transit costs are close to zero.”

This trend lends credibility to the concept that the way internet traffic is maintained is undergoing rapid evolution in recent years. In fact, top 30 websites on the internet, with Google in the lead, serve up around 30% of the total internet traffic. This serving may be done via data centers located at various places around the world, or via the website’s own fiber optic network.

A major portion of the internet was served by a total of around 30,000 servers in 2007. In 2009, as much as 50% of the internet was served by as few as 150 blocks of servers. This shows that the control over internet traffic is slowly being taken up by a handful of servers.

Lebovitz commented on the scenario, saying, “What we mean by the internet is changing and it’s happening really quickly. I was blown away to find out that one-tenth of the internet is going [to] or coming from Google.”

The majority of the blocks are from servers of Google and popular content-delivery networks, including Limelight and Akamai. These transfer content from server farms around the world to various websites, at rates far lower than what would be needed to self-host the same content.

Giants like Google may also start asking organizations like Comcast to connect the Google tubes directly with the smaller, localized ISP networks for a fee. That way, the users will be most benefited, since they will experience much faster download speeds on sites like YouTube, as well as faster browsing speed when conducting a Google search. Lebovitz added that the consumers would be most benefited, should an arrangement like that actually take place in future.

Don’t forget that if you need to perform an internet speed test, try out our free tool on homepage.

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Now, Windows 7 is shipping with an improved version of the ReadyBoost feature that has been designed to provide your PC with a rather large shot of adrenaline, sending its performance level through the roof. If you have USB 2.0 ports in your motherboard, you can give your PC performance a substantial boost, without having to invest in pricey RAM.

In Windows Vista, the maximum amount of memory that ReadyBoost could handle was 4 GB. On the other hand, in Windows 7, it has raised to as much as 256 GB! The feature now also supports a maximum of 8 removable Flash drives, as opposed to just one in Windows Vista. The ReadyBoost feature has been completely revamped by Microsoft, and it’s the consumers who gain the benefits.

If you purchase Windows 7 and find your PC struggling to keep up with all the graphical details this operating system puts on your RAM, here’s what you can do:

1. Boot up your PC. When the operating system finishes loading (wait for the HDD diode to stop blinking repeatedly), plug in a removable Flash memory drive in one of the USB ports of your PC.
2. A dialog box named “Autoplay” will appear with a number of options. Select the tab named “General”.
3. Select the option that says, “Speed up my system”.
4. A Properties dialog box will show up. Click on the tab named “ReadyBoost”.
5. The tab will give you three options. The first one will allow you to turn ReadyBoost off, in case you are already using the feature. The second option will say “Dedicate this device to ReadyBoost”, and will use all remaining space on the drive. If you have any files in the drive, those will not be affected. The third one will let you decide how much available space on the drive you wish to use for ReadyBoost. Simply click on “Use this Device”, and adjust slider to decide the amount of space you wish to use on the drive.

That’s it. You’re done configuring ReadyBoost for your PC. Fire up a memory hungry application now, and see how well it runs.

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3. Stop Windows 7 thumbnail animation preview

The enhancement sure looks great, but it may seem a little awkward to users of previous versions of Windows operating system. If you think that you would rather not have the thumbnail animation enabled, you can turn it off any time you want. Disabling the option will also save some memory and processing power, so if your PC is not exactly a powerhouse, disabling previews will allow you to extract slightly better performance from it. Here’s how you can disable this feature from the Group Policy Editor:

1. Click on the Start button and select Search.
2. Type “gpedit.msc” (without the quotes) in the Search bar, and hit Enter.
3. When the window opens, click on User Configuration, and then on Administrative Templates.
4. Select the option Start Menu and Taskbar located in the left pane of the window.
5. Find the option “Turn off Taskbar Thumbnails”, now visible on the right pane of the Group Policy Editor window. Double click on this option.
6. Choose the option “Disable”.
7. Click on Apply, and then on OK.

Now close the Group Policy Editor window, and check out your Taskbar. You should find that the Thumbnails are not showing any longer. Another way of disabling thumbnail previews would be to disable the Aero theme in Windows 7. If that theme is disabled, thumbnails will not show up on the Taskbar at all.

Fortunately, Aero theme does not get enabled by default in Windows® 7. Only if your PC has the necessary hardware for Aero, it will be enabled by the operating system. Otherwise, if you select an Aero based theme for Windows 7, then the thumbnail previews will be enabled along with the theme.

Thumbnail Previews on Taskbar may look real nice, but do consume significant amount of system resources. If you have a moderately powerful PC that can barely run Windows 7 properly, then make sure that this feature is always kept disabled. Your PC may run a lot smoother, and handle applications better.

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So, let’s see how you can password protect your Internet Explorer 8 (IE8), so that nobody can surf the internet unless they know the password. The process is not at all complicated. Here’s how you can get it done:

1. Run Internet Explorer.
2. On the top menu bar, click on Tools, and then on Internet Options.
3. Click on the tab named Content.
4. In the section named Content Advisor, click on the button named Enable.
5. A new pop up window will instruct you to enter the supervisor password. Enter the password in the field named Password. Then, enter the same password in the second field, named Confirm Password. Note that these two passwords have to be exactly the same. The passwords are also case sensitive, so make sure that the Caps Lock key on the keyboard is turned off.
6. You will see a box named Hint under the Confirm Password box. If you have entered a rather complex password, then it is a good idea to add a hint here that will help you remember the password in a jiffy. However, make sure that you do not enter the actual password in this field. Some users have been found to actually make that fatal mistake.
7. Click on the OK button when you are done.
8. Close the Internet Options box and restart IE8.

That’s all you have to do. Now, whenever attempts to connect to the internet from your PC, the browser will ask him/ her to enter the supervisor password. Without it, nobody will be able to browse the internet from your PC. One may argue that this won’t apply to other browsers in your system, but if you have only IE8 web browser in your PC, then this trick will work like a charm. Anyone trying to download another browser will also have to get it through IE only, anyway.

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Many people spend a lot of their time on the internet these days. Social networking websites attract a lot of internet traffic every day, indicating that these sites are getting more and more members with every passing day. Users like to share what they do each day with their friends, leading to the huge popularity enjoyed by websites like Facebook, Orkut, and of course Twitter. In fact, the last one has also gained quite good popularity as a business networking site, allowing thousands of business owners to reach a far greater fraction of their consumer base than was previously possible.

Online gaming has gained substantial popularity as well. Back in 1990-s, few users had an internet connection that was fast enough to support online gaming. Frame rates would lag as soon as 4-5 users joined a server, as packet switching technologies were not advanced enough. Today, thousands of players join servers of games like World of Warcraft, Star Wars Galaxies, Warhammer 40k, and Eve Online. Massively multiplayer online (MMO) games are being developed by the leading game development studios, in order to gain advantage of this new tendency among gamers from across the globe.

Some technologically advanced nations have understood the importance of having a high speed internet connection at home for their citizens. They are undertaking measures to make sure that their citizens have fast internet connectivity, 24/7. Recently, Finland even passed a national law declaring that no ISP in the country would have the right to provide internet connections slower than 1 mbps. This is certainly a major indication that even governments are beginning to take notice of the situation. Finnish Government has even predicted that the speed of connectivity may be increased to 100 mbps by 2015.

Finland is not the world’s first country to undertake such measures, and won’t remain so, either. A new era of lightning fast internet connectivity is coming up fast. Now all that remains is for nations to realize the importance of this service in the daily lives of their citizens.

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Speed up boot time

Make your PC boot faster than before, in this way:

1. Click on Start, and then on Run. Type “msconfig” in the box, and hit Enter.
2. Click on the tab named Boot, and then on Advanced Options
3. Check the option ‘Number of Processors’, and type the number of processors your PC has. Click Apply, and then on OK.
4. Reboot your PC. It should boot faster now.

Speed up windows 7 shutdown

Make Windows 7 shut down faster than ever before, in this way:

1. Click on Start and type regedit. Press Enter.
2. In the regedit window, navigate to the key named ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control’.
3. Right click on the value ‘WaitToKillServiceTimeOut’ and click Modify. Lower the value given there.
4. Click OK. Hit F5 to reboot your PC.

Turn off search indexer Windows 7

It is perhaps the greatest bloatware that Microsoft has churned out. Here’s how you can disable it:

1. Click on Start button and type services.msc (minus the quotes).
2. In the Services window, find and right click on ‘Windows Search’.
3. In the field named Startup Type, choose the option ‘Disabled’.

Turn off System sounds

If you don’t need system sounds, turn those off to save memory. Here’s how you can do it:

1. Click on Start and type mmsys.cpl
2. Click on the tab named ‘Sounds’, and choose the option ‘No Sounds’ from the drop down menu.

Streamline Windows 7 startup

Prevent whatever programs you do not need all the time from loading automatically. Do it in this way:

1. Click on Start, and type in MSConfig.
2. In the box that opens, click on the tab named Startup.
3. Uncheck only the unwanted programs, such as Microsoft Office, Java, and iTunes. Do not disable essential services like firewall, antivirus software, and the likes.
4. Click on Apply and restart your PC.

Get faster response from taskbar thumbnails in Windows 7

Speed up the displaying of thumbnails on the taskbar in this manner:

1. Click on Start and type Regedit.
2. In the window that opens, click on the following key to expand it:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
3. Right click on Advanced, and then select the option ‘New DWORD’. Enter the name: “ThumbnailLivePreviewHoverTime” (without quotes).
4. Right click on this new value and choose the option ‘Modify’.
5. Select the Decimal Base option and enter a new numerical value in milliseconds.
6. Click on Ok, refresh the registry by pressing F5, and reboot your PC.

Speed up window switching

Here is how you can speed up minimizing/ maximizing of windows:

1. Click on Start and type in “SystemPropertiesPerformance” (minus the quotes).
2. Click on the tab named ‘Visual Effects’.
3. Uncheck the option “Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing”. Click Ok.

Get rid of unused fonts

TrueType fonts are sparingly used unless you have a printer and print documents regularly. Remove the fonts you don’t need to free up space. Here’s how to do it:

1. Open Control Panel, and then the Fonts folder.
2. Create a temporary directory in another drive, and move the font files that you don’t usually need. As you remove fonts, you will gain system resources.

Disable Aero theme

This may make your Vista look worse, but will surely free up memory. Here’s how you can disable it:

1. Right click on your Desktop. Select Personalize, and click on the tab named ‘Window Color’.
2. Uncheck the box named ‘Enable transparency’.
3. Click on the option named ‘Open classic appearance properties for more color options’. Now choose the Standard or Basic theme option from the menu that appears.

Disable unwanted services

Some of the system services are unnecessary for the normal functioning of Windows, but still keep running in the background, and consume good amounts of RAM. In order to disable some of these, go to Control Panel. Then do the following:

1. Click on the option named Administrative Tools, and then on ‘Services’.
2. Right click on each service that you think you do not need, and click on Manual. This will ensure that you can turn it back on if you make a mistake somewhere.
3. Once you are done, close the window and reboot your PC.

That’s it. You’re done. Your PC should work a lot faster now, and also use resources more efficiently.

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Once the test runs, it switches to Google maps, where users can click on their locality. They are then shown the average results that their neighbors have had. Of course, those neighbors would have to have opted for the test beforehand. The user can also see a graph showing national trends in broadband speeds simply by clicking on an icon.

This test allows the user to be informed about the average speed of internet connection in his/ her locality. This also helps in finding problems that may occur with a standard internet connection. For instance, if a user finds out that his/ her neighbor enjoys a download speed of 25 kbps, and he/ she only gets 15 kbps with similar hardware configuration and the same plan from the same ISP, then there is obviously something wrong. The user can then take the matter up with the relevant authorities and have it sorted out.

The test also allows users to find out which ISPs are performing the best, since it provides results regarding broadband speeds of all ISPs, major or minor, that are operating in the test area. On one hand, this has the advantage of letting the user pinpoint the best ISPs operating in his/ her locality and to choose the best one based on consistency in performance. On the other hand, it has the unavoidable side effect of the users knowing which ISPs cannot provide consistently high performance. This may put many smaller ISPs, even those which provide services at substantially low rates, to go out of business.

Alex Buttle, on behalf of Top 10 Broadband, commented, “We do get commission from an ISP if a visitor to the site clicks through to buy a service because we are a comparison site and have always offered this service. However the speed test is totally independent”. He also added that the test does not identify any individual house, so the identities of the people who take the test are not exposed online. Besides, once on user has completed the test, he/ she can use an option to disallow the site from saving his/ her test results, thus providing even better privacy protection.

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Pay-TV companies have expressed concern that the subscription revenue of cable TV, which has not taken much hit even during the ongoing economic recession, could take a serious hit if cable TV shows could be viewed by just about anyone on the web. As an alternative the cable network industry, under leadership of Jeffrey Bewkes, Chief Executive of Time Warner, has begun testing out a new concept known as TV Everywhere. It will provide a way to paying customers to access cable shows over the internet through an authentication procedure. The initial trial, according to Time Warner Cable, will include the channels Syfy (owned by NBC Universal), TNT (owned by Time Warner), AMC (of Cablevision Systems Corp.), IFC and Sundance Channel, and finally, BBC America (of BBC). The trial will also involve Discovery Communications Inc and CBS Corp.

The test will be based on providing cable TV shows via the Web to 5,000 paying customers. They will be able to view the shows on Time Warner’s Web properties, and also access the shows on the websites of the network. Verizon will launch a test round of its TV Everywhere of its FiOS TV on the web with programming from Turner Networks (under Time Warner), TBS, and TNT. The service will be available to FiOS subscribers at no extra cost.

DirecTV Group Inc, the largest provider of satellite TV services in United States, is also reportedly working on a plan similar to TV Everywhere.

Major free-to-air broadcast networks are dependent on advertising, not subscription packages, for their revenue. As such, these networks have made their shows freely available on the internet, with a healthy dosage of advertisements accompanying every show. The big names include Hulu (owned by News Corp.), Walt Disney Co, and NBC Universal. Their shows aired over the Web are free for everyone and include popular names like “The Office” or “House.” In some cases, some shows are even downloadable by viewers for free.

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The best thing is that you can set up the connection if you have a wireless connection adapter in each computer. Simply enable the wireless adapters and go about creating the connections. That’s it. No need for routers or other expensive equipment. Here is how you can do it (assuming you have all the required equipment handy):

1. Click on Start button, and click on Network.
2. Click on Network and Sharing Center.
3. In the left sidebar, there is an option named “Set up a Connection or Network”. Click on it. You will be provided with a list of options. Select the option that says “Set Up A Wireless Ad Hoc (Computer-To-Computer) Network”. Click on Next. In the next window, again click on Next.
4. In the next window, type a name for your ad hoc network. Then, select the security settings. If you are not sure about which security type you should select, then click on the link named “Help Me Choose”. Select a strong password so that your network would remain secured from intruders. Once you are done with the options, click on Next.
5. Your network connection will now be ready. Access the Network and Sharing Center to select which files or applications you wish to share using your ad hoc wireless network.
6. In order to share an internet connection, click on View Status, located next to the connection which you wish to share. Click on the Properties button.
7. Now select the Sharing tab. Check the box where it is written “Allow Other Network Computers To Connect Through This Computer’s Internet Connection”. Under the option “Home Networking Connection”, select the option “Wireless Network Connection”. Click on OK.
8. Now the connection you just created is prepared to be shared. Click on Start button and select the option Connect To, in order to enable the wireless connection.
9. You will see the wireless connection in the list of connections in the other PC/ laptop now. Select the connection you just created and click Connect.

So, now you can browse the internet on both computers, or play games with your buddies, all without any specialized hardware of any kind. If you’re concerned about the speed of your internet connection, try out our free internet speed test above!

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