Test and improve your Internet speed for free

Test and improve your Internet speed
for free!

Is your ISP delivering on its speed promises?

Online throughput is a very complex thing and is affected by many factors. There's the basic bandwidth of your connection to your ISP, but your own hardware and software configuration plays a part, too. Plus, your overall throughput is affected by every single router between you and whatever server you're trying to communicate with. Most Internet connections hop through 10 to 30 intermediate steps between you and the final destination. Add in the distant server's own hardware and software, and you can see just how many variables are in the mix.

But the right tools can help you see what's going on with your connection and maybe where the problem lies. The better tools can also be used to tune or tweak your network settings to ensure that you're getting all the speed your ISP has to offer.

That's the subject of the lead item in my column this week at Windows Secrets, including info on the sites I rely on to tune my own connections. I also discuss three other topics:

• Old Windows still OK on old hardware? (And a Linux recommendation!)
  
• Vista virtual-memory tweaks
  
• Using Microsoft's free SyncToy utility for backups
  

Access to these items is by a kind of honor-system principle: You decide what the content is worth, and whatever you decide to pay lets you in to *all* the paid-edition content (not just my columns) for a full year.

Full info (you start by signing up for the spam-proof free version) here:
http://windowssecrets.com/

Thanks for checking it out!