Iâm abroad and very much limited to what I can choose with regards to data plans (for which Iâm trying to get PAYG (pay as you go), not a contract as Iâm not staying here!). The best solution Iâve found so far is to find myself a Vodafone sim card and insert it into my phone â they offer âunlimitedâ (well, as unlimited as they want to give I suppose) internet as long as I donât use over â10 timesâ more than the average user.. Iâve looked for dongles, and itâs just a huge money game at the moment here. Either theyâre so very far behind the UKâs mobile technology, or simply care more about money than user experience (I am legitimately curious actually, it could be either or!). So now that Iâm in this position, I thought Iâd sacrifice a little of my data to try and help others in my position!
[Note: Due to my data plan, images are currently unavailable.]
So youâre not at home and needing internet on the move. There are some really nice solutions (especially in the UK) to the problem at hand. Most will either have a) a dongle or b) a data package on their smart phone which can be shared for use on your computer (what Iâm doing â but please check first that the provider will allow this, as often they donât! And if youâre on a contract, itâll be very expensive).
The simple solution for most is to get a dongle, since itâs basically plug and play. There are a multitude of providers and data plans available both on contract and PAYG. Some offer less than 400MB of data (3 web pages on average is about 1MB, so do the math) while others offer as much as 15GB (15,000MB) or more and the costs vary significantly. If youâre on a small data budget and still wanting to extract as much use out of the plan as possible without paying extra for the larger data options then perhaps my following advice may be helpful..
Automatic updates, especially on Windows, can be huge.. and if they start downloading while youâre on your limited data plan, then you can wave good-bye to saving your money.. your data will vanish!
However, Iâm not simply talking about Operating System updates, every program you use (well, almost) has a setting to look for updates at regular intervals or whenever it detects an internet connection. Browsers, Office, Adobe, Antivirus/Antispyware etc etc. What you should do is try to find settings for the programs you do use on a regular basis, and suspend updates for the period of time youâll be using your data plan.
To limit Windows Automatic updates in XP do the following:
To limit Windows Automatic updates in Win7 do the following:
Also, I chose to leave my avast! Antivirus updating, especially since your computer is in direct line of malicious attacks when connected directly to the internet, as apposed to being behind a router/firewall on an internal network. This means if the Antivirus is not updating itâs definitions, attacks on your system could occur (A little data could save you a lot of hassle).
Next point then is to disable the programs you usually have running in the background. Unless you actively wish to have these programs running thereâs really little point, as theyâll once again use up your data..
Windows Messenger? Skype?* uTorrent?*
Just a few programs commonly associated for starting up with Windows which use the internet, youâll be able to see which programs you have running by viewing the task bar on the bottom right of your screen. If these programs (or others) are running, open them, go to (usually) Tools>Settings and disable âStart with [Your Operating System]â.
*Skype and uTorrent are a few programs that will suck your data dry. Unless you are on an unlimited plan itâs advised to avoid using these programs. uTorrent and other BitTorrent clients used for downloading files will eat through your data usage very quickly if you forget to exit the application as naturally when youâre downloading, thatâs contributing to your data use.
As for Skype, VoIP is a data-hog. Especially Skype uses a lot of data for making and receiving calls so should be avoided while on a limited data plan.
Opera may not be very well known, and I for one usually wouldnât need to go near it with a 10Ⲡpole since Chrome and FireFox both do literally everything I could want them to. However Opera are very well known when it comes to Windows Mobile (and other platforms which will run Opera Mini â Iâve mentioned them in other posts â Go to m.opera.com on your mobile ) and have taken their knowledge of the mobile platforms to the computer market by integrating a tool called Opera Turbo into their desktop browser. This tool basically sends all data to their servers to be compressed and re-encoded using up to 83% less data than a page would usually use! Yes, images are a little pixelated (but still viewable) and the service can be a little slow, but instead of 1MB per 3 web pages, you are now only using 0.3MB per 3 web pages. That is a big difference, and can help to make your data last a lot longer.
By no means is it perfect, but itâs good enough to use, and if youâre really not wanting to waste your data plan â this is the program for you.
A lot of add ons are partially disabled to save cost, such as flash and java, but any page that features a flash banner or otherwise will be replaced by a |> sign (or arrow) which once clicked will activate the plugin.
In other aspects, Opera 10 Beta has really improved itâs user experience and graphic interface. It looks a little âChromeyâ in some respects, which I very much like â and itâs quite fast. Youâre not losing out by switching to this browser while using your mobile internet.
Download opera from this page and try it out, you may be surprised!
It should be obvious, but avoid websites like youtube.com and sites that stream any form of music or video, as these are very heavy on data! Not only that, but donât download large files/programs or anything else that is not necessary.
Wanting to keep an eye on the data youâre using? Why not check out AnalogXâs NetStat Live which will enable you to view exactly what youâre using and when youâre using it. And itâs free!
Hopefully that will help others in my situation, if you have more to add or any alternatives that will help save the amount of data used when browsing â let me know! Comments are always open.
Jason