Many of us do business online. Many more of us combine work and play. We keep in touch with old friends, make new ones, network, shop, and learn through our computer connection with the outside world. However, even though many people spend hours on the Internet, no one wants to spend more time than needed to get things done.
How are you connected?
Choose an efficient high-speed Internet connection. Out of the four choices for ways to access the Internet – ADSL, cable, wireless, and satellite – broadband seems the best choice. This is the option that allows you access around the clock. You won’t have to pay initial dial-up costs and can use your phone at the same time. This is helpful especially if you are trying to conduct business both online and on the phone. A dial-up connection used to be popular back in the early days of the World Wide Web explosion, but hardly anyone uses it now and there’s a reason for that. It’s inconvenient and slow. If you haven’t switched over, consider how much time you will save and make the move. You won’t be sorry.
If broadband isn’t for you, or isn’t available, another popular choice is ADSL. This connection still uses telephone cable, but the signals are faster than the snail’s pace of dialing up. ADSL moves up to 20 times faster.
By comparison, broadband cable’s signals move up to 350 times faster than dial-up. This is because broadband uses coaxial cable, the same thing used to connect your television to cable channels, but broadband is still not available everywhere.
Perhaps wireless broadband is available in your area? This connection option is accessed through radio signals instead of phone lines. Wireless broadband allows you to access the Internet on your laptop while at home or when you’re on the road. Using hot spots you can easily pick up the Internet or if you’re traveling, simply subscribe to a wireless broadband provider. You just install the provider’s card on your desktop and you’re good to go.
What if you live in a remote area that has few options? In those cases, a satellite is a great option, but can be a bit expensive.
Consider sharing the connection if you have more than two computers in your house. Buy a router and all of these computers can access the Internet at the same time. This kind of sharing can be done through wireless connection or through a cable. Just keep in mind that in order to establish a wireless network you will probably have to buy additional equipment.
Annoyances
Nothing slows down productivity like those annoying pop-up ads. They cause you to stop and start too many times and many a computer has been smashed over the ensuing frustrations of productivity or chat sessions lost. And what if you click on something by mistake and get a virus? Your computer could get locked down for hours or days until the virus is found and removed.
Advertising especially can slow down your browsing speed online. Use your browser’s internal pop-up blocker to stop advertising windows, or pop-ups, from opening. If this blocker isn’t effective, you can always download pop-up blocking software that’s more reliable.
Use the same solution for all the different viruses that can infect your computer while working online. There are plenty of good anti-virus or anti-spyware options that work well to keep the bugs at bay. Firewalls are a great tool to use while surfing the Net because they help you to avoid unauthenticated access to your network. Make sure to keep your Firewall on all the time as well as any antivirus program. They should always be running while your Internet connection is running.
Use signatures with emails messages
If you find that you are constantly using email and spending time writing your name, address, telephone number and email address at the bottom of each one, use a signature feature instead. You can write this information once, save it as your signature, and then it automatically adds itself to the bottom of each outgoing message. Most email applications have the ability to add your information into emails once such an option is activated or opted for the same. This saves time because you don’t need to recheck your details after writing an email.
Other helpful hints
When searching online for information, research, work items, stick to these methods so you don’t waste hours looking in the wrong direction.
1. Focus your search by knowing what you’re looking for and ignoring any distractions that pop up.
2. Use simple search words, nouns are always best, and use quotation marks around phrases to narrow it down. If you do this, results will only contain your search words, instead of all the millions of possible choices out there.
3. Type in special characters to further narrow your search. Use a (+) sign before a word to include it and a (-) sign in front of a word to leave it out.
4. Check out any advance search options on the search engines or websites.
5. Bookmark interesting or helpful sites when you find them so you don’t have to search for them again. Take the time to organize them logically once and then you’ll be able to find them easily again after that.
Catherine Durkin Robinson is a contributing writer for BillSavings.com , your information resource and community for money-saving tips and offers so you can shop, compare, and save money on just about everything.
