Hello S-housers,

I don't know if many of you remember me because it's been a long time, but I remember you guys! I have come seeking your expertise once again.

I am currently living and working in the Kingdom of Cambodia where internet is as awful as it is expensive. Coming from Seattle where the 'net flows quickly and cheaply (also working at the University of Washington where I was on the internet2 backbone during the day), it's become the single hardest culture shock to endure. Check out this chart for a list of speeds and prices that my NGO pay would never allow me to use. Instead I've opted for a mobile-internet solution. I can tether my cell phone and get what cambodians would call great speeds (300 kb/sec down 150 kb/sec up) but my monthly allowance is a measly 1.5 gigs. It only costs $35 a month and the speed is amazingly fast compared to other services.

This is what I have done to slow it down. In firefox I've turned off loading images and java automatically. I've also installed flashblock which keeps flash from loading (I am not sure if it prevents it from loading or if it just prevents it from viewing). Somehow I am still burning it up.

What else can I do for surfing that will let me cut down my KB usage? Can anyone recommend any good firefox plugins that might help?

I suppose get the !@#$ out of Cambodia isn't an option? :( I wish I had something for you but man, it sounds like you are screwed.

google "lynx windows" and the first link will be what you need.

Oof, haven't used lynx in years. The prospect of a text browser at this point seems almost unmanageable. I remember the last time I used it was when design really started to explode for webpages, and lynx couldn't cope. Have they managed to actually keep development up to the point that it can manage with today's web page design?

edit: I'm guessing not as the last version appears to be around 2001...

1.5gb a month hmm? Well, to start you need to put yourself on a strict regimen. No gaming for starters, no updates so turn off any automatic updates your programs might give you, and limit yourself to one email address, so if you have more then one, merge them. And lastly, don't go cruising around the net, your pretty much limited to that one email address because 1.5gb is pretty horrid.

Thats about it. Does Comcast do business over there?

There is also links

http://www.jikos.cz/~mikulas/links/download/

Links last update was Dec 28, 2007.

I don't know how well either will hold up to the web standards of today. But both sound like a viable option for someone who needs text only.

NoScript, perhaps? Sounds like you've already got the really heavy stuff blocked, but it might shave off a few more bytes.

for Safehosue browsing, try out the GreyRogue theme. you can choose it from your user control panel.. it was designed for mobile phones /iphones

I don't even have a clue how much bandwidth I use. But yes, text only browsing would save a lot, and using the mobile phone theme at the Safehouse, obviously.

And use something like gmail for your email purposes (even if you have a pop3, you can set gmail to check it). That way, you can see all your mail, without actually downloading it. That could prolly help.

Um, no more porn, sir. Or use text porn (which can work, if you have an overactive imagination). :x

Hey stranger.

Try downloading the Web Developer toolbar for Firefox. Then go to Options and click Persist Feature. Next, go the CSS drop down menu, go to Disable Styles, and click All Styles. Then go to Images, then Disable Images, and then to All Images. Finally, go to Disable, Disable JavaScript, All JavaScript. This should make Firefox a pretty decent text browser.

After that, disable prefetching by going to about:config and looking for network.prefetch-next. Double click it to set the value to false. You can also try the Firefox Throttle plug-in for further optimization.

http://www.netlimiter.com/ - This might help as well.

NetLimiter is an ultimate internet traffic control and monitoring tool designed for Windows. You can use NetLimiter to set download/upload transfer rate limits for applications or even single connection and monitor their internet traffic.

Along with this unique feature, Netlimiter offers comprehensive set of internet statistical tools. It includes real-time traffic measurement and long-term per-application internet traffic statistics

Hi Bondori!

I can't add any other advice to this topic, but I wanted to say: Yes we remember you Welcome back!

Thanks for all the advice. It seems that turning images off and using flashblock and noscript is the trifecta I need. I've been able to keep my browsing under 10 or so mb an hour. I'm actually finding the minimalized surfing to be quite pleasurable. There is so much extra internet out there that you don't need. I gave lynx a go and found it a bit of an overkill for what I need.