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Browsing Frugally Without Wasting Bandwidth?
forrestm writes "At home, my internet connection is limited to 1GB / month before I have to pay extra. At my university, I'm charged around 2.5c per megabyte. I rarely download anything big, but I often go through a large amount of bandwidth by simply browsing around. For example, when I play a YouTube video, click a link, and then return to the video, the whole video reloads. When I read some websites, such as BoingBoing.net or Cnet.com, my status bar shows a whole lot of data being transferred through other domains. Some pages seem to send/receive data at certain intervals for the duration of my visit. When I begin to enter a search in Firefox's search bar, a list of suggestions is automatically downloaded. In addition to this, Firefox often requests internet access of its own accord, even though I have automatic updating turned off. All this is costing me! How do I stop unsolicited use of my internet connection? How do I go about not wasting bandwidth like this?"
I would suggest using both.
For example, what do you see on /.'s main page when:
1. using internet explorer (having SWF installed)
2. Windows OS with Firefox base install.
3. Win OS w/firefox and adblock, or adblock +, with the filterset updater.
4.Win OS, Firefox, adblock(+, and updater), flashblock (using the 'click on triangle' to play media)
Using Firefox3 with the 'Noscript", "Ad-block+", "addblock filterset.g updates, flashblock, and dwhelper. (similar to all of my ff profiles- irregardless of OS/PC)from my USB drive.
I have a 4GB USB drive that I run a portable version of Firefox on any PC, and wit the 'plugins' for 'flash', flash need not br installed on the PC.**
**After installing FFPortable to a directory on your USB drive, then go to [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/browse/type:7]
Download and install to said USB drive/Firefox!
No need for the host PC to have FF or Flash installed!
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
What's a "curser"? Is it like a drunk sailor and his foul-beaked parrot?
I didn't know about the bandwidth, but I do know about violent crime statistics, car-jacking and various other problems South Africa seems to face.
When the original poster said "That's your problem", he was right and insightful. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I wouldn't want to live in Africa (you heard me, the whole continent) right now if my life depended on it. Why? Because right now it sucks being African. Life expectancy, while a lot better than in the 60's and 70's, and child mortality (which is also lower than the 60's and 70's) are indicators that the standard of living there is just not up to par.
When I say up to par one has to realize I come from the Netherlands, have lived in Sweden for six years and now reside in Israel, so I'm not entirely ignorant of the world at large. It's not like I'm in the States and too stupid to realize things might be done differently elsewhere.
My advice to you:
Move to a more civilized country.