Surf @ the speed of light!

OS & Browser selection

Opera reviews

Opera Fine-Tune

Other alternatives (new)

Choosing your modem

More Tips

If you plan to upgrade your PC, just for better surfing cancel it !. Here are some guides for surfing faster even in old PC's :

I ) OS & Browser selection

The main disadvantage of the older PC's is not only their poor CPU but usually their poor good graphics card and/or monitor (they do not support refresh rates better than 72HZ) . 

Try to avoid WinME . IE 5.5 & WMP 7.0 will be a disaster on slow performance PC's . If you don't own anything better that a PII/450 , Win98 SE is the last fittest edition of Win9x .

If this PC use LAN try to avoid Win95B and prefer Win98 (although this is not necessary) . Some of my Win95B installations hangs (displaying the known blue screen) when your PC is trying to access a busy Win9x server . You can still use them if you don't face such problems .

Opera vs Firefox 

Firefox became very popular , actually it's the 1st alternative browser now . I'm not surprised since Opera had enough time but did not utilize it to overcome it's major weakness (IE incompatibilities) . 

I still like Opera more Firefox :.

Firefox does not have a 'load cached images' like command . It behaves like IE: all pages will have either enabled or disabled graphics .

 Firefox does not have a tool or something to see hidden URL's .

Opera 8.01  .  2 Good but it's 2 LATE ! .

I do not have a slow PC to test speed extensively but version 8 looks cool & fast . 

Some of the new features I saw (over v.6)
- Much more compatibility with some complex sites .
- Java is working OK here .
- IRC and better mail / news clients .
- Cool password form filler .
- User defines shortcuts for everything , fully customized bars etc .

Still have some difficulties using it:
- Found some bugs using the 'load cached images' command . Status bar does not display all info i want during picture loading .
- Cannot scroll page during image load . Disable 'smooth scrolling' partially improves the situation .
- Visited URL does not change colour .
- Could not manage to disable auto resizing big pictures .
- Alt-P -> Advanced -> Network . Does not seem to work as I set it up from here . Connections management is awful  .
- I had to map many buttons to make it similar to v.6.x

Too many bugs folks ...  I 'm still stich to v.6.0.6

Opera 8 is cool but I think the situation is not reversible today . The majority of people looking for something alternative switched to the free Firefox . Opera should optimize the time he had for a mature , bug-free program but he didn't . Bad Luck ! .

Opera 7.x . Is this the beginning of the end ?

When I was using Opera v.3.x I was totally satisfied by it's performance but I had many complaints about it's stability , compatibility & simplicity . The perfect performance of v.3.x motivated me to start publish this article. As the versions was growing by , one by one the problems was eliminating but the price for that was loss of speed . The banner on opera.com displaying  "Opera the fastest browser on earth" wasn't represented any more the reality since version 6.x wasn't much faster than IE 5.x . Today version 7 claims that found it's lost performance but this is NOT the truth . I tested v.7.0 on AMD K6-2/366 , PII/266 and other slow machines . It was no way faster than Opera v.6.05 nor IE 5.0 . Opera 7 is slower not only when rendering simple or frame pages but also in it's Hotlist & Tabs window . The difference is also obvious in fast PC's (I test it under Celeron 900 / Win98SE) .

Some days ago I tested Opera on a real slow machine: 486/66 w 8MB RAM & Win95 . This PC was a real challenge !. I realized then that Opera 6.05 was not much faster than IE 5.0 and in some cases was slower . On the contrary , pseudo browsers like "Internet Surfer" , managed to play very well on such machine maintaining 100% compatibility with IE . Opera 3.62 was the king in this low-spec PC but you cannot visit successfully too many sites with such browser today , can you ?.

The main reason that Opera gained popularity & fans was it's performance . Today living in the age of 3GHZ it seems that it's negligible to make a program FAST !.

Opera 7 is by no way a fast browser . The only good point is that 6.05 is a nice crash-free stable version so I can use it for a long time until switch to something better. Opera betrayed all those users supporting it so many years hopping to bypass all it's problems without escaping from it's fundamental policy: Being a FAST browser . I will conclude with similar way they did to me when I reported the problem to Opera forum:

To Opera Developers: Go Ahead - Have Fun - BYE !.

Opera 6.05 review

Finally this version looks mature enough .  It crashes  less & CAN resume after a crash . FINALLY can handle Hotmail accounts ! . Moreover - as the changelog says - have better compatibility with some javascript pages . 

Download this version . You can rest for a while & stop looking for Opera upgrades every week !.

Opera 6.0 review

Opera 6.0 final is ready . I test it for days & I found it much more stable than any previous version . However can't say that it never crashed . Moreover is less smart than 5.12 and does not always resumes opened windows after a crash .

I recommend the use of v.6.0 instead of 5.12 since it's far more stable . However better stay on 5.12 if you have anything less than a P/166 since you will face LOWER performance .

Unfortunately  Opera 6.0 does not fix any of its knows disadvantages: It's still not compatible with some sites , cannot access Hotmail , unsatisfactory plugins with third party applications (like GetRight) .

Opera 5.10 review

I was ready to post something like: "Do you want a faster browser than Opera 5.02 ? . Try Opera 3.62 !", but I cancel it since I tried the new Opera 5.10 . This version is more mature than ever: stable , smart , fast & still light : 
- Light: The install file is still small (about 2.4 MB) 
- Speed: The speed of window manipulation is far better than any previous 4.x & 5.x version . It reminds you the old days of v.3.62 although It is NOT as fast as 3.62 ( I test it in slow machines in order to be sure of that) . But you can't live with 3.62 anymore , can you ? .
- Stable: Like it's prior v.5.02 it's very stable and you can surf for days without a crash .
- Smart: When I was surfing I was using for years a free smart utility called Sensiva . It was interpreting mouse movements to keyboards keystrokes . Now Opera includes something simpler but similar called "gestures" . Moreover you can go "back" & "forward" by pushing only the two mouse buttons .

Disadvantages ?. The same as the above mentioned . However the fact that some sites do not recognize your browser as genuine MSIE or Netscape is nice because you bypass some ad banners !. 

Tip: If you don't like the new way that progress look , you can revert back to the old way:
Alt-P -> Toolbars -> Address Bar -> Show progress inside address bar .

- Opera 5.10 bug fixes:
- If you install 5.10 over previous versions and it doesn't start (crashing the application) , probably is because of the Getright Plugin you installed . Try to uninstall it from "Ad/Remove programs" or check the location ( .\opera\plugins or .\opera\programs\plugins) and delete it .
- Verion 5.10 comes with a silly bug: It's impossible to edit your language in Alt-P -> Languages -> Web Pages . So go to your .\opera dir and open opera.ini with your notepad . Search for the phrase "HTTP Accept Language=..." and edit it .

II ) Opera Fine-Tune

The secret to surf fast is Opera . See why: 

Opera advantages:
- Small & fast .
- Uses many keyboard shortcuts for faster control .
- 128 bit encryption , great cookie management .
- When downloading a file , reveals hidden URL's .
- Keeps all favorites in 1 data file ( It's more fast, IE uses 1 file for each link , Netscape uses standard HTML file) .
- Other nice tools like Print Preview , email client etc .
- It's a great alternative if you are suspicious that a "Big Brother" watching your movements .
- It's a great alternative if you want to avoid all these security holes by a 150 MB browser ...

Opera disadvantages:
- Opera is not IE !. So you may face many incompatibilities with some sites specially if they use Java , JavaScript and other multimedia extensions .

The following guides makes your life even faster :

- Set up your ISP proxy : Alt-P -> Connections -> Proxy Servers .

- Cache fine-tune  . Alt-P -> History & Cache -> Disk cache : 6000 KB (or bigger) . Check Modified -> Images : 5 days . [ ] Always check redirect images (uncheck it) .

- * MORE Stability & Speed *. Opera tries to allocate as much RAM as possible . That's normally nice but not if you have more than 64KB RAM , since Opera get overflow with useless RAM causing sometimes critical crashes . So If you have more than 64MB RAM (!!) you may limit Opera's maximum RAM allocation: Alt-P -> History & Cache -> RAM Cache . I have 128MB Ram & I put 15.000 KB for documents & 25.000 KB for images .

- Using the following tip every new page opened has disabled new coming graphics . You earn speed by this way since you can estimate from the text content if you want to keep this page or not . If so just press "G" to enable graphics for this particular window (page) . The hot point is that if a site automatically opens other windows then the new windows will not load graphics, even if you pressed "G" on the main one ( IE / Netscape does not support such thing). 

- Also most of time background music & video is useless and stealing speed without notice it . So:
Alt-P -> Multimedia -> [.] Show cached images only . [ ] Enable animation (*) . [ ] Enable streaming video . [ ] Enable background music & video .
(*) When disable animation, your browser loads only 1 frame of a series of an advertising banner , but also disable some funny animation effects of some sites .

- If you 're a speed freak (like I am) and you want to sacrifice some "luxuries" in the name of speed , go do it:
Alt-P -> Plugins-> [ ] Enable Plugins . [ ] Enable Java .

Other Tips:

- Foreign Language support:

3.x - Alt-P -> Document Appearance -> Normal (2 click) ->  Script: xxx . Repeat this for ALL fonts . 

5.x - Alt-P -> Documents -> Normal (2 click) ->  Script: xxx . Repeat this for ALL fonts . Also Alt-P -> Languages -> Add ->  <your language> .

6.x - Alt-P -> Fonts and colors -> My Fonts and colors -> Normal (2 click) ->  Script: xxx . Repeat this for ALL fonts .
Alt-P -> Languages -> Web Pages -> Add ->  <your language> .- General Alt-P -> Languages -> Fallback Encoding -> ( I put ISO-8859-7 for Greek) .
Alt-V -> Encoding -> ... .

General Tips:

6.x - Maximize Windows: Alt-P -> Windows -> [v] Maximize new win if appropriate .

3.x - Maximize Windows: This version does not include any similar tip. However if one window is maximized then the new one will be maximized too .

- Security Tip: Alt-P -> Privacy -> Cookies -> Display received cookies ( IE does not support such thing) .

- Disable Splash Screen: Edit your Opera icon properties , add a parameter to the "Target" filename: "C:\..\Opera\Opera.exe /noSplashScreen" .

4.x-6.x - Bug Fix.: If (and only IF) after a long time of surfing you have problems displaying graphics correctly you have to: Alt-P -> Windows -> [ ] Avoid flicker . Avoid changing this if you can because makes small images flashing.

6.x - A nice tip for annoying popup advertisements:
Alt-P -> Windows -> Pop-up Windows -> Open popup windows in the background .

6.x - SetUp search engines : Do you want to setup the parameters put in the search engines ?. Make a backup and edit search.ini .

- Hotmail BUG (fixed in v.6.02) : There is a strange story here ... You cannot view your Hotmail account using Opera . Upgrade your version to the latest or use the old 3.62 .

- Save more screen space:  

1) Load smaller buttons: 

3.x Alt-P -> Button & Statusbar -> Image set -> ..\your path\Opera\Buttons\DefSmall\buttons.ini [Enter]
5.x Alt-P -> Toolbars -> Toolbars -> Button Images -> ..\your path\Opera\Buttons\DefSmall\buttons.ini [Enter]
6.x You have many options in this version:
Alt-P -> Browser Look -> Button set -> ..\your path\Opera\Buttons\DefSmall\buttons.ini [Enter] ,

2) Join button bar & status bar & More: 

3.x Alt-P -> Button & Statusbar -> Status Line: [x] Top | Button Bar: [x] Full | Progress Bar: [x] Top .

6.x Alt-P -> Browser Look -> Fonts & colors -> [ ] use system defaults (the lower the font size , the smaller the image size )  

Alt-V -> Status Bar -> Top .
Alt-V -> Personal Bar -> Off .
Alt-P -> Browser Layout -> Main Bar -> Images only .
Alt-P -> Browser Layout -> [x] Show progress inside address bar .

5.x Alt-P -> Toolbars -> Toolbars -> Images only -> OK .

6.x Optional for 800x600 or lower res: Alt-V -> Window Bar -> Off .

- Powerful Keyboard: When I say Opera is fast I do not mean that opera has so much difference when downloading contents , but it's fast when you want more control . Both it's size and it's complete shortcut set makes it very practical . Off course for a complete help about the shortcuts just press Ctrl-B . Here are some shortcuts that will change your life !.
- Yeah sure every browser have FullScreen . But see what you can do here: Press F11 (fullscreen) / Ctrl-F8 (Adress Bar) / Ctrl-F7 (Scroll Bar) . This is totally different from any other fullscreen and you can surf for hours this way because most critical data and buttons are displayed enlarging your available space to maximum . 
- Press Shift-Click to Open something in background (in order to read it later!) .
- Open 2 pages and press Shift-F6 . You will have 2 columns now! . Now press + / - to zoom / shrink them !. 
- The best of all is the common keys for navigation ... Z / X , 1 / 2 , Ctrl-W, G  etc . Read the help for more (Ctrl-B)
- Also: [Space] for Page Down , Shift-Space for Page Up . Smart ah ?.
- If you also use the email client of Opera you have more tips: Alt-K (check email) , Ctrl-Alt-E (email client) , Ctrl-Alt-C (Contacts) .
- If you use a Laptop (with not so handy mouse) you can also use Q /A , W / S , TAB , Enter etc instead of your mouse .
- Want to visit your search engine to find something ?. Just press Shift-F8 , write the phrase and you gain one step less .
- Want to close a windows ?. Apart from Ctrl-W you can press Shift & mouse click the window title .
- (5.x or higher) Opera now includes mouse "gestures" . right click your mouse & move left / right to see what I mean !.

- Get rid of some ad banners ! :.  

4.x-6.x - Alt-P -> Connections -> Browser identification -> "Identify as Opera" .

The reason is that most pages ask the browser to identify if it is MSIE , Netscape or make other queries that Opera does not answer as expected . So some banners are bypassed . I do not guarantee that it work everywhere but you have nothing to loose . I test it in  Xoom & Fsn and worked OK , but in FortuneCity did not . However changing the browser id. might occur more incompatibility with some sites . In Hotmail you see a warning page, having to click if you are sure you want to visit with that specific browser . Anyway if you find that this set is not practical , turn it back to "Netscape 4.76" for more compatibility . Of course this is a fast way . If you need more results better use some software like AtGuard etc .

- How to Import / Export URL : There are some products exchanging favourites between IE - Netscape - Opera . A good one is Compass .

- How to deal with GetRight : 1) Using IE you faced many time the problem that you want to download something using Getright but the URL is hidden ( using /cgi? command) . In such case in Opera start downloading the file . When you are in Transfer Window , you will see the real URL on the bottom . Copy it and Paste it in Getright . Cancel the download in Opera and keep continue in Getright .
2) In some cases Getright do not catch clicks . If so point your mouse on the URL , mouse-right-click , "L" (Copy Link Address) . If Getright still didn't catch it , go to Getright window -> add new URL -> Ctrl-P (Paste) .

- Maintaining more than one Opera versions : Opera is small & robust . It's very easy to have more than one version . Take my example: I installed both Opera 3.62 & Opera 5.02:
- Install Opera 3.62 to \Internet\Opera362 .
- Install Opera 5.02 into \Internet\Opera .

- Maintaining more than one Opera configurations : Lets say you want Opera 3.6 to surf with another proxy , cookie disabled ... etc . It is possible to have different configuration . See how:
- Go to \windows dir and copy opera.ini to opera1.ini
- make another one shortcut and edit the target like: 
C:\internet\Oppera36\Opera.exe C:\windows\opera1.ini

 Now whenever you run this specific shortcut , the configuration is read & saved from opera1.ini .

P.S. I made this page far before Opera's official support . Visit Opera's support page for complete information of .ini files .

III ) Other alternatives

There are some other browsers that are just a skin over the IE kernel . Some of them successfully gain performance compared to IE . Remember such programs depends on your Internet Explorer installation .

These IE skins are the best alternative when you want 100% compatibility with IE but you want to have MDI (multiple document interface) like Opera .  Each one has cool features . However I didn't find to anyone the 'Load cached images' that Opera have (it's something between enabled & disabled graphics) which I like .

All the below mentioned browsers provide you an MDI (multiple document interface) like Opera .

- Internet Surfer

One of them is Internet Surfer . It's a shareware but you can find a previous nag-free version in my site , here . Compared with the other competitors listed below . It's faster than anything else , but has limited features .

Internet Surfer Tips:

- F7: Toggle Tabs

- Alt-O -> General Tab:
  [x] Automatically save workspace on exit .
  [ ] Display splash screen on startup .
  [x] Enable IE menu item .

- Alt-O -> General Tab:
 Tabs: [ ] Bottom [ ] Buttons [ ] Stacked

- Alt-O -> Messages Tab:
  [ ] Show message before exiting program .

- SlimBrowser

SlimBrowser is a freeware browser with very similar features with Internet Surfer . Looks better than Internet Surfer and It's free , but I haven't test it yet under a real slow PC . 

SlimBrowser Tips:

There are some undocumented shortcuts .

Ctrl-Tab : Next Window
Ctrl-Shift-Tab : Previous Window
Ctrl-F4: Close Window
Ctrl-Shift-mouse_click: Open the new URL in background.

- Avant Browser

Avant Browser is another cool freeware IE skin . Although I fiund it recently it's my favourite . I didn't tested the speed yet but I was impressed by it's features . It was the only one of the mentioned IE clones that included my language (Greek) , nice GUI colours & known Opera shortcut keys (like Ctrl-W , Ctrl-Shift-mouse_click) .

Plus:
- Multilanguage
- Nice cool XP style GUI .
- Nice Features: Multi Proxy , Block Pop-ups (not tested) , Mouse gestures .

Minus:
- Not so Fast .
- Global (only) Image Enable / Disable (like IE) .
- Cannot set up window & status bar to be located at top .

- MyIE2

MyIE2 is another freeware IE clone . Nice GUI colours & known Opera shortcut keys .

- NetWorker

NetWorker is another freeware IE clone . Nice GUI colours & known Opera shortcut keys . Looks & feels fast but I didn't test it yet . 

- CrazyBrowser

CrazyBrowser is Free and light . Haven't found anything exotic but has a preety nice & simple GUI . 

- Go Surf

GoSurf is another shareware MDI browser . Small with nice GUI interface .

- Dominica

Dominica is free (adware) skin . Looks nice but has an adware banner . It' seems that it cannot removed after a registration or something . It seems abandoned & discontinued . Not recommended since there are so many good alternatives above .

IV) Choosing your modem.

Today modems are divided to 3 categories: 1) External Serial , 2) External USB , 3) Internal PCI . Although they do the same job , the schematics and the way they interact are totally different .

If you own anything less than a PIII/800 you will see an obvious improvement when using No.1 modems . The reason is that Serial modems connect through an "ancient" type of port . Although it sounds bad , this means that they include more hardware circuits than the other 2 types , handling data compression by themselves . In the other two types , many tasks that a modem must do , passed to the motherboards duties . So "intelligent" port is not always better if your machine is not pretty fast (!) .

So: If you own anything less than a PIII/800 prefer using a serial modem .

V) More Tips: 

1) AtGuard filters most of useless data and increase connection speed . Read more on my AtGuard page .

2) Scroll Mouse Drivers .Helps you to scroll text by pushing both buttons, or middle button. You can use some programs (like ToggleMouse) or some drivers coming with some mouse devices. I suggest to use  Logitech (mouseware) drivers even if you do not own a Logitech mouse .

3)  Sensiva (free). Make some simple drawings using your mouse , and Sensiva will translate it to commands (back , close etc) . Use it only for Opera versions prior to 5.10 because this version or higher includes something similar .

4) When surfing most job is done through your mouse . Buy a nice comfortable wheel mouse . I recommend the Logitech Pilot mouse ( 3 buttons + wheel) or if you have more money, Microsoft's IntelliMouse Optical have 5 buttons + wheel .