Which browser to cut my cap usage?

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sitnet

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I've realised something quite suprising today. I use more than 60mb a day just on browsing. It's not that much, but bare in mind I'm only on a 2gig package. So, why that much only on browsing?

Actually it's like eating, it's vital but once you've eaten your food you can't use it again. But in contrast if you buy a cellphone or GFX card (this would be equivelent to downloading some nice freeware) you can use it for years.

So my question is quite simply, how can I cut my browsing data usage, so I can download more? In other words, which browser has the best data compression. I'm currently on IE 8 Beta.

Thanx:)
 
browsers dont compress data or any other mumbo-jumbo, they just show the data they are given.

you have three options.
1) browse less
2) set up your own proxy, and hopefully if you have a repetative habit of going ot the same sites all the time your data usage will be less
3) turn off images (firefox-->tools, options, content, load images automatically......IE-->tools, internet options, advanced, scroll down to multimedia and check out "load images automatically") both ways will leave you in 1990 with a mullet and feeling poor, but your browsing will be quicker and your data usage from browsing will be almost nil.

downloading 20mb of "stuff" will, however, result in 20mb of data usage. + upload data which you always use when downloading to verify all the bits have been received etc.
 
werner said:
browsers dont compress data or any other mumbo-jumbo, they just show the data they are given.

you have three options.
1) browse less
2) set up your own proxy, and hopefully if you have a repetative habit of going ot the same sites all the time your data usage will be less
3) turn off images (firefox-->tools, options, content, load images automatically......IE-->tools, internet options, advanced, scroll down to multimedia and check out "load images automatically") both ways will leave you in 1990 with a mullet and feeling poor, but your browsing will be quicker and your data usage from browsing will be almost nil.

downloading 20mb of "stuff" will, however, result in 20mb of data usage. + upload data which you always use when downloading to verify all the bits have been received etc.
Click to expand...

Thanx for the reply! With the compression thing, I mean like for example setting the image quality lower. Some browsers, well like Opera Mini (yes, with a java emulator) uses A LOT less data (about 1 third). It's just very irritating having to use java to browse.

But thanx a lot for the suggestions:)
 
Garyvdh said:
Firefox with Ad Blocker Plus... and this little HOSTS file to block all the ads that still get through (in the other browsers as well)...

http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

Whatever you do, don't install Stumbleupon! :p Serious time and bandwidth waster! :D
Click to expand...

Thanx for the reply and suggestion. HAHA and no I will never use stumbleupon, maybe one day when I have an uncapped subscription (I wish:rolleyes:):D.
 
sitnet said:
I've realised something quite suprising today. I use more than 60mb a day just on browsing. It's not that much, but bare in mind I'm only on a 2gig package. So, why that much only on browsing?

Actually it's like eating, it's vital but once you've eaten your food you can't use it again. But in contrast if you buy a cellphone or GFX card (this would be equivelent to downloading some nice freeware) you can use it for years.

So my question is quite simply, how can I cut my browsing data usage, so I can download more? In other words, which browser has the best data compression. I'm currently on IE 8 Beta.

Thanx:)
Click to expand...

You have a choice of using AdBlock Plus or the non-free AdMuncher. AdMuncher works with all browsers and has a list of inline ads which is added upon daily. You can try a 30 day trial of AdMuncher at AdMuncher.com.
 
with opera mini, all your data goes via opera. they grab the images and recompress them, then serve it to you, hence the saving in data.

so, that is a proxy.

so you can get your own proxy, or subscribe to a 3rd party service, or just live with no images.
it isnt so bad, i did it often when we still had modems. some 80kb pages only have 3 or 4 kb of text.
 
sitnet said:
I use more than 60mb a day just on browsing. I'm currently on IE 8 Beta.
Click to expand...

There's your problem. IE. Every time I'm forced to use ie on client's machines, as opposed to firefox with adblock on my own pc, I'm amazed at how they can endure it.
 
There's an extension for Firefox called Image Block. It's a button that when clicked on will disable all images from loading thus drastically cutting bandwith consumption. I use it and it works quite well.
 
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