We wanted to take the time to share a couple of things regarding
our collision estimate program that may enhance the user
experience. There's always a few things that can be done to your
computer that can improve the speed of the program's
performance.
Internet Connection: The best way to make the Web-Est program
run faster is to set-up with a broadband internet connection (also
called "high-speed") with your local cable company, as opposed to
dial-up internet access. High speed internet connections give
internet providers a much greater bandwidth to their users than
would a dial-up access connection. The higher the bandwidth, the
higher the data transmission rate is for your provider, thus
providing you with faster performing internet. Cable providers
offer high-speed internet from anywhere to $15 per month to $50 per
month, all depending on where you are. Check out your nearest
provider by simply entering "high speed internet" into any search
engine and you'll be able to see what they charge.
If you're not able to change set-ups, not to worry! Our program
functions just as well with dial-up internet. Here are a couple
things that can be done to your connection for better speed:
1) Only use one web-browser at a time. The more web-browsers you
have up at any given moment, the more the phone data has to
transmit, thus, slowing down the rate your desired pages will
appear.
2) Make sure the physical connection is set-up properly. If you
pick up your phone and hear noise, then its likely that you have
poor hardware and/or poor line quality. Those things will affect
your speed. Contact your phone company if you hear noise or have
connection issues.
3) Use a shorter telephone cord to connect from the phone jack to
the modem. The longer the cord is, the further the data has to
travel. It may seem like a small change to make, but the slightest
improvement will make a difference.
Web-Broswers- Another thing that can be done to improve speed is
by using more advanced web-browsers. A web-browser, like Internet
Explorer or Firefox, is basically a program on any PC that a user
can use to surf the internet. When a user enters a web address, the
browser goes out to that address through the internet and brings it
back to the user in mili-seconds (or at least it should). The
dominant web-browser is Microsoft's Internet Explorer, which comes
as the default web-browser on any computer with Window's as the
operating system. Our collision estimate program works well with
Internet Explorer, but because it is the most used browser, just
about every page you visit loads you up with cookies and temporary
internet files (see below on how to delete these out).
Other browsers that might work a little faster are Mozilla's
Firefox, Google's Chrome, and Apple's Safari. These other browsers
are a bit more secure and run more efficiently. Firefox is probably
the best of these, but the others are catching up in popularity.
Chrome is pretty decent, but its so new, not every page recognizes
it, making images appear somewhat screwy. One of our customers
called and told us about Apple's Safari browser. Not just limited
to Apple computers, Safari runs well on any PC. Their browser runs
really well and provide very clean images. There are very few
pop-ups with Safari unlike Internet Explorer.
Computer Maintenance- Its also good to keep your computer
maintained as best you can. Here are a few things you can do to
keep your computer running smoothly.
1) Turn off your computer when the day is done. Its not bad for
your computer if it runs continually throughout the day and night,
but its definitely not good for speed. Rebooting gives it the
chance to refresh everytime.
2) Clear out temporary files and cookies. To do this on Internet
Explorer, click tools on the top menu bar, then click "Internet
Options." Once you do that, there should be two buttons for
deleting cookies and files. That will help improve speed on the
I.E. broswer.
3) Delete unused programs out of your hard-drive from time to time.
To do that, click the start menu on the lower left hand and then
click control panel. There should be an option to un-install
programs. This will help free up some space on your hard-drive.
Doing some of these things will help the performance of our
collision estimating program on your computer. We hope this helps.
Always feel free to contact our Technical Support department at
888-Web-Est-0, Ext. 112
-Dan Murphy
Senior Account Executive
