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Listen to the podcast: The most effective
upgrade.. 
Transcript
This is Leo Notenboom for askleo.net.
A common topic and question for discussion, of course, is how to maximize the life of your computer, and what kinds of upgrades might make the most sense. For example I've long held that the most effective hardware upgrade is, of course, RAM. Windows in particular loves more RAM.
But there's something that could be more important than even that.
This week I was discussing with a friend what computer she should get for her parents with a goal of speeding things up a little for them. They had a couple of computers already, and they connected to the internet via dial-up.
And that's where I took the discussion a slightly different direction.
Getting a high powered or even portable computer can be very nice for many different things, but if your usage is mainly internet-related like email and web surfing, then getting a newer, faster computer but connecting via dial-up - well, that's a little like buying a Ferrarri but limiting it to only going 25 miles per hour. It'll do many things quickly and powerfully, but you're still not going to get anywhere very fast.
My point here, of course, is that upgrading your internet connection is often the most effective way to enhance your overall computing experience. Even the slowest computer these days is still more than fast enough to keep up with most of the fastest available internet speeds. Many people are quite amazed at what their old computer can do once the internet connection has been upgraded.
Now, this presents a problem for the gift givers among us, like my friend. A computer is one thing; you buy it, you give it and you're done. Connectivity is something else. A gift of connectivity is a commitment, either on your part to continue to pay for it, or even worse, it's a gift of a commitment to someone else. You're signing them up to recurring bill once your gift portion has run out.
I get that. And, perhaps, you could work out some creative ways around it, but I do get it.
But if you're about to shell out $500, $1000 or more for a gift computer, you might still consider that connectivity commitment instead. For the cost of a low-end computer you could upgrade someone from dial-up to DSL or cable for a year, two years or even more. And that fancier laptop or more powerful desktop you're considering could be the cost of several years worth of even faster internet speeds.
It's something I encourage you to consider. Perhaps even as a gift to yourself.
Oh, and if your business is on or about the internet, it's almost a no-brainer. I doubled my internet connection speed last year, and haven't regretted one moment of it.
I'd love to hear what you think. Visit askleo.net and enter 12230 in the go to article number box to access the show notes, the transcript and to leave me a comment. While you're there, browse the hundreds of technical questions and answers on the site.
Till next time, I'm Leo Notenboom, for askleo.net.
Article C3293 - February 16, 2008
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
Also to add to Malcolm's post, another saying is that the problem could be a ID ten T. (ID10T)
Posted by: Damin at February 23, 2008 10:49 AMThe comments by Bill apply to many folks. Hi-Speed is not universally available, much as many city folk think. Anyone who lives any distance from the city knows that dial-up is just about the only access to the net. I am fortunate to have a satellite ISP, however the costs are significant, like $1000 to buy and set up the dish/modem and $60/mo for basic service that is faster than dial-up, and slower than basic DSL. There are many new types of wireless ISP's coming and maybe even microwave for home users, but they may be some time away. Just a thought, if anyone gets a faster connection, they are probably going to want a faster computer anyway.
Posted by: Ralph at February 23, 2008 6:28 PMI invested a lot of money in a new laptop with HSDPA. It's got a built in sim card slot underneath the battery, but what I did not know at the time was that I could easily have used my existing phone as a modem without incurring all these extra expenses.
Look, it's really nice and I enjoy having it, but if your pc is bluetooth enabled and you only use internet for home use, I would suggest looking into possibly using your phone as a modem. It's cool and really simple to do.
Posted by: Margherita at February 24, 2008 11:34 PMI have to agree that your DSL speed makes a huge difference. I have the "middle" speed DSL service and don't have any complaints whatsoever. But I'd like to add a little twist that hopefully will help some people (especially with older PC's). I've been using Firefox 3beta2 for a couple of months and have been very impressed, but I didn't know Firefox is automatically configured for Dial-Up! I ran across an article on how to reconfigure Firefox for Broadband/DSL (January 2008 PC World, page127). In less than 5 minutes, following very simple directions, my connection speed doubled and download speed literally trippled. Good Luck!
Posted by: Dave Markley at February 26, 2008 7:49 PMAm a Senior, older computer, had dial-up and then tried switching to dsl. Had trouble understanding directions; called them and asked for help for installing it. CHARGE is $75. DSL still sits there unhooked and continue paying for it. Anyway to cancel without another fat fee involved? Tks for help/suggestions.
Posted by: Joop at May 20, 2008 2:54 PM