Some helpful tips and tricks to help make your web browsing a little faster and more effecient.

Faster Browsing with Super Servers : change your Domain Name System server for speedier surfing.

Entering a domain like www.futureus.com into your browser isn’t enough for it to access the site. It also needs the IP address for that site, which is retrieved from your ISP’s domain name system (DNS) server. And this can take some time

Open DNS provides free DNS servers that anyone can use. They’re fast enough to make a real difference to your browsing speed, and you don’t need to install any software to set them up. Click Start > Control Panel > View network status and tasks to begin.

Located your main network (it probably says local and Internet next to access) and click View > Properties. Select ‘Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/Ipv4) in the list, click Properties and choose the ‘Use the following DNS server address” option.

Enter 208.67.222.222 in the ‘Prefered DNS Server’ box, and 208.67.220.220 for ‘Alternate DNS server’ (use the left and right arrow keys to move the boxes if necessary). Click OK, close all open dialogs, then restart your computer.

You should now be using the faster DNS servers, which as a bonus will also block Phishing sites. But if you have any problems, repeat the instructions and select ‘Obtain a DNS server address automatically’, then reboot to use your old servers again.

Extending Internet Explorer: Resize forms.

I often come across web forms that are far to small and leave me typing long essays into a tiny little comment box. But Cameron Adams has the answer. First ad his Internet Explorer bookmarklet (www.themaninblue.com/experiment/FormTextResizer) to your bookmarks. Now choose this when you next encounter a poorly-designed form, then move the mouse cursor over the text box in question, hold down the left mouse button, and drag and resize.

Extending Internet Explorer: Spelling matters.

Everyone makes occasional spelling mistakes online, but do it regularly, or in important web forms like a job application, and you could be creating a very bad impression. Install ieSpell (www.iespell.com), though, and you’ll get instant spell checking from within Internet Explorer. Highlight the text with your mouse, right-click, select iespell and it’ll check words for errors, catching your mistakes and making suggestions about how the word should be spelled.

Thats it for me this time hope you found the articles useful, next time I will talk about how to actually read the text on some annoyingly cluttered pages like MySpace and how to control flash for faster browsing. I will also be writing about Windows Vista and how to speed up your computers running Vista.

David Van Dusen - dave@urbanweb.net - Urban Web