How to Watch Movies With Dial Up Internet

While watching movies on dial-up can be frustrating, a few adjustments can be made to improve media downloading.

Despite the prevalence of broadband and DSL Internet services, some people still rely on dial-up to access the web. While dial-up is inexpensive and readily available, its slow connection speeds limit a user's ability to watch movies without interruption. Although streaming movies may be frustrating with a dial-up connection, there are ways to make the process more efficient. By adjusting a few settings, you can reduce download times and improve the display of movies on your computer.

Instructions

1. Clear your Internet browser's cache, a storage area that contains previously visited web pages. In Internet Explorer, click the "Tools" icon and select "Internet Options." Click the "Delete" button under the "Browsing History" section. In Mozilla Firefox, go to the main menu and select "History." Click on the "Clear Recent History" option. Safari users should click the "History" button and select "Clear History."

2. Close any additional software that may be running on your computer. Running multiple programs simultaneously reduces the amount of available memory on your computer.

3. Modify your modem's settings to support the highest speed available. Refer to the manufacturer's support manual for specific instructions on changing these settings.

4. Allow videos to buffer before watching them. Usually, you can buffer a video by clicking the pause button immediately after it starts. Letting a video buffer completely allows you to watch it without interruption. Longer videos will take more time to buffer.

5. Change the playback settings for streamed movies. You can optimize videos on YouTube, for example, by navigating to your account settings, clicking "Playback Setup" and selecting "I have a slow connection. Never play higher-quality video." Alternatively, you may change the playback setting on individual videos by clicking the number on the right side of the video player and selecting the desired quality. A quality of 240p is ideal for dial-up connections.

References

• Brookhaven National Laboratory: Clear Browser Cache
• YouTube: Video Playback Quality Options
• YouTube: Watching Videos on Dial-Up

Resources

• Internetweekly.org: Dial-Up and Home Networking Troubleshooting Reference