I often have friends saying that they love their Orcon broadband connection but they want to make sure they are getting the most out of it. They want to know how to make their connection even faster!

My answer is always MACM - manager, accelerator, check viruses, modem. At that point they generally stare at me blankly so I go on to explain.

• Manager - Use a download manager. A good download manager gives you more flexibility and features than using your browser to download a file. Some of the best we've found are Go!Zilla and Download Accelerator Plus.
• Accelerator - Get a web accelerators such as Fasterfox (used in conjunction with the Firefox web browser). This software will allow you to download web pages much quicker.
• Check Viruses - Regularly check your computer for viruses and spyware. I'm a fan (along with 80 million others) of the free AVG Anti Virus Software which can be downloaded by following this link - http://free.avg.com/.
• Modem - Make sure you use a good quality modem. I use the Orcon Homehub at home and think it's great. It has full wireless capabilities and most importantly the sync speed of the Homehub is brilliant (and I think it looks quite sexy too).

These are a few easy tips to make your connection faster & better. There are more ways to make your connection faster but the top four get you a lot of bang for your buck!

Happy surfing.