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SAVING DATA: MY OWN EXPERIENCE

Every internet service provider rations the amount of data each customer can use per month at the standard speed. If you break your data cap, your download speeds will be cut drastically. Knowing how frustrating this can be, you can benefit from learning how to economize on data without hampering function.

You might find it helpful to know my own experience with data caps, and with my efforts to get the most out of my data allotment.

Needing to research a high volume of material, and being pressed for time, I use Google Chrome for browsing. Chrome is faster than competing browsers, but it comes with a significant drawback: it consumes more data. I needed to find ways to get the most out of what I had.

My data saving program began with disabling auto-play video. Not only is such video advertising annoying, it eats a huge amount of data.

First,  I disabled Adobe Flash, which most- though not all- auto-play ads run on. This required opening my computer’s control panel and hitting the ‘settings’ tab. From there, I scrolled scroll down to the ‘advanced settings’ tab at the bottom of the ‘settings’ window. On the second page of ‘advanced settings’, I found the ‘privacy’ tab. Under ‘privacy’ I found the ‘plug-ins’ tab. One of the options there is ‘manage individual exceptions’. Hitting this tab revealed a list of several optional apps, and Adobe Flash was the last one listed.  I hit ‘disable’ for Flash.

Disabling Adobe Flash doesn’t mean you can never use it again. If you want to watch a video that requires Flash, you can enable it as needed, then disable it again when you’re finished.

If you’re a typical web-surfer, disabling auto-play video and audio should reduce your data consumption by about 20%.

My second major step in saving data was enabling Chrome’s data saver extension. This app compresses picture, video, and sound files.

After hearing about the data saver extension, I looked it up through the browser. It told me the extension was available through the Chrome Web Store. Visiting the store, and searching under ‘apps’, I brought up ‘extensions’.  ‘Data Saver’ was the first extension listed. I chose the ‘download’ option.

Downloading the Chrome Data Saver extension takes only a few seconds. If you want to disable it later, you can easily do so.

Google says that use of this extension will reduce data consumption by up to 70% on some devices. In my own experience, it actually averages 15% to 20%. Every bit adds up, though.

Other browsers feature their own  data saving extensions and means to disable auto-play video. The procedures for them may differ slightly from the Chrome process, but they follow the same general outline.

There are other means of saving data. You can, for example, limit the number of tabs you keep open at a time. Downloading your data saver extension and disabling auto-play video will produce the bulk of your saving, though.

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DATA CAPS & YOU

To get the most out of your internet service, it may help you to know what a data cap is, and how to avoid breaking it.

Most internet service providers, to keep their networks from becoming clogged, limit the amount of data any customer can use per month. Most providers offer tiered service, with higher prices for plans with higher data caps. If you use more than your monthly allotment, your data speeds will fall dramatically, and will remain low until your next monthly service period begins. This can be highly frustrating, and can make some internet functions impossible.

We won’t tell you to limit your use of the internet. We won’t tell you not to download music or videos. These, after all, are among the reasons most people want broadband service.

Without such drastic measures, there are a few other steps you can take to get the most out of your data plan.

First, assess your household’s needs. If only one or two people will be connected at a time, and if you use the web strictly for e-mail and light surfing, then you may not need extreme speed or a high data cap. However, if several people may be connected at once, you download video or music frequently, or you conduct business over the internet, you will need more speed and more data.

Second, consider changing your browser. Google Chrome is usually faster than other browsers, but it consumes more data. This is partly because Google- more than any other browser- scans your e-mail and searches for keywords, which it uses for precisely targeted ads. Not only is this annoying, and a possible privacy concern, it consumes data.  If wringing the most out of your data plan is more important than saving a few seconds on a search, then you may want to use a different browser.

Third, close auto-play videos whenever possible. In Chrome, pull up the ‘settings’ bar. and go from there to ‘advanced settings’. From there, go to ‘privacy’, then hit the ‘plug-ins’ tab, and disable Adobe Flash. This won’t block all auto-play videos, but it will block most of them. You’ll seldom have to listen to annoying ads, and you’ll save an enormous amount of data.

With other browsers, the procedure for disabling Adobe Flash is similar, though it may differ in one or two details..

Finally, limit the number of tabs you keep open. If you have multiple tabs open at once, some pictures and videos may be loading in the background.

(To get the most out of your internet service, talk to us. We are your source for HughesNet.)