Saving traffic on the Internet: effective settings and tips

As users move more and more to cloud services, saving traffic becomes an important element for increasing Internet bandwidth. In addition, some tariff plans still today require payment for the number of downloaded data. Especially it concerns mobile providers.

What kind of program can be really implemented to save traffic? Here are some effective ways.

Blocking websites with streaming content

The first thing you should do is block access to streaming media sites (such as Netflix, YouTube and MetaCafe). Of course, viewing a small video on YouTube will not be significant and will not make the connection to the Internet slow, but large amounts of such content require a very large bandwidth. By disabling access to all resources of this kind, you will notice that saving traffic is even possible.

Stop the backup application in the cloud

If you are constantly backing up data in the cloud, check to see if your application has a throttling mechanism for backup . Such a service will require a lot of traffic and take up most of the bandwidth. This will not be expressed significantly if you back up small files (for example, Microsoft Office documents) all day long. But when you start loading bulk data into the cloud, the initial backup should only be created on your computer. If the constant throttling is not stopped, this can have a significant impact on your traffic consumption.

Limiting the use of VoIP

VoIP is another intensive bandwidth of traffic. If you plan to use this technology, you should limit the duration of calls as much as possible. If you talk for a long time and use any of its extensions in the work with the service, saving traffic will not be effective.

Using the cache proxy

A cache proxy server can help limit the amount of traffic created by the operation of a web browser. The basic idea is that when a user visits a particular site, the content of the page is cached on the proxy server. The next time a user visits the same page, its content should no longer be downloaded again (since it already exists in the cache). Using a cache proxy not only saves traffic, but can also give users the illusion that the Internet connection is much faster than it really is. This is a useful quality, no matter what tariff plan you use.

Centralizing application updates

Today, almost every application is configured to download periodic updates over the Internet. You can save a lot of traffic by centralizing the upgrade process. For example, instead of allowing each device in your home to connect to the Microsoft Update service, you must configure the WSUS server to download all updates, and then make them available for individual gadgets. Therefore, the same updates will not be downloaded again and again.

Using Hosted Filtering

If you manage your own mail server, an excellent mode of saving traffic will be provided when using Hosted Filtering. Thanks to this service, the data will be downloaded to the cloud server, not to your mail server. This server receives all mail that is destined for you, filters out spam or messages containing malicious software. The remaining messages are sent to the destination. You can save a lot of traffic (and resources of the mail server) due to the fact that you will not be loaded with numerous spam.

Active scanning for malicious programs

Malicious programs can use a lot of traffic without your knowledge, using your computer as a bot. Be diligent in your efforts to keep all of your devices connected to the Network, not infected.

Use QoS to reserve traffic

QoS means quality of service. This mechanism (bandwidth reservation), which was first put into operation in Windows 2000, still remains relevant today. If you have applications that require a certain amount of traffic (for example, video conferencing applications), you can configure QoS to reserve the required amount of data for this application. Such a traffic saving is effective only when the application is actively used. In other cases, the amount of data reserved for the application is made available for use for other purposes.

Make sure you do not overpay for traffic

As noted above, many factors affect the bandwidth of the Internet, so you can not expect that you will be able to connect to each website at the maximum speed of your connection. Nevertheless, the connection to the Network should provide a performance that is close enough to the one you pay for.

It is very unlikely that the provider intentionally gives someone a slower connection than stipulated by the contract and payment, but often cases where the connection is divided into several devices. In the case of such a common connection, the activity of the user of one of the devices can directly affect the data download speed. If the connection to the Internet does not happen as fast as it should be, try to figure out all the connections in your network.

In addition, you need to regularly monitor the traffic that you spend while working on the Web. If you notice a noticeable overspending, you should think about which services you use too actively. If the traffic saving is very noticeable and most of the amount of data provided by the provider, you do not spend, you can think about switching to a lighter tariff plan.

Browser "Opera" and mode "Turbo"

The well-known Turbo mode, which is available in any version of the Opera browser, as well as in Yandex.Browser, can be used not only to speed up downloaded data, but also to reduce traffic. The essence of his work is that when the pages are loaded, the servers of the browser are used, and due to this, the amount of data downloaded during connection is reduced. Therefore, if it is important for you to save the amount of data transfer, work only in the "Turbo" mode.

In this case, there will not be any problems with how to turn off the traffic saving. Just go to the appropriate settings and turn off the above option.

Savings on mobile devices

Unlimited tariff for a mobile operator is much less common, and many people use the 3G function. How can you save traffic on your smartphone?

If you have a device based on the "Android" OS, you can set the maximum traffic that can be consumed in a certain period of time. Even setting up a warning is available, which can be placed on the desktop in the form of a widget. To do this, you do not even need a special application to save traffic.

To make such settings, you need to go to the "Settings" menu, select "Wireless networks" and in the following paragraphs to find the "Traffic Control" tab. Depending on the version of the OS "Android", the names of menu items may differ. Having entered into the specified setting, you need to set the maximum amount of data that you allow for use. If you exceed the limit you specify, the Internet will simply turn off.

Traffic Saving: Beta Special Mobile Applications

Currently, there are also more special programs and browser extensions designed to save traffic. One of the most famous is Opera Max beta, which is a specialized software that compresses any transmitted data. Thus, the traffic saving by the beta program occurs not only through the browser, but also through information from instant messengers and other applications working on the Web.