Need cheap internet solution for old PC

[EugeneSSS]

Need cheap and fast internet solution on my old computer…

I have old Compaq 1.2 Ghz, 512 MB RAM, W XP, computer that for many years accumulated a lot of software, data, images and etc. (with additional hard drive and other upgrades).
I use it just from time to time (have powerful desktop/notebook at work) and want to leave this computer as it is. It is difficult to me even think to transfer all soft and data from old computer to new….
The only problem is that it becomes working very slow with internet.
It is significantly slower than it was initially and has to be.
So I am looking for cheap and simple solution…
Options:
1. Set second operational system (which ? Linux ? W95 ?) and use it just for internet connection without interaction with all other old software (will it help ?)
2. Buy some cheap ( what can be advised ?)
desktop computer and use it only for internet connection, leaving all other software/jobs on my old computer. Establish connection between these computers.
3. What else can be done?

Thank you,
Eugene

[PrntRhd]

Have you been connected enough to run MS patches, what level SP are you running right now? XP is still supported if you have at least SP1, but SP2 is advised for security and stability reasons.
How full is the hard drive, how large is the drive, have you emptied the Temporary Internet files?
That amount of RAM is marginal, what model is the Compaq? RAM is much cheaper now than it used to be.

[123456]

Maybe try updating network card drivers too. Oh yeah.. on my 1GHz machine, it flies with the 512mb RAM, even on XP.

[Paul Komski]

OK - You want to leave windows as it is on your old desktop that has more than one hard drive. I agree that its specs should be fine for WinXP. The options available to you largely depend on how much space you can use (or reorganise) on that PC. So let us know how many partitions there are on both drives and how full up they are with existing data. Adding a third hard drive could enhance the possibilities of utilising this PC for a dual-boot scenario; even a WinXP (old) plus WinXP (new) dual boot.

What type of Internet Access are you using?

An 'older' PC such as yours shouldn't be the limiting factor (hardware wise) for slow internet access speeds but spyware and such like can certainly slow things down.

There are both Linux and Windows solutions to having a second operating system but they are both to some extent dependent on where you can have free space. Ubuntu or Puppy would both be Linux possibilities from either a Live CD (if space is at a premium) or from a hard drive installation. If going Ubuntu and with a dial-up modem ensure that it has native DUN support before installing; native support was lost in 8.04 I think.

[EugeneSSS]

Paul and 123456,
thank you for responces.

Paul, about space,
H Drive 1:
C - OS total 16.6 G 5.5 G free,
D - W restor total 7.8 3 G free
H Drive 2: everything in one partition
total 107 G free 28 G (can free more if needed)

What is the best strategy ?

Regards,
Eugene

[EugeneSSS]

Forgot, I use cabel connection - Road Runner

[EugeneSSS]

Hi PrntRhd,

I have W XP S2, as was said,HD has > 30 G free space...
Themporaly files and other junk were cleaned but it did not help...
RAM 512 K is maximum for this comp...
Computer Compaq Presario 5400. It work realy slow...some web pages never can be loaded...

thanks,
Eugene

[Paul Komski]

There's little to lose by trying a clean second installation of WinXP from the same C: but into the second large hard drive. Boot to the intallation CD with the PC as is. Choose new installation and when it comes to where to install Windows choose the 135gig partition but ensure you dont delete or format any partitions; just leave things as they are. When finished installing you should have a dual boot menu both saying Windows XP, etc but twice. One to the old and one to the new; the default will be the new and you can edit boot.ini to make it easier to choose between them.

I would suggest that before starting that you do some good housekeeping by running chkdsk X: /R (X: being whatever drive letter relates to the large drive) and then chkdsk C: /R from the command prompt; one or both will require a reboot to complete. Then defragment both drives. All that will take a bit of time.

You could then optionally resize the X: drive down to say 115gig and leave the remaining 20gig as unallocated space and then install the new windows into that unallocated space during setup. If resizing then ensure you have any important data backed up before you begin. BiNG (in my sig) will do the task for you but any resizing has a finite risk of losing data whatever utility is used. Having resized and added a partition to the second drive, the old WinXP will call this restructuring new hardware on its first reboot; that's normal.

If the new installation works well you could tweak things further by sharing the same pagefile on C: but we can come to that in the goodness of time. If not then just delete its line from boot.ini (it will probably be the one with rdisk(1) on it) and delete the three new Windows, Program Files and Documents and Settings folders from the X: (or the new) partition and you should be back to where you are now and in a position to try something else such as a Linux installation or some totally different or new hardware.

If you don't have the XP drivers handy then they could be backed-up now using My Drivers (http://www.zhangduo.com/driverbackup.html). If you don't have SP2/SP3 on your installation disk you could consider creating a DIY slipstreamed installation disk using nLite (http://www.nliteos.com/download.html).

[Sylvander]

Eugene
1. Puppy Linux is:
Increasing in popularity (http://distrowatch.com/stats.php?section=popularity); last I heard it was at number 3.
FREE, small, FAST, easy, practically uninfectable therefore secure, safe [run more than 1].
There are lots of versions with characteristics differing on a theme; just pick one or more of those you like.
Doesn't need to make use of the HDD at all if you don't want to; what you really need is the CPU & RAM [yours is MORE than adequate for all Puplets].
A 1GB+ Flash Drive [or whatever] can be used for storage and/or to hold the "pup_save" file, or for installing to.
Puppy will be able to access all your partitions [Windows?] and view/manipulate things [partitions, folders, files].
It loads and runs MUCH FASTER than Windows on any given hardware, and is easy to connect to the web.
The web-browser included as standard varies depending on which Puplet you use.
Either "Sea Monkey", or "Opera", or "Firefox".

2. You could run [one or more of] this Linux greyhound breed while you try [or wonder whether it's worth trying] to get your Windows Elephant back on its feet.

[EugeneSSS]

Thank you guys for complete information.
Now I have work to do on my week end.

Regards,
Eugene

[nuz]

What browser are you using? I sometimes find Firefox to be somewhat slow when Opera is working fine, but that could just be all these feeds I have running in Ffox.
Just thought of sth else:
Does your whole pc slow down or just the pages loading? If the latter, it might just be your service provider limiting your speed or maybe a bandwidth hog on the same server as you.