FASTER! FASTER! FASTER! FASTER! FASTER! FASTER! FASTER! FASTER! FASTER! FASTER! FASTER! FASTER! FASTER! FASTER! FASTER! FASTER! FASTER! FASTER! FASTER! FASTER! FASTER! FASTER! FASTER! FASTER!

Enable at least 1 MB of standard XMS memory (in OpenDOS, it is defaultly disabled, for examble. You must enable more than 0 kB of so-called "Nolim XMS"). Use SMARTDRV (NWCACHE in OpenDOS). Make sure, that you are using also write disk caching, not only something like "SMARTDRV /X" (default setting in AUTOEXEC.BAT on many systems), but rather "SMARTDRV C+" There are reports, that Arachne is "ultrafast" if you run it from 2 MB ramdisk (ramdisk can be configured in DOS CONGIF.SYS file). In multitasking enviroment like W95, try to run Arachne in single task ("MS-DOS") mode. If it is possible, select directly your SVGA card and do not use VESA driver. VESA calls are approximately two times slower than direct access to some older SVGA cards (like Trident or TSENG). Another solution is to use UNIVBE VESA driver, available at http://www.scitechsoft.com/ (BTW, some VESA cards slow down Arachne so much, that it runs slower on Pentium at school lab than on my 386 at home. Optimal "Arachne box" is probably something like DX4/100 with Trident SVGA video card). Turn off local icons and turn on fast JPEG preview in "More options". Local surfing and JPEG conversion is also faster if there is enough DOS memory available to spawn the external utilities without leaving Arachne. Switch off image loading. Or, if you still want to see images, set image refresh time to 60 seconds (both in "More options"). Delete files like PPP_BACK.GIF or PAPER.GIF, especially in EGA mode. Use lower resolution to see less images at one time. It will speed up pallette mixing. Try background surfing (hold Ctrl while clicking on link). You can comfortably read current document until new one is downloaded. When download is finished, click the link again and the document will appear immediately. Surf quickly (without reading) to disk cache, then disconnect modem ("H" key) and browse documents from Utilities ("U" key) -> Cache Index. In some countries, like Czech Republic, this can also help you to reduce your phone bill. Try to delete disk cache (with F8 key) when computer seems to be too slow. Searching cache for missing images and writing cache to disk both take a lot of time. Ask your Internet provider or LAN administrator if there is proxy server available. Proxy caches frequently accessed WWW pages (like Netscape homepage, Altavista or Yahoo queries, etc.). Buy faster modem or computer or select faster Internet provider...