Being stuck on slow Wi-Fi can be incredibly frustrating, especially when you’ve got work to do, but there is a solution. David Nield at Gizmodo has written a handy primer on how to disable images and plugins on your browser in order to speed up loading times and counteract the crummy connection.
As Nield points out, the Internet has become an overwhelmingly visual place, filled with auto-playing videos and large, high-quality images, all of which load quickly on your speedy home network, but can become major resource hogs when you’re computer is fighting to stay connected. Here’s how to make the Internet a little less colorful, but much, much faster.
If you use Chrome, blocking images and plugins will be a breeze. Open the Settings tab, click “Show advanced settings…” and then find Content settings. In the Content settings menu, you’ll find options to not show any images and to block all plugins. Check a few boxes and you’re done.
Firefox is a little more complex. You’ll need to type in “about:config” in your address bar, find “permissions.default.image” and change the value to 2. On the other hand, all it takes to block plugins is to find the option in the Add-ons menu.
Safari users will need to head to the Preferences menu to start, but there’s a branching path from here. To disable plugins, navigate to the Security tab and find the option. To disable images, you’ll need to go to the Advanced tab, tick “Show Develop in menu bar,” open the Develop menu and find the option. For any straggling Internet Explorer users, you can find these same options in the Tools menu.
It won’t be the web you’re used to, but at least it will run on a subpar connection.
