Some suggestions for reducing your Internet traffic

• Don't leave your Web browser open on a page which automatically refreshes (graphic) content. Some web pages continually update themselves, particularly with advertisements, therefore don't leave your browser on these pages any longer than necessary. Search engines, Web-cams, the White Pages and Yellow Pages are typical examples;

• Use your University provided email account instead of services like Yahoo or Hotmail. Using Hotmail and other commercial web-based email services create external Web traffic and will therefore count against your Student Net Access Plan;

• Consider which sites you visit. Web pages which contain images, movies and sound will consume your allocation much more quickly than pages which are more text-oriented;

• Configure your browser to minimise web traffic:
  * if you use Internet Explorer to surf the web, click on the Tools, Internet Options menu, choose the Advanced tab, scroll down to the Multimedia category and uncheck Show Pictures; or,
  * if you use Netscape Navigator to surf the web, click on the Edit, Preferences menu, choose the Advanced menu item, and uncheck Automatically load images. If at any time you want to view a particular image, click on the image with the right mouse button and select Show Picture or Show Image.
  
  Depending on your configuration, you may need to use the Back button to view the page again.

• Web Browsers on most University computers are configured not to automatically play sound or movie files. Instead, you will be asked whether you wish to open the file or save it to disk. Either of these options will download the file, and if it is from an external Web site it will count against your allocation;

• Make sure you logout from your computer when you have finished working;

• Make use of the guidelines for choosing and protecting your password, so that others can't use your account.