You may not be getting the full speed out of your Internet connection because of the way your operating system is set up, as I discovered this week. I recently signed up for France Telecom?s higher speed DSL CHANGE service, going to 1024kb (kilobits per second) from 512kb. Sure enough, a day later, my connection icon was telling me I was connected at the right bandwidth speed. But I did not notice any increase in speed while using the Internet. Strange. So I tested and retested my connection speed at some of online services. Surprise! I was only getting about 350 kbs.

Bandwidth speed is a factor of many things and can vary, depending on traffic at your ISP (Internet Service Provider) and on the Internet. However, my connection speed was significantly slow and I at first suspected a problem with France Telecom, which has not been known for the high quality of its service.

After some research at SpeedGuide.net I found that the problem lay in my system configuration.

Through the use of free programs at SpeedGuide.net, my system was automatically re-configured (or ?tweaked?) and I was soon boosted to between 800kb and 900kb.

Here?s how to check your system if you feel you?re not going as fast as you could on the Bermuda superhighway. While it is too complicated to explain here, Windows systems (and sometimes Apple?s operating systems) are not well optimised for high-speed connections, such as broadband Internet connections.

First, test the speed of your connection to see if you are getting the right speed out of the ISP service you are paying for. SpeedGuide.net provides a free online testing and tweaking service, as does PC Pitstop (www.pcpitstop.com). I found SpeedGuide provides a more in-depth analysis of the different settings on your operating system that restrict your speed. Though SpeedGuide?s TCP/IP Analyzer I found my operating system automatically limited me to 350kbs. You must register (free) at SpeedGuide to get this information. If you are limited in such a way go to the site?s TCP/IP Optimiser section. Read carefully and only implement the correct programs for your operating system. As the programs make changes to your Windows registry, you must back up your registry before proceeding in case of problems. The registry is an important hierarchical database used in Windows to store configuration information for applications, hardware and users on the system.

SpeedGuide tells you how to backup your registry for your system. You can also try http://support.microsoft.com for more information on your registry. SpeedGuide also provides information on how to manually tweak your registry, but unless you are in the IT business I do not recommend going anywhere near your registry. You may make an error and kill your operating system.

For more information on speed tweaks try http://compnetworking.about.com/od/speedtweaks. Another site that provides information on speed testing and tweaks is www.winguides.com.

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TechRepublic has published a new version of its ?Laptop Checkout Tool? for businesses. The free downloadable Excel workbook makes it easy to enter and track information on borrowed laptop equipment. You can also print a ticket for signoff by user and support staff and generate a report to show checkout data for the week, month, quarter or year.

The site will prompt you to register at TechRepublic before downloading the workbook. Go to www.techrepublic.com and click on ?Tools & Executables? in the ?Downloads? section.

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Microsoft has released a Antivirus Defence-in-Depth Guide. The guide provides an overview of the types of malware and their risks and on planning an effective anti-virus strategy for your business. Now you too can throw the book at your IT department if you think they?re sleeping on the job. Go to www.microsoft.com/downloads and do a search for the guide. The link is too long to put here, but you can also go to SecureBermuda and link directly to the guide.

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