1. *Anything* besides AOL. Well, not really "anything" since there are a few
others out there that are almost as bad, but really, AOL sucks BIG time!

2. Any dial-up (DUN) these days is going to crawl, even slower than it used
to. Websites are loaded with a lot more than they used to be when DUN was
king, and DUN providers don't devote the resources to their servers that
they used to. I *strongly* advise that you upgrade to DSL. The cost might be
as low as $16/month. Who's your telephone provider and do you live in a
populated area (not some rural location)?

3. At DUN speeds, the HOSTS file isn't going to be causing any problems.
Yes, it causes a barely noticeable slowdown on fast connections with older
machines, but that's something I consider a fair trade-off considering the
protection it offers. The HOSTS file is a redirect file. It was originally
used to make getting around a local network easier (think big business).
Instead of remembering long IP addresses (like 192.168.14.310) or
\\Servername\Computername\sharedfolder, one could simply type in "mikesdocs"
and an entry in the HOSTS file would translate that to the proper address.
These days, we use it to redirect known malicious sites to an address that
is guaranteed to fail on most machines -- your own computer, aka localhost,
aka127.0.0.1. Unless you have an internet server installed on your machine,
that address produces an error page instead of allowing your browser to
download whatever is coming from that site. Since the bulk of the download
from commercial sites is advertising, and the HOSTS file redirects those to
an error page (which is on your own machine and takes little time to load),
the HOSTS file is saving you a TON of time when you go to commercial sites
(or to AOL using your WalMart account, which is almost certainly loaded with
its own advertising.)

To properly use the HOSTS file in this manner, you need to periodically
update it from some site that manages a HOSTS file, adding malicious or
wasteful addresses as they become known to the manager. We MVPs have one
such site at http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm. One MVP, George
Geyde, has developed a program to update the HOSTS file for you. Get it
here: http://dundats.mvps.org/Software/Index.htm (at bottom of page.) But
I'm betting that since you already have an active HOSTS file, and you've
found your way here, that your daughter has already installed this program.
Once you've installed the program, or if you already have it installed,
remember to run it every week or two. Once you've graduated to DSL or other
broadband, come back and I'll give you some tricks to automate it. Don't
want to do that until you're no longer on Dial-up.

As for making your system run faster, I suggest you start with the links in
my signature. Then come on back with your new questions and we'll proceed
from there. Your internet browsing speed has nothing to do with the HOSTS
file and everything to do with needing to tune up your system (and getting
broadband, of course.)

(Probably 512 rather than 520.) Sounds - assuming the rest is similar spec.
to the RAM and HD size - as if it's likely to be a fairly good system.
[]

Hmm, that _is_ slow, even allowing for the propensity these days if site
designers to assume everybody has broadband. Does that apply even for
text-only pages (or with image downlad turned off, see below)?

As gary said, the Hosts file - assuming it is reasonably OK - is probably
_saving_ you _some_ time.

If you want to try, just rename the hosts file to some other name; if it
makes no difference, rename it back (deleting any hosts file the system has
created on its own in the meantime).

Yes, and lots. A picture is generally worth a lot more than a thousand words
these days (-:! A lot of web sites will be unusable, though, because they
tend to have buttons with images of words on, so you can't see what the
buttons are; however, some sites will still work, especially if they've
implemented ALT text to help the visually handicapped and those on slow
links. (People who do this generally make better sites anyway, IMO ...)

As for _how_ you turn image download off, it depends on your browser. I
don't know if AOL/Walmart uses something different; if it's basically some
variant of Internet Explorer, although it varies slightly with some
versions, it's probably (it is for this version 6 anyway) under Tools,
Internet options, Advanced, and you want to untick "Show Pictures" (and
probably tick "Show Image Download Placeholders" if not already ticked, as
that will keep the structure on better-designed pages).

(If AOL is completely different, someone please say - I know not of it.)

Delighted to hear it.