Are there any programs I can shut down, tomake connection and web brousing faster?Ihave windows 98 second edition.

If you told us what you are runnimg... One thing you can do is to create a ram drive and transfer your browser's cache to it. Use a subdirectory, cause the root directory of ramdrive as a limited number of possible entries! Example, create ramdrive J and create j:\cache.

Why dont you try a browser such as opera www.operasoftware.com - which uses ram as cache automatically its also way faster

There are many factors governing web speed. For example, I currently use an analog modem that claims it connects at 52k but my throughput is actually about 30k. Why? because at some point most analog connections are converted to a digital connection and often the conversions are made at a lower rate than your actual analog connection rate. Noise on your phone line is another facter than can reduce your downloading speed. The most reliable way to improve your bandwidth is to have a digital connection. ISDN, DSL, or Cable are all examples of digital connections that, hopefully, will not suffer from the numerous problems found with analog modem connections. So think past your computer. Your speed problems are probably not in your computer but somewhere else far from your house. The advice about a RAM cache is a good idea. I personally like the xmsdsk.exe RAM drive software. It allows you to select the drive letter and the amount of memory to use. It loads from a DOS prompt or from a line in your autoexec.bat. No drivers to load. E-mail me if you'd like it.

Yes, XMSDSK.exe is the one i use. I've uploaded it to my briefcase, accessible from my site (link above!)