Simple Ways to Reduce Your Monthly Data Usage
Not everyone is lucky enough to have unlimited data plans available as options. Some internet users still rely on volume-based internet plans, which means they need to be more meticulous when it comes to managing their internet usage. Unfortunately, we live in a time when the best web applications consume more bandwidth than ever.
Worry not, because you can still take active steps towards reducing your monthly data usage if you are on a volume-based data plan. These next several tips and tricks will help you get started with saving bandwidth right away.
Download, Don’t Stream
Streaming services like YouTube and Netflix consume the most bandwidth. Depending on the quality of videos you stream, you are spending anywhere from 8 MB to close to 300 MB to watch one minute of video. Fortunately, you don’t have to stream every time you want to watch something.
Many streaming apps have built-in download features. Netflix, for instance, allows you to pre-download the movies you want to watch to your phone or tablet. The same can be said for YouTube and Amazon Prime.
There are ways to download video contents directly to your PC too. For starters, you can follow the tutorial from Freemake (available at http://www.freemake.com/how_to/download_youtube_on_windows_8_and_8_1) to download YouTube videos to your Windows PC or laptop.
Now that you can pre-download videos you want to watch, you can use public or free Wi-Fi services to download videos and save your own internet bandwidth for other use. This alone can help cut your monthly data usage drastically.
Check for Malware
Another important thing to do when you’re trying to conserve your internet quota is checking for worms and other malware. It is not uncommon for malware to use your internet connection for sending all sorts of files and personal information. This type of activities consumes a lot of bandwidth, plus you can’t always monitor the amount of data being used.
Using an up-to-date malware scanner, you can scan your computer and mobile devices for malware. Eliminate malware and keep your devices clean to avoid unauthorized use of valuable monthly data quota.
Alter Your Settings
Modern browsers now come with data saving features and extensions. Using these features can help you lower your data usage by a substantial margin. You can stop sites from automatically playing videos and downloading large images. You can also block intrusive ads from appearing on your screen; those animated ads are quite large and aren’t friendly to your data plan.
Extensions take these simple tweaks to the next level. Chrome extensions for limiting YouTube video quality, caching contents, compressing data transmissions and performing other advanced data saving tasks are widely available and easy to find. You can even turn to Google’s own AMP to further limit data usage when opening popular websites.
These tips will help you save small amounts of data here and there. Those small amounts you save translate into a substantial amount of reduction to your monthly data usage. You may even be able to go down a plan and save some money with the right data saving tips implemented.
