"Joe T" wrote in message
...
About 6 months ago my daughter forced me to stop being a dinosaur when she
moved her family to Florida. (I don't even own a cell phone) She gave me
her
old Win98SE computer after she "cleaned it" when she got a new one. I am
using Wal-Mart dial up ($9.94/mo. Ok, I'm cheap she says, It's really AOL
shell but with Wal-Mart branding). 520 mb ram she says, 120gb drive,

(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.
[]
It's slow on loading up pages. Real slooow. I can go to the kitchen and
pour
a cup of coffee and return and it's still loading. A young neighbor said
it's

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)?

probably the Hosts file. He explained and I kind of understand the
principle.
I looked at the host file and there is a boat load of sites there.
1. Doesn't this slow down the web browsing if it has to look for these
sites

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

first? 2. What would happen if I deleted these? 3. Can I set it up so it

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).

doesn't have to download pictures? 4. Would that be faster?

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.)

Be kind, I'm an emerging Rip Van Winkle coming out of a 30 yr sleep. Lot
of
catching up to do.

Delighted to hear it.