Quick tips

1. Arachne needs at least a 386 CPU with 4 MB of RAM to do anything useful.
2. Enable at least 1 MB of standard XMS memory or at least 512 KB of EMS.
3. Both read and write disk caching is REQUIRED
4. Let your TEMP environment variable point to your RAM disk and use it for local caching.
5. Disable all obsolete visual effects using Preferences screen.

More details

1. Make sure your %TEMP% environment variable points to an existing directory on your fastest disk drive - cf. also notes on configuring the TEMP directory. This is extremely important if you chose swapping to disk. The minimum size of such a RAM disk is 512 KB.
2. If you are using HIMEM.SYS, make sure that the "numhandles=xx" argument is present on the HIMEM.SYS line in your config.sys file. "xx" should be some suitable number, let's say 64 (?). When using the QEMM memory manager (recommended), you won't have this problem but when Arachne crashes and restarts without deallocating XMS, the perfomance may suffer. It is better to reboot your PC in such case.
3. Try to keep the number of files in the Arachne working directory fewer than 128
4. Disable smooth scrolling, smooth Page Up/Page Down, and virtual screen, or try to select values appropriate for adequate computer performance (you can use Preferences screen to do this).
5. Disable frames
6. Disable logo animation
7. Use SMARTDRV (NWCACHE in OpenDOS). Make sure that you are also using disk-write caching, not merely something like "SMARTDRV /X" (default setting in AUTOEXEC.BAT on many systems), but rather "SMARTDRV C+"
8. There are reports that Arachne is "ultrafast" on most systems if you run it from a 2-3 MB RAM disk (a RAM disk can be configured in the DOS CONFIG.SYS file). A Detailed explanation on how to fit Arachne even onto a small RAM disk was written by Clarence Verge, a longtime Arachne user. If your RAM disk is not big enough for Arachne, try at least to point your %TEMP% environment variable to it - Arachne uses it for some temporary files. It can be more efficient than using the memory as XMS/EMS.
9. In a multitasking environment (like Windows 95) try to run Arachne in single-task ("MS-DOS") mode.
10. If it is possible, select your SVGA card directly and do not use the VESA driver. VESA calls are approximately two times slower than direct access to some older SVGA cards (like Trident or TSENG). Another solution is to use UNIVBE VESA driver, available at http://www.scitechsoft.com/ BTW: some VESA implementations slow down Arachne so much, that it runs slower on the Pentium at the school lab than on my 386 at home.
11. Turn off local icons and turn on fast JPEG preview in "More options" Local surfing and JPEG conversion is also faster if there is enough DOS memory available to spawn the external utilities without leaving Arachne.
12. Switch off image loading. You can load individual images by clicking on them with the right mouse button. If you really need real-time response, you can use the ~ (tilde) key to temporarily turn off all graphics. Or, if you still want to see images, set the image refresh time to 60 seconds (both in "More options").
13. Delete files like PPP_BACK.GIF or PAPER.GIF, especially in EGA mode.
14. Use a lower resolution to see fewer images at a time. It will speed up palette mixing. It appears that VESA mode 640x400x256 colors is extremely fast.
15. Using HiColor modes slows down the graphics output but no palette mixing is required.
16. Try background surfing (hold Ctrl while clicking on link). You can comfortably read the current document until a new one is downloaded. When the download is finished, click the link again and the document will appear immediately.
17. Surf quickly (without reading) to disk cache, then disconnect the modem (Alt+H) and browse documents from Utilities (U) -> Cache Index. In some countries, like the Czech Republic, this can also help you to reduce your phone bill.
18. Try to delete disk cache (with the F8 key) when the computer seems to be too slow. Searching cache for missing images and writing the cache index to disk both take a lot of time.
19. Ask your Internet provider or LAN administrator if there is a proxy server available. Proxy caches frequently accessed WWW pages (like Netscape homepage, Altavista or Yahoo queries, etc.).
20. Buy a faster modem or computer or select a faster Internet provider...