Slow internet

About three weeks ago, I noticed that the internet was running more slowly than before. I did have some problems with the radio (we're using Motorola Canopy wireless) but the ISP replaced it. I really don't know if the radio problem is connected, but it seems that the internet is getting slower and slower.

Using Firefox (or IE7) I'll go to a website and the site doesn't completely download. There won't be any comm activity (as represented by the icon in the systray) but the browser will just sit there. Sometimes it will eventually load the page, and sometimes I have to click the link again to get it to load. Same problem with both browsers. And I replaced the browser last week, hoping that this was the problem, although none of the other six computers in the house are having this problem.

Using FTP, I'm getting a lot of timeouts - but if I check the route with PingPlotter, everything looks fine - good times, little or no lost packets.

I just don't know where to start. I've disabled the firewall, antivirus, etc, and that doesn't seem to make any difference. Is there some diagnostic I could run that might help pinpoint the trouble?

Using WinXP SP2, AVG Internet Security 8, Firefox 2, IE7.

Thanks
steve

 

Sorry to post a follow-up, but I can't find an "edit" link - What I meant to say was that I replaced the ROUTER last week, not the browser.

 

My ISP is Texas AirCanopy, a local provider of Motorola Canopy technology services. Various speed tests show download speeds of 3800-4500mbps.

Tried booting in Safe Mode, can't tell any difference in the way the internet behaves.

There are usually 2-3 PCs on the network, but it's seldom that all three are sending/receiving at the same time.

The NIC is a Realtek RTL8169, and the driver was updated in Feb'08

I've brought one of the laptops into my office so I can try accessing a website when it stalls on my pc - and the laptop seems to access the sites without any problems - it's just my pc that's having this problem.

I do use System Mechanic 8, and it 'optimizes' my internet connection - I've tried selecting the "restore Windows default" setting, but this doesn't solve the problem either.

I've also tried disabling the AVG firewall and "resident shield," but that doesn't seem to fix the problem either, although I'm thinking that these problems began about the time that I "upgraded" from AVG 7.5 to 8.0 -

I upgraded to XP/SP3 today, hoping that maybe that would have some effect on the 'stalling' problem, but it didn't -