Very Slow Browsers

My internet has been dodgy for a few months (ISP issue) but as it's due to be fixed tomorrow I decided to take the upgrade from 20 meg to 30 meg, switching from separate modem & router to all in one "Super Hub" on Friday. Set up and activated as per ISP's instructions.

My internet access was as bad as it has been after set up and I assumed it was down to the ISP's ongoing problems until my partner came home from work on Friday evening and starting using her PC, internet running fine for her whilst mine remained virtually unusable. Both PCs using ethernet cables.

Saturday after work the situation remained the same her PC getting 20-30Mb download speeds running a speed test whilst I'm lucky to get the test page to load at all, when it did I was getting 2-5Mb download speeds.

Booted up the laptop, wireless connection, that's happy online too, 20-30Mb download speeds.

I've also tried wireless with the main PC via a dongle, still very slow.

I've switched cables and ports with her PC, hers remains fine, mine remains useless-poor.

I've had a look around online, tried this, tried that (I forget just what now, spent hours on this issue) and did gain a bit of performance improvement that made things semi-acceptable but not good enough and clearly a problem exists that needs resolving.

I did a system restore to a point 2 weeks ago save on an external HD which is where I think I got the best improvement, obviously have had a load of updates to install, not all have succeeded, one of which is the IE 9 version (been running IE9 beta for months), Firefox is my default browser and have installed Chrome today, same issues with all 3.

Non-browser internet applications are running as well, if not better, than they have ever done on my PC. Networking is fine as well, I can pull any file from either the other PC or the laptop and access them (virtually) instantly. Accessing the Super Hub's web page is incredibly slow too via my machine, instant load wirelessly via the laptop.

I have a fairly new Gigabyte MA770-UD3 motherboard, 4 Gb RAM, Windows 7 64 bit, all drivers updated where possible over the last 48 hours or so.

"Something" is affecting all browsers and slowing them massively, but what? I've turned Norton and off and tried without that, no difference, safe mode with networking, slow, slow, slow!

Any help/ insights/ suggestions would be appreciated, I'm at a total loss as where to go other than try a windows repair or reinstall. It may or may not be connected but I am constantly getting a fail with service pack 1 via windows update.

 

HI -

I was about to do an almost identical post when I spotted yours. I've currently got four computers on a LAN, three through a KVM switch (1 keyboard, 1 monitor, 1 mouse), one separate. The 6 operating systems are 3 32-bit XP and 3 64-bit W7. The only affected operating system is the W7 one on my main (dual boot) computer - the XP one is just as good as all the other computers! I've tried both wifi N and wired connections - makes no difference at all. I've done lots of bandwidth tests - fairly good results for where I am. I've done the full test at the malware forum - no malware. It doesn't follow we've got the same problem, but... Anyhow, like you I'm beginning to have thoughts of a flatten-and-rebuild operation. Not at all nice.

Bob

 

I wrote a reply last night but it didn't post so one quick request please -- what version of windows 7 is this? Have you been updating it as the MS updates come out for windows?

 

Windows 7 home premium 64 bit. All windows updates installed other than service pack 1 that has now failed 8 times.

 

Sometimes this can help.
It certainly made a difference for me compared to the OS default settings.

Speed Guide TCP Optimizer: download

TCP Optimizer FAQ

TCP Optimizer Help

 

drekly -
This seemed to help quite a bit in my case. Open IE, then do this:
1. Tools -> Internet Options
2. "Connections" tab
3. "LAN settings" (click button)
4. untick "Automatically detect settings"

Worth a try!

 

Untick? It just leaves everything blank, still nothing ventured ......... Cheers for the tip, I'll report back later today with my observations.

 

Thanks for the tip, I tried TCP Optimzer several months back before my ISP admitted that there was a fault at their end (obviously made no difference) and I have run it again over the weekend, possibly it's made the difference in actually loading pages and not getting time outs but it's not fixed it to an acceptable level.

 

hi drekly, did you get anywhere with your issue?

 

I ended up taking the opportunity to upgrade the CPU and RAM and doing a clean installation of windows 7 on a different HD.

There are no issues whatsoever with the system now. I can still boot from the original HD, it still has the same issues, it remains in the PC for me to drag docs etc. over as and when I need them.

Cheers for the replies from all, it's unfortunate that the issue hasn't been identified and solved, but as the most important thing for me is having a fully functioning PC, I have solved the problem my way.

 

Sometimes it's better that way and trailing issues don't follow you and frustrate you. Good work on the fix, I like that a lot, I might borrow it for a dead laptop I no longer have the patience to tinker with.