New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Slow browsing the internet.

post #1 of 25
9/17/07 at 11:38pm
Thread Starter 
My dv6500t has been having some problems lately. I have both wireless internet at campus as well as at home. Both I know are in good working condition because I've tried another computer at both places.

Well whenever I try using firefox or internet explorer the internet sometimes doesn't work or is extremely slow. Then all of a sudden it's normal, then will do the same thing over again. It happens with both firefox and internet explorer.

But the weirder thing is, that Half life 2 and other online games run completely fine and the connection speed is at or above par.
I've already tried disabling all firewalls and virus scanning software, still not doing it. So what's going on here? Should I try checking something else or what? It's getting very frustrating especially since there are times where I need the internet for school reasons.

Thanks,
-Mike
Reply
Reply
post #2 of 25
9/18/07 at 4:37am
try first clear out all ur caches, temp files and histories on both browsers. turn off automatic update for newer versions under firefox. review the themes and extensions that u do not use offten and zap them. any bookmarks set to check for validity? set them to manually check.

cheers ...
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 25
9/18/07 at 11:55pm
Thread Starter 
I always delete the caches, temp files, and histories of both browsers when I'm done. I tried turning automatic updates off still the same slowness, themes and extensions are to a minimum, and don't use bookmarks.

I did notice today that it hasn't dropped on me at all. It's just slow. I know it isn't the router though because I'm on my desktop which is also off of the wireless and it's a lot faster.

So anything else I should do?
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 25
9/19/07 at 12:03am
Try keeping your task manager up when doing a test browse--see if you can see a spike in activity when things slow down. Check CPU usage, network usage, disk usage, etc.
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 25
9/19/07 at 12:27am
Thread Starter 
The computer itself doesn't lag at all so disk usage and cpu usage shouldn't be a problem. I mean I have run hl2 death match at full graphics and still get a decent consistent ping.

So I just decided to try and restore the computer, and then after that reinstalled Firefox. Still doing the same thing. Browsing the internet is still unacceptably slow. What else should I do?

This is very frustrating. My older pentium 4 is faster than my brand new duo core laptop when it comes to browsing the net.

*edit*
Just for some numbers about what I'm talking about.

It took my desktop that's a 2.4ghz pentium 4 with 1gb of ram 2.58 seconds to load facebook.com. It took my brand new laptop with a 2.2ghz core 2 duo processor and 2gb of ram 35.28 seconds.

*edit 2*
Turned off Vista Aero and it sped the computer up a very small amount but browsing the internet is still very slow.
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 25
9/19/07 at 8:54am
Both machines ran Firefox? Same version?

What about Java? Java (and Flash for that matter) are notorious little piggies. Maybe there's something about your particular hardware setup mixing with a particular version of Firefox/Java/Flash.

Try loading those same problem sites using Internet Explorer (just as a test).
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 25
9/19/07 at 4:13pm
may be turning of uac?

cheers ...
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 25
9/19/07 at 11:38pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by qhn View Post
may be turning of uac? cheers ...
What's this? What do I do? I just tried HL2 Deathmatch and I'm getting a ping of about 30-40 average and fps of about 35-50 with almost graphics almost to full. It just takes a long time to load pages...it's very strange, almost like 56k speed. All other programs that need the internet work fine. Just Internet Explorer and Firefox have problems.
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 25
9/20/07 at 12:09am
Is the symptom that the page renders slowly? That is, you start seeing pieces of the web page, but it takes awhile for it to complete.

Or is it just a big pause, then the page comes up fast?
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 25
9/20/07 at 12:50am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by galahad05 View Post
Is the symptom that the page renders slowly? That is, you start seeing pieces of the web page, but it takes awhile for it to complete. Or is it just a big pause, then the page comes up fast?
It's a big pause, then the page starts loading in pieces...I noticed refreshing the page sometimes speeds it up a little as well. Both in IE and FF.
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 25
9/20/07 at 12:52am
Are you behind a firewall? In particular a wireless or wired router firewall?
Just a possibility.

EDIT: Never mind, re-read your original post.
Reply
Reply
post #12 of 25
9/20/07 at 12:56am
Thread Starter 
Also forgot to mention in my original post...the first few days I had the laptop the internet worked completely fine. It was even faster than my desktop.
Reply
Reply
post #13 of 25
9/20/07 at 7:47am
Checked for spyware/malware?

Also, for Firefox there are a few things (internal to the app) that can speed it up.
http://devnulled.com/content/2004/12...irefox-faster/

I don't think that last is your problem though.
Reply
Reply
post #14 of 25
9/24/07 at 1:29am
Thread Starter 
Weird thing it's still doing it but the last few days it worked completely fine. Then all of it a sudden it started doing it again. So right now I'm extremely frustrated with this. I'm so close to just saying screw it and either sending it back to HP or reformatting the stupid thing. Since everything important is on my desktop as well as an external hard drive.

And even weirder I was getting about 500kb/s downloading a file from the net but the pages still load extremely slow.

I'm already hating vista...

*edit*
So I realized something very interesting just recently. Whenever I do a google search it finds whatever I'm looking for very fast. But as soon as I try opening up one of the things it loads it takes forever. Or if I try going to another website it takes forever. Oh and my desktop is on the computer right now as well and it's still going much faster than the laptop.
Reply
Reply
post #15 of 25
9/24/07 at 10:43am
i suspect ur virus scanner, regardless that u mentioned u have it "disabled". how about removing it from ur system and use another one

vista is very picky as what av.scanner and firewall u r using. my personal take with vista is following:
. leave the firewall to vista and defender
. use nothing but "free" virus scanner like avg and avast. Norton & McAfee are deemed very unhealthy to a vista comp

cheers ...
Reply
Reply
post #16 of 25
9/24/07 at 6:33pm
Just a thought, but was the laptop being used wirelessly? (802.11 a, b, g, n?)

If so, our campus WiFi is always being hammered and is unusually slow...esp. around 12-2pm (lunch?). Next time it happens, try hooking it up directly w/ Ethernet and see if the speed is different.

I run XP but if I may echo 'qhn', I've heard from more than a few ppl about Anti-Virus & Vista acting funny....thus far, AVGfree is probably the most popular.
Reply
Reply
post #17 of 25
9/25/07 at 2:20am
Thread Starter 
All virus scan and firewall programs have been deleted. The laptop came with some norton trial junk that I deleted as soon as I got the laptop. I disabled all windows firewalls and defender stuff as well. Still have the same problem. Every once in a while the internet browsing works completely fine then it's super super slow loading pages. But HL2 Death Match runs completely fine. I get an awesome ping for running wireless on a laptop. About 30-50, at almost full graphics.

The router is not having a problem because I have a desktop that is hooked up to it via wireless as well and it doesn't have this problem.
Reply
Reply
post #18 of 25
9/25/07 at 2:49am
What brand of wireless router? Specs, please.
Reply
Reply
post #19 of 25
9/25/07 at 11:35am
Thread Starter 
The router is a Linksys WRT54G Version 5. I've tried disabling all mac filtering, WEP, and removed all port forwardings I had on the router still does the same thing.

I still feel it isn't the router that is causing the problem. Like I said HL2 DM gets great ping. So I know I'm getting a good connection. And my desktop gets a great connection as well. And my dad just tried out his older laptop and it works fine for him.
Reply
Reply
post #20 of 25
9/25/07 at 12:21pm
one more shot - disable windows zero configuration service and try again

cheers ...
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: HP, Compaq and Voodoo Notebooks