Windows XP: Slow Connection with XP

(NT) What are the specs of your computer?

Advice

When you say you reintalled did you mean wiped everything clean, reformated and reinstalled? If so did you test it right the installation of xp or did you reinstall all of your programs before testing your connection? Also is your computer hooked up to some sort of firewall router (if yes then maybe the router needs to be reset).

First of all,

by MarkFlax  - 1/30/06 4:06 AM

try a speed test. PCPitstop has one for DSL at;
http://www.pcpitstop.com/internet/default.asp

This should give you some guidance of what connection speed you are achieving and what you should expect.

Then, please state what anti-malware programs you have running in the background; eg what firewall, anti-virus and anti-spyware.

Many people think that all of their anti-spyware programs should be running in the background permanently, but that's not really true. You only need one, and use the others to perform a check every so often.

For example I have;

ZoneAlarm firewall continuously running,
AVG Antivirus continuously running,
Microsoft AntiSpyware continuously running,

Spybot Search and Destroy, installed but not running,
Ewido, installed but not running,
SpywareBlaster, (does not run in the background anyway),
Lavasoft's AdAware SE Personal, not running.

Also, check what ''other'' applications load at startup. Goto Start > Run, type in ''msconfig'', (without the quotes), and click the Startup tab. You only need essentials there, not things like instant messengers, or Real Player, or anything like that which you can just start when you need them.

Mark

Difficult request.

by MarkFlax  - 2/1/06 8:55 AM

That's difficlult purrfect.

It depends what you mean. What do you mean by "Boost" your PC, and what sort of tools?

The best sort of tool is a PC that is virus free, with a connection that is geared to fast internet downloads. For example, a dial-up internet connection is never going to be fast compared to a broadband connection. A computer over-run by viruses and spyware is going to crawl to a snail's pace compared to one that is infection free. Keep your anti-virus and anti-spyware utilities up to date, and scan with them regularly.

Also, hardware can make a difference. A PC with 512MB of RAM will work much quicker than one with just 128MB of RAM. A faster processor in addition to more RAM will significantly increase a computer's performance.

Then there is housekeeping. Do not have too many programs running at the same time. Check your MSConfig utility, (Start > Run, type in msconfig, press OK), under the Startup tab and remove any unwanted programs loading at startup. Run Disk Cleanup regularly, (Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup) to remove any unwanted temporary files.

I've not tested many of these "Boost your PC" tools because I am not convinced they will work. If a PC or an internet connection is slow to begin with, no tool is going to speed it up.

Mark

Possible bad modem

I assume that your ISP will have tech support. I would give them a call and see if they help you determine what the problem is. It could be a bad modem.

Slow Connection with XP

I want to thank everyone for their suggestions to my slow connection problem. Unfortunately nothing seems to be working and things have gone from bad to worse. Recently I had a couple of trojans I couldn't get rid of and I did another resturation of the system. I'm thinking maybe I need to buy an anti-virus/firewall/anti-adware, do a full re-installation and cover the pc first hand before going online again? I'm not sure which product is best and would welcome some suggestions.

Cheers.