Computer help forum: Online browsing speeds deteriorating over time

I too would have agreed with you about Firefox 4+ being slow, but at 7, things changed. FF is now faster and lower resourced than any other browser. They just released a new version. You should really give it a go, I think you'll be impressed!

And they don't load a bunch of cr@pware on their downloads!!

For many years now and with several different PCs I have an annual 'spring clean' of the system. This entails cleaning the PC internally after backing all my data up and then wiping the hard drive (Darik's Boot and Nuke) and then installing all software again. Apart from being sure of the state of the machine I am certain that no viruses are lurking anywhere. This clears out all temp files and the things that slowly grind windows to a halt.

I'm not sure if I really need to do this now as I dual boot using Windows to help with - other people's rather thoughtless saving of obscure file formats and hardly ever use Windows. My current Linux partition is Ubuntu 10.04 which is more than adequate for all my needs. Because of how Linux works I haven't noticed any deterioration in speeds.

There is one great thing however about Windows slowing down. I run a (retirement) IT business and slow Windows brings the customers in. I set a lot of my customers up on Linux but don't get so much repeat business from them - and that includes a lot of 'silver surfers'.

Here's a firefox extension where you can check your internet speed. Mine's often slow even though I'm on cable. Be sure to check your upload speed as well as download speed. If you click a button, it has to go back to the server before doing an action.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/broadband-speed-test-and-diagn/?src=userprofile#

And yes, some web pages are getting larger. The latest (2012) msn (now
"live") Hotmail is awful slow because they added so much stuff, that has
to load, interactive this and that, and more ads, more cross-site
scripting, etc. it's not even an msn server anymore!
We're on Cox cable and their OWN pages are deathly slow, their servers are old, I suppose. Slowest things on the web. I'm really disgusted with them.
That all said, yes, clearing cookies and other optimizations to your system might help, but if you have a slow connection that certainly won't help much.
One thing I do is use NoScript, which can block most outgoing as well as incoming cross-scripting, which slows things down considerably. EACH web server SHOULD ideally, handle all its own pages and everything on each page. CNET doesn't do this, for example, however, because of all their ads, tracking sites, etc. Why is crowdscience.com loading here, or twitter, or facebook? I don't want all those sites knowing I've been here. AND IT SLOWS you down!

Re-install the OS (XP in your case) is the most thorough fix, assuming you've investigated other likely problems.
For a few months, my Wife's pc (OS = XP) was having very slow response times while surfing and logging into MS Explorer. I tried just about all the methods listed previously, with no noticable positive results.

A side benefit of the re-install method (yeah I know it's a pain and time consuming, especially for XP installs because of the volume of updates required to the the system ready to use, ie., re-installing *all that software*), is that just about everything is reset to like-new condition.
The *patient* is now performing just fine.
Last, if you're a MS OS user... look into Win7. It's better than XP.

My wife runs a 4 year old Dell Inspiron 1520 upgraded to 4 GB memory with a fairly full (2/3rds full) 160 GB HDD (when I can get it away from her for half a day, I'll put a 320 GB HDD - 7200 at that - in instead. I have friends and facilities at work in IT to do this - but they have *never* worked with Vista and have no intention of starting now). It's running fully upgraded Vista home (32 bit). Microsoft has been trying to get us to upgrade to IE9 from IE 8 but when we do, it takes quite literally 5 minutes to load each time. To open an external site can take 15 minutes. We don't have any P2P on the machine and the only time we ever did have was the first version of BBC player to watch programs we have missed. It is used primarily for working on images and photography of her artwork - she's a glass artist. After a lot of problems with various suppliers of antivirus and antimalware (usually pay for three years get demands for further payment after first year) I've reluctantly moved to Windows Defender. *As far as I know* there is no other antivirus and firewall on the machine. I emphasise this because I am no longer fluent in what my wife likes to call "Nerdic". I became a user only in the beginning of the 1990s, so I only know "Old Nerdic". I can easily have missed something. Anyone out there like to enlighten me? Please don't suggest moving to a MAC or using Linux, as she's in her 60s and "just wants it to do things the way it always did".

Regards

David Walland

AVG must have made a resurgence lately; just a year ago it was blowing up my clients machines right and left. I switched them to Avast and none of them have had one problem since. But to each is own.

We are in a weird situation in the hard drive market too. Because of the tsunami that hit Japan, some of the newer fast 7200rpm drives are not actually available or are on back order. The stores are trying to dump older geometry on unsuspecting clients. With these older drives, you will actually have worse performance than a new small form factor 5400rpm drive.

They are actually selling older desktop drives, instead of the newer small form factor drives. All PCs now use the same form as what is put in laptops, so it is possible to get better access speeds with a drive that has smaller diameter platters and more of them stacked in the design. The older larger drives in 7200rpm can actually end up slower.

Just a heads up for anyone shopping now. I feel sorry for folks, the prices are WAY exorbitant now!!!

I would just like to add that I have used AOL as my browser/host since it's beginning. What I want to say is that AOL has slowed horribly over time. It takes 3-8 times as long to load new pages as newer browsers such as Google Chrome, etc. I am almost ready to dump AOL completely except it's been my e-mail address since I got into computing with the TI-99a many years ago, and I kinda hate to change that.

"I am almost ready to dump AOL completely . . . "
Don't rush into anything so drastic, after all, AOL just might make a comeback!

Lets not forget the basics. As more people get on line the system gets more loaded which slows things down. This is not helped by the lazy and uninformed who like to "Forward" to all their friends by simply adding their names on top of all the previous addresses. Like wise when replying, they repost all the email including photos addresses etc instead of just a few relevant words. Which helps to clog the system. Help me to change their habits, many who are "silver surfers" like me and just need a little Patient instruction (PS check your own habits)

Hello Bill D.

I will not say this will help in your environment. I am a medically forced to retire early sort of network junkie. I retired in 05 so that makes me a bit out of touch with the computing and networking world. I did mess around with computers and installing DOD networks for 35 years.

I have a home built desktop running Windows 7 with all current updates, 1.5GB ram, AMD Athlon 64 3200+ processor 200.9MHz Bus speed and clocked at 10 over giving me a core speed of around 2009.2MHz and a hard drive with a ton of space.

I found back when I was running XP that mine started getting slow, especially when using IE8. Looked around and talk with my brother. He was also running XP but using Google Chrome in lieu of IE8 and Firefox. He said it worked fine but again he had a bit faster processor.

Decided to try it. Boom it is quite a bit faster than IE8 as it loads quite a bit more. At this point I will never go back to Internet Explorer or until Microsoft does something in Windows to require you have IE.

This is just my world I guess. Chrome does start to slow a bit on me when I have 4 or 5 windows open and downloading mp3 files all at the same time. I run CCleaner (Free Version) when this happens seems to clear of all the junk and pick up speed again. I also run CCleaner when shutting down for the day.

Other software I run is Glary Utilities (Free Version)after coming up first thing to check basically for some screwed up registers.

Ok I am writing a book Sorry.

Hope this helps but like I mentioned earlier this may have nothing to do with your problems.

Feel free to contact me if you think I might be able to help.
lanemoyock@yahoo.com

There has been some mention of this previously, but I thought I'd throw this in. From time to time I see my download speed deteriorate. What works for me every time is to unplug the power from my router, wait 5 seconds, plug the power back in, and wait about 10 more seconds for my PC to get everything reconnected. Speed immediately goes back to the maximum provided by my ISP.

is not too too bright. Especially if you are still running a single core PC.

Even the aging browser of IE8 will act up and freeze up on such an old machine.

First, you need a recent Bios file to flash such old mainboard and, your machine has to have a minimum of an 1.8 Ghz of a processor for acceptable processing speed.

Second, for a single core PC, you must have a PCI-Express slot with a current expansion card for independent graphics and video processing(a 512Mb card that can process up to Direct X 10.x as a GPU on her). A 256Mb graphics-video card will be sufficient for browsing the web and for productivity software use only(no video and gaming quality expected, sorry). Plus, a minimum of a 2010 level of quality as for a Device Driver installed for that card. Thus, making your machine into a Dual Core one, anyway.

Third, Dual Core PCs originate the years of 2004-2005. Dual Cores have evolved greatly even since. Having 3Ghz in processing speed per core. Adding an expansion graphics-video card brings her to become a Triple Core in total processing ability.

Fourth, RAM cards have exponentially grown in memory storage abilities. Running out of RAM will freeze your web browsing and anything else for that matter. Having a mere 512Mb of RAM with 2 cards will give you really bad computing experiences(256Mb a card). DDR1 cards have to be upgraded to 1Gb a card and making sure they create a Dual Channel in overall transit speed with the rest of the chipset of your mainboard(Bringing them to 2Gb in total).

Fifth, I, personally, would not try to upgrade such an aging machine. Since the cost for each unit is very high and, the chances of getting your hands on them are not too too good. Besides, you'll have to flash your Bios with a way newer Bios file. Do not think you can get one for free or, simply not available at all for that matter.

Just hope she boots up the next time you get around to use her.

I have "Virginmedia" as my ISP using their cable.
Everything was fine with download speed until recently, I found I could not use BBC online Iplayer, every TV program I tried to watch would get a buffering error, previously there had been no problem whatsoever. I searched forums etcetera with advice to do this and that. During this process I received a call from Virgnmedia, to tell me they were upgrading my bandwidth from 10mb to 20mb, I told their rep that I had been getting the buffering problem and he explained that so many people were joining Virginmedia that at certain times the system could become overloaded!! I was given a free 3month trial at 30mb which would return to 20mb if I did not wish to pay the extra. All I had to pay for this FREE trial was £30, (what a bargain), this was to cover the cost of a new router, which could also act as a wi fi unit. This new router is huge it cannot fit on my vid/dvd shelf and if you leave it on it flashes as bright as christmas tree lights.
I use computers I leave the technicalities and problems to the good members of this forum.
So in reality I think it is your cable provider that limits your speed, even I know the good house keeping to clean your pc and reduce the possibility of slow internet access speeds.
I hope this is useful to some members.