Possibly strange issue

trickycurve · 30 Nov 2012 at 00:49

I really want to get to the bottom of an issue I've been having on and off at varying intensities for quite a few months now, and no amount of Googling or trial-and-error and has been able to fix it, so here I am hoping the network gurus at Overclockers can help.

Basically, my problem is that web browsing can sometimes be atrociously slow, whereas downloads, online gaming, and video streaming are completely unaffected. I've tried numerous things to try and solve this; I've used several different anti-virus/anti-malware programs and tools (my Norton IS, MBAM, SuperAntiSpyware, Norton Power Eraser, Kaspersky's TDSS Killer, F-Secure's Easy Clean), and they all turn up nothing; I've cleaned my PC of temporary files, browsing caches, and even DNS cache; I've tried using my ISP's DNS servers, OpenDNS, and Google DNS; and I've even tried reinstalling my network interface's drivers. Nothing I do improves browsing speeds.

Now, it doesn't appear to be the loading of web pages themselves, but more the connection to the website (or web server). Once the connection has been established, pages load at an acceptable speed. I've tinkered around with my router with no changes having any affect, and I'm almost 100% certain due to the amount of scans I've done with different programs that I have not been infected with anything. I should probably also mention that I had this issue prior to installing my SSDs when I got them back in July, so maybe it's a router problem (or maybe my network port is knackered but somehow only affecting web browsing?) Oh, and the downstairs PC is absolutely hunky dory.

I just don't know what the problem could be; I really am at my wit's end...

Thanks for any help.

HangTime · 30 Nov 2012 at 01:06

One thing you haven't mentioned is whether you've tried using a different browser?

mejinks · 30 Nov 2012 at 10:09

Who is your isp?

Go into command prompt and type ipconfig /all and paste the result here, you may be using a poor DNS server. Alternatively, this does sound like an issue that used to afflict IE7.

trickycurve · 30 Nov 2012 at 11:07

HangTime said:
One thing you haven't mentioned is whether you've tried using a different browser?

Ah yes. This was one of the things I tried back when I first noticed the problem, so forgot to mention it among the things I've done more recently. I suppose I could try Chrome again to see what happens (using Firefox currently).

mejinks said:
Who is your isp?

Go into command prompt and type ipconfig /all and paste the result here, you may be using a poor DNS server. Alternatively, this does sound like an issue that used to afflict IE7.

TalkTalk. But like I mentioned, the downstairs PC is fine, both when it had Windows 7 on it and after I installed Windows 8.

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Matt>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Matt-PC
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Linksys WMP600N Wireless-N PCI Adapter wi
th Dual-Band
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-25-9C-F5-2C-C0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::f9c0:a29a:54cb:576f%14(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.3(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 30 November 2012 10:49:49
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 01 December 2012 10:49:48
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 335553948
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-17-8B-17-88-00-26-18-94-21-7C

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-26-18-94-21-7C
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter isatap.{6D741341-48ED-4F98-A9D1-27C0EF6C1BF8}:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2001:0:9d38:6ab8:28e7:3518:a3ea:3973(Pref
erred)
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::28e7:3518:a3ea:3973%11(Preferred)
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : ::
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled

Thanks guys.

Edit: So I just installed Chrome, and while Googling is a lot faster and perhaps general web browsing is marginally quicker, it still seems that the connection to the website/server is taking a few seconds longer than it should and is still resulting in slower than normal browsing speeds. Seeing as Chrome has slightly reduced the problem, I'll continue using it until the issue has been properly solved.

mejinks · 1 Dec 2012 at 19:50

Install https everywhere. It could very well be a caching server.

Steveocee · 1 Dec 2012 at 20:05

Don't know if it will help at all but my chrome was average, i turned on pipelining on chrome//flags and it started to work a bit faster for me.
Maybe worth a try?

Also have you asked your ISP to check the line for errors?

zipp0r · 2 Dec 2012 at 14:51

i think IE has a check it performs testing if a website is safe or something before it loads it and it causes big delays.
do you have any packetloss, what are your ping times and are you on fastpath?

trickycurve · 6 Dec 2012 at 15:04

mejinks said:
Install https everywhere. It could very well be a caching server.

Apologies for getting back to this thread so late, but could you elaborate on this: what do you mean by "install https everywhere"?

Steveocee said:
Don't know if it will help at all but my chrome was average, i turned on pipelining on chrome//flags and it started to work a bit faster for me.
Maybe worth a try?

Also have you asked your ISP to check the line for errors?

Is this an option within Chrome?

And no, I haven't bothered to contact my ISP because I'm pretty certain my problem hasn't anything to do with their end seeing as m parents' PC downstairs is fine and other devices I connect to the network also seem to be reasonably fast.

bertles86 · 6 Dec 2012 at 21:39

Ok, so you've narrowed the focus to your local machine.

How is it connected to the LAN? Wired or wireless?

How old is the network card?

Check the manufacturers website for latest network card drivers.

If it's cabled, try a fresh patch lead.

Install your OS completely fresh.