Want a speedy internet machine; suggestions?

singist

singist

singist

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I am using an old fx53 64bit machine, running Vista Ultimate x64 but over the last six months or so I've been getting really annoyed at the speed whith which the browser/internet runs: I can click on a link and wait for 20secs sometimes and when I look in task manager, System Idle Process is at 96%.

It never used to be this way and if I check my internet speed, I get 6.4mbs download and 0.38mbs upload with Tiscali, which is fine for my needs.

Firefox is no better than IE.

I don't download movies etc so not too worried about the speed there but moving from page to page and site to site is a ball ache.
I've cleared all the caches etc and I don't have any nasties as far as I know so:

I'm going to do a format and start again but want to know what suggestions you have for a non bloated light system; I don't mind going back to 32bit if it works faster as I still can't get drivers for my printer with the 64 bit OS.

Any suggestions/ideas before I format would be appreciated.
 
Early releases of Firefox 3 move like a whale on land. Try Opera, try Chrome.
Disable all nonessential processes in services.msc - look Black Viper (I think) for a list of processes to disable
Use Autoruns (download it from the sysinternals section of microsoft.com) to disable startup programs.

There's nothing wrong with 32bit in the short term if you want to try it. In the longer term you may upgrade the memory but there's nothing wrong with it at the moment.

Remeber to defrag the disk
 
osc89er said:
Early releases of Firefox 3 move like a whale on land. Try Opera, try Chrome.
Click to expand...

It's not going to be a browser problem. If it doesn't work properly with two different browsers, how is trying a third or a fourth going to make any difference?

How much RAM do you have installed? How much is being used?

If you have enough RAM, it sounds like it's either a problem with your internet connection/router, or an issue with your network. Are you connected to a wired or wireless network? Have you tried rebooting the router, if you have one? If you don't have another PC to try, can you borrow a laptop?

A high sync speed doesn't guarantee a good connection, and Tiscali doesn't exactly have a good reputation.
 
You also said it used to be OK.
Have you tried installing Malwarebytes and running it.
You could have a few trojans/Malware slowing it down.
 
It's been said before but he needs to sort the rest of his system out first.
He does 1 of 3 things :

1 - Asks somebody with a laptop to come round his house to try the connection.

If that is OK then he can try

2 - Download Malwarebytes and see if any threats are causing slow speeds

if that doesn't work then try -

3 - A re-install

However if the answer to 1 was the laptop was slow then he needs to -

4 - Sort the router & ISP
 
dmpoole said:
It's been said before but he needs to sort the rest of his system out first.
He does 1 of 3 things :

1 - Asks somebody with a laptop to come round his house to try the connection.

If that is OK then he can try

2 - Download Malwarebytes and see if any threats are causing slow speeds

if that doesn't work then try -

3 - A re-install

However if the answer to 1 was the laptop was slow then he needs to -

4 - Sort the router & ISP
Click to expand...

Cheers for the input guys;

Have tried a lappy and get the same very slow speed ...... sometimes says waiting for http whatever, sometimes I get the green 'loading' bar go across and 'done' but no change.

not changed anything with the router but might try a reset to defaults before I format and start again.
 
singist said:
Have tried a lappy and get the same very slow speed ...... sometimes says waiting for http whatever, sometimes I get the green 'loading' bar go across and 'done' but no change.

not changed anything with the router but might try a reset to defaults before I format and start again.
Click to expand...

Don't understand... why're you going to format if you get the exact same issue with another computer? The problem is obviously with the router or the internet connection.

Mattus said:
Are you connected to a wired or wireless network? Have you tried rebooting the router?
Click to expand...
 
singist said:
Cheers for the input guys;

Have tried a lappy and get the same very slow speed ...... sometimes says waiting for http whatever, sometimes I get the green 'loading' bar go across and 'done' but no change.

not changed anything with the router but might try a reset to defaults before I format and start again.
Click to expand...

No need to format.
Your problem lies with the router or ISP
 
just to throw out other possibilities out there - i agree with those that say it wont neccessarily be the computer or the browser - my thoughts:

1) isp's proxies being used - can they be changed - ntl/vm usually had a list with considerable differences
2) is this an issue affecting all sites or just some? might just be a site on a very slow/poor link - multiple hops and packet loss etc
 
As above, change the DNS Server Addresses in your router to those of OpendDNS and see if anything improves.

You will be amazed at the amount of people on fast connections who use OpenDNS as their ISP's DNS Servers are absolute pants (BT being one of them).
 
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