Slow Internet access...

voodoo

Hi all,

Just bought a 2nd hand machine, which seems quite a good spec -

2.8ghz Pentium 4
1GB RAM
80GB HDD

Problem is, when surfing, it seems to take for ever to download pages and even longer to download any movies etc. I have a laptop also and have no problems with this (and never did with my older machine either), so know it's not the broadband connection.

Any idea of what I should look for, or what I can do to improve this?

Voodoo

Fanny Cradock

It's possibly riddled with spyware etc. this can really slow down your connection, so make sure you run AV/antispyware programmes.

Try Hitman Pro 2 as it comprised of some of the best free and trial (about 14 days) antispyware programmes out there:
http://www.techspot.com/downloads/1278-hitman-pro.html
(hope this isnt the dutch version)

the only problems i can see here are the time it will take to download the programme and then the initial update of definitions. if your connection is slow this will probably take an age.

failing that try "spybot serch and destory" and "adaware" (both free and also on hitman pro 2) individually then try hitman pro 2 later.

Laguna

I can't really see why your connection would be any slower on your desktop unless the machine itself (which could be likely) is riddled with SpyWare and/or viruses, do a check and see if that's the case.

28064212

Sounds odd. Are you using the same software to download in both machines?

voodoo

Guys,

The machine had AVG on it and I ensured that the latest DATs were downloaded! Still no good! I then removed this and put the McAfee AV & Anti-Spyware product on it as well as the McAfee DT firewall. Also ran Search and Destroy but still no better...

All I am doing is using MS Explorer to do the downloading. To give you an example, if I go to www.metacafe.com and try to download one fo those videos, it can take upto 5mins to download! My laptop can do it in about 15 seconds...

Just downloaded Hitman Pro and the Transfer rate was between 40kb and 70kb per second...

Any other suggestions very welcome

jpboyne

Might be the last thing you wanna do..but sometimes the only way to get back to 100% working order is to do a format and re-install, bye the way is it only internet related applications thats slow?
try downloading mozilla firefox and see is that slow too?

I'd blank the hard drive! but then again i create a backup of my system regularly!

voodoo

Hi all,

I have ran Hitman and a few other tools and it seems to have fixed the issues to some extent! Must have been riddled with Spyware ok...

Thanks for all the assistance!

Fuzzy_Dunlop

voodoo wrote:

Hi all,

I have ran Hitman and a few other tools and it seems to have fixed the issues to some extent! Must have been riddled with Spyware ok...

Thanks for all the assistance!

i seem to have been having the same sorta problems as you but running spybot and ad-aware didnt do much. i was gonna use hitman but it appears as if it might mess things up according to some of the things on that site so i avoided it for now. do you recommend it or will it make any more difference?

colinodonnell

Just got a new Dell Laptop, wireless internet was very slow even though there was a broadband connection.

Firstly, i had three firewalls, so thats a start, but still slowish.

What really worked for me was that if you change the TCP/IP internet protocol from the latest version, in my case 7.0 to the basic one the connection immediately improves. Apparently not all websites are configured to use the latest protocol.


Start
->Control Panel
->Network Internet Connections
->Network Connections
->Wireless Network Connection
->Properties
->Scroll down to Internet Protocol 7.0 (TCP/IP) and uninstall (make sure that there is still Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) installed (the older version)
-> You should now be prompted to shut-down so that the changes come into effect.
->Roll on broadband

p.s. as always with uninstalling something it is prudent to keep a back-up