Slow browsing - but only on laptop!

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Neo
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Slow browsing - but only on laptop!

Post by Neo » Mon Jun 14, 2010 2:58 pm

Hi guys, this little problem has been puzzling me for some time and I had enough and have decided to call in the big guns! :)

The details:

I have a router (SART2-4115 still, with rtfw v2.93) and several computers that connect to this router to access the Internet. So far, so good, as has been the case for quite some time.
Recently, however, web browsing seems to have slowed down to a snail's pace on my laptop. Other PCs are unaffected.

I created a small application to repeatedly test browsing speeds and in most cases browsing starts OK (which confirms DNS resolution is working) but the rarely finish downloading (they time out).

This is my list of possible causes (in no particular order):
  1. Website specific – NO
  2. Browser issues (browser specific) – NO
  3. DNS resolution – NO
  4. IP Throttling via router – NO
  5. LAN port on router – NO
  6. Apps hogging bandwidth - NO
  7. Other PCs hogging bandwidth - NO
  8. MTU – Don’t think so, have tried various values
  9. TCP Receive window – NO
  10. Odd services – don’t think so.
  11. Odd apps – no evidence so far.
  12. Windows Updates
  13. NIC adaptor settings - NO
  14. Faulty NIC Adaptor – NO, tried a USB-Ethernet adaptor
  15. Firewall – NO
  16. NIC driver - NO
Anyone able to provide a solution or suggest any other potential causes that I have missed out?

I'm getting to the stage where I feel a reinstall of Windows is on the books (if it's Windows Update related it could take a long time to find out which one) :?

TIA ;)
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Re: Slow browsing - but only on laptop!

Post by thechief » Mon Jun 14, 2010 3:14 pm

Viruses (or "virii" if you so please), trojans, keyloggers and other malware?

Trashed Windows networking?
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Re: Slow browsing - but only on laptop!

Post by Alan » Mon Jun 14, 2010 3:28 pm

If it is a Windows update, it could well be OK on a fresh install.

Have your tried different DNS servers? I had something similar a while back, and switching to open DNS servers fixed it.

Anti Virus Prog? I have Kaspersky installed at the moment, but i have to reinstall it every 2 to 3 months because for some reason it starts hogging my system resources to the point where surfing and downloading emails grinds to a snails pace!

A few things for you to chew on Neo :D
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Re: Slow browsing - but only on laptop!

Post by Neo » Mon Jun 14, 2010 7:44 pm

Thanks for the replies :)
thechief wrote:Viruses (or "virii" if you so please), trojans, keyloggers and other malware?
I try to avoid collecting general spyware and malware on the laptop and use a software firewall and anti-virus software to keep it at bay. I also used TCPView which should have shown if there were any suspicious processes accessing the network (there were none). A scan with Malwarebytes' Antimalware didn't find anything either, so hopefully the system is clean.
Alan wrote:Have your tried different DNS servers? I had something similar a while back, and switching to open DNS servers fixed it.
Yes, I tried various DNS servers (I've been tweaking the settings on all my machines) but it wasn't that - I used DNS Performance Test ( http://swmirror.org/drupal/?q=node/91 ) and the query times were actually quite small :)
Alan wrote:Anti Virus Prog? I have Kaspersky installed at the moment, but i have to reinstall it every 2 to 3 months because for some reason it starts hogging my system resources to the point where surfing and downloading emails grinds to a snails pace!
Ah, this might be the cause! :shock: I uninstalled AVG and now (fingers crossed) browsing speeds are much quicker.

Maybe it was the notorious link scanner ( viewtopic.php?f=29&t=2104&p=31178&hilit ... rch#p31178 ) that was causing things to slow down?

Or maybe it was the interaction with ZoneAlarm?
http://free-product.blog.avg.com/2010/0 ... alarm.html
http://free-product.blog.avg.com/2010/0 ... wsing.html

I'm installing an update to ZoneAlarm and then going to re-install AVG to see if the problem comes back...
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Re: Slow browsing - but only on laptop!

Post by Alan » Mon Jun 14, 2010 10:58 pm

Neo wrote:
Alan wrote:Anti Virus Prog? I have Kaspersky installed at the moment, but i have to reinstall it every 2 to 3 months because for some reason it starts hogging my system resources to the point where surfing and downloading emails grinds to a snails pace!
Ah, this might be the cause! :shock: I uninstalled AVG and now (fingers crossed) browsing speeds are much quicker.

...
Makes you mad, the stuff you have install to keep your PC safe, because of all the idiots out there than want to make your life hell :x
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Re: Slow browsing - but only on laptop!

Post by alex88 » Thu Jun 17, 2010 4:32 pm

i can assure you that you caught spyware, viruses or malware. I mean the behavior of your laptop directs to spyware, viruses or malware. you can try and install KIS 7 and scan your HDD. I have been using this software for a while and i'm very pleased.
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Re: Slow browsing - but only on laptop!

Post by Neo » Sat Jun 19, 2010 3:05 pm

Thanks for the info alex88, but after updating ZoneAlarm and AVG the problem went away, so I'm pretty sure it was the problem outlined here: http://free-product.blog.avg.com/2010/0 ... wsing.html (as linked to above)

I performed several full scans and I'm fairly convinced that the problem was not spyware, viruses or malware related.
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Re: Slow browsing - but only on laptop!

Post by Shotokan101 » Mon Jun 21, 2010 12:39 pm

Sorry Neo - just spotted this thread - I had this problem a few weeks back on our Vista Lappie and found that issue - removed AVG and installed Avast! AV instead... had been meaning to dump the resource hungry AVG anyway...

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