Poor internet access

[grok]

About 1.5 weeks ago my WinXP PC started acting poorly for internet access.
The basic router plus cable access workes great for my wife's MacBook and my
iPhone so no problem there. I am able to get internet access with ie much of
the time but sometimes it is slow and sometimes it stops working all
together. The same is true for a stock market app that I use except worse.

This may have started after I couldn't shut down one night because it hung
up while Saving my Settings.

All this occurred after many years of fine operation. I keep a pretty clean
machine and use tools like RegistryEasy and SpeedUpMyPC but neither have been
effective. I have downloaded and reinstalled ie and my stock market app
twice each and still no help.

Please offer some help.

 

[R. McCarty]

When shutdown halted did you simply power off the PC ? If so your
drive may be in an inconsistent state. You should run a Chkdsk C: on
the drive to test. When a volume is "Dirty" it can sometimes affect the
overall speed of the PC.

Internet Speed first needs benchmarking. I'd recommend Speedtest.Net.
Select a test server near your location. If both download/Upload ratings
are what you normally get I'd look to Malware as a possible cause.

You may also benefit from doing an IPConfig/FlushDNS command
from a Command Prompt window.