Slow browsing

[scredsfan]

I have noticed that over the last few weeks that even
though I connect at dial-up speeds of 33.6-40.0, pages
seem to load very slowly. It seems as if IE freezes, and
then after awhile will load the page. I am running SP2
with pop-up blocker enabled and I've checked for spyware.
I don't know if it's a modem setting or security setting -
any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Michael Pardee]

Since the connect speed varies between 33.6 and 40.0,
especially if the speed should be "56" (actually more
like 52 for technical reasons), I'd bet it is phone line
problems. Crackle is the big culprit here. The speed is
only the connect speed - when there is noise the
retransmission rate goes up and IE can spend a lot of
time waiting for something to happen.

If you have a second phone line, try that one. Otherwise,
put a phone on the line and press any digit except 0 to
break the dial tone. Listen carefully - if you hear any
identifiable crackling sound, that's the problem. If you
hear ghosts of other conversations (crosstalk), that will
do it, too. Hiss, unless it is really noticable, is not
so serious.

There are also some house wiring problems that can have
the same effect, particularly if there is an unused phone
jack at the far end of the house and you are near the
phone line entry location. If you have two lines, you can
swap them at the phone "protection block" located where
the lines come to the outside wall of your house. The
connections in recent blocks are modular connectors like
on the phone. If the connection speed comes up to the 50K
range when you swap them, there is a problem on the phone
company side. (Be sure to put them back the way they
were.) If you have to deal with the phone company on
this, patience and good luck to you.

Mike