Spotty internet connection

[RipperT]

Internet trouble with one XP SP3 machine on a wired/wireless network with 5
machines (XP, Vista Biz, Vista Home, Win 7). This machine is wired to Belkin
wireless router and has spotty internet connection. IE8 sluggish loading and
running. Loading tabs sometimes take forever, sometimes takes no time at
all. All other machines networked with each other and surfing the web
without problems. I've narrowed the problem down to this machine because it
behaves the same way if I bypass the router and connect it directly to the
modem.

I have/have tried:
All recent XP updates
Disabling Add ons
Registry cleaner
Resetting TCP/IP settings
Optimizing TCP/IP settings with DrTCP
WinSockFix
LSP Fix
Creating and setting registry keys:
NegativeCacheTime
NetFailureCacheTime
NegativeSOACacheTime
Uninstalling/reinstalling network adapters
Testing each of two built in adapters
Swapped out cables
Swapped cables among different different router jacks
Reset IE8 to defaults
Ran MalwareBytes
AVG Free Scan
AdAware
Spybot

Incidentally, programs that update themselves aren't having any problem
connecting to their servers

Can anyone think of anything else I might check before I re-install an OS?

Many thanks!

Ripper

 

[JimC]

You don't say if you have checked for hardware updates. Go to
Start>Programs>Windows Updates. Then choose 'Custom' from the two options.
After a while, updates should show. Check the left-hand panel for hardware
updates - there may be one for your ethernet adapter. Install any others
relating to chipset etc. If still the same, try installing a separate PCI
adapter to the machine, that may rule out issues with the adapter.

Cheers
Jim

 

[RipperT]

Thanks for the response. Sorry, forgot to mention that I did check for
hardware updates and there weren't any. Also didn't mention that the machine
behaves the same or worse in safe mode. I'm very tempted to blame IE, but
FireFox acts the same way.

Can anyone think of anything else?

Rip

 

[LD55ZRA]

It looks like you have installed Microsoft Updates released in September
2009 and these and other updates since then are the culprit to cripple your
system beyond repair.

My advice to you is to perform a clean install of Windows XP with SP3 and to
stop all Automatic Updates from Security Centre. Also configure your
firewall so that "No exceptions is allowed". Then install MSE and
definition updates manually please. There is absolutely no need to install
any updates because they don't enhance any functions nor do they enhance any
security features unless crippling your internet connection is called an
"inbuilt security features". This will surely stop you visiting any
websites!

This is all you need to have a system remaining in pristine condition
without needing any hardware or software updates/upgrades.

hth

 

[Jack [MVP-Networking]]

Hi
Did you check whether it is IE, Internet, or Local Network slow down.
I.e., try to transfer files between the computer and other computers on the
Network, and see what the Speed of transfer is.
Try another Browser too.
Jack (MS, MVP-Networking)..

 

[RipperT]

File transfer between computers is fine. It's only the internet connection
and as I said, IE8 and Firefox behave the same way.

Rip

 

[RipperT]

Are you saying Microsoft is deliberately poisoning XP systems with their
updates?

 

[LD55ZRA]

I am saying that the recent updates since September 2009 for Windows XP
hasn't met the rigorous testing and quality control expected from a top
software company. You can see from the updates newsgroups that the number
people having problems with updates has increased 100% and there is no other
explanation for this. So one can only conclude that Microsoft is under
tremendous pressure to release patches without testing them rigorously.

Did you know that Windows 7 has already had 135 updates since September 2009
when it was officially released? Why so many updates in such a short
period? Is it because the original product was defective to start with or
is it because Microsoft decided to put on sale its beta product to recoup as
much cost as possible for testing?

hth

 

[RipperT]

I am embarrassed to report that this seems to have been an issue with Zone
Alarm Free. I will not be using it anymore. On the plus side, I have a brand
new XP system with 4 74GB Raptors in RAID 0 and a P4 Core2 6600 at 2.4GHz
and 2 GB RAM. I like it...

All help appreciated.

Rip

 

[mepDJ]

I cannot THANK YOU enough for posting this. All 3 of my XP computers were
using Zone Alarm Free.We have lived with horrible to non-usable connectivity
for 4 weeks. Very frustrating. Tried everything and got ATT tech support
involved multiple times.. no success whatsoever. Your post solved the
problem. Thanks.