Strange Internet Problem (Explorer, Mozilla, all of em)

[Molimo]

My internet is fine, it connects to sites well, but there is just one odd problem that I have had for a while now, and it bothers me.

There are a few sites where if I try to access them, it takes a VERY long time to load. Considering I have DSL, and that my internet is generally great with other sites, this just should not be happening. These sites can take over 2 minutes to load, and the sites are not astronomically large or anything; it just takes such a long time to load!

Maybe it would help to get into detail on some of the websites that do this, but the ones I can remember for now:
addictinggames.com
acronymfinder.com (only when I'm searching for an acronym)
miniclip.com (only when I start to play a game, but still, it should NOT take nearly as long as it does)
news.google.com (most of the links there)

There are others, but those are just ones coming off the top of my head. Please help if possible, I have no clue why certain sites take such a long time to load. I know probably everyone is thinking "because they're game websites", but really, I compare the speed of this to my Windows XP laptop, and they go at exactly the same rate with every website, with exception to the ones displayed above.

EDIT: It says I'm a WinXP user, but this computer is actually older, Windows ME. In case that helps, wanted to point that out.

[epos159]

I haven't checked out the sites b/c I'm using dial up still (misses DSL)...
Anyway... it could be slow just due to the number of people using it.

[johnwill]

I'm thinking some spyware, or bogus entries in the HOSTS file redirecting you to some other site. I just opened www.acronymfinder.com, and it opened in a flash. Ditto for news.google.com.

I'd make sure you do a complete virus scan, then download Ad-Aware or SpyBot Search-N-Destroy and update and scan for spyware.

Finally, if that doesn't help, download HijackThis and post a log.

[tom9984]

Run adaware, spybot, and virus scans. Some adware/spyware programs might be running in the background taking systems resources and slowing your system down.

Ctrl+alt+del once to open the task manager. If you notice any suspicious programs running, look them up at www.processlibrary.com. If they are bad, end that program/process. Try to delete that program and any related files. A simple search can find the location of those files, if any do exist.

Clear your cache, temp files, cookies etc. Hopefully, all of the above will get rid of any adware/spyware/virus on your system.

Also, you can try to ping the site manually to see if you can connect to it. If you can ping the site, but can't access it on your broswer, then I agree with John that something might be redirecting you to someplace else.

Start > run > command or cmd

type ping <insert address> ex. ping www.addictinggames.com

See if you get all the hops and can ping the site(s).

[Slathe]

Try running a tracert to the website.

start>run>cmd> tracert news.yahoo.com

posting these replies may help us come up with a conclusion for you, generally I believe you're going to find that you may be having an issue with one of the HOPS your ISP will be using.
Contacting the ISP via Email with your Ping/Tracert responses generally gives them enough feedback to make an engineer go out to that hop-point and rectify the situation for you.

Any other sites giving you a 'lagging' feeling will be shown in the ping/tracert responses.

- Slathe

[Molimo]

tom and johnwill, I used Ad-Aware with the latest updates, checked everything. 0 errors on the entire computer, though now I know that shutting down Delayrun is a bad idea, so thanks for the heads-up on that

Slathe, I tried doing the pinging, and like you said, every request for those sites I have problems with timed out. What exactly would that mean then?
I think we're onto something here.

Thanks for all of your help so far!

If the members here really think I should do so, I'll post a Hijackthis Log soon. Hey, it can't hurt.

[Slathe]

Molimo,
Sorry about taking my time in replying, I am going to try and make my responses quicker over the next few days, only problem comes from only being able to really reply when I am at work.

If you're having issues, with the hop responses, this is showing that one of the terminals that your isp uses is currently having issues, like I said in a previous message, if you email your isp with your tracert/ping responses to these terminals, your responses should be copy and pasted and sent to your ISP, to which with immediate effect they should test these terminals.

When this is done, your problem should be resolved.

Make sure you keep on at your ISP, and have them do a latency test on your line, because guaranteed they will try and say it something to do with your end.
Best method, is before they ask, tell them you have tried a different router/modem so no need to try it again.

Cheers,
Slathe

[johnwill]

Navigate to C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc and open the file HOSTS with Notepad. The only line in this file that's not proceeded with a # should be:


127.0.0.1 localhost

[Molimo]

Slathe, I just tried the pinging again, and now it works for every site I had problems with. Turns out possibly, the internet wasn't connected that first time I tried . Sorry about that. Problem is, the sites are still as slow as they usually were. johnwill, this is really odd, but my hosts file is actually in C:\Windows. Also, I'm pretty sure that the text file is the way it's supposed to be, 127.0.0.1 localhost was on the 2nd line, the top of the file looks like this:

# localhost: Needs to stay like this to work
127.0.0.1 localhost

# KaZaA related:

127.0.0.1 desktop.kazaa.com
127.0.0.1 www.altnetp2p.com
etc...

I'm also having Disk Defragmenter problems, but that's another story in another thread. The only conclusion that I can draw right now is that it's time to replace this 4.5 yr old computer with something new . Though that would be a big move to make...I still really appreciate the efforts by all here, it's great help to learning computers in general so I don't have to ask here in the future. Slathe, take your time in responding, I'm totally fine with it.

[johnwill]

I was thinking of XP, I didn't realize you were using ME. C:\WINDOWS is the correct location for ME. The Kazaa stuff could well affect you, it's hard to say. We don't provide support for P2P, so I can't really explore that option.

[Molimo]

I don't have KaZaa on my computer anymore though...
Hmm, maybe it left traces of itself behind? I'm not sure, I'll look into this a little bit more.

[Slathe]

Molimo,
Can you please paste your ping/tracert responses here for me please, you can edit them as you see fit.

Just want to try and narrow down the issue that you're having.

Also are you still having this same issue, also I was thinking about this today as well, what sort of security software are you using on your computer? As some applications, similar to Norton Internet Security (NIS) use a really bad security center for Secure sites.

If I remember correctly your original problems was with secure sites.

Cheers,
Slathe

[johnwill]

I'd edit the HOSTS file and ONLY leave the following active entry.

127.0.0.1 localhost