# Slowed Down to a Crawl



## maddy (Oct 30, 2010)

I have been lurking in this subforum, trying to learn something about computers. It's true, the answers really are in plain English! Unfortunately, I now have a problem of my own. For the last couple of days, my internet has been slowed down to a crawl.

I am using Windows XP and Internet Explorer with satellite. The speed of satellite has never been great, but what has been happening for the last two days has been very different. It is taking forever for most webpages to load, and some of them never finish loading. Also, about half of the time when I go to a website, I get a message saying, "Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage." Then, when I refresh, the webpage finally comes up. 

Here's what I have done: I ran a complete Avast virus scan, and nothing was detected. I then cleared all my temporary internet files and history, shut down and restarted the computer, and the problem remains. I ran several speed tests, and they give wildly differing results ranging from about 350 kb (usually) to as much as 1 Mb. I also called the satellite provider, and they did not find anything identifiably wrong.

One clue: Right about the time this began, an uninvited subscreen came up stating that it was preparing to download something involving Java. There did not appear to be any way of closing the subscreen, so I exited what I was doing and that seemed to make it go away.

Thank you in advance for any ideas you have. I have very little computer knowledge and so also thank you for keeping it simple.


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## Harry Chickpea (Dec 19, 2008)

Too many possibilities for a quick diagnosis. With a proper pole mount, my download speed is a bit above 600 fairly consistently. A bad mount, wind, tree leaves, all can affect the link.

"Malwarebytes" and "Spybot Search and Destroy" should also be in your arsenal to defeat baddies. CNET.com or Snapfiles.com should have virus free copies.

I rarely use IE Explorer, and find Firefox a better choice. Firefox has add-ons that prevent scripts from running on their own, ad-blockers, pop-up blockers, and a bunch of other tools.


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## mduncn52 (Sep 8, 2007)

Make sure you run malwarebytes and spybot in Windows Safe Mode


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## davel745 (Feb 2, 2009)

Change your browser to Google chrome.

Dave


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## arabian knight (Dec 19, 2005)

> I ran several speed tests, and they give wildly differing results ranging from about 350 kb (usually) to as much as 1 Mb. I also called the satellite provider, and they did not find anything identifiably wrong.


Those Slow Speed tests tell me it is not the computer then. It IS the Satellite signal not anything from the computer. Maybe the signal is off, might have to be re-aimed.
The lose in signal speed is the same thing that happens with Satellite TV when it gets weak, and even a small rain storm the satellite to TV goes blank.
Same thing happens with Satellite Internet, you must maintain a strong signal lock onto the Satellite.


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## maddy (Oct 30, 2010)

Update:  I tried using FireFox, and it is working fine--very fast. So it appears that the problem is isolated to Internet Explorer.

I'd like to be able to use IE again, since it's the one I'm familiar with and it has all of my "favorites." Any ideas on what might be affecting IE in this way?


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## farmerbrian (Aug 29, 2009)

hijackthis used to be a good tool for fixing up Internet explorer issues. 

I think it is still popular today:

[ame="http://download.cnet.com/Trend-Micro-HijackThis/3000-8022_4-10227353.html"]http://download.cnet.com/Trend-Micro-HijackThis/3000-8022_4-10227353.html[/ame]


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

What Internet Explorer version are you using (at the top go to Help and then About)


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## maddy (Oct 30, 2010)

I am using version 7.0.


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## Harry Chickpea (Dec 19, 2008)

You can export your favorites to Firefox. Google it. FF is much better for a number of technical reasons.

As for I.E. - if you want to use it, save the bookmarks, locate your install disk or go to the MS website to make sure you can get a copy of the program, then delete I.E. completely and reinstall it. You could go through a lot of yada yada, but that will remove whatever infected it until next time... which is why I use Firefox...


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

First have an alternate browser up and running
Go to the Control Panel to Add/Remove programs
Find Internet Explorer and remove it
Go to www.microsoft.com with your alternate browser and download IE8 - don't go for the Beta version of IE9


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## maddy (Oct 30, 2010)

Thanks, everyone. I'll work on this today.


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