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IE: First connection to the Interent is slow, then is okay

About 10 days ago I did a massive update on my computer. All Windows updates, SP3 for XP, and NOD32 all pretty much at once. Since then, connecting to the Internet is slow (about 10-12 seconds slow) when first connecting. For example in IE, IE starts right away, but loading the 1st web site takes 10-12 seconds before it tries to connect. After that, other web sites are fast to load. If I close IE, then it starts over again being slow. Firefox used to start within 1 second. Now it takes 10-12 seconds to start. I have found that ANY program that needs a connection to the outside (FeedDemon, FileZilla, Outlook) all have the same pause before they can connect.

I have VMWare installed to test my development installs. If I fire up a virtual machine of Windows XP then the connections in it are fast so I know it is not hardware related to my computer or something external like the router. Some setting somewhere is making any initial connection to the Internet slow.

Computer: Windows XP with SP3. I have run Ad-Aware, and SuperAntiSpyware to check for stuff with no results. I have uninstalled NOD32 and it still happens.

Any help to getting this solved would be greatly appreciated!

vague_hit

As you have just installed a pile of updates, theres a good chance you have overloaded your IE cahce and temporary files, which may be causing that 'first page' slowdown.

Go into Internet Options from IE and delete temporary files and empty the cache.

Also, due to the large influx of new files and shifting around that XP would have done installing the Service Pack I would definitely recommend a defrag of your drive. Use the Windows one if you want (if you're happy to leave it running while you sleep) or download the trial of Diskeeper and run it on all your drives TWICE. Don't worry it's pretty fast! Should only take a couple of hours at most the first time and considerably less time the second. Also enable the boot-time defrag, just the first time.

Once you've done all that let me know if it's made a difference! Hopefully it should fix all your problems.

Cheers
Panos

vague_hit

Oh one more thing, SP# has once again fiddled with IP4 in XP so if you don't already have a static connection to your router, now is the time to set one up! Also, if you haven't already, disconnect the network cable between your router and your computer then power down the router. Wait for one minute, then power up the router until you can see the lights on the front show that you have connected to the internet again.

Only then reconnect the network cable connection. Hopefully, together with the above post, this will have covered all bases!

Builder32

ASKER

Defrag is run each night automatically. CCleaner has also been run to clean up all temp files. I even replaced the router as I have a spare. But like I mentioned, I don't believe it is a hardware issue because the issue does not exist when I connect to the Interent from inside a virtual machine.

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vague_hit

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Builder32

ASKER

Malwarebytes looked for an hour and a half and found nothing of suspicion.

Builder32

ASKER

NOD32 was the culprit. I completly uninstalled it (I swear I did this before) and now it is fast again. I will try to reinstall NOD32 2.7 instead of 3.0 as 3.0 is being blasted on their forums as having problems.

jtwarren

I have the same problem, yet it is not a bug. I had visual studio 2005 installed and running on the machine. I went to open the internet explorer and it had an error, afterward the debugger in vs2005 took over and blew the ie up and now I have been unable to figure the problem out. I have removed ie7 and reinstalled, I have removed the vs and not reinstalled it at all, any suggestions would be great thanks