Surfing gets slower and slower until ... ! Help!

[Dr. Mac]

Dear Forum Members

I wonder if you could offer some suggestions ...

I'm running Win98se (fully patched and updated from the Windows Update site) I surf with broadband and have an excellent ISP who provides this.

Also, I am not connected to a LAN or anything like that ... just a single-user, single PC.

PROBLEM :

I can surf the 'net for some time (it varies ... sometimes half-an-hour - sometimes longer) but slowly ... slowly ... pages load slower and slower and there are times when eventually it becomes completely non-responsive. Kinda like surfing freezes up!

I've tried the usual - clearing the cahce ... clearing all cookies etc ... but this does not help.

Microsoft described a problem like this with network connections (which a broadband is) and released a NDIS patch - 243199

However, this patch has not made any difference at all ... after a time, things still get slower and slower.

Also, sometimes if I'm connected and surfing fast - then, say, switch to Outlook Express and compose an e-mail, or go into Word and type up a document - when I then try to surf again ... problem! Either ultra-slow or a total non-activity.

It's almost like the longer I spend connected and surfing, something starts to get "clogged up" until it freezes surfing. (Remember, I have tried clearing the cahces, deleting cookines etc many many time - it doesn't "unfreeze" things)

If I disconnect form the Internet and reboot - bingo - back to ultra-fast surfing again. But then ... sometimes after a long time surfing ... slow ... slow ... slow!

Any help and suggestions please?

Thank you

Best wishes

Dr. Mac

[eidenk]

Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling IE ? IEradicator

Otherwise I have found those tweaks on my disk (never tried them) :

What does this do?

The default Windows setting for the TCP/IP Recv. window is 0 (8k). For a Cable, LAN,

Or DSL connection it should be 32k or 64k. These programs will change the Recv. window

to the proper size needed for high speed connections.

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\MSTCP]
"DefaultRcvWindow"="32767"

or

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\MSTCP]
"DefaultRcvWindow"="65535"

And maybe try playing around with TweakDUN

[Dr. Mac]

Greetings Eidenk

(Ah! ha! A fellow Brit, I see! )

Thanks for those suggestions - I'll certainly give them a try.

In the meanwhile, if any of you other computer brains have heard of this sort of problem before, all further suggestions will be welcomed!

Take care and best wishes ...

Dr. Mac

[Fredledingue]

1/ Try using another browser: Maxthon (IE based) or Firefox (non IE)

2/ If you have two hard drives put the temporary internet files folder in drive C (do it in IE options).

3/ Add more RAM memory to your computer. It would be interresting to know your hardware. With w98se SP2.02, you can go up to 1Gb.

4/ Update yor MS-Office version (just a thought)

[eidenk]

(Ah! ha! A fellow Brit, I see!  )

I am French. I just only happen to live in the UK.

Something else you might want to try :

Unregister webcheck.dll (if you don't use Active Desktop) by typing this in the run box : regsvr32 /u webcheck.dll. This file is much reponsible for the sluggishness of Windows systems.

[diesel_98a]

do u have a firewall installed, which type??? have u tried removing it & reinstalling it?

[Dr. Mac]

Greetings guys and girls

Many thanks for your suggestions.

Fredleinque

* Try another browser. O.K. Easy enough to do. I normally use IE but also have the latest Firefox installed.

* RAM? Hmm!!! Very small! Only 198mb!!! But that's a vast improvement from what I had a few months ago - 64mb. But it could well be something worth looking into. Unfortuanely I don't have a lot of money to go and buy new stuff, but I wonder if installing on of those programs to "maximise your memory" might help?

* Update MS-Office. Phew! Now you ARE talking big money! I have Office 2000 installed with the Office SP1a update. There is also the SP3 update, but it makes a lot of changes and I have not got around to reading what all those are yet!

diesel_98a

Firewall? Zone Alarm Pro. Also, they released a new version about a week ago which I have updated to.

Eidenk

Greetings agaqin!

I downloaded TweakDUN (by the way, the link you gavce me doesn't work, but it was easy enough to google for and find. In fact, I only installed it about ten minutes ago - so too soon to tell if it's going to make a difference.

Thanks for the "webcheck" tip. I'm going to try that right now.

Thanks everybody! Much appreciated.

Best wishes ...

Dr. Mac

[eidenk]

I downloaded TweakDUN (by the way, the link you gave me doesn't work, but it was easy enough to google for and find.

The above link still does work fine for me.

Does someone know why some links are reachable from one place and not from another ?

[Redcloud]

Could you possibly have spyware. Some spyware is embedded in the browswer. This could explain re-directed address bar searches, etc.

[somewan]

Greetings guys and girls

Many thanks for your suggestions.

Fredleinque

* RAM?  Hmm!!!  Very small!  Only 198mb!!!  But that's a vast improvement from what I had a few months ago - 64mb.  But it could well be something worth looking into.  Unfortuanely I don't have a lot of money to go and buy new stuff, but I wonder if installing on of those programs to "maximise your memory" might help?

If you're running Windows 9x, 198 MB of RAM is likely to be more than enough.

The problem you described sounds like the result of a software bug. Perhaps an applications that allocates more and more memory, but forgets to release it.

Another possibility is "resource" exhaustion. Try running the Resource Meter - you'll find it in the Windows directory under the name RSRCMTR.EXE.

As others have suggested, try checking your system for spyware and other junk. Also check for updates and patches to the operating system.