Slow browsing

AlanYork · 02-05-2005, 01:09

I'm finding that websites are opening slowly, so I guess it's a call to tech support in the morning. In the meantime, is there anything obvious I can be doing to save time? So far I've checked for spyware, ran an AV check, unplugged the cable to allow the pc to search for my IP address, rebooted and defraged, all to no avail. Is there anything else I should be doing? Anything obvious I have missed?

I'm connected through a cable modem and this problem seems to have developed overnight. I haven't changed anything on my pc and "Broadband Medic" (which doesnt seem to be much kop, quite frankly) tells me there is no problem with my connection.

I'm not averse to calling NTL support but why waste their time if I can fix it myself and I've always found them to be a bit "hit and miss"...depends who you get to talk to I guess.

Mal · 02-05-2005, 01:16

Try a new proxy. A list is here

How to change your proxy is here . That's for I.E. For Firefox, scroll down

AlanYork · 02-05-2005, 01:25

I've not been using a proxy at all....so I don't see how proxy could be the problem. ???

Mal · 02-05-2005, 01:28

Well, try one, see if there is a difference.

Tezcatlipoca · 02-05-2005, 01:30

You're *always* using a proxy*.

If you don't have one manually specified in your brower's settings, then you still use one anyway, but "transparently".

Bit about proxies: http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/article.php?a=14

On the CF toolbar, go to "Quicklinks" on the right, & then "Connection Information". This will tell you if you're using a proxy or not.

*Unless ntl have turned your local ones off for some reason. Happens sometimes.

AlanYork · 02-05-2005, 02:27

Well I attached myself to a German server and that seems to have improved matters. That CF test seems to think its a Leeds one but it aint!! Looks like it was a server problem. I'm not really sure about proxys as everyone I talk to seems to say "oooooh........security risk".....but hopefully NTL will sort it out in due course.

AlanYork · 03-05-2005, 03:16

Contacted NTL and they suggested the following proxies
62.254.32.4 port8080
62.255.32.4 port8080
62.255.0.4 port 8080
65.160.98.31 port80

None of them worked, in fact they made it worse. NTLTech support had no answers and suggested it was my PC that was the problem!!! How can it be? Everything was fine on Saturday, it happened literally overnight. I'm now using a proxy suggested by a friend, I believe it's German and up to press I have no problems.

This has left me with serious doubts about the quality of NTLs service and support. Their tech people have never really been much help apart from one time and, as a complete and utter novice, I have to say, yet again, if it wasn't for the kindness and generosity of the folks on here with their time and advice...I'd be up sh*t creek and if the German proxy stops working, I may well yet be!!!

iron25 · 03-05-2005, 03:46

It seems strange that your browsing speeds increase when you go through this German proxy because despite what proxy settings you enter you are still going through one of NTL's proxies as mentioned by Matt D. They use transparent proxies and all you are doing is just making your connection go to another machine before it retrieves the page which should slow it down even more not speed it up.

When you say slow, how slow is it?

Perhaps you can try another browser without any additional proxy settings to see if it does the same. Also, if you have another PC available check out the speed from that PC.
__________________

I had no problems connecting to those proxy ip addresses that you listed.

AlanYork · 03-05-2005, 05:35

Sites take up to a minute to open, msn.co.uk doesnt open at all but its not just msn sites that are affected. Putting in this German proxy seems to have sorted it out. Sadly I only own one PC so I cant check it out on another. The woman at Tech support seemed to think the German server is an ntl one but to be honest, I work at a call centre myself and I know an Indian reading from a script when I hear one. No prejudice here, if she can do the job, fine but no way is this an NTL server.

03-05-2005, 08:25

You have cleaned up behind you properly haven't you?Have you tried browsing with firefox or opera?

Gareth · 03-05-2005, 12:53

Firstly, your friends that suggest using a proxy is a security risk are a bit misguided. Proxies have a legitimate purpose, and ISPs very very often use them. As Matt says, with NTL, even if you don't specify a proxy yourself, your internet traffic will automagically be routed to use one transparently. For your own piece of mind, it's possible to determine who owns a proxy by looking up who the IP address is registered to. That would confirm whether the customer advisor was being a bit liberal with the truth

It's possible to use other proxies, not just ones owned by your ISP (as you're doing currently by using a German one). There are other UK based ones which would probably give you a better response time. Before the German one goes belly-up, browse Google for a list of UK-based proxy servers, so you can switch to one of these if you suddenly find the German one not working.

Finally, did the customer advisor ask you to quantify the performance issue? Did they ask you to try pinging some servers, and note the response. In fact, can you do that and paste the response below? Just open a command prompt, and type ping www.yahoo.com - I wouldn't bother pinging any Microsoft sites, as they've disabled the ICMP responses... er, which means basically it won't work

Paste the output here for us to see.

Once you've done that, you can also try monitoring the exact route that your network traffic is taking to a particular website by using the tracert command. Back in the command prompt, type tracert www.yahoo.com and paste the results in here (delete your own IP address from the results for secrutiy reasons).

That will show us where any bottleneck is between yourself and the website.

AlanYork · 03-05-2005, 17:41

I tried to get a ping result from yahoo as you sugested by using "Run" but the results keep disappearing instantaneously from my screen!!! Am I missing something??

I will definately check out that site you recommended, thanks for that. Things seem to be OK with browsing at present but youre right, the German one is a machine and like all machines it can go wrong obviously.

I'll check out the Firefox browser later in the week, I work nights and to be honest, you dont want to be getting up and messing with a pc then have to go off to work with the job half done!!

03-05-2005, 17:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlanYork

I tried to get a ping result from yahoo as you sugested by using "Run" but the results keep disappearing instantaneously from my screen!!! Am I missing something??

I will definately check out that site you recommended, thanks for that. Things seem to be OK with browsing at present but youre right, the German one is a machine and like all machines it can go wrong obviously.

I'll check out the Firefox browser later in the week, I work nights and to be honest, you dont want to be getting up and messing with a pc then have to go off to work with the job half done!!

you need to be running the ping command in a dos box - /start/run/cmd - enter

then ping www.bbc.co.uk (or whatever)

then right click, choose 'mark'

& highlight the text you want to copy e.g.

Code:

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>ping www.bbc.co.uk

Pinging www.bbc.net.uk [212.58.224.56] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 212.58.224.56: bytes=32 time=22ms TTL=245
Reply from 212.58.224.56: bytes=32 time=17ms TTL=245
Reply from 212.58.224.56: bytes=32 time=36ms TTL=245
Reply from 212.58.224.56: bytes=32 time=17ms TTL=245

Ping statistics for 212.58.224.56:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 17ms, Maximum = 36ms, Average = 23ms

as for Firefox it will run alongside Internet Explorer, it is an alternative, not a replacement, installation takes 10 minutes at most..

AlanYork · 03-05-2005, 18:03

Right, thanks for that, I'll do that Friday as work beckons and theyre 12 hour night shifts!! I'm assuming that I don't need to have the site open? Firefox I have now downloaded and will be trying it. I looked on google for the list of UK proxies...jeez theres thousands of sites!!! Do you have a recommendation for a novice as to which site is best?

Thanks again for the help with this, I wish I could do the ping tests now but like I said, I have a 12 hr night shift in front of me and as things are working fine at present, I'd really rather start testing when I'm "fresh" lol.

If you could recommend the best proxy site, the one that you expert types use, that'd be a big help though.

Thanks again for all your help, hope you all have a lovely evening.

03-05-2005, 18:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlanYork

Right, thanks for that, I'll do that Friday as work beckons and theyre 12 hour night shifts!! I'm assuming that I don't need to have the site open? Firefox I have now downloaded and will be trying it. I looked on google for the list of UK proxies...jeez theres thousands of sites!!! Do you have a recommendation for a novice as to which site is best?

Thanks again for the help with this, I wish I could do the ping tests now but like I said, I have a 12 hr night shift in front of me and as things are working fine at present, I'd really rather start testing when I'm "fresh" lol.

If you could recommend the best proxy site, the one that you expert types use, that'd be a big help though.

Thanks again for all your help, hope you all have a lovely evening.

at 'expert types' - an 'expert' is someone who has already made all the mistakes & can now pass on how to work around or avoid the main problems

On that basis i would say, in my opinion, it is best to try using the ntl proxies, ideally 'transparently', but if necessary set one as 'explicit'. Personally I would avoid using proxies external to the NTL network as there are potential security issues.

In my case I have found the Nottingham proxies, which my connections uses 'transparently', by default, have been very reliable, lately.

Thanks for your good wishes