Is the internet slowing down...

[A Lark Ascending]

I've just noticed over recent months using IE that there's a growing hiatus between clicking a link and connecting. Becomes even longer when pressing the back button to return to the previous page.

Something to do with all these Twitter, Facebook etc links that need loading to every time a page is opened, perhaps?

Is it just the sheer volume that my connection cannot keep up with?

Not the end of the world - but gets annoying, especially when working on a tight schedule.

[Big Wheel]

It could be any number of things. It's possible that it's simply that your computer is getting slower. Windows accumulates a lot of crap that slows machines to a crawl after a couple of years. But Facebook and Twitter could be culprits as well because they are constantly using bandwidth to get new updates and so forth - that could be slowing down your connection. I would at a minimum clear IE's cache and cookies, or switch browsers entirely to see if that speeds things up.

If you are using a laptop, you should also make sure that the laptop isn't having any power/temperature problems. My laptop was performing atrociously until I finally installed a temperature monitor and realized that tons of accumulated dust inside the machine was causing it to overheat and automatically slow down to protect itself.

Edited May 22, 2011 by Big Wheel

[A Lark Ascending]

Thanks, Big Wheel. I'll try what you say.

It's not a laptop. And it seems to do other tasks fine - films through BBC IPlayer show fine, for example, once I've got there. It's just the moving between pages.

[Big Wheel]

I wonder if your local DNS server might be having problems. You might try clicking the following links and then pasting them directly into your browser address bar. If there is a noticeable performance difference, you might want to change the DNS server being used.

http://68.71.208.25/

http://espn.go.com/

[A Lark Ascending]

Thanks again.

Will explore that line.

[JSngry]

What OS are you using? My download speed improved markedly when I changed to Windows 7.

[David Ayers]

IE is a slow browser, but a little more secure than others. So you could try using Google Chrome, which is faster, but use IE for banking etc where an extra ounce of security might be welcome. Try Chrome though and I think you'll see a difference. Oh and Chrome also spell checks your posts!

[A Lark Ascending]

Might have solved my own problem - might be a case of having too many tabs open!

[GregK]

Sorry, that was my fault. Netflix is now available for my Evo and I've also been streaming music from the Amazon cloud.

IE is notorious for being a slow browser. Use Chrome, and try using Google's DNS (I think it's 8.8.8.8? google it!)

[A Lark Ascending]

Thanks all.

Loaded Chrome and everything is whizzing.

[Swinging Swede]

Chrome is a great browser and the one I primarily use nowadays. But the new versions of Firefox (4) and Internet Explorer (9) are much improved as well. IE9 is supposedly a lot faster than IE8. However, if you are on Windows XP you are stuck with IE8. IE9 requires Windows Vista or later!

[A Lark Ascending]

Chrome is a great browser and the one I primarily use nowadays. But the new versions of Firefox (4) and Internet Explorer (9) are much improved as well. IE9 is supposedly a lot faster than IE8. However, if you are on Windows XP you are stuck with IE8. IE9 requires Windows Vista or later!

Been using Chrome over the last week and it's doing fine.

Thanks for the advice.