Desktop on home network suddenly slow with HTTP

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quickymart

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# 139028 25-Jan-2014 10:54

Morning,

Thanks again for all the help with the network sharing issue I had a few weeks ago. I have a different issue now.

My desktop connects directly to my Netcomm ADSL2+ wireless router with an ethernet cable, and is the only device on the network to do so (all other clients are wireless).

Starting this morning the desktop is very slow to browse the internet. Either Firefox or IE have the same problem; loading the NZ Herald webpage (for example) takes almost a minute and Firefox sits on "Connecting to data.apn.co.nz" or www.google-analytics.com. Eventually the page loads but it still says it's loading something.

I did have DNS settings specified on the desktop machine but have changed both of these to be automatic, to no avail.

Yet if I try browsing to the NZ Herald from my laptop on the network (wirelessly) it loads immediately as it's meant to.

I've turned off Zonealarm on the desktop, and experimented with the DNS settings as above. All of this was fine until this morning and I haven't changed anything in my setup.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

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# 974016 25-Jan-2014 11:27

Have you tried turning it off and on again?

Sony

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quickymart

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# 974017 25-Jan-2014 11:28

Both the router and desktop have been restarted several times this morning.

sonyxperiageek

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# 974022 25-Jan-2014 11:32

Maybe a toolbar or extension is bad? Have you checked them out?

Sony

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quickymart

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# 974027 25-Jan-2014 11:49

Scanning with Malwarebytes right now.

quickymart

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# 974162 25-Jan-2014 16:40

No go...sigh. Frustrating as...three things found by Malware which I removed but the connection is still slow. I set DHCP/WINS to be automatic - no change. Specified IP address/DNS again, no change.

Update: I uninstalled/reinstalled the NIC to see what that would do. Now in Network Connections the "Internet Connection" component shows as Disconnected, and when I tried to connect it, it eventually says "Connection Failed!"

Restarting fixed the Disconnected issue, but HTTP is still slow. Interestingly, all other traffic (including transferring files over the network) works just fine.

quickymart

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# 974175 25-Jan-2014 17:36

I also tried uninstalling Hotspot Shield (in case that was affecting it), restarted, no change...

Any ideas?

RunningMan

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# 974188 25-Jan-2014 17:38

Faulty NIC / cable / switch port?

quickymart

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# 974208 25-Jan-2014 18:08

Good point. I have a USB wireless connector somewhere I could try.

Although I just tried again now and while Geekzone comes up fine and immediately, the Herald still doesn't (nor does Stuff). This is getting stranger!

quickymart

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# 974246 25-Jan-2014 18:57

Some more testing.

I installed my XT T-Stick on the desktop and tried browsing with that (I switched off the router entirely) - only to have the exact same problem.

I'm thinking maybe the hosts file might have something to do with this but I have no idea how to check it on XP :(

Edit: found a fix from here and am trying it now:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/972034

quickymart

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# 974344 25-Jan-2014 21:44

Nope, still not working. I'm really hoping the fix for this won't be to reinstall XP...I just did it a few months ago!

For the record, these are the TCP/IP settings I'm using:

IP address = 192.168.1.9
Subnet mask = 255.255.255.0
Default gateway = 192.168.1.1

Preferred DNS = 122.56.237.1
Alternate DNS = 210.55.111.1

These settings have been in place for months and worked fine, but just stopped working this morning.

quickymart

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# 974392 25-Jan-2014 23:25

I might have fixed it - I opened up port 80 on my router and it seems to be a lot quicker than it was (touchwood). But this has got me wondering - isn't port 80 normally open by default?

quickymart

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# 974505 26-Jan-2014 10:24

Looks like I was too optimistic - back to slow/timing out HTTP again this morning. I'm going to have to reinstall XP, by the looks of it, unless anyone has any other suggestions/ideas? :)

quickymart

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# 978434 1-Feb-2014 09:58

Final update - reinstalled Windows, problem solved. No idea what was going on there though.

freitasm

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# 978447 1-Feb-2014 10:25

Close the port 80 on your router, you don't need that.

Most likely the problem wasn't Windows, but some malware or toolbar interfering with your network.

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quickymart

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# 978598 1-Feb-2014 17:37

Interesting that it was only on that machine though.

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