New Computer - Slow Internet Access - Help!

[Fred Weiss]

Any computer whizs out there? Here's my situation:

I have a small LAN populated with an NT server, 3 Windows 98SE P2 workstations, an iMac, and a new AMD 2.4 with 1.5GB ram and Windows XP Pro SP2. The LAN has been in existence for some time now and uses a DLink switch and a DSL router.

The new computer was built by me. It seems to be running just fine except that it is taking an extremely long time to logon for email retreival and also is taking an extremely long time to locate and bring up the various websites I visit. All other workstations are just fine as to speed of internet connections. I have been trying to trackdown this problem and have made no progress. Control panel > System > Devices and other diagnostic software reports no problems.

There is no difference between using MS Internet Explorer or Firefox as my browser and there is no difference between using MS Outlook Express or Thunderbird as my email client.

So far, this is what I've tried:

• Turned off the on-board networking and added a PCI networking card.
• Replaced the old network switch box.
• Turned off Windows Firewall.
• Selectively turned off various features of Norton SystemWorks.
• Reviewed networking settings, although XP is so new to me that I wouldn't know if something was right or wrong in most cases.

Anybody got any suggestions?

 

[Cadmn]

try different network cable it might have gotten a kinked connection or intermittent break I've got a cable here that gives 10mbps & one exctly like it is good for a 100Mbps & it jus happened ome day no explanitions but that is first thought & xp has repair setting in network area some where.

 

[Fred Weiss]

Yes, I knew there was something I didn't mention. That was the first thing I tried. Symptoms are identical on either of two locations I plugged into. And my old box runs fine in either location.

Thanks for the suggestion though.

At this point I feel almost certain that it's something in Windows XP.

 

[jayhawksigns]

There are programs to download that make sure that your network conifguration is setup optimially.

There is also broadbandreports.com, they have a tool section and several html and java based tools that do the same thing, that way you don't have to install anything on your computer.

 

[signage]

xp pro not!

I have xp pro and a network setup on a dsl connection with win 95, SE, 2000,xp home and xp pro and they all fly! Only thing I don;\'t have that you have is a server. Check out my PM to you they can probably point you in the right direction.

 

[Blazingsun]

Check The network card's settings Make sure its set to Auto sense and Full Duplex. Also Make Sure the port the on the Switch is also set to same settings.

 

[Bobby H]

There's definitely something funky going on with WinXP Pro SP2 and its networking support. The last two computers we bought for our studio (both dual core Dell models) had issues with seeing other computers on the network. They were able to get on the Internet fine. We had to play around with network settings just switching settings back and forth for the Dimension 9100 machine to finally work right. Funny thing is it finally started working properly using the settings it already had in the first place. The XPS 400 model (basically the same kind of machine) had to have a system restore done on it and then it worked perfectly.

 

[iSign]

I would think this has already been done.. but since you don't mention it... have you tried out the new machine direct to the DSL modem? just disable the LAN & bypass the switch & find out if the XP machine does fine without going through the network.

I have 4 XP pro SP2 machines & a server (running Windows Server 2003) wired through 2 Linksys routers (one just acting as a hub) to my DSL modem. No problems here.

 

[Techman]

the problem is within outlook and internet explorer and MSN... I for got exactly what it is.. Bit somesetting in outlook is looking for your email server... i have not wokred on this problem in over a year..

techman

 

[Fred Weiss]

My network service guy tracked down the problem.

Windows XP was automatically assigning the DNS locations for our network router (where we get our DSL). He changed it to a direct assignment of the primary and secondary DNS of the router in Windows and everything is now traveling at warp speed.

It took him about two hours to track it down and fix it.