When I have a problem like that, I like to narrow down when and where it occurs and what else seems to be going on at the time.

I use a fairly slow connection. Normal pages load at a pace I can live with but pages (including threads at PC) with a lot of pictures do cause delays.

I've noticed several sites that seem to perform "housekeeping" in the middle of the night. I'm used to encountering delays and even browser timeouts at PC around 2 AM Eastern time. I don't think I've ever lost a post that way; I just count to 15 slowly and retry till I get through.

Once, about a year ago, I started noticing occasional similar slowdowns even at midday. The problem stopped after a hard drive at PC failed and was replaced.

Some non-PC pages containing ads and stuff seem to bog my computer down while they're loading, running scripts, or even refreshing. If I have one of these open in another window or tab, PC will slow down or freeze too.

Some of my past slowdowns, before I ever joined PC, turned out to be the result of a flaky modem and some of my past freezeups, the result of an unreliable old browser.

When I first got this computer, I didn't realize it was checking for an internet connection not only through the modem I was using but also through an Ethernet adapter I never used. After I disabled the Ethernet adapter, the delays got a lot fewer.

Occasionally I'll encounter a one-time slowdown apparently out of nowhere. Unless it later turns out to be part of a pattern, I don't worry about it.

I think if you keep observing the problem long enough, either it'll go away or you'll end up with a better idea of where to look for the cause. Good luck!