[Sabrina]

I used to use Internet Explorer without too much trouble except that PC didn't work. Posting times were extremely slow as was browsing. It was too frustrating and I just didn't visit PC. Then I changed to Firefox and was amazed at the speed - I was happy. Now Firefox seems to have stopped working. It has been days and days since I have been able to work comfortably within PC. It is really slow, and by slow, I mean up to 5 minutes for a page to load. The rest of the internet is fine.

My service provider says everything is fine and that there are no hassles from their side. Which means it must be my browser.

So what browser do I use now? I have been happy with Firefox but I need PC too.

Would it help if I uninstalled Firefox and reinstalled it? How would I save all my bookmarks?

Any help is appreciated.

[Yoda]

I like Google Chrome more than Firefox.

But I still use Firefox sometimes because for some reason I cannot upload images to photobucket with Chrome and I haven't taken the time to fix it yet.

[lynn P.]

Have you cleaned your computer lately. Sounds like you have a virus and I don't think it's your browser. Get rid of any unnecessary installed items. Hope it's gets fixed soon Sabrina.

[phoenix7]

yep try the defrag and disc cleaner and delete any old files - maybe it just needs a wash and brush up

[Sabrina]

My computer is squeaky clean. It isn't that. I have run a virus scan - no viruses. It took me over 9 minutes to get into this thread. I am crying tears of impatience and frustration!!

I tried to download google chrome through Internet Explorer but it blocked due to "protection on my computer". Firefox won't let me download, period. I done in!

[lynn P.]

I have virus protection too but I still got Malware(think I spelled it wrong). Virus's can still sneak in. Sometimes parental blockers can make things slow. Do you have anti malware? As far as I know virus protectors don't protect about malware. Even with all this protection, things still creep in and make your computer slow.

[sundog]

(((((((Sabrina)))))) Sorry you're having these difficulties. Last week I was also having problems with Firefox, but only here at PC. I was having to wait several minutes after posting before my post showed up. I switched to IE and everything was ok. But I don't like IE, mainly because of the security issues.

On my laptop at home, I was having no issues with Firefox and PC. It was just on my computer at work. So I uninstalled and reinstalled Firefox, but it made no difference.

However, this week, when I logged in at work and, without thinking, logged onto PC using Firefox, everything worked just fine! And I'm now using Firefox again and having no problems at PC.

Sorry this isn't more helpful, but I guess my point is that sometimes these things can right themselves again just as mysteriously as they go wrong. I would think it couldn't hurt to uninstall and reinstall Firefox, though I do not know how you would save your bookmarks. I lost all mine, and that was a bit of a drag.

I really hope you can resolve this!! ((((((Sabrina))))

[Perna]

I would make sure all of your computer cookie caches are clean? If it's just PC, that could be the problem, you've been stuffing yourself with too many PC cookies I think each browser would have its personal fill so then get slow and changing browsers would just start up the problem again for the new browser.

[Rhiannonsmoon]

I was going to say what perna said. If your cache isn't cleared then all browsers will run slow.

Go to "tools" -> internet options -> delete temp files, cookies, browser history. This makes a huge difference

[FooZe]

I use Firefox 2 here regularly, with a dialup connection yet, and hardly ever have any trouble.

I have Firefox 3 on my "spare" computer. When I tried it out for a few days, it seemed to work no worse than Firefox 2.

Years ago I used to have a utility called Net Medic, now obsolete, that would hook into my browser and keep track of the data traffic: how fast the reception and transmission were, how many "hops" across the Internet it took to reach a given website, and where any delays seemed to be located. I haven't checked to see whether there are any up-to-date replacements for it. If they exist (and aren't outrageously expensive), something like that might help you figure out what's going on with your system.

I think two of the reasons the original Net Medic no longer works are that (a.) it was only designed to hook into certain old browsers, none of which I'd care to use any more; and (b.) it relied partly on something like identifying and "pinging" individual routers along the way to see how long it took each one to answer. Those routers were reprogrammed years ago not to respond to such pings any more. Any replacement for Net Medic would have to deal with both of those issues.

[Sabrina]

Like I said, my computer is squeaky clean, the cookie jar is empty.

But this morning I got right in. Another day to test the waters.

[Sabrina]

After almost 2 weeks of not being able to participate much here - today was a breeze. I abandoned all my work just to be on PC - out of starvation.

So what does this tell me? I am starting to wonder if the new Avast that I downloaded doesn't have something to do with all this.

[FooZe]

Originally Posted by Sabrina

I am starting to wonder if the new Avast that I downloaded doesn't have something to do with all this.

I wouldn't be at all surprised, considering how much trouble I've had with some Avast features. I posted about some of my adventures with a recently-installed Avast, starting here.

[Lance Arrow]

Honestly, you're better off using AVG or Avira.