No, not talking about dodgy web sites.
I've noticed over the last months or two that internet page loading is incredibly slow.
So far, so normal but here is what is odd about this:
- if I go to the address bar and highlight it and hit return the page starts to load immediately
- this happens at home and at work
- firefox definitely, chrome probably and IE possibly all suffer from this.

I have tried googling this but it tends to get swamped by unrelated hits so not much help.

Anyone got any ideas?

Use a different DNS server?

Have you tried turning it on then turning it off again?

Any troubles today could be due to the attack on Network Solutions:

http://blogs.cisco.com/security/network-solutions-customer-site-compromises-and-ddos/

They're just a stone's throw from me. Maybe I shouldn't throw stones at them.

Already using different DNS server at home and work (different ISP).
Yip - off and on, always a favourite ;)
Not a today thing ... been like this for a month or more.

Could be caused by a lot of very different problems, aside from the DNS or ISP related causes ...

- hardware issues ( If you're connecting through wi-fi, try using a cabled connection. If it isn't as slow, then your wifi module could be the culprit)
- a malware or spyware . Have you run a malwarebytes scan lately ?
- a problem with your browser cache memory. Try moving Firefox's cache to RAM.
- a nearly full HDD ( browser cache and virtual memory in distress )
- OS issues
- secret service monitoring

( the last one being a joke )

What HereForTheBeer said, though it happening both at work and home is a bit confusing, unless you use the same provider?

You could try to check if it's related to DNS servers performance:
GRC's DNS Benchmark

It's quite easy to do, just follow the instructions.


EDIT: Just saw your reply. Not sure if you mean that because the ISPs are different, the DNS servers are also different or if you tried other DNS servers from the ISPs' ones.
In either case, the test could still be useful because it's not a given that your ISP's DNS servers provide the best service at any and all times.

Phc7006's list is also worth checking through.
Have you checked any of those?

Thanks for that - I'll give it a go when I get the chance.

It is highly unlikely to be malware as both machines are very well protected. Also rarely any data transfer between them so one could not infect the other.

Only other thought I;ve had is browser add-ons. I'll tend not to use many, but will try turning even more off and see if it helps.

Thanks for the suggestions folks..

Edit: Also both machines are on physical connections so not a wi-fi issue.

You're welcome.

I suggested you still do the test, because of the way you described the problem itself and its solution (reloading pages) - that's quite commonly DNS servers unreliability.
It's also best if you use different primarely and secondary DNS servers.


Running a scan with Hitman Pro (you don't need a license to scan) and/ or Malwarebytes couldn't hurt though - you should still consider it, just to be on the safe side.

A very common suggestion, at least for Firefox, is to run it in Safe Mode or create a new profile - if you have no issues, then you start checking if something's going on with one or more of your add-ons.
Would you care to post more info on the add-ons you use?

was gonna post this, but you saved me the trouble of typing it up thanks dude

Just thanks, no cookie? ;P

oh go on then you can have a cookie :p

Thanks again. II found the time to give this a try and my DNS servers were far from optimally configured.
Pointing automatically to the router (BT HomeHub) which was doing it itself and not configurable.
Not necessarily bad if it was doing a good job but it wasn't.

Reconfigured now on the machine and we will see what happens.

You're welcome and glad it was of some use to you.

And I'll repeat the two things to keep in mind:
1. Set different primary and secondary DNS servers, i.e. not from the same provider, for better performance and up times.
2. Run the test from time to time because DNS servers reliability changes and a pair of servers that work well for you today may not be the optimal ones or in optimal order in a months time.

Report back how things are going and if your problem persists maybe we could help.

Will do.

Seems better so far but early days.
Funnily enough - one of the best DNS servers for me was a BT one and my ISP is BT but they were forcing me to rely on the router.