WEB- slow 2 newbies ask for help

[star]

I am trying to help a friend out with a computer problem,

He is running Windows XP (home ) when he first had the computer and connected to the internet, ( Down load Modem speed.35bps every thing was working OK, the web pages would download and open quickly , now after 1.year when he downloads from the internet (Modem speed .32bps....) he has to wait up to 30 to 50 minutes for a web page to download and open..? the telephone company have been to check the line,( with a lap top ) and say every things OK, and the problem is with his computer..? can you please advise me on what to Do / Check to try and get the computer back to its original working speed ,

Many thanks Star ......Newbie & newbie friend

[Statica]

The first thing to do is to check what the throughput on the computer actually is, meaning not using a web browser to actually browse a site, but seeing what the size of the bandwidth available is. A good tool to use is: http://www.analogx.com/contents/down...etwork/nsl.htm
It will also show you the CPU usage.

here are some common bottlenecks that might be on the system:
Over protection: If there are unnecessary, or too many limitting factors to the connection then the speed seems slower - things like multiple firewalls, too many local proxies that keep a realtime monitor on the system, you are going to experience slower performance. Try disabling all firewalls and seeing if the situation improves. On a fast machine, having a realtime scan for downloaded webfiles and multiple firewall layers do not matter too much, but if the computer itself is dated then you might see a performance hit
Configuration issues: Recheck the network settings, and make sure that there are no unecessary programs or services running. Also check to see what programs are accessing the network from the moment he logs in. The webpage might itself be slow loading up, but that could be because he has a gazillion other programs all crowding around his connection - things like IM's, spyware, adware etc etc. Run a thoro. diagnostic with an online virus scan like (http://housecall.antivirus.com/) and check with antispyware scans like Spybot and/or Adaware.
Also check to see that he is using a significant amount of space dedicated to Internet Cache and try cleaning the internet cache.
What also helps is making sure that the hard drive is defragmented as well.

Hardware issues: When the network support guy came, he checked with a few different pieces of hardware - a different computer; a different modem; and possibly a different cable from the modem to the phone jack. While changing the computer is not what I am suggesting, check to see if changing the cable helps. If it is a winmodem or a software modem, you should know that higher CPU usage are going to affect the modem's performance - a hardware modem is recommended. Also check to see if the drivers for the modem are the newest ones available.
These are just some of the possibilities I can think of; hopefully it will give u a starting point for diagnosing the issue; start with trying to eliminate as many variables as you can .. like clean the system out; recheck the configuration etc.

[Tech Guy]

What type of modem do you have installed on your computer?

- Clear cookies, cache, an history
- run these this command ipconfig /flushdns

Depending upon what modem you have you could try to put some inits in the modem:

+ms=v90

[glc]

A 32 to 35k connection is a very low V.90 connection, which means that the phone line is poor quality. You will probably get better throughput disabling V.90 and locking it down to a V.34 connection (28.8 or so) - how to do this depends on modem model.

http://www.modemsite.com/56k/ms.asp