Fibre Optics on the PC

Would have been about 2 1/2 years ago, as it was a 12 month contract, then signed up for another 12 after being offered a good deal when i phoned the to request a MAC, and have been on Fibre about 6 months now.

As several people have already said, the slowdown could be the result of any number of things, not necessarily broadband speed (which shouldn't slow down massively unless there is an external problem). If your internet connection is slow, the first thing to try, might be a replacement filter, these can fail or partially fail and give very slow internet speed. They are cheap and easy to obtain, sometimes a spare is available with the supplied router.

Other solutions are as previously mentioned, virus and malware scans, defrag and clean up etc. I have found CCleaner to be very good for a simple clean up program, used in conjunction with other antispam and antivirus software.

I've removed the cookies and disabled firewall. Still no better. Also, my hotmail account won't function. I can get into it but if I try and delete any mail just doesn't respond.

Hmm. Odd - some questions.

1. How is your PC connected to your ADSL modem - with an ethernet cable, or a USB cable. Or is your PC connected to another router and then to your modem? If your ADSL modem has the option of both, use an ethernet cable if you're not already so doing.

2. What spec is your PC (Memory, CPU type + speed, HDD size - if you're not sure - what's the make and model)

3. Have you got a firewall running on the modem - if not, disabling it on your PC for any extended time is not a good idea

4. What Firewall and/or anti-virus software is running on your PC?

You are thrashing around in the dark here.

Do you have any 'computer savvy'* friends who can get 'hands on' with this machine?

You may find that reloading your OS and rebuilding your system from an external backup is all you need to do. PCs and laptops can get a bit 'cranky' after a while. (Especially ones that have never really had any regular 'housekeeping' done.)

*Not people who do a good impression of 'computer savvy' in the pub after a skinful. (Or well-meaning relatives who 'know a bit' about computers.)

+1 on all of that - it's hard enough doing any kind of basic support down a telephone line, but by forum posting? Even if there's an obvious problem with your PC, it's much easier to diagnose hands on.

Yeah it sort of drifted slightly away from the original topic.

The bro-in-law has, in the past, controlled my PC from his house. Seeing him move around the cursor is fairly eerie. However, hasn't got the time at the mo.

I've reinstalled the firewall...

The PC is connected to the router by ethernet cable.

The hotamail is problem - receives mails but can't send or delete. A week ago it was fine and for no apparent reason has gone frustratingly slow.

Hey pp... no idea which progs you use but you could try ccleaner    (free and clean download from download.com)

Also try typing msconfig into your search box... click on startup and disable any programe that you don't want/need to run at the startup and this will at least speed-up your start-time.

Talk to someone you know who is computer savvy rather than going to a shop as most things are very easy to do yourself.

Changing cables to fibre optics will not do the trick.... nor a router change if your comp speed was fine before. (imo)

Does your hard-drive need de-fragging ?

Do you have McAfee antivirus?

Is it just IE or the computer as a whole? If just IE, do you have the same problem on Google Chrome or Firefox?

Have you installed any software recently, if so do a system restore from a point before the software was installed.

If no new software installed do a system restore from a point before your troubles began.

Try changing the settings on the NIC card.

This sounds a normal and good thing to follow  pp.

Yes, because clearly pp's given every indication he knows what that means. Was there any particular setting you had in mind or did you just want him to EDITED about with all of them?

Find someone who knows what they're doing pp, nobody here will be able to help you.

This problem is almost certainly to do with your PC and not your line speed.

It could be a lot of things ranging from dodgy memory to a virus to a disk in need of a defrag.

ctrl-shift-escape will bring up the task manager.

Start here to look at what junk is installed on your PC and uninstall it. Look here also to see what is consuming PC resources. Because when YOU are doing nothing the computer the computer should be running at 1-3% of CPU.

Ifyou go fibre optic you will only notice a material difference in downloading. Surfing will be a little faster but not much.