# Drastic reduction in Internet speed for Windows laptop--help! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 18, 2004, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drastic-reduction-in-internet-speed-for-windows-laptop-help/275523 "2004-11-18T19:54:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drastic-reduction-in-internet-speed-for-windows-laptop-help/275523/1 "2004-11-18T19:54:30Z")
We have broadband at home with ethernet jacks in every room. Here is a key fact: **My Mac laptop is running fine.** But yesterday evening, my wife’s Windows XP/Fujitsu laptop started running at about 1/5 normal speed: 1. Spybot is installed and all spyware removed (we did this several days ago, actually, and there was not much there). 2. Did virus check on Symantec’s page–nada. 3. Everything else seems fine. 4. Pages load really slow. Usually the words comes up first, with pics taking a long time to load. Any ideas? I would be inclined to blame the broadband provider were it not for the fact that my Mac is running mostly OK (I _have_ been getting lots of “Safari can’t find server” messages that require an extra try, but when pages load they are quite fast.) Thanks much for your help. ---
**Author:** ![ookpik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/c68b51/32.png) [@ookpik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ookpik)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drastic-reduction-in-internet-speed-for-windows-laptop-help/275523/2 "2004-11-18T20:03:41Z")
You may still have spy, ad or malware installed. You need to scan often, and with more than one scanner sometimes. (different vendors products, not multiple instances at once) Check your internet options settings: Connections - LAN settings Make sure you’re not: Auto detecting settings No proxy No auto config Open a DOS window: type IPCONFIG, your default gateway should be a different IP than your PC If it isn’t, somthing has changed it and is redirecting you when you try to surf. ---
**Author:** ![ookpik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/c68b51/32.png) [@ookpik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ookpik)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drastic-reduction-in-internet-speed-for-windows-laptop-help/275523/3 "2004-11-18T20:07:07Z")
Use Firefox instead of IE… ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drastic-reduction-in-internet-speed-for-windows-laptop-help/275523/4 "2004-11-18T20:47:00Z")
Thanks for your help. I looked at the LAN settings. It was on auto-detect, but I think I put that on myself when trying to get the laptop to work on the system here. I turned it off. I then did the DOS shell thing, getting this: Connection-specific DNS suffix: [blank] IP address: 192 etc. Subnet mask: 255 etc. Default gateway: 192 etc. With the two 192 etc.'s being the same. Does that sound right? I noticed also that going from page to page takes a very long time, but a search in Google is still lightning fast. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drastic-reduction-in-internet-speed-for-windows-laptop-help/275523/5 "2004-11-18T20:52:08Z")
Wait a sec: I DON’T want autodetect. But I DO want proxy and autoconfig. * * * What I DID have was autodetect WITHOUT proxy and autoconfig. * * * Is that bad? ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drastic-reduction-in-internet-speed-for-windows-laptop-help/275523/6 "2004-11-18T21:03:44Z")
I actually just installed Firefox. It’s still slow in exactly the same way: The page loads (rather slowly) without the graphics, and then the graphics creep in. Very frustrating. ---
**Author:** ![LordVor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90ced4/32.png) [@LordVor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LordVor)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drastic-reduction-in-internet-speed-for-windows-laptop-help/275523/7 "2004-11-18T21:05:34Z")
> [@Aeschines](#): > > IP address: 192 etc. > Subnet mask: 255 etc. > Default gateway: 192 etc. > > With the two 192 etc.'s being the same. > > Does that sound right? No. The gateway should be the address of the router in between you and the internet. You’ve got this statically configured, or is this what DHCP did to you? -lv ---
**Author:** ![Daizy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/46a35a/32.png) [@Daizy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daizy)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drastic-reduction-in-internet-speed-for-windows-laptop-help/275523/8 "2004-11-18T21:10:34Z")
Hi Aeschines How much Ram is installed on that XP Machine? What all do you have running in the background? (Go to start…then run…then type in msconfig … click ok…then look under the start up tab.) List for us what you have checked. When you did your spyware check…did you check for any updates first? ---
**Author:** ![ookpik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/c68b51/32.png) [@ookpik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ookpik)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drastic-reduction-in-internet-speed-for-windows-laptop-help/275523/9 "2004-11-18T21:13:57Z")
Check with your ISP for the default gw IP. Basically, if a destination cannot be found locally, the DG is where it will go. So this should be a device other than your laptop. Try connecting without any of those selections in Intenet Options, see what happens. You may need the proxy setting and autoconfig, with my ISP I don’t…this can vary though. But the GW having the same IP as the PC is definitely a problem and one I see every now and then on my system. I’ll bet dolllars to donuts that if you look at your HOSTS file you’ll see a whole whack of entries that should not be there. Let me know if this is the case ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drastic-reduction-in-internet-speed-for-windows-laptop-help/275523/10 "2004-11-18T21:30:47Z")
> [@Daizy](#): > > Hi Aeschines > How much Ram is installed on that XP Machine? > What all do you have running in the background? > (Go to start…then run…then type in msconfig … click ok…then look under the start up tab.) > List for us what you have checked. > > When you did your spyware check…did you check for any updates first? Yes, I checked for updates first. Here is what I found under the setup tab: IMJMIG TINTSETUP TINTSETUP hkcmd AGRSMMSG Apoint Indicator Uty QuickTouch BtnHnd PUSCDaemon ezSP\_Px IMJPMIG iNetConDsp FMVLauncherKicker jusched updatenv usnpstd2 ctfmon msmsgs YPagerJ Fujitsu Service Assistant A lot of this is Fujitsu stuff in the Fujitsu folder, but, for example, I have no idea what “Apoint” is, which was in the Apoint folder/directory. ---
**Author:** ![Daizy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/46a35a/32.png) [@Daizy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daizy)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drastic-reduction-in-internet-speed-for-windows-laptop-help/275523/11 "2004-11-18T21:31:51Z")
Not to disagree with ookpik2, but the default gateway should be the default address of your router. You will have to look up your router setup to determine the IP address of the router. As for the autoconfig and proxy settings, it’s most likely you don’t need them. The hosts file, btw, is here: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC > [@](#): > > in some rare cases it’s been reported that a large HOSTS file tends to slow down the machine. This usually only happens in W2, but may occur in XP. > To resolve this issue open the “Services Editor” > > Start | Run (type) “services.msc” (no quotes) > Scroll down to “DNS Client”, Right-click and select: Properties > Click the drop-down arrow for “Startup type” > Select: Manual, click Apply\Ok and restart. [more info] > You can see that the above “Service” is not needed (after a little browsing) by opening the Services Editor again, scroll down to DNS Client and check the “Status” column. It should be blank, if it was needed it would show “Started” in that column. From [here.](http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drastic-reduction-in-internet-speed-for-windows-laptop-help/275523/12 "2004-11-18T21:36:36Z")
> [@ookpik2](#): > > Check with your ISP for the default gw IP. > > Basically, if a destination cannot be found locally, the DG is where it will go. > > So this should be a device other than your laptop. Sorry, I was wrong. I just looked again. The last three digits are different for the IP address and the DF. Then I looked at my Mac config. The router (Mac) is the same as the DF (PC). So maybe that’s OK? They are almost the same number; just the endings are different. > [@](#): > > I’ll bet dolllars to donuts that if you look at your HOSTS file you’ll see a whole whack of entries that should not be there. > > Let me know if this is the case I tried to do a search on HOSTS but all I got was sample files. Could it be that there are none? How should I look? Thanks thus far for everyone’s help. ---
**Author:** ![ookpik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/c68b51/32.png) [@ookpik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ookpik)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drastic-reduction-in-internet-speed-for-windows-laptop-help/275523/13 "2004-11-18T21:41:26Z")
Daizy: You’re not disagreeing: “So this should be a device other than your laptop.” ---
**Author:** ![Daizy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/46a35a/32.png) [@Daizy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daizy)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drastic-reduction-in-internet-speed-for-windows-laptop-help/275523/14 "2004-11-18T21:46:59Z")
IMJMIG (You can uncheck) TINTSETUP (You can uncheck) TINTSETUP (You can uncheck) hkcmd AGRSMMSG Apoint Indicator Uty QuickTouch BtnHnd PUSCDaemon ezSP\_Px IMJPMIG (You can uncheck) iNetConDsp FMVLauncherKicker jusched (You can uncheck) updatenv usnpstd2 ctfmon msmsgs (You can uncheck) YPagerJ (You can uncheck) Fujitsu Service Assistant It’s a start. Click apply…then ok… then reboot. When the nag screen about selective start up shows up…tell it to not show you again ---
**Author:** ![ookpik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/c68b51/32.png) [@ookpik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ookpik)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drastic-reduction-in-internet-speed-for-windows-laptop-help/275523/15 "2004-11-18T21:47:47Z")
Ok so the DG is correctly set then. As long as the IP address is not the same as that of the PC. You searched for HOSTS\*.\* and the only one it found was hosts.sam? If you find one with no extension open it with notepad and see what’s in there. Other than that, you might want to eliminate the cabling in your house as the problem. Try connecting directly to the DSL modem with that notepad Try deleting cookies All offline content etc… ---
**Author:** ![Daizy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/46a35a/32.png) [@Daizy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daizy)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drastic-reduction-in-internet-speed-for-windows-laptop-help/275523/16 "2004-11-18T21:48:49Z")
> [@Aeschines](#): > > I tried to do a search on HOSTS but all I got was sample files. Could it be that there are none? How should I look? > > Thanks thus far for everyone’s help. You should find it here: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC ---
**Author:** ![Daizy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/46a35a/32.png) [@Daizy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daizy)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drastic-reduction-in-internet-speed-for-windows-laptop-help/275523/17 "2004-11-18T21:57:31Z")
You’ve still not said how much ram you are running? Have you cleaned out your temp files and done a scandisk and defrag lately? ---
**Author:** ![LordVor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90ced4/32.png) [@LordVor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LordVor)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drastic-reduction-in-internet-speed-for-windows-laptop-help/275523/18 "2004-11-18T22:27:28Z")
> [@Aeschines](#): > > Sorry, I was wrong. I just looked again. The last three digits are different for the IP address and the DF. Then I looked at my Mac config. The router (Mac) is the same as the DF (PC). The router (gateway) and netmask should be the same on both the mac and the pc, and the ip addresses should be different. The bits that are different in the ip addresses should be 0s in the netmask. (IOW, if you’re netmask ix 255.255.255.0, then the only difference in the ip addresses should be after the last period). -lv ---
**Author:** ![LordVor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90ced4/32.png) [@LordVor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LordVor)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drastic-reduction-in-internet-speed-for-windows-laptop-help/275523/19 "2004-11-18T22:29:58Z")
> [@Daizy](#): > > You’ve still not said how much ram you are running? Read the OP. I doubt that he suddenly decided to take memory out of the laptop last night. -lv ---
**Author:** ![Freejooky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ba8739/32.png) [@Freejooky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freejooky)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drastic-reduction-in-internet-speed-for-windows-laptop-help/275523/20 "2004-11-18T23:00:02Z")
> [@LordVor](#): > > Read the OP. I doubt that he suddenly decided to take memory out of the laptop last night. There is no mention of RAM in the OP - at all. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drastic-reduction-in-internet-speed-for-windows-laptop-help/275523.md?page=2)