# Weird Internet Problem

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-internet-problem/323141>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 23, 2005, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-internet-problem/323141 "2005-09-23T23:01:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2005, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-internet-problem/323141/1 "2005-09-23T23:01:28Z")

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I’m using Comcast high-speed internet and it’s great. I can download things lightning fast and gererally surf the internet quickly.

I have a weird problem, though.

I use Firefox and it goes through a few steps to load a web page. I’ll use [www.yahoo.com](http://www.yahoo.com) as an example. Here are the steps(as displayed in the lower left of the browser).

1. Looking for [www.yahoo.com](http://www.yahoo.com)

2. Connecting to [www.yahoo.com](http://www.yahoo.com)

3. Waiting for [www.yahoo.com](http://www.yahoo.com)

4. Transfering data from [www.yahoo.com](http://www.yahoo.com)

Now, if all goes well, that all happens in the blink of an eye. But I’ve really noticed that I frequently get a long pause during step 3. It will say, “Waiting for [www.yahoo.com](http://www.yahoo.com)” or ANY web page practicaly. Now, a small wait is no big deal, but sometimes it waits 5-10 seconds and maybe more. That might not seem like a lot, but it does hold up the surfing speed.

Again, once it is finished waiting, the web pages load instantly.

What could be causing the long “waiting for…” pauses? I do use a wireless adapter and router, but it’s brand new and I can download very fast with it. I’ve checked my bandwidth and it is always very high(over 5.5 mps).

Any ideas?

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**Author:** ![Scruloose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@Scruloose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scruloose)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2005, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-internet-problem/323141/2 "2005-09-23T23:10:32Z")

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I once had a weird problem where some web sites became slow, and two news websites wouldn’t load at all. Turns out, it was the wireless router. It just needed to be turned off for a minute. It’s happened twice now in the last few months.

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**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2005, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-internet-problem/323141/3 "2005-09-23T23:15:29Z")

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Some degree of that is normal. It could be caused by anything in the process including of the web page server itself.

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**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2005, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-internet-problem/323141/4 "2005-09-23T23:34:17Z")

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> [@Shagnasty](#):
>
> Some degree of that is normal. It could be caused by anything in the process including of the web page server itself.

I would not mind if it were one page, but it seems to be general with most pages.