Slow internet I.E.8

[tuppence]

Hi,

Can anyone help please? My internet connection is OK but when trying to access pages within given sites it takes forever and then comes up with a message "Internet explorer cannot display page". After many refreshes it does eventually get ther. Why is it so slow? Is anyone else having problems? I am with Teleconnect and am running Internet Explorer 8. It has only been like this for a few days. Have done scans .......no problems there.

Help!!!!!!!

tuppence

[AnOther]

Did the problem start with IE8 or has it been OK and changed ?

Have you tried clearing your temporary internet files ?

Don't know how it is in IE8, I still use IE6, when I use IE that is which is very infrequently, but in that case it is Tools/Internet Options/Delete Files.

[f1steveuk]

Firefox!!

[5-element]

Following various pieces of advice, I have now downloaded and installed Firefox - I had nothing but problems since (accidentally) updating to IE8 - such as, I couldn't get any Youtube because I couldn't download Adobe Flash Player.

Since I have Firefox, all those problems seem resolved. I didn't have to uninstal IE8, just instal Firefox, and everything even seems to happen more quickly.... So far, good news all around with Firefox.

[AnOther]

It does seem that, true to MS form, IE8 has caused as many problems as it has solved. I gave up on it several years ago firstly in favour of Maxthon but in the last year or so I have used Firefox almost exclusively.

[tuppence]

Ok 5 element tell me what I have to do to get Firefox without uninstalling IE8, please. Being of a certain age I know nothing about Firefox although I have heard of it.

tuppence

[Clair]

Download Firefox.

I use it 99% of the time.

[5-element]

Tuppence, good luck with the Firefox installation - I am very glad that Clair came to the rescue, as she knows what she is doing so much better than I do!!!

[jyvais]

@ErnieY "It does seem that, true to MS form, IE8 has caused as many problems as it has solved. I gave up on it several years ago firstly in favour of Maxthon but in the last year or so I have used Firefox almost exclusively."

Ernie, I'm curious, since you have stated many times that you use IE6 only occasionally. How do you know that IE8 "has caused as many problems as it has solved" ?? It would be interesting if you could be more specific. All the reviews I have read conclude that whilst IE8 may not be the fastest browser, it’s still a perfectly good one and a significant improvement over IE7 (and indeed IE6).

[AnOther]

Because of the number of people complaining about it, not just here but on the Internet in general. Just Google IE8 problems

Specifics are difficult to quote because no 2 computers are the same and therefore everybody's experience will be subtly different but for a 'for instance' try THIS link.

IMO MS sat on their hands for far too long with previous versions enabling others to not only catch up but comprehensively overtake IE such that IE8 brought little if anything to the party. For anyone still using IE6 or 7 the the sensible upgrade route is Firefox not IE8.

[jyvais]

Well Ernie, its funny that you should provide a link to the ComputerWorld website. This very site concluded its recent review of IE8 as follows;

"For core browsing, IE is superior. It offers better tab handling, a better Search Box, and a slew of features that Firefox doesn't have, such as "porn mode," anti-malware protection, and Web Slices and Accelerators"

So perhaps they need to get their story straight!

Listen I don't want to get into a "which browser is best" argument. My point is that you are advising people to stay clear of IE8, yet you have no direct experience of it.

I have direct experince of both IE8 and Firefox, they are both good products. I have installed IE8 on 5 PCs without a problem.

If, like me, you prefer not to have two browsers installed, then I can categorically say that IE8 is much superior to IE6 and is well worth the upgrade.

Perhaps you ought to try it Ernie, you never know you might like it ;-)

(And actually, from a security perspective, you should have at least upgraded to IE7 by now.)

[tel]

[quote user="jyvais"]I have direct experince of both IE8 and Firefox, they are both good products. I have installed IE8 on 5 PCs without a problem. If, like me, you prefer not to have two browsers installed, then I can categorically say that IE8 is much superior to IE6 and is well worth the upgrade. Perhaps you ought to try it Ernie, you never know you might like it ;-) (And actually, from a security perspective, you should have at least upgraded to IE7 by now.)[/quote]

Well said that man!

[f1steveuk]

I'm going on comments made by the IT guys I know, who I used to work with covering Formula One, so computers were fairly critical. IE8 has not be fully debugged, and WILL drag the system down with it! I avoid anything Microsoft for the internet as 99.99999% of viruses that appear on the the net are aimed at Microsoft and Mr Gates. I tend to keep my e mails on the servers site (you usually get 4gb of storage), much easier if your on Hotmail, and which usually has a "setable" spam filtering, and then Firefox as a browser. Touching wood heavily, I cannot remember the last time I was struck by a virus.

[Pierre ZFP]

I'm going to muddy the waters now by suggesting Google Chrome.

I gave up on Firefox as, although good, I had troubles doing the various updates which would not install properly.

So, as a full time user of Chrome for several weeks now, I can say I really like it.  It takes a little bit of getting to grips with as the interface is a bit different but it has great advantages too.  It is a very clean almost minimalist screen and the feature I like most is that if a tab crashes then just that tab closes, not the whole browser.

So, that's my two penn'th

 

[AnOther]

[quote user="jyvais"]My point is that you are advising people to stay clear of IE8, yet you have no direct experience of it.[/quote]That's not quite true as we use it at work on tightly buttoned down corporate PC's.

I guess what I'm really saying is two things:

1. If it ain't broke don't fix it, if you're using IE7 and are happy with it there is nothing compelling in IE8.

2. If you do want to upgrade then do it intelligently, don't just go blindly down the MS road as there are much better alternatives.

Whilst no browser is immune from attack the point about IE being the target of most is well made and of itself should be sufficient justification to avoid it.

I thank you for your concern but if I use IE twice a month on my own machines I'd be exaggerating and frankly it's only still there because it's impossible to get rid of and I don't think I'm at any risk by not upgrading it. I am perfectly happy with FF and will not be installing IE8 at any time that I can foresee.

[jyvais]

ErnieY and F1SteveUK, its all very well listening to what your mates and colleagues are saying, but sometimes the chatter isn't borne out by the facts. Its true, MS had a big problem with IE6, it had stagnated and excellent products such as Firefox appeared on the scene that highlighted its deficiencies and this together with many security problems gave it a bad reputation. But fast forward to now, have a look at Secunia.com, one of the major sites that tracks security vulnerabilities. This year so far, there have been 7 vulnerabilities for Firefox and just 1 for IE8. I am not arguing that FF is beter than IE8, or visa versa. Every browser has security issues, but IE8 is now no worse than others.

And this will surprise you, one of the security issues with Firefox fixed by Mozilla recently was discovered by Microsoft!

BUT things move on. MS has put a massive effort into making IE very secure and feature rich. Now as I said, in my ealier post I don't want to get into a 'which browser is best argument' but the gap between the leading contenders has narrowed considerably to the point where they are all perfectly useable, and choice is down to personal preference.

Oh and a final point, F1SteveUK any complex piece of software will always contain bugs, anybody who has studied software engineering is painfully aware of this. And I guarantee that there are bugs in Firefox, Chrome, Safari4, IE8 and Opera et al.

[Baz]

I have two computers using IE8 and they are working well. IE8 is a great improvement on previous versions and I am more than happy with it.

Baz

 

[f1steveuk]

Tried IE8, and Opera. IE8 did exactly what i was told it would, dragged my laptop down with it, it became painfully slow. I concede it may be me, but I can't see how. Opera? Just plain didn't like it!

Firefox isn't perfect, I have had to reload it a couple of times because it took to freezing, but in general, it has been better, so I use it.

I have now "sandboxed" my browser, as suggested, and I well impressed.

Summary,= personal taste!

[jyvais]

It sounds to me F1steveuk that you've got a problem with your Windows installation.

I don't know why your colleagues told you that IE8 would "drag your PC down" and that its buggy. In fact, several months ago before IE8 was even released PC Pro were saying that the code was that stable that they'd happily use it instead of IE7.

I have it installed on a humble Netbook and it runs well on that under Windows XP.

[f1steveuk]

You may have hit the nail on the head!! With Firefox my laptop is pretty fast, with IE8, it becomes very slow. One word

VISTA!!!!!

[Salty Sam]

[quote user="f1steveuk"]You may have hit the nail on the head!! With Firefox my laptop is pretty fast, with IE8, it becomes very slow. One word


VISTA!!!!!
[/quote]

Well I would suggest you look elsewhere! 

A combination of Vista & IE8 on 2 laptops and 1 PC and I don't have any issues with speed or performance, if anything the PC has speeded up! If you're having trouble with this combination, I would suggest looking elsewhere like a de-frag for starters.

Get rid of Norton and / or Symantec as both of these can cause real problems. I'm afraid it's all too easy to blame MS for all the computer worlds problems.

[Théière]

Programmes like RegCure are very useful for clearing out and tidying up the windows registry errors which can be responsible for slow apps.

[AnOther]

Whilst defragging may be useful it is a very overrated process and in the majority of cases will make not 1 iota of measurable difference to a PC's performance. By all means do it but don't expect it to be a cure for a slow browser.

[Salty Sam]

[quote user="ErnieY"]Whilst defragging may be useful it is a very overrated process and in the majority of cases will make not 1 iota of measurable difference to a PC's performance. By all means do it but don't expect it to be a cure for a slow browser.

[/quote]

If you note, I did say - try a defrag for starters! This coupled with a reg cleaner as suggested by Teapot will often make a big difference to performance, including solving some of the problems often attributed (wrongly) to Mr Gates products.

If it is such an overrated process, pray tell how one gets those misplaced files back where they belong?

A defrag takes those misplaced files and puts them where they belong, therefore if a program hasn't a need to search for files scattered about, performance will be increased.

 

[AnOther]

[quote user="Salty Sam"]If you note, I did say - try a defrag for starters! This coupled with a reg cleaner as suggested by Teapot will often make a big difference to performance, including solving some of the problems often attributed (wrongly) to Mr Gates products.

If it is such an overrated process, pray tell how one gets those misplaced files back where they belong?

A defrag takes those misplaced files and puts them where they belong, therefore if a program hasn't a need to search for files scattered about, performance will be increased.[/quote]Thank you for the lesson however if you note I did say  -  [quote user="ErnieY"]Whilst defragging may be useful it is a very

overrated process and in the majority of cases will make not 1 iota of

measurable difference to a PC's performance. By all means do it but

don't expect it to be a cure for a slow browser.[/quote]

The operative phrases being may be useful and measurable difference and also please note that I said it is unlikely to be a cure for a slow browser a statement I stand by. If a whole PC is being dragged down by a heavily fragmented drive then that is something else.

For a comparison of before and after HD performance THIS site is interesting, particularly post#4, where the following results are recorded.

Average Read Transfer Rate before- 43.7 MB/sec, After Smart Defrag Optimization- 47.3 MB/sec

Random Access Time before - 20.1 ms, After Smart Defrag Optimization- 17.4 ms

Burst Rate before- 77.6 MB/sec, After Smart Defrag Optimization- 82.9 MB/sec

CPU Usage before- 18.4%, After Smart Defrag Optimization- 7.3%

It must be remembered though that these results were after 2 months use of a specialised defragging programme and that the built in Windows utility will not perform to this still modest level. Also that the only significantly improved figure, that for CPU usage, is only that recorded during drive benchmarking and does not represent a similar level of improvement in overall machine CPU usage.

Incidentally if Mr Gates products were so wonderful they wouldn't be scattering file fragments all over the HD like a mad womans ***** in the first place [;-)]