Is my broadband provider responsible?

[filthiestfis]

How can I find out if my broadband provider is responsible for my slow internet service?
I have only just formatted my pc one week ago and I have Norton antivirus running actively and Ad-Aware too but since yesterday, it is taking ages for the pages to load, and sometimes not at all. It would seem like something is slowing everything down but what can it be?
I cant think of what so could it be that Virgin Media, my provider is responsible for the slowness?

[Ethel]

I would bet you 10 whole new british pennies that the culprit is Norton - a dreadful resource hogger.

Are you connected by wire or wireless?

[filthiestfis]

connected by wire.

[filthiestfis]

Also I am not being allowed to make internet phonecalls from freecall which I usually use to call abroad. Whenever I dial a number it automatically disconnects it with the message:

"The other party ended the call due to an unknown error".

[gina32]

i had norton on mine and it slowed my pc down something terrible, get rid of it. then see how it goes

[filthiestfis]

If I get rid of it then I will be leaving my pc open to all sorts of dangers though!

[pauln90]

Well plenty of use AVG free antivirus and Zonealarm firewall and I find it equally as good as Norton which I used to have before it completely seized up my PC.

As regards broadband speed then run a broadband speed test site several times over a day and then you can see if you are achieving what your broadband supplier claims.

An example of this type of test site is:-


http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest.html

[gina32]

ive used avg for ages and find them good.

[The Builder]

Ditto all of the above........also, if it's still slow.........then 99 times out of ten......it's BT's line in my experience

[neuron]

I appreciate what everyone's said about Norton - it does slow a PC down. But if you want to stick with it for the time being, I'll give you another option to try.

Try deleting as much as junk as possible from your PC by following the instructions here:

http://www.helpwithwindows.com/WindowsXP/howto -16.html

You will need to be able to view hidden files and folders in order to carry out some of the steps. Instructions for this are available on the web.

After you've followed the instructions, defragment your hard drive by either using the disk defragmentor in Windows (assuming you have XP) or a free one from the web. Here's a good one:

http://www.download.com/Auslogics-Disk-Defrag/ 3000-2086-10567503.html?part=dl-Auslogics&subj =dl&tag=button

After you've done all this, you will almost certainly find an increase in your connection speed. Whilst I accept that the ISP is often responsible for the slowness of a connection, you can help the matter yourself to some extent.