Client computer on network slow on some web sites

[daveri]

Hi,

I have the following set up

Host PC (Windows XP) connected to the internet via a USB ADSL modem, running Norton Internet Security and IE6. This setup works great and is really fast as you would expect. This PC is connected via a crossover cable to a Windows 98SE machine with IE6 also.

The internet connection is shared between the two PCs with ICS. On the client machine on most web sites it is fine and can download the sites at the the same sort of speeds as the XP host. However, on some occations, such as when trying to connect to my home banking site, the pages just will not load at all. They may be loading, but they are doing so incredibly slowly. Sometimes refreshing will kick it into loading properly, but most of the time, the page just sits there, not loading. These pages laod fine on the host machine.

Has anyone else had similar problems ? Does anyone know of any tweaks that may solve this problem ?

Many thanks in advance,

Dave.

[DiskDoc]

that's one of the site that does that? Would the server the site is hosted in be slow? Are you experiencing the same problem on that site with the host PC? Clear the chache try again.

[C.M. Weaver]

You may also want to try deleting the index.dat file from the Temporary Internent Files folder, however, you have to follow these instructions to do it properly.

Delete all temporary files from Tools | Internet Options.
Go to Start | Run and type command. You should have a DOS window open now.
Open Task Manager by right clicking the Taskbar and navigate to the Processes Tab.
Select IEXPLORE.exe and EXPLORER.exe and choose End Process.
Using the open DOS window type C:\>del "%systemdrive%\Documents and Settings\%username%\Local
Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\index.dat"
Restart Explorer with the Task Manager (CTRL-ALT-DEL) and select New Task (Run...) then Browse and type EXPLORER.exe
You can also reboot if you don't want to do the above step.

[daveri]

As I said, these web sites work fine (and VERY fast) on the host machine, its just that some sites don't load on the client, which is why I think there must be something fundamentally wrong with my network (or perhaps registry) settings on the client machine.

I will try deleting the index.dat file though and see if that helps.

Thanks.

[Boston_Bob]

Im sure your banking site uses SSL (if not you should dump them ASAP:) This might be the issue. Have you tried other sites with SSL?

I have seen problems with XP and connecting to some SSL sites, although I cant give you a reason or solution as I have not seen one myself. All I can say is that it has been the same situation you dscribe, which is that most sites load fast un til you use SSL.

Could you do some troubleshooting and see if this might be the case?

[daveri]

The site in question is www.nationwide.co.uk I have no idea if they use SSL or how to find out which other sites that use SSL.

I still don't understand why this site works fine on the XP machine with the ADSL usb modem attached, yet won't work properly on the other networked PC (win 98SE) sharing the connection via ICS.

Thanks.

[Boston_Bob]

if the URL starts with https:// instead of http://
you are using SSL, it encrypts traffic so it cant be read if someone intercepts it.

I did not say that I know this is your problem but I have seen XP have issues with it. In combination with ICS these issues could be exacerbated.

Have you tried the 98 machine through the DSL line without ICS?

Have you tried a different proxy solution besides ICS?

[DiskDoc]

page loaded on my PC in flat 2 seconds. I'm not sure why you are experiencing this problem. When you are, it may a problem with the server itself.

[zxc47]

you may need to add the address to Norton Internet Security so it will let it through

[tokyoprince]

Can't give you an answer, but I have a similiar problem. I have 2 win2000 machines sharing USB ADSL connection using ICS. Host loads all web sites fine but client will not load certain websites. As an example, www.orange.co.uk is one that my client will not load. Hope we both get an answer soon !