Hi, I just got PacBell DSL and have been experiencing extremely poor speeds. I have Win ME, IE 5.5 and an Efficient Networks modem. On average, every 15-20 minutes I have a 20-30 second pause when I am browsing. Lately these pauses occur every 5-6 minutes, which is even poorer than a 56K connection. Can someone help me? Thanks.

Is it the DSL link that slows down (not much we can do about that, call provider), or is it the Windows ME system itself that slows down so much that you can not do anything. If its Windows ME slowing down, then there are a lot of known things that can cause this. Does the whole system become sluggish when this occurs, like even the mouse is slow to respond? Just the first of possible causes you must check out and verify. Then post back results for many more ideas. Virus (run a virus scan of all files, or free online at housecall.antivirus.com). Spyware/Ad-ware programs can cause problems and fight over the internet access. Download and run AD-Aware v5.81 from Lavasoft.de and see if removing all that junk helps. Need more details about what the problem is.

I have had WinME with PacBell DSL for over a year and have lots of problems. I have Ad-Aware and have it automatically run every hour while online. That helps some. I have AVG Virus Scanner run at least once a day. But, the problem that you described about the slowed down internet happens and I have tried all of the online tweaks, cleaning cache, history, temporary files and I have yet to discover why I.E. does this sometimes. I can sometimes shut down and restart and thay may or may not work. There were a few times that I had been restarting the PC and then had the bright idea to call Pac Bell at the SBC number for support. I ran across an option about the daily status. It is one of the options that you will have to call support and get a run around to get the correct option. But it is there. That time, the Pac Bell servers were down in my local area. But that whole time I thought it was my PC. Then, I was having the same problem a few months later, so I had remembered that I called and got the internet daily report on the SBC support line. I had a hard time refinding it, but the Pac Bell servers were down in the SF Bay Area for several hours. Now, I would give you the number but it is not in arms reach. It is a toll free number. And you have to keep trying the options. Once you get it, write it down and keep it in your notes. You might be going crazy and ready to bash your PC brains out and it is not your PC. geakazoid

Thanks for the quick response guys. Talked to PacBell Tech Support yesterday and one of the things they recommended was to upgrade to IE 6.0. Did that and seemed to help a bit. Throughput seemed to increase. Also installed Ad-Aware and removed all the junk from Doubleclick, Gator, etc. Don't know if that helped or not. It's not Win ME that slows down, I have a 192M RAM and even with DSL on I get about 73% system resources available. I run Norton utilities(Garbage, Virus, etc) every 2-3 days, so my system is pretty clean overall, no viruses.

Geakazoid, I was wondering about your experience with PacBell DSL and ME. Would you recommend that I upgrade to Win XP or Win 2000. I have used cable modem internet access at a friend's place and I have yet to see any kind of pause at all. I believe upgrading to IE 6.0 will just decrease the frequency of the pauses to maybe 1 every 30-40 mins but not completely remove them. Any ideas?

pacbell dsl suck, high speed, but it will suddenly discconect during browing wedpage. always need to wait for it's f---ing connection, s---,..........