Im at university and in the halls the internet works via a proxy.

I have set up my browser settings etc. correctly (auto detect) and it has been working properly the majority of the time.

Lately it has loaded pages extremely slowly and downloads have gone down from their usual 100kb/s + to 5kb/s or worse!

So far I have tried the following:

• tried a different cat cable
• tried a different wall socket from another persons room (ruling out the port)
• resetting the VIA Rhine II Fast Ethernet Adapter
• reinstalling VIA Rhine II Fast Ethernet Adapter
• updating VIA Rhine II Fast Ethernet Adapter to latest version
• tweaked the driver settings (although not sure what im doing, just experimented !)
• temporarily disabled firewall
• temporarily disabled anti virus

i also did the useless vista network diagnosis thing.

it has happened once before and i think i fixed it by doing a system restore, but now for some reason there is no restore points there.

thanks in advance for any suggestions

[edit] LAN gaming still seems to work fine if that makes any difference

Try this

update to a more secure Hosts file
There's lots of important info on that here: http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm
As it's difficult to see the actual download, here it is: http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.zip
Important! Windows Vista requires special instructions: http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hostsvista.htm

Simply download the hosts.zip file, extract, then run mvps.bat, then restart

Then restart, and test browsing the Internet again



Also which Antivirus do you have? (not Norton or AVG8 or McAfee, I hope :suspiciou)
Because it's very strange (I know) but disabling your Antivirus is not the same as uninstalling it fully
Therefore, if you still have issues, this time try uninstalling your Antivirus
And depending upon which one you had, the free Avira Antivirus is preferred


Also try this...

Start computer in safe mode.
logon on to administrator.
Click the start button
Search "cmd.exe"
Select it and then "ctrl - shift - enter" to allow elevation request
Type in - "netsh winsock reset" press enter
Then Restart your computer

i tried all of the above and non of it has made any difference

i have no idea what could be wrong with it!

thanks for trying

any other ideas?

There is one more option (other than hardware of course)
As a test disable Java and java script in your browser (Internet Explorer or Firefox)

You just go into the settings area (Tools->Internet Options) locate the Java settings (tick boxes) and untick them
Restart your browser and test again. It it's then lots faster, I'd do this: (actually do this either way)
Run JavaRa
This will remove all your old Java stuff (that is not required)
It will also help you check for new Java updates

understand the basics of a proxy

• first, a proxy gives management control
• adds loging
• can filter what is accessible
• can be a bottleneck if not monitored

Consider x000's of students confined to one proxy server. Unless the visible
server is only a front to a pool of actual servers to which the real work is assigned,
one proxy will quickly become a bottleneck in the bandwidth that is available.
All you need is two or three running Torrent downloads and everyone will suffer.

nobody else is having any issues, torrents don't work and other people have used their pcs with my network point and the speed has been fine so its not the network