In the last two or three months, whenever I click on a link, the color wheel starts to spin for a long time. I have tried clearing out the cache, history and even restarting the computer it has not helped. It seems to be getting worse. Any suggestions?

ken

sounds like you've lost the DNS address. Assuming you have DSL or Cable
highspeed connection, power off the modem AND any router you may have,
wait at least 30 seconds, then
power on the modem and wait until you see data flowing
(on mine, it has three sold lites and one that flashes with data transfers).
IF you see a lite that is strobing at regular intervals, wait until it goes sold on.
Now the modem to ISP is properly connected and you can power on the router.