Slow loading web pages

I have recently started using high-speed Comcast cable modem @ 15MBPS. I
am having a problem with web pages loading slowly in Mint. I am running a
dual boot Mint/Win7 desktop pc hardwired to the router. The pages load
nearly instantaneously in Win7 (Firefox or Chrome) but lag considerably
in Mint. I have noticed that when I navigate to a web page I see the
"Looking up whateversite.com" in the lower left corner and "sending
request" followed by "waiting for whateversite.com" in Firefox and Chrome
until the page actually loads. I have checked the DNS settings in Win7
and Mint and they are the same. Thunderbird and Pan speeds are unaffected.

At this point, I'm looking for suggestions to check for what might be
causing this lag or how to correct it. BTW, this desktop pc is connected
via ethernet cable to my router. The wireless laptops being served by the
router (running dual boot XP/Mint) load pages extremely quickly as well
in either operating system. Therefore, it seems that there is something
wrong in my network settings on this particular Win7/Mint desktop pc
configuration.

Ethernet info - Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme
BCM5755 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 02)

Router - Linksys WRT54G

Suggestions for what to check will be most appreciated.

Thanks in advance..

On Saturday, October 29th, 2011 at 15:29:15h +0000, Blues2Use asked:

> Suggestions for what to check will be most appreciated.

Use nslookup and/or dig to see how long name lookups take.

From what I recall, there used to be an issue with Firefox
and IPv6.

From what I vaguely recall, if IPv6 was enabled on the system,
lookups were made using IPv6 first, then when that eventually
timed out, the lookup was then correctly made using IPv4.

Check the Firefox configuration for

network.dns.disableIPv6

and see if setting it to boolean true makes any difference.

Hello,

blues2use a écrit :
> I have recently started using high-speed Comcast cable modem @ 15MBPS. I
> am having a problem with web pages loading slowly in Mint. I am running a
> dual boot Mint/Win7 desktop pc hardwired to the router. The pages load
> nearly instantaneously in Win7 (Firefox or Chrome) but lag considerably
> in Mint. I have noticed that when I navigate to a web page I see the
> "Looking up whateversite.com" in the lower left corner and "sending
> request" followed by "waiting for whateversite.com" in Firefox and Chrome
> until the page actually loads. I have checked the DNS settings in Win7
> and Mint and they are the same. Thunderbird and Pan speeds are unaffected.

What about (long enough) file download using HTTP or FTP ?

> At this point, I'm looking for suggestions to check for what might be
> causing this lag or how to correct it.

A packet capture of the traffic generated when requesting a page might help.

J G Miller a écrit :
>
> From what I recall, there used to be an issue with Firefox
> and IPv6.
>
> From what I vaguely recall, if IPv6 was enabled on the system,
> lookups were made using IPv6 first, then when that eventually
> timed out, the lookup was then correctly made using IPv4.

What you describe is not an issue with firefox nor IPv6 but with broken
DNS servers or relays.

le samedi, 29 octobre, 2011 á 18:10:32h +0200, Pascal Hambourg a écrit:

> What you describe is not an issue with firefox nor IPv6 but with broken
> DNS servers or relays.

So what should one do if those broken DNS servers or relays are outside
of one's administrative control and the people responsible for them
refuse to fix them?

On Sat, 29 Oct 2011 16:22:30 +0000 (UTC), J G Miller wrote:
>
> So what should one do if those broken DNS servers or relays are outside
> of one's administrative control and the people responsible for them
> refuse to fix them?

Change DNS server values, or run your own caching server.

On Sat, 29 Oct 2011 18:10:32 +0200, Pascal Hambourg wrote:

> J G Miller a écrit :
>>
>> From what I recall, there used to be an issue with Firefox and IPv6.
>>
>> From what I vaguely recall, if IPv6 was enabled on the system, lookups
>> were made using IPv6 first, then when that eventually timed out, the
>> lookup was then correctly made using IPv4.
>
> What you describe is not an issue with firefox nor IPv6 but with broken
> DNS servers or relays.

My cable modem uses fixed DNS via Comcast. Regardless of what I use in my
router, it has to pass through those DNS servers. I'm thinking I should
call Comcast to find out what the DNS delay problems are.

This problem started just about a week ago but it hasn't gotten any
worse; just never got any better.

Thanks for the suggestion.

blues2use a écrit :
> On Sat, 29 Oct 2011 18:10:32 +0200, Pascal Hambourg wrote:
>
>> J G Miller a écrit :
>>> From what I recall, there used to be an issue with Firefox and IPv6.
>>>
>>> From what I vaguely recall, if IPv6 was enabled on the system, lookups
>>> were made using IPv6 first, then when that eventually timed out, the
>>> lookup was then correctly made using IPv4.
>> What you describe is not an issue with firefox nor IPv6 but with broken
>> DNS servers or relays.
>
> My cable modem uses fixed DNS via Comcast. Regardless of what I use in my
> router, it has to pass through those DNS servers.

Why ? Does Comcast prohibit communication with any other DNS ?

> I'm thinking I should
> call Comcast to find out what the DNS delay problems are.

IMO you should first check whether your issue is actually a DNS problem,
with proper DNS tools as already suggested. A web browser alone is not
enough to investigate network problems.

On Sat, 29 Oct 2011 16:51:58 +0000, Bit Twister wrote:

> On Sat, 29 Oct 2011 16:22:30 +0000 (UTC), J G Miller wrote:
>>
>> So what should one do if those broken DNS servers or relays are outside
>> of one's administrative control and the people responsible for them
>> refuse to fix them?
>
> Change DNS server values, or run your own caching server.

Currently running caching DNS server with about the same results in lag
speed...just spent another hour in tech chat with Comcast...it appears to
be a physical problem possibly in my outside connections at the
box...we'll find out Monday afternoon...

Thanks

On Sat, 29 Oct 2011 15:29:15 +0000, blues2use wrote:

> I have recently started using high-speed Comcast cable modem @ 15MBPS. I
> am having a problem with web pages loading slowly in Mint. I am running
> a dual boot Mint/Win7 desktop pc hardwired to the router. The pages load
> nearly instantaneously in Win7 (Firefox or Chrome) but lag considerably
> in Mint. I have noticed that when I navigate to a web page I see the
> "Looking up whateversite.com" in the lower left corner and "sending
> request" followed by "waiting for whateversite.com" in Firefox and
> Chrome until the page actually loads. I have checked the DNS settings in
> Win7 and Mint and they are the same. Thunderbird and Pan speeds are
> unaffected.
>
> At this point, I'm looking for suggestions to check for what might be
> causing this lag or how to correct it. BTW, this desktop pc is connected
> via ethernet cable to my router. The wireless laptops being served by
> the router (running dual boot XP/Mint) load pages extremely quickly as
> well in either operating system. Therefore, it seems that there is
> something wrong in my network settings on this particular Win7/Mint
> desktop pc configuration.
>
> Ethernet info - Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme
> BCM5755 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 02)
>
> Router - Linksys WRT54G
>
> Suggestions for what to check will be most appreciated.
>
> Thanks in advance..

Further investigations show: my Mint dual boot Win7 loads web pages
extremely quickly in Firefox and Chrome as would be expected with a 15mbps
connection. I am still experiencing a lag from 6 to as much as 15 seconds
before a web page fully displays in Firefox and Chrome in my Mint
installation; as previously mentioned, I am running a locally caching DNS
without any improvement in the lag. Also, I'm not so sure that there is,
in fact, a physical connection problem but that there is a system setting
or settings problem in Mint. i just don't know what to check to see where
the bottleneck may be so that I can make the necessary corrections.

Thanks