Pages won't load without coaxing

[RonJohn]

I used IE for years, up to and including version7. I started having an issue with pages loading. Basically they wouldn't, especially if they were links from other pages. Finally I discovered that if I highlighted the web address and pushed enter, the pages would load. Having had enough of this, I tried Firefox which, compared to IE was a godsend. Pages and links loaded quickly. Now, I seem to be having the same issue with Firefox (Vers. 3.5.4) I have a high speed cable connection (tests as over 8500kbps) and yet I sit here for sometimes a minute waiting for a page to load, unless I do the highlight trick and even then, sometimes the pages won't load. What the heck could be going on? Any ideas?

[Train]

Give us a sample url.

I hit a couple sites with bad ad servers that drag out the download of web pages like that.

[RonJohn]

It is pretty much any page I try to load, even my home page. Just now I tried to load this one: http://movies.msn.com/movies/movie/d.../?affid=100055 and as is the usual case anymore, I had to highlight the address and hit enter in order for it to load. Otherwise, I wait forever. This is fairly recent with Firefox (might even be after updating to the latest version) but it was common with IE7 as well. I am even having problems responding to e:mails at this point.

Just out of curiosity, I logged on using IE7 and every page loads very quickly. I still prefer Firefox because of the add-ons. If I delete and then download Firefox again, will I lose all my add-ons and have to track them all down again? The one I would really miss is the password keeper.

[Train]

Yee gads, it took 15 seconds for me to load the page and boy do they have a string of ad servers. a.rad.msn.com is the worst one for me.

I have jumped their case on that mess, and I sure hope they get it fixed, but here is my worst one that I have to treat like you do yours.
http://www.seattlepi.com/

Badly written webpages, scripts, overloaded servers, routers, etc are leading causes.

[Robert M]

Try the steps in the following link for trouble with Internet Explorer
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936213

[RonJohn]

Train, in any event, that page was just one I tried this morning that was linked with MSN. I couldn't even respond to my e:mails using Firefox this AM. Is there any bad news about the latest version (3.5.4) which I updated to on both my PC's? I seem to be having trouble with firefox on both of them now. And as I stated before, I like a lot of the add-ons that I can get with firefox so I would rather not change unless IE8 has some of the same features.

BTW, it took me 4 seconds to open the link you provided to Seattle PI.

[Train]

I normally use Firefox which is now 3.0.15 and only have one add on running.

Disable some of them and see what happens. Maybe one or 2 are causing problems.

[SpywareDr]

I normally use Firefox which is now 3.0.15

The latest version is 3.5.5
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/personal.html

[Train]

Just about daily updates again.

[RonJohn]

I don't have that many add-ons and the ones I have, I have had almost since the first day I switched to firefox. No problem until now. I ask again...Is there any bad pub about the latest version of firefox, (3.5.4) which I was prompted to upgrade to last week? Is there a way to roll this back? How about Chrome? Is it considered to be a viable option? Does it have add-ons? I really like the ones I use in firefox, both for security and convenience.

[Train]

I have not seen a think against that version.
But there have been problems with add-ons when the browser has been upgraded.
Yes, check for newer versions for you add-ons that are compatible with latest version of Firefox.

So do the check of your add-ons and update the one(s) that is/(are) causing the problem.

[RonJohn]

I am having to post this reply using IE7 as firefox seems to have frozen on me. The last time I used it, I noticed something that may or may not be part of my problem. I tried to use firefox to open Yahoo to check one of my email accounts. After about a minute with no results, I clicked on Help and in the dropdown box it said it was attempting to upgrade to Firefox 3.5.5 I clicked on this and it said it was trying to connect with server. I waited several minutes but nothing happened. So I just closed everything down. Mean anything to anyone? Does anyone know what happens if I delete firefox altogether and re-install it. Do I have to start all over with my add-ons. The only one that would really be an issue is the password keeper I use, but that would take awhile for me to recreate.

[Train]

Open firefox, go to Help and select check for upgrades.

Yes, you could have corrupted it.

[RonJohn]

OK, after signing on with IE7, I went to the Mozilla website and downloaded the latest version of Firefox (3.5.5) . When it was downloading, it said it was checking and updating my add-ons. After all is said and done, I am still having issues. Not as severe, but I basically have to do everything at least twice to get pages to load. Very annoying.

[RonJohn]

It seems to me that part of the problem is that the browser never seems to know when the page is loaded. Even as I type this, I can see firefox continually trying to load the page. If I hit the red X, it stops and I can reply to e:mails and post messages. Otherwise, nothing happens.