Computer suddenly VERY slow

Our computer (Dell laptop inspiron 600m) is suddenly (like overnight) very, very slow. We have SBC yahoo DSL wireless internet. We have not installed anything new, nor have we downloaded anything recently. I am not talking just a little slow, it will take over 5 minutes to open a new page & it frequently gives up trying & just displays the page cannot be displayed page instead & I have to try all over again. I cannot even send emails, it takes soooo long that it gives up & says page cannot be displayed. I have brought up the control-alt-delete, but don't see anything unusual & everything is listed as "running". Once when I tried to restart the computer it was taking forever & gave me a message the "socket" was not responding. I told it to end now & when it restarted I went into the control panel to find it & there is nothing there that says "socket" at all. I have updated antivirus & scanned & nothing came up. I ran the spy ware scan & removed the tracking cookies, nothing else came up & it has made no difference. We also have a firewall which is working properly & an internet filter that is working properly. We have 45.5 GB free on the hard drive. I just don't get it, can anyone help me out with this, it's beyond tolerable.

 

I think this sounds like just internet problems? The slow restart due to 'socket' errors are also internet related.
I have to ask if you have tried another PC on that connection? Have you reset the modem/router? Have you tried pinging a website etc (Start>Run, type CMD, hit enter. In black window, type 'ping www.yahoo.com' without the quotes (or another website of choice). Note the TTL times.

Is this a wireless connection, or wired? If wireless, is it internal, or a PCMCIA card?

Give as much info as you can for us.

Scorp.

 

Thanks for your help.

I have not been able to try out another pc. My stepdaughter has a desktop also on the same wireless internet, & I did ask her if it was slow, but she said she hadn't been on it, so she didn't know.

I did say in my original post that we have SBC yahoo wirless DSL internet. It is with an internal device. The router claims to working fine according to its indicator lights.

I have never heard of or tried pinging a website, but I will give it a try & see what it shows........
It just says it is not recognized as an internal or external command.

 

Ok, first thing to do is shut down and restart the modem/router (if combined) or both. Start the modem first, then the router if they are separate. Then restart the computer. See if that resets it.

And what part did the computer not recognize?

Have you just bought a digital walk-about phone at all? Some of those mess up wireless connections.

Scorp.

 

Ok, I shut down the router/modem (they are combined). I started them up, turned on the computer & even though I am online & it says I am connected to the network it is also saying it cannot connect to the network address.................

Also, it didn't say what part it didn't recognize, just that it wasn't recognizable.

And nope, no new phones here.

 

Ok, so you are on the network. What is the speed you are getting between the laptop and router. Usually, when you connect, it pops up a little window at bottom right and say 'connected to'....and the speed. If not, then somewhere within the wireless configuration there will be an indication of some sort (sorry, I dont know what software a Dell uses to connect, so can't help you there really).

If you have a high connection speed, then there is likely something wrong with the router/modem. Do you know how to access the router/modem? Usually, in a browswer, you owuld type 192.168.1.1 or similar (.2.1, .1.2, .0.1 etc, whcihever one it uses to acess.) If you don't know, then there should have been a setup cd that came with it from SBC. You will probably need to reset the router/modem by pressing and holding it's reset button (usually just inside a tiny hole on the back or bottom). Then, once that is done, drop in the cd on your PC, and let it do the setup. You might want to make sure you have all you account details handy forst though, including any passwords etc.

And another thing, if you have a good conection between your lappy and the router...then I'd call SBC, as I assume it's their router/modem, and they would need to help you.

Scorp.