# Slow web browsing

## kackland

Hi

Hopefully someone can help with this one.

I have an Athlon64bit system with Gentoo and Kde3.4 installed. Web browsing is slow. One I've reqwuested a page it can take 10-15 seconds to display it. Same machine same internet connection with Windows XP - it's instant.

I have seen some stuff on IPv6.

I've installed Firefox - it's a bit better but nothing like acceptable.

How do I go about troubleshooting this

Thanks

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## alphonce

make sure you have your hostname in your /etc/hosts file, ex.

```
127.0.0.1       localhost alphOnce
```

there are plenty of threads in this forum about slow internet, just search and you'll probably find something.

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## lmcogs

Hi Any more developments on this topic?  Has it been solved?  If so could you share.  I got similar problem.

lmcogs

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## UberLord

Are you using ipv6?

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## Decibels

I noticed that firefox defaults 'network.dns.disableIPv6' to false. 

If you have -ipv6 in your use flags shouldn't firefox set that to true? Probably not, but that would be nice if could have that happen if your

USE FLAG was set to disable IPV6. 

Not sure how long firefox has been enabling ipv6 lookup, but think that might be part of my recent slowdown at home for dns lookup. 

Going to test it when get home.  Also going to test switching the primary and secondary dns servers around.

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## UberLord

One test is to go to a known IP6 enabled site such as http://www.isc.org and a IP4 only site such as http://www.gentoo.org

If one is slow and the other is fast then IP6 is the issue. Of course, that does require a configured IP6 connection  :Smile: 

Interesting to note that Opera uses IP6 by default even it it's we only have IP6 site addresses where we need an IP6 global address or route.

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## Decibels

Hmmm, maybe they fixed the slow primary DNS, cause this morning everything is fast again.

I tried both places and they were both fast?

Still, I know it might slow down again. So disabled IPV6 in firefox and pinged my DNS boxes at the isp.

The secondary was much faster. So switched them and restarted the network.

So even though the ISP seems to have fixed their problem, doing the above even seemed to make it snappier.

Boy it is sure nice not waiting for the webpages to load. I would sometimes even click on my toolbar for google.com

and it would say couldn't find google.com or would take 10-20 sec to load. Snappy again.  :Smile: 

I am curious on another note though: You seem to indicate that the 1st one requires a IP6 setup. I rebuilt my system

awhile back with -ipv6 USE FLAG. I just disabled IPV6 in firefox, and as far as I know, my ISP still is using IPV4. But that

link still works and is as fast as the gentoo one. Backwards compatability??

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## UberLord

 *Decibels wrote:*   

> I am curious on another note though: You seem to indicate that the 1st one requires a IP6 setup.

 

No, the first one has an AAAA record which is ip6

 *Quote:*   

> But that link still works and is as fast as the gentoo one. Backwards compatability??

 

No, as you're just asking for A records (ip4) and both sites have those.

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## d_adams

 *kackland wrote:*   

> 
> 
> I've installed Firefox - it's a bit better but nothing like acceptable.
> 
> How do I go about troubleshooting this

 

In firefox, type about:config in the address bar. That will get you the configuration page for firefox. In the filter bar, type in dns. The first option should be for ipv6. Double click it to change it to true. Clear your cache and cookies (optionally) and restart firefox. Browse to a known (for you) slow website and see how it does. You should see a noticeable improvement in page loading.

I know there are other tweaks to speed up firefox, but be careful of what you change on it.

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## nutznboltz

In root.cache

Old:

B.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.      3600000      A     128.9.0.107

New:

B.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.      3600000      A     192.228.79.201

I think they gave the world from Jan 2004 to Jan 2006 to change.  The other day my web browsing got slow and it was tracked down to this DNS issue.

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