I have had a new computer from PC Specialist about 2 weeks now, it's a basic spec, i5 , 250 GB SSD, 3 GB HD, 8gb memory,no graphics card. I asked for Firefox as default browser, but they sent it with Edge, I installed latest Firefox myself. Browsing is not good at all, it boots up quick and opens up homepage OK, but looking at anything else is hit and miss,usually end up with the small spinning icon,going back a page and trying same site again usually works, the same thing happens with Internet Explorer and Edge. It's so frustrating and bloody annoying. My old PC has win 7 installed and I never had this problem. I'm not finding Win 10 easy either,but I notice in the recovery section there is something to revert back to Win 7, does this work, I'm tempted to try it. I did have a problem with a virus a few days back, it got past Defender, had to do a factory reset back to as I bought it, was my own fault, have installed Sophos Antivirus on it now. Had hoped a reset may have sorted it no such luck. Someone said it could be a DNS problem ?. I've never done anything with modem / Router but switch them on when I bought them, there standard Plusnet fibre,I have no idea on tech stuff with these at all. Can I go back to Win 7, without any issues. Or any advice on other easy solution.
Browsing issues
- Thread starter Cymru48
- Start date
ubuysa
The BSOD Doctor
If it came with Windows 10 pre-installed you cannot revert back to Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 because you never had a license for them. You're stuck with Windows 10 I'm afraid.
The symptoms you describe do sound very much like a DNS issue. DNS is used to do the name/address lookup the first time you connect to a web site, this is where you have trouble. The second connection works because your DNS cache has stored the name/address mapping from the first time.
It's not uncommon to find the default DNS server provided by your ISP is less than ideal. One easy way to check is to change your DNS addresses to OpenDNS for example, these addresses are: 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220. To change your IP addresses got to Control Panel > Network & Sharing Center > Change Adapter Settings > Right click on your network adapter and select Properties. In the scrollable window you'll see scroll down to Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click on it to highlight it, then click Properties.
You will probably have the radio button Obtain DNS server addresses automatically selected, instead click the Use the following DNS server addresses radio button and enter the Open DNS addresses into the two fields. Click OK to exit and close the other windows. Now open your favourite web browser and see wheter you can connect more quickly.
You can safely leave your DNS addresses set to the OpenDNS addresses, they are perfectly safe.
The symptoms you describe do sound very much like a DNS issue. DNS is used to do the name/address lookup the first time you connect to a web site, this is where you have trouble. The second connection works because your DNS cache has stored the name/address mapping from the first time.
It's not uncommon to find the default DNS server provided by your ISP is less than ideal. One easy way to check is to change your DNS addresses to OpenDNS for example, these addresses are: 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220. To change your IP addresses got to Control Panel > Network & Sharing Center > Change Adapter Settings > Right click on your network adapter and select Properties. In the scrollable window you'll see scroll down to Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click on it to highlight it, then click Properties.
You will probably have the radio button Obtain DNS server addresses automatically selected, instead click the Use the following DNS server addresses radio button and enter the Open DNS addresses into the two fields. Click OK to exit and close the other windows. Now open your favourite web browser and see wheter you can connect more quickly.
You can safely leave your DNS addresses set to the OpenDNS addresses, they are perfectly safe.
Thanks for the very detailed instructions, i have changed the DNS addresses, and it has made a huge difference, no more lag in browsing, its so quick now. I dont really understand it completley, and how you get these DNS addresses. All i know is it seems to have done the trick. So a big thankyou for your help.
ubuysa
The BSOD Doctor
DNS stands for the Domain Name System, it's used to map the domain names (www.microsoft.com) which humans prefer to use to the actual IP address of that server (88.221.28.243) which is the only address that the network is able to use. DNS is a client/server application (like most Internet applications) the client is built in to Windows and the servers are called Name Servers, or often just DNS servers.
When you type a domain name (www.pcspecialist.co.uk) into any Internet application, the application calls the DNS client in Windows to resolve the name into an IP address. The DNS client contacts the first of the DNS servers either explicitly specified (as you have done now) or assigned automatically (via DHCP) when you connect to your ISP. The name server looks up the domain name to see it it has an entry for it, often it won't because the DNS system is built on a hierarchy, so that name server calls a higher level name server, and so on, until a name server is found that can resolve the domain name into an IP address (104.20.7.72). That address is then returned to your client and that's what the TCP/IP stack in your computer uses to create the data packets to send to whatever site you were connecting to.
Your ISP will almost certainly assign their own name server as your default DNS server when you connect (via DHCP) often however these ISP name servers are not very efficient or fast which is why it can take a long time to resolve the domain name into an address. Most applications set a timer when they ask for a name resolution and if they don't get an address back before that timer expires they will report the website as being unreachable or unknown.
There are many public DNS servers, the OpenDNS server addresses that I gave you are one of the most common public DNS servers in use. You should be very wary of using any DNS server that you don't completely trust because a DNS server set up by a cyber crook, for example, could map the domain name of your bank to the IP address of his server. Your banking software would then be talking to the cyber crook and not your real bank! I would advise against using any DNS server addresses other than OpenDNS (which you can trust) and the default supplied by your ISP unless you completely trust the person giving you new DNS address settings.
Incidentally, the reason for having two DNS server addresses is in case the first one does not respond, your DNS client will automatically contact the second server in that case.
I hope that helps?
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