XP running super slow when online !!

When I'm online my compueter is so slow it reminds me of the days of using a Commodore 64! I'm running XP and downloads take even longer than when I was on Win95/98. When I'm offline evetything seems normal, but when I download similar data as in the past it takes anywhere from 2 to 10 times as long.

The times where this is most annoying will be when I want to play a quick game online with other people. When it's my turn I make my move or play my card, and then sit, and sit , and sit some more. It takes so long, that invariably I get multiple complaints from my opponents/teammates, while I futiley respond that it is lag.

I'm using the same connection and I have PLENTY of memory and speed, so what could be the cause of this? (Besides the obvious that XP sucks even more than a vaccuum.)

Haha. Yer on dial-up! mem and speed mean nothing! Yar!

But seriously, disable the extranious protocols for the connection, make sure your modem be speaking at 57600, NOT 115200. Set uart flow to high and medium, and since you prolly got yerself a crappy win modem and not an external serial modem, set it to software and not hardware flow controll. Mebbe check with modem manufactuer for updated drivers and settings for optimal compatibility with XP.

- disable all protocols besides TCP/IP on the dial-up adaptor
- set the port speed to 115200, not 57600. You won´t be able to take advantage of V42.bis (the compression) if you set 57.600 read the manual of your modem, probably you can go as high as 480.000bps.
- check your connection speed when you are on-line. maybe your current ISP does not support 56k/async modems and it only runs at 33.6/sync. click on the symbol next to your clock showing two monitors.
- set the modem to hardware flow control, not software.
- when you play games and do have a winmodem (i cannot see that in your post), make sure you have enough CPU power.

Most WinModems are no real modems. They are merely a jack to connect to your phone line, an AD/DA converter and a software driver to simulate a modem on this. The driver needs quite some CPU power and this could interfere with the games.

two answers - two different oppinions... Should we make a poll of this? Anyone else?

I've noticed on my Tosh laptop 1.5Ghz (!) that I experience the same problem - in fact it's generally slower than my previous Win98 box.

I think the problem might be what is happening in the background: I get the impression that Windows XP keeps "phoning home" a lot and this extra traffic is sucking your bandwidth. To give you an example I decided to start up "Help and Support" while online recently, and I noticed that it was making a connection to the Toshiba web site, presumably to check if there were any new updates. Presumably this happens every time ?! Also, Windows Messenger - when you close it, is it really closed or just lurking in the taskbar ?

My 2 cents worth..

Ah, yes. Your problem could also be a "feature" of XP do you have "automatic updates" enabled? if yes, it is downloading the patches and this does take some of your bandwidth... a big part if you are on 56k though...