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ITsVISTA Tip 37: Why Certain Web Sites are Slow in Vista

February 20th, 2007 · 44 Comments · 20,655 views
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TipsDo you have a problem with certain websites loading verrrry sloooowly? Google around a bit and you’ll find you’re not the only one. Microsoft’s new network stack has had a number of different problems, most of them caused by the rest of the world not being completely up-to-date with the latest standards (backwards compatibility, who needs it!). This problem is no exception.

A recent Microsoft Knowledgebase article describes one potential cause of the problem: RFC 1323 compliance. Though the text suggests that it just affects the Enterprise version, the Applies To section lists all versions of Vista. In a nutshell, websites that don’t fully support RFC 1323 or the default Windows Scaling factor of 8 will be very slow or even unaccessible.

There is a workaround. Press the Windows Key and type cmd, then press CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER to open a command prompt as an administrator. At the command prompt, type:

netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=highlyrestricted

This will set the autotuninglevel to “Allow the receive window to grow beyond its default value, but do so very conservatively.” If you want to put it back to the default setting, type:

netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=normal

Note that another possible setting, mentioned in my post about slow threaded network downloads disables autotuning all-together with this command:

netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=disable

If this change doesn’t help, you should check for updates to your routers firmware (you should do this anyway) and if there isn’t one that supports all of Vista’s features, consider getting a newer model. In any case, if you’re experiencing this problem, leave a comment letting everyone know what’s working and not working, perhaps you can help someone else as well.

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Comments

  • Scott Kingery

    Feb 20, 2007 at 2:06 pm

    Very cool, I’m going to check this out on my Vista box tonight.
    FYI- MS released a KB article about possibly incompatible network routers.
    http://www.techlifeweb.com/vista/2007/02/windows-vista-and-old-network-router.html

  • Joe

    Feb 20, 2007 at 2:14 pm

    Yup, I did a post (itsvista.com/2007/02/could-vista-be-slowing-your-entire-network/) on that article a few days ago, but thanks for pointing out! Let us know if it makes any difference on your machine.

  • Joshua Norton

    Mar 9, 2007 at 1:14 pm

    Hello. I was reading your tips since I am having problems as well with web browsing with this new vista system. For some reason the site is blank where it says what to do such as type: and doesnt say what to type. If you get a minute and can help me out, it would be greatly appreciated if you let me know what you suggest I try to do to speed this up as it is running very slow and affecting my business. Not to mention that its extremely agrivating. thanks for you help

  • Joe

    Mar 9, 2007 at 2:01 pm

    Joshua: Thanks for mentioning the problem. I usually use Firefox and though I check periodically with IE, I hadn’t noticed that the boxes containing code were collapsed so short you couldn’t see inside them. I’ve made an adjustment that should make them readable now (I can see them in Firefox 2, IE6 & IE7) though I will try to find a way to make them look better in IE (have to force a height on all boxes cause IE CSS sucks). Try the suggested commands and see if they solve your problem.

  • Joshua Norton

    Mar 9, 2007 at 5:05 pm

    unfortunatly this didnt help my particular problem. I cant figure it out. Its takes as long as 2mins or longer to load some of the webpages. There is nothing wrong with my internet connections, all other computers in the house have no problems. I tried to use firefox and others to see if that would help. I went as far as restoring the windows vista operating system even though it was just put on there. This is a brand new computer with 2048mb and a 7200 duo processor and these tech support guys dont have any good advise whatsoever. I dont know what else to do….its killing me….please let me know if you have any suggestions

  • Jeff

    Mar 11, 2007 at 10:44 am

    The first trick worked for me with alaska airlines site. Thanks!

  • Joshua Norton

    Mar 12, 2007 at 2:15 pm

    if this doesnt work for you then try going to the microsoft website. There is a download there to fix problems with slow web browsing as that is the only thing that worked for me

  • *Rant* - Vista » Coolest Gadgets

    Mar 13, 2007 at 1:48 pm

    [...] fixed that problem (thanks ITsVISTA). [...]

  • Chris Donne

    Mar 24, 2007 at 1:13 pm

    Had a major problem with this… cured it by turning McAffee phishing filter off.

    http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=797279&SiteID=1

  • Vista won’t let me see my web pages | Bipolar World

    Mar 28, 2007 at 2:41 am

    [...] This fix here solved my log in [...]

  • puddlejumper

    Mar 28, 2007 at 2:43 am

    Thanks.

    This has made my life so much easier!

  • Brett

    May 19, 2007 at 8:34 am

    This didn’t help me, I’ve tried turning off phishing filters and uninstalling my anti-virus program. I’m only having trouble loading one web site that loads quickly on every other computer I use. Any other suggestions?

    Thanks

  • Joe

    May 19, 2007 at 4:58 pm

    Does it work in a different browser? Are the other computers running Vista?

  • Brett

    May 20, 2007 at 3:48 am

    this is a brand new toshiba laptop w/ vista, the other comps are running XP. I have not tried another browser, any suggestions on which one to try? I’ve never used anything but IE

  • Joe

    May 20, 2007 at 8:08 am

    I gave up on IE7 and switched to Firefox. You might give that a try, which would at least narrow down if it’s a browser issue, or something outside of the browser.

  • Brett

    May 20, 2007 at 6:25 pm

    Thank you SOOO much!! Firefox seems to be working great!!

  • adman666

    Jun 22, 2007 at 7:01 am

    Works a treat.
    Thanks.

  • baman

    Jul 1, 2007 at 2:45 am

    i did the fix and it worked. but then when i rebooted and logged in the next day the problem was back. however, i would get the following error:

    “Set global command failed on IPv4 The requested operation requires elevation.”

    i am so sick of this i am sendin my brand new laptop back to dell and getting XP. dell will charge me 500 swedish crowns ($70) for this “service.” if i idn’t think all mac users were so intolerably smug i would switch.,

  • Joe

    Jul 2, 2007 at 10:18 am

    I know what you are saying about some Mac users, some Linux users give me the same vibe as well. As to your Vista problem, it sounds as if you didn’t run the command as an administrator. If you still have Vista, you might try this again, but be sure to do the “CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER” part so the command prompt opens with elevated rights.

  • Fili

    Jul 11, 2007 at 3:59 pm

    Thank you SO much for this! It seems my wrath towards Vista has been (mostly) subdued now.

  • Phatjap

    Jul 15, 2007 at 2:02 am

    Hi
    I also have this problem with slow connection etc. It seems to show in the icon full signal till it connects, then when it connects goes down to 1 bar strength and is very slooow (and regularily disconects) when browsing. Tried going into ‘elevated level’ as suggested but doesnt seem to want to. Incidently, when I get the trouble with connection and I run the diagnostics, it tells me there is a tcp compatibility issue and turns it off. Is this the same thing as doing it through the cmd? n the other hand, it doesnt seem to help and if I run the diagnostic again it suggests I turn the tcp back on!!
    Any other suggestions? PS, this a brand new laptop with Vista home basic, my previous one was dell with XP and wasbrilliant connection, downloads were 250 mbs now its 2 or 3 !!Soory for the ramble.

  • Zack

    Jul 20, 2007 at 9:05 am

    I just learned that you have to type “cmd” in the “Start Search” field that the cursor is defaulted to when you click the Start button. I got the “Set global command failed on IPv4 The requested operation requires elevation.” error when I used the “Run” line and typed “cmd” followed by CTRL-SHIFT-ENTER. Use the Start Search text box.

  • Carol B

    Aug 11, 2007 at 2:58 pm

    Thank you so much! I’ve tried for weeks to get this particular website to open and work in Vista. It finally does once I did the disable! Yes!

    Thanks again!

  • Joe

    Aug 12, 2007 at 8:56 am

    Glad I could help!

  • Ralph

    Aug 15, 2007 at 11:15 am

    Hi and thanks for this great workaround. Although it worked perfectly on one Vista machine, but on my other machine when attempting to enter the two above commends, I got an error message: “set global commend failed on IPv4 the requested operation requires elevation” (This appeared after both commends).
    Would anyone have an idea on how to get it through?

    Best

  • Lynette

    Aug 20, 2007 at 8:36 pm

    I tried both commands, the highlyrestricted and the disable, somewhat better but no where near XP better. I am going to try Firefox next.

  • Jim

    Sep 21, 2007 at 4:47 am

    Hugh Difference with both Explorer and Firefox on my new HP Pavilion running Vista Home Premium and connecting to a wireless router. Got me back to XP speeds. Didn’t notice any change until I rebooted though but then it was terrific. Thanks!

  • Sh_oK

    Oct 26, 2007 at 8:43 pm

    I have the same problem with my windows vista. I can’t open certain sites (includinf http://www.microsoft.com). I’ve set the autotuning level to normal but I still can’t open those sites. I have a fiberlink conection, I don’t have any modem or routter in the house, just a cable from the internte company that I plug it into the computer. Do you have any sugestions because I tried everything and nothing worked. Or the only solution is to return to XP? Thanks.

  • Terra_incognito

    Nov 3, 2007 at 7:10 pm

    I have the same problem as sh_ok. Bought an Inspiron 531 disabled autotuning and spent hours troubleshooting with my ISP and the useless Dell tech support which wanted to charge me for software support even though I was running factory settings out of the box with nothing new installed. I returned it and now having the same problems with my new out of the box HP Pavillion 8200. After going through three tech support guys with HP I’m ready to return this computer as well. Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated. I’m running out of retailers to buy a computer from!

  • Sh_oK

    Nov 5, 2007 at 4:57 pm

    Well, after reinstalling vista I found out that this error is due to an update. After I formated and installed a fresh copy of vista I could open any sites, but after making windows update I could not open the same sites that i couldn’t open before reinstalling vista. So I guess that the problem is with one of the updete packs. Now I have to find out wich one!

  • Terra_incognito

    Nov 6, 2007 at 8:36 am

    Thanks for the update Sh_ok. Unfortunately my HP media center gives me problems even after restoring the Vista from the hard drive (the computer came with no installation disks but is capable of restoring to the original Vista with factory settings.) I doubt the version of Vista on the hard drive is an updated version, but even if it is it’s what came with the computer so I can’t restore it to anything else. HP support remains unable to help. Think my only solution is to build a system using XP media center.

  • Sh_oK

    Nov 7, 2007 at 5:16 am

    I found out, in my case, which update is to blame: “NVIDIA driver update for NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller”. This is an update for my network adapter. If I install it some sites don’t open any more, if I uninstall it, everything works just fine. Maybe you should try installing another version of driver for your networking controller and see what happens. When I uninstalled the update (the newest driver) vista automatically installed another one (from its database) without me doing anything, and whit this one it works fine.

  • Joe

    Nov 7, 2007 at 9:22 am

    Sounds like a good suggestion Sh_oK.

  • Sh_oK

    Nov 7, 2007 at 9:27 am

    Yes, it’s weird that I didn’t thought at this before…

  • Raj

    Nov 9, 2007 at 10:58 am

    You can try to see if there are any extra entries in the Windows Hosts file
    Remove all except the following lines:
    # IP 　　 Hosts
    127.0.0.1 localhost

    The Hosts file can be found here “C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc”

    Remember, you have to open Notepad with Administrative rights and then open the hosts file in order to save it back after editing.

  • Bart

    Nov 14, 2007 at 10:30 am

    Yes the netsh works fantastic. Even with my old wireless router of 5 years old!

  • rita

    Nov 24, 2007 at 10:00 am

    Hi!
    I tried this code and the computer reported ok, but http://www.microsoft.com(!!!!!) and, more important, the webpage of my bank, will not open. I turned the Firewall off and Windows Defender off and deleted Norton. I use only Mozilla, but I tried IE too and its the same. Any other suggestions?

    I would bbe so grateful if you could help!

    Best,

    Rita

    PS: Or to pputt the question in a more drastic way:I just received this laptop with Vista installed and it seems that it could be quite risky to try to change it to XP. Would Linux work? Vista

  • Jonw

    Nov 26, 2007 at 4:05 pm

    I had the same problem - it also caused my laptop to hang.

    autotune disable did not seem to work for me but the problem was solved when I updated the firmware on my Netgear Router.

    hope it works for you as it is a very annoyinkg problem……………

  • Clem Cadiddle Hopper

    Jan 29, 2008 at 2:41 pm

    I have the same symptoms, but they go away when I shut off Kaspersky. I have to shut it all the way off though. If I just go in and uncheckk “EVERYTHING” I still have the problem.

  • Hemsidor laddas lÃ¥ngsamt med Vista

    Feb 1, 2008 at 1:30 am

    [...] om detta och hur du KANSKE kan lösa det finns på http://itsvista.com/2007/02/itsvista-tip-37-why-certain-web-sites-are-slow-in-vista/ Du kommer dock märka att lösningen är knappast något som man kan förvänta sig  [...]

  • Sh_oK

    Mar 2, 2008 at 8:07 am

    Open device manager –> network adapters –> right click update driver software.

  • Steve

    Mar 8, 2008 at 6:48 pm

    Hello,

    I’m running Vista and FF2, I tried the commands the author of this post suggested and it keeps saying either that netsh is an unknown program or “failure of the Set global command on IPv4, the requested command necessitates an upgrade”. Please note that I’m running Vista in french, so I translated what the command prompt “replied”.

    Thanks in advance.

  • Charlie

    Mar 9, 2008 at 9:22 am

    I solved my problem. I got rid of Kaspersky and later Norton anti virus and went to AVG FREE. It found a bunch of stuff the others had missed and now I am up and running on the web at lightning speed. Try turning off **ALL** references to your web browser in Sysconfig. Then restart if you can now surf without anti virus, you just found YOUR problem.

  • Fred

    Apr 18, 2008 at 6:26 pm

    Your fix worked a charm! Thanks heaps.

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