Does the entire Internet slow down for you sometimes? Here's help:

[MineralMan]

I'm on DU pretty much continuously, even when I'm not actively looking at it. I always have a browser tab open to DU. Here's something I've noticed that has been getting worse and worse in recent months. For those who are curious, I'm using the latest release of Google Chrome as my browser:

From time to time, my Internet slows down to a virtual crawl and even comes to a complete halt. It always seems to happen when I click on a link to certain websites from a DU post. After a while, things go back to normal. I started wondering why. So, I fired up a system monitor application to see what was going on and started watching that when the slowdowns happened.

Here's the deal: Websites like Salon, Huffington Post, and many news sources often used as links in DU posts load up an incredible array of resources when you click through. Self-running videos, tracking cookies, and other junk gets loaded as soon as you land on those sites. Ads and other materials, too, get loaded into your browser. Some of those items persist, even when you close the tab for the link you visited.

I have a rather old PC, with only 2 GB of RAM. What the system monitor shows me is that those loaded resources use up memory. Persistent resources remain in memory, even when you leave the site you visited. Eventually, your RAM fills up and Windows starts spooling resources off onto your hard drive. When that happens, you'll see your hard drive light come on and keep going. Everything slows to a crawl and your frustration grows.

At some point, the only answer is to restart Windows and get back to a starting point.

I've learned a lot from this. I've learned not to click through to clickbait websites like Salon, HuffPo, Buzzfeed, and many other often-used sites in threads on DU. They're the worst offenders, but newspaper sites like NYT and WaPo also do this. Other sites, like Drudge, are guaranteed to bring your Internet experience to a standstill, especially if you're using older hardware with limited memory. I won't be linking to any of the sites that produce such resource-hogging results ever again.

If you're experiencing similar problems, the solution may be just to skip clicking links to sites that hog your computer resources. Just say no to them.

[eppur_se_muova]

1. I've been avoiding HuffPo for ages.

A real molasses-in-winter experience with other OS's and browsers as well.

I've got uBlock installed and limit cookies as much as I can. Lots of other options in your browser and add-on settings to look at as well.

[MineralMan]

2. I suppose. Still, I've found that simply refusing to visit

resource-hogging links works best. It saves tons of time, too.

[eppur_se_muova]

4. That's why I expect people to post 4-5 paras, not just a link.

When a "post" contains nothing but a link off-site, I close the page and move on to other things.

[GoneFishin]

15. I gave up on HuffPost a long time ago because it is too slow. It's unbearable. nt

[Waiting for Someone]

3. MineralMan - 2 GB is substandard in terms of memory for your computer

Upgrade to at least 4, if you have a 32 bit architecture (which is the maximum amount of memory allowed), or at least 8 if if you have a 64 bit architecture.

That is why you computer is awfully slow. Rebooting does nothing to clear the memory cache. Even with virtual memory, it is still slow. Trust me. Memory upgrades aren't terribly expensive and is really easy to put in. I just bought a 4 GB DDR3-1600 for a client for just $38.

If everyone took your advice and stopped clicking links, we would never be able to read DU again.

[MineralMan]

6. Yes, I could do that, but I'll be upgrading my

whole system soon. Actually, rebooting does clear my RAM load. My system is doing just fine, as long as I stay off those sites that are invading my system with such resources. That's easy for me, since they waste my time anyhow.

Until I replace my system with a new one, I'll just skip the clickbait sites. I won't miss them a bit.

[Waiting for Someone]

10. I would recommend you sticking with the i3 or i5 family

and get a computer with plenty of memory - at least 8 GB OF RAM if you decide to go with Windows 8.1 or Windows 10.

Good luck on your choice of systems. Just stay away from Dell or HP.

[Buzz Clik]

5. I tried to read a Washington Times story linked from DU...

It was an endless array of popups, misdirected links, animated ads, and unwanted videos.

[MineralMan]

8. Yup. I'm sick of such sources.

They're hogging themselves right out of traffic, I think.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. I think you need a new computer. Some sites are slower than others

for the reasons you cite, but if you use something like Adblock it helps a lot. I click on sites that interest me whether or not they have memory-eating material; it doesn't usually slow down all that much.

[MineralMan]

9. I know I do. I'll upgrade this year, for sure.

Until then, I'll just scale back my use of useless websites.

[Snarkoleptic]

19. Here are some ways to speed things up-

Advanced Systemcare is free (you can upgrade to 'pro' for a fee) and includes a performance monitor with a 'clean ram' button, which will free up memory.
You can also use other features like 'turbo boost' to shut down memory hogging programs/features.
I hate to sound like a pitchman for them, but it works well and I've used it for years.

More here-
http://www.iobit.com/en/advancedsystemcarefree.php

I use Firefox with settings to block popups and 3rd party cookies. I also use the following free add-ons-
1) Ghostery- to block trackers and cookies
2) Adblock Plus- to tone down the ads and speed up page load times

[TalkingDog]

21. / / / This n/t

[notadmblnd]

13. Mi will slow down, but usually it is the plugin container of my browser that sucks up all the memory

Usually that is a matter of closing my browser and restarting it. A couple of things that will speed up things is to run disk defrag once in a while as the more you use your machine the more your disk become fragmented. It puts your files all together so your hard drive does not have to reach out farther to access your files.

It's sorta like having a bunch of stuff on a table some of it is close to you and other stuff is on the other end. It doesn't take long to reach out and pick up something next to you, but if you need something on the other end, you might have to stand to reach over and pick it up. Well that takes more time. Defrag puts everything in a pile close together so it takes less time to reach out and get it.

Often there are processes running in the background that run at startup that one does not necessarily use. For example Itunes add ons such as Itunes helper or MSoffice apps. Auto update schedulers also run in the background. Many of these processes can be ended as they will execute when you actually need them. Others such as Java update scheduler will execute again on your next reboot. To end these, it is a simple matter of going into your task manager and ending the process. This is done by doing a ctl alt del and selecting task manager. When the window opens you can click on the processes tab, that will show you exactly what is running and how much resources it is taking up. You end it by highlighting the task and clicking on end task. If you don't know what the process does, you can always google it and find out what it does and if it is necessary for your machine to run. The worse that will happen if you end any task that is necessary to run is that you will have to reboot. However, many of the necessary tasks will not allow you to end them.

Lastly, I would recommend running at least once a month is something like Spybot or Malwarebytes (I prefer malwarebytes), they both have free versions and will get rid of all the little bugs your computer gets by accessing sites that are loaded with tracking cookies and ads.

[Egnever]

17. If you are running win 7 or higher defrag is already set to run automatically

http://lifehacker.com/5976424/what-is-defragging-and-do-i-need-to-do-it-to-my-computer

It shouldn't be necessary to run defrag manually anymore on systems running 7 or newer.

[1StrongBlackMan]

11. Thank you for this ...

there have been times I've gotten so frustrated, I just shut down and came back later.

[MineralMan]

12. You can look at resource usage from within Chrome

On Windows, press Shift-Esc to open Chrome's internal task manager. You can see exactly which tabs are using the most memory resources. That can help you manage your tabs. If you see a task that is hogging memory, you can just close the tab and recover most of it, or even end the task from within the task manager.

[pintobean]

14. Memory cleaner

I used freeram xp on my old computer, but it hasn't been updated for newer systems.

CleanMem seems to be the current popular memory cleaner.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/cleanmem.html

[vinny9698]

16. Lunch Time across the 4 time zones is the slowest time of day

Everybody at work on their cubicles use their lunch time to check their email and surf the web while eating their lunch.
A lot more users: the slower the Internet.

[Babel_17]

18. I keep Flash disabled, and enable it as needed

In Firefox I go to Tools - Add-ons - Plugins and set it to "Ask to Activate".

And of course, Adblock Plus.

https://adblockplus.org/

Been a long time since I used a memory manager but a good one, if set reasonably and simply, can provide a benefit. Though since Windows 8 not much memory "leaks" from Windows afaik, and Windows is pretty decent at managing memory.

Just closing your browser should free up all the memory. And there are settings to limit memory usage in Firefox. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-uses-too-much-memory-ram

And there's another way to directly "hack" firefox but it's easy to mess that up. If one is determined, it can be googled.

Back up first! http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/ Great freeware, I keep backups of firefox on several drives. If I have to reinstall windows it quickly restores my bookmarks, passwords, cookies, and all settings, including the UI for how firefox looks.

Edit: spelling

Edit 2: AdBlock Plus for Chrome: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/category/apps?hl=en-US

[dixiegrrrrl]

20. I've learned a different approach and never have slow down issues.

I use Ghostery and Ad Guard which keep flash and ads from loading.
But the key trick is
i don't use Windows, I use Linux, which does not keep zillions of copies of everything it sees all over the place.
and my history and cache are set so they clear when I shut down, which I do about every 3 days.