Really slow laptop.....HELP

[Flower3554]

It's taking ages to go on to next page on here and also ebay.

Is there a reason for this, its always been a fast little laptop until now.

I know very very little about computers so be gentle with me please.

[Ecmo]

try shutting it down and then starting again.
sometimes its just due to the amount of other people using the sites or a problem with the site itself.

[Flower3554]

I've tried that Ecmo ty but it's still the same I'm afraid.

[Greyriverside]

Assuming that it opens folders etc on the computer as fast as ever then it's just about your net connection. That could just be slow because so many others in your area and with the same ISP are using it at once.
That mostly happens in the evening though when everyone is home.

What ISP do you use? They might have a status page on their website which says if they are having any problems.

You can test your internet speed by downloading a large file from a big place like Microsoft.com or ubantu.com and looking at the download speed. Sometimes one or other of these gets busy, but not both.

[Greyriverside]

Are you using wireless to connect your laptop to the net? This can vary a lot depending on how far from the router/modem/hub you are sitting and what interference there is from nearby electrical items.

You can try plugging it in directly to rule that out

[Flower3554]

Greyriverside, you are talking a totally foreign language to me

I think its called mozilla firefox, the ISP that is.

I'm on broadband if that helps at all.

[cariboo]

Ha! I had that trouble this morning on my laptop. Now I know why! I've only been using wifi for 2 days...

[Greyriverside]

Flower, 'mozilla firefox' or just 'firefox' is the browser. So if anyone asks what browser you use you can say "we don't use internet explorer we use Firefox"

The ISP (internet service provider) is the company you pay for your broadband. It might be BT, Virgin, Tiscali etc.

You will have some kind of box connected to the phone socket (could be called a router, a modem, a hub or cable box)

Big desktop PCs connect to that with a cable, but with a laptop you probably don't have a cable coming from it at all. Your laptop connects to that box by wireless which can play up if you are in a distant room in the house or there is interference from the washing machine or someone mowing their lawn etc.