Mumsnet very slow on laptop, any tips to improve loading?

[grassgentlyblowing]

I'm posting this in chat rather than site feedback, because I would be interested to see if anyone else finds it slow or if it is just me.

I visit Mumsnet on my laptop, not on my phone. I don't have the app. Owing to eyesight problems, I find it easier to read on my laptop. (Not sure if you can get the app on a laptop)

I visit a lot of different sites, such as Ebay, Freecycle, Asda, Amazon, assorted puzzle sites, newspapers etc. and they all run well.

Mumsnet however is a different story. I'm not a prime member, so I don't pay to access the site and don't know if it would be better if I paid for it. But it always runs really slowly. I'm forever getting pop up messages to say the page is not responding and do I want to wait or exit the page. I sometimes have to wait for about 3 minutes for a page to load.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can get it to run better?

Just me then?

I've been having problems with the repeated 'click this box to accept or another box to upgrade' box opening every single time I load a page. Loading was slow this morning, but as I'm out in the sticks it's quite often slow here, so I'm never sure if it's me or the system!

Nobody else having issues? It has taken me about 10 minutes to get back to this thread.

op i’ve been having the same issue with using mumsnet on safari on my phone. It’s becoming unusable tbh.

It’s very slow on my phone too, also using safari

I'm using Chrome, but I could try a different browser to see if that helps. Might try Edge.

As you say, it is almost unusable as it is.

It's not only you, I started a thread recently asking if they were having trouble...no one was. I find the pages sticking, it's really annoying, it doesn't happen on any other site.
I am on a laptop too mostly, it's not as bad on a tablet.

Thank you. I just tried Edge and it's no better. It has taken 5 minutes to just open this thread.

If you would please post to your thread, I will comment on there too.

I haven't tried Mumsnet on a tablet, but I do have one that I could charge up to try.

It's a bit of an obscure title to be honest.

Life's Little Irritations.

Have you done all the usual laptop maintenance stuff ? Clear cache etc ?

I suspect your phone storage is pretty full. Try deleting some apps.

My phone storage is only 50% full.

Like op, it is only mumsnet that i have trouble with. Everything else i use works well.

There was a previous thread about this and some people were saying the platform is unable to cope with the sheer amount of ads, but i don’t know how true that is.

I use Apple devices: laptop, iPad and iPhone. No problems loading, though to be fair I never try to write a response on the phone.

I am having similar issues trying to view with Chrome. It constantly freezes and a box pops up to ask if I want to wait or leave the page. It has been especially bad for the past few days 😞

I use edge.

It works fine for me, but from what I see people say, this site has a lot of adds. Adds are not a problem for me because google is banned where I am, so instead of adds I mainly just get empty panels.

Looking at it a bit, add blocker extensions on chrome can apparently slow down some ad heavy sites.

Chrome report reveals which extension could be slowing down your browser the most | TechRadar

So maybe try Edge, but disable extensions on it. I use browsers without any extensions installed because they mostly do not work for me. And I think if you never use edge, it might be best to uninstall edge first, then do a clean install. Because I think some extensions can find their way on without you knowing.

Then you can see if the site works better.

If it works better, then maybe have a look at your chrome and disable ad blockers on that, if you have them.

If you don't want to clean install edge, then consider a browser you don't have. Maybe firefox. Install that, try mumsnet a few times, and if better it gives you a starting point.

Longwinded sorry. But I use edge... on win 7 believe it or not, and I don't have any speed issues at all with MN speed.

EDIT - remember to try clearing your cache on the browser you use now first before you do that above.

It's the ads. Mumsnet serves up a lot of really shitty ads including blatant scams, drive-by downloads and viruses, but they don't care because it makes them money. This has been going on for years.

Use an ad blocker such as UBlock Origin Lite on Chrome or a browser with an ad blocker built in like Vivaldi.

Yes, tried clearing cookies/cache, tried an in private browsing window. It only happens with Mumsnet.

Thanks for the suggestion though.

Thanks @GasperyJacquesRoberts and @RedTagAlan

I do have Adblockplus installed on Chrome. I always used to get asked to disable it when using Mumsnet, but I used to find if I refreshed the page a few times, I got the option to proceed without disabling. I no longer seem to get that option, so have to view the ads. I tend to use a private browsing window to stop all the cookies building up, but also Adblockplus is not there on a private browsing window. (At least to the best of my knowledge, I'm a bit of a technophobe).

Will have a look at that Techradar link.

Thank you.

Cool. I just use edge, with no extensions at all.

I don't bother clearing cookies etc on the browser. I just use CC Cleaner that I run every now and then.

Just thought I'd mention that thanks to the poster who suggested that Mumsnet works ok on her tablet, I charged my tablet up and tried on there. I was browsing AIBU and it was working well. At least I could scroll the topics and click to read any where the title grabbed my attention, so I thought 'great. I can just use my tablet to view Mumsnet'. The adverts were apparently trying to load, but I just saw a little spinning circle where they should have been, So I thought, great, I'll go to all talk topics to find the thread I started and will post to say that it worked, but all talk topics would not load at all, so I couldn't get to either the thread I started, or other topics such as Chat or Relationships. So I'm back to waiting for ages to post this reply on my laptop, but at least for now, I can happily read AIBU on my tablet.

I think my next step might be to download the app on my tablet and see if that is any better.

Thanks everyone for all the tips and suggestions. Hope you all have a lovely weekend.

You still have the ultimate option... the big one.....

A shiny new top of the range laptop.

:-)

Or of course, as this is mumsnet, someone has to mention the traditional MN answer that appears in any thread.... move house.

Seriously re the laptop. The laptop I use is old, runs on win 7, but is pretty powerful still today. I also have an old ACER 1 netbook beside me, with an ATOM processor. That updated to win 10 a while back, but it is totally unusable it is so slow. I am just playing about with it. If you are running an old machine, it might be an issue ?

Another thing I thought of. If you are running win 10 or 11, have a look on the store for a free trial VPN. I have no idea how, but where I am, when I used a VPN it would often double or even triple my web speed. Could be worth a go as a cost free experiment.

It's diabolical almost all the time. I use Chrome/laptop too, and I like to open a bunch of threads in tabs and then read them in one go.

I usually have to wait for the "open in new tab" menu to open, then wait for the tab to open, then start and finish loading (I note that separately because it takes so long!). It has caused my laptop to freeze/crash multiple times too - ONLY mumsnet, no other site. About 20% of the time a specific tab will freeze as well.

It seems to be a well-known issue, and likely down to the sheer amount of ads and other pop ups and cookies etc all jammed into the site.

Clear the cookies on your device. When mine becomes unusable it’s the cookies clogging it up.

Thanks @RedTagAlan, @singthing and @Myfridgeiscool .

My laptop is about 2 years old and is running on Windows 11. I might have to buy a shiny new one when I end up throwing this one out of the window.

I have tried clearing cookies.

With other sites I visit, I often middle click the mouse to open up different threads in new tabs, I have no problems with say 10 different tabs being open, but with Mumsnet I dare not open multiple tabs, as it's so slow with only just one page open.

I dare say if I raised it in site feedback, the suggestion would be to pay a subscription so that I don't get any ads.

I don't think I am going to go down the VPN route, I'm a bot too much of a technophobe for that although I dare say my son would set it up for me. I'll just do a combination of viewing AIBU on my tablet, using my laptop and putting up with it being incredibly slow or just spend less time browsing Mumsnet and more time on other sites. It would be a shame to do that though as I do like (most of) the people on Mumsnet.

Thanks again.

I'm late to this, as I didn't know there was a thread about it.

Mumsnet is fine on my phone but soo slooow on my Chromebook .

I use Adblock and a while ago was asked to pause it on here or subscribe. I paused it and then last week I was asked to allow third party cookies as well, or subscribe.

I've chosen not to subscribe and it's really slow , plus I'm receiving lots of spam emails .