Persistent problem webpage loading.

gramps

gramps

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Thought this was resolved but not so unfortunately :(

I keep having problems with extremely slow web page loading, or pages failing to load at all on my Dell Win 10 laptop, this happens on Firefox and Edge. iPhone etc work fine so it seems specific to the laptop and no other devices on the WiFi network are suffering the problem.

Edge showed failed page load fault details as:

There was a temporary DNS error. Try refreshing the page.
Error Code: INET_E_RESOURCE_NOT_FOUND
Click to expand...

I have:-
  • Rebooted the laptop.
  • Rebooted the router.
  • Flushed the DNS.
  • Flushed the cache.
  • Refreshed Firefox (problem also exists on Edge).
  • ‘Forgot’ the WiFi network and re-connected.
  • Done full CCleaner/Avast/Malwarebytes scans (negative).
I’ve run out of ideas now so would welcome some informed help please. :)
 
And on this page https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...oft-edge/c01d7054-9ec9-4270-bc95-27ba69fba3b0 at the end of page 1


It says this:-
Hello,



Changing DNS settings in Windows 10



1. Press Win+R to open the Run command window , type ncpa.cpl, and then click OK .

2. In the "Network Connections" window select the main network adapter, right-click on it, select "Properties".

3. Then, on the properties page, select "Protocol 4 (TCP / IPv4)" and click "Properties".

4. Finally, on the IP Version 4 Properties page (TCP / IPv4) - select "Use the following DNS server addresses" and enter

"Preferred DNS server" as 8.8.8.8

"Alternate DNS server" as 8.8.4.4

These are the values of the Google DNS server.

Click "OK" and the settings will be saved. Thus, the problem with the network that you are facing should be solved.
 
Box Brownie said:
And on this page https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...oft-edge/c01d7054-9ec9-4270-bc95-27ba69fba3b0 at the end of page 1


It says this:-
Hello,



Changing DNS settings in Windows 10



1. Press Win+R to open the Run command window , type ncpa.cpl, and then click OK .

2. In the "Network Connections" window select the main network adapter, right-click on it, select "Properties".

3. Then, on the properties page, select "Protocol 4 (TCP / IPv4)" and click "Properties".

4. Finally, on the IP Version 4 Properties page (TCP / IPv4) - select "Use the following DNS server addresses" and enter

"Preferred DNS server" as 8.8.8.8

"Alternate DNS server" as 8.8.4.4

These are the values of the Google DNS server.

Click "OK" and the settings will be saved. Thus, the problem with the network that you are facing should be solved.
Click to expand...

Will give that a try, thanks. :)
 
Unfortunately the above suggestion of changing to Google’s DNS Servers hasn’t resolved the problem.
This is the only device on the network with problems.
If I use the Personal Hotspot on my iPhone for the laptop to connect to instead of the router the problem disappears, so it does seem specific to the laptop.
 
gramps said:
Unfortunately the above suggestion of changing to Google’s DNS Servers hasn’t resolved the problem.
This is the only device on the network with problems.
If I use the Personal Hotspot on my iPhone for the laptop to connect to instead of the router the problem disappears, so it does seem specific to the laptop.
Click to expand...

Or is it something about the Lappy WiFi connection to the router???

Have you got a network cable to try a wired connection to the router? NB though cannot readily think what it might be if your other WiFi connected devices are fine!

Edit ~ just some (random) thoughts
1) Is the router dual band i.e. 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz
2) If so what band are the other devices using?
3) As such what band is the Dell using (if a tad old it might not itself be dual band?)
4) So, if for example the iPhone is using the 5Ghz but the Dell is using the 2.4Ghz......it is possible that the Channel you are on is very congested, whereas the 5Ghz channel in use has very few others in your neighbourhood sharing that frequency.
5) I f that is one potential cause then simply via the Router admin GUI pick a less busy channel on the 2.4Ghz band.

On my Android phone I have a WiFi analyser, this tells me all the nearby routers (their SSID are dislplayed) and which channels they are on and FWIW I picked one on the 2.4Ghz with the fewer nearby users...........for my 5Ghz devices oddly there are not too many dual band routers nearby?
 
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Are you using the laptop wireless, and how far away from the router? Can you try plugging it in to the router directly with a network cable?
 
Box Brownie said:
Or is it something about the Lappy WiFi connection to the router???

Have you got a network cable to try a wired connection to the router? NB though cannot readily think what it might be if your other WiFi connected devices are fine!
Click to expand...

J Veitch said:
Are you using the laptop wireless, and how far away from the router? Can you try plugging it in to the router directly with a network cable?
Click to expand...

It is a wireless connection and the laptop is about 5 metres away from the router (laptop in lounge and router in hallway).
The iPhone connects from next to the laptop without the same issues at all.
I do have an Ethernet cable but wonder how that would help resolve the wireless problem?
I'm using the laptop to post this reply (hopefully) so it's very variable.
 
gramps said:
It is a wireless connection and the laptop is about 5 metres away from the router (laptop in lounge and router in hallway).
The iPhone connects from next to the laptop without the same issues at all.
I do have an Ethernet cable but wonder how that would help resolve the wireless problem?
I'm using the laptop to post this reply (hopefully) so it's very variable.
Click to expand...

Unless you live in a castle with very thick stone walls a 5M distance should not be an issue.....................though if you have got a successful hotspot with the iPhone, I wonder if that has a strong WiFi output for you to try putting the phone where the router is ~ hang on mo! Does the lappy connect better if you put it next to the router???

Doing the wired test is simply(?) to indicate where the fault might lay, especially as you said the you can get a good usable WiFi connection using the iPhone as a hotspot. This might indeed suggest the router does not like the Dell................but does it if wired in?

Note ~ did I understand right that where say "The iPhone connects from next to the laptop without the same issues at all." do you mean the iPhone to the router or the lappy to the iPhone hotspot???

PS what model laptop and what make & model router???
 
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Box Brownie said:
Unless you live in a castle with very thick stone walls a 5M distance should not be an issue.....................though if you have got a successful hotspot with the iPhone, I wonder if that has a strong WiFi output for you to try putting the phone where the router is ~ hang on mo! Does the lappy connect better if you put it next to the router???

Doing the wired test is simply(?) to indicate where the fault might lay, especially as you said the you can get a good usable WiFi connection using the iPhone as a hotspot. This might indeed suggest the router does not like the Dell................but does it if wired in?

Note ~ did I understand right that where say "The iPhone connects from next to the laptop without the same issues at all." do you mean the iPhone to the router or the lappy to the iPhone hotspot???

PS what model laptop and what make & model router???
Click to expand...

I did have the laptop on a cable connection to the router for about a year up until a year ago and it worked fine like that.
Since removing the cable (necessary to keep SWMBO happy!) the wireless connection has been fine too ... until around a week ago.

The iPhone connects to the router without issue from beside the laptop.

The laptop is a Dell XPS l502 running Windows 10.
It has a 960GB SSD as the C drive and a 680GB normal as the D drive (fitted in the optical drive bay) and it is fitted with 16B of RAM.

The router is an ASUS DSL-N55U
 
Wifi can run on two different frequencies 5ghz and 2.4ghz. The latter is a lot more common, and has better penetration of walls, however in high population density areas (flats) it can suffer more (as basically there are only 3 "channels" that don't interfere with each other) and you could find that as its shared bandwidth with any of your neighbours / tv video senders / home automation / bluetooth / microwave ovens (although they would probably have to be old and not working great) etc...

So anyway, the short answer is it might be something else interfering with your wifi connection that is causing issues (or windows could have updated a driver to something that isn't quite right for your laptop too). It might be worth looking at what channel your wifi is running on (or maybe even restarting the router - as a lot will auto select channel, but only at startup).
 
J Veitch said:
Wifi can run on two different frequencies 5ghz and 2.4ghz. The latter is a lot more common, and has better penetration of walls, however in high population density areas (flats) it can suffer more (as basically there are only 3 "channels" that don't interfere with each other) and you could find that as its shared bandwidth with any of your neighbours / tv video senders / home automation / bluetooth / microwave ovens (although they would probably have to be old and not working great) etc...

So anyway, the short answer is it might be something else interfering with your wifi connection that is causing issues (or windows could have updated a driver to something that isn't quite right for your laptop too). It might be worth looking at what channel your wifi is running on (or maybe even restarting the router - as a lot will auto select channel, but only at startup).
Click to expand...

The Asus is a 'dual-band' router using 5ghz & 2.4ghz ... 2.4ghz is on Channel 3 and 5ghz is on 'Auto'.
The router can 'see' seven other networks (neighbours) but none are on Channel 3, two are on Channel 6 and five are on Channel 1.
We are in a semi-detached house.
The router has been powered down and up several times .. is that what you mean by 'restarting'?
 
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So, channel 3 actually overlaps both channel 1 and channel 6. This means you will get interference from both of those wifi users. 1, 6 and 11+ are the three that are clear of each other. Can you set it to 11?
 
J Veitch said:
So, channel 3 actually overlaps both channel 1 and channel 6. This means you will get interference from both of those wifi users. 1, 6 and 11+ are the three that are clear of each other. Can you set it to 11?
Click to expand...

Actually there are two others using Channel 11 (I forgot to scroll down) ... is 11 still suitable?
 
If its any help I had a similar problem with web pages, BBC, The Times and Barclays being very slow to load, in addition to which after a short time the trackball mouse would start to jump around and was unresponsive.
I went from Edge >Chrome-problem solved.
I don't know why and I can't be bothered to find out.
BTW Edge is still slow 10 secs to load BBC home page <2secs with Chrome.
 
Might be worth updating your wifi driver.
 
Mikesphotaes said:
Might be worth updating your wifi driver.
Click to expand...

No updates available, I am on the latest ... though there probably won't be another update due to the age of the laptop. :(
 
Sometimes it's worth removing the driver then going to the manufacture's website to load the latest driver.

It will mean you have to cable the laptop to your router.

Another idea would be to fit another wifi receiver to the laptop?
 
neil_g said:
do you have access to a USB wifi dongle you could borrow for testing?

could be the wifi module in the laptop has failed/become faulty.
Click to expand...

I think I have one somewhere that I used with a desktop, small Netgear USB I think ... I'll see if I can find it.
 
Can't find the dongle, may have gone in a clear out of the office. :(

Laptop is now going like a train, which is really weird! :thinking:
 
Laptop back to walking through treacle this morning, there is no consistency, iPhone continues to fly right beside it.

Will have to buy a dongle and see if that helps.

Currently downloading Chrome ... progress fluctuates between 44 hours and 2 hours, meanwhile iPhone works fine.
 
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Chrome hasn’t resolved the issue.
 
Looks like the WiFi installed is in the form of what they call a "MiniCard" and is user changeable??? Service manual here https://downloads.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_laptop/esuprt_xps_laptop/xps-l502x_service manual_en-us.pdf

As noted on page 21
Your computer has one full Mini-Card slot and one half Mini-Card slot:
• One full Mini-Card slot — supports a Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN) or TV tuner module.
• One half Mini-Card slot — supports a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) and bluetooth combo card or Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax) card.
NOTE: Depending on the configuration of the computer when it was sold, the Mini-Card slot may or may not have a Mini-Card installed.

I wonder if worth identifying what card you have and if available to buy?

PS maybe removing and re-installing could be tried ~ at least makes sure the connection in the slot is OK and that the antenna connections are sound???
 
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Box Brownie said:
Looks like the WiFi installed is in the form of what they call a "MiniCard" and is user changeable??? Service manual here https://downloads.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_laptop/esuprt_xps_laptop/xps-l502x_service manual_en-us.pdf

As noted on page 21
Your computer has one full Mini-Card slot and one half Mini-Card slot:
• One full Mini-Card slot — supports a Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN) or TV tuner module.
• One half Mini-Card slot — supports a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) and bluetooth combo card or Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax) card.
NOTE: Depending on the configuration of the computer when it was sold, the Mini-Card slot may or may not have a Mini-Card installed.

I wonder if worth identifying what card you have and if available to buy?

PS maybe removing and re-installing could be tried ~ at least makes sure the connection in the slot is OK and that the antenna connections are sound???
Click to expand...

Worth a check ... I've got to pick up a dongle so will see if that changes anything, if it dies then that will pinpoint the issue perhaps?
 
Well, lets hope all is fine now. For what it's worth I've changed the wifi card on a few laptops over the years, and it's not that bad to do. In answer to a previous question, channel 14 if it's available is usually a good starting place (it wasn't allowed in the uk previously, so not commonly used and only slightly overlaps with 11). It's hard to say exactly what channel is best without monitoring things a little. Out of interest is your iPhone maybe connecting to 5g and your laptop to 2.4g?

Anyway - if it's working at the moment, don't touch anything :D
 
J Veitch said:
Well, lets hope all is fine now. For what it's worth I've changed the wifi card on a few laptops over the years, and it's not that bad to do. In answer to a previous question, channel 14 if it's available is usually a good starting place (it wasn't allowed in the uk previously, so not commonly used and only slightly overlaps with 11). It's hard to say exactly what channel is best without monitoring things a little. Out of interest is your iPhone maybe connecting to 5g and your laptop to 2.4g?

Anyway - if it's working at the moment, don't touch anything :D
Click to expand...

Thanks ... I've done a hew things 'inside' the laptop so could change a wifi card but I'm not sure Dell would have one and it was easy to pick up a USB dongle locally.
How would I find out which each was connecting to?
 
Dell WiFi modules are usually removable. And in some cases can be upgraded to newer/faster versions. You don't have to source from dell themselves providing its a compatible module.
 
neil_g said:
Dell WiFi modules are usually removable. And in some cases can be upgraded to newer/faster versions. You don't have to source from dell themselves providing its a compatible module.
Click to expand...

Thanks, according to the service manual posted above it is removable ... where would you suggest as a possibilitiy for sourcing a replacement?
 
I'm sure I just bought my last one from amazon - it was a mini pcie ac one. And it was for a Dell laptop. Have a look on youtube for your model number and there are usually instructions for strip downs (depending on model it might be a simple cover on the back, others it take the keyboard off, etc).
 
gramps said:
Thanks, according to the service manual posted above it is removable ... where would you suggest as a possibilitiy for sourcing a replacement?
Click to expand...
If you know the model wifi module you should be able to just google that. If it's an older unit normally amazon, eBay otherwise newer units ebuyer, scan etc should give results
 
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