Question Slow web browsing but fast with everything else

[insidious925]

Hello! I bought a custom PC that was built by Microcenter but I've been having this issue prior to me buying this PC. Even with my old PC, there was an issue where I can game extremely well with low ping and latency but web browsing and watching videos and shows on youtube, netflix, etc would buffer and lag like crazy. I have my DNS configured to google's public ipv4 and disabled ipv6 on my router. Any help would be great! Been dealing with this issue for like 4 years (lol) and never really knew that a forum like this existed till now and never knew where/who to ask for help.

 

[kanewolf]

Hello! I bought a custom PC that was built by Microcenter but I've been having this issue prior to me buying this PC. Even with my old PC, there was an issue where I can game extremely well with low ping and latency but web browsing and watching videos and shows on youtube, netflix, etc would buffer and lag like crazy. I have my DNS configured to google's public ipv4 and disabled ipv6 on my router. Any help would be great! Been dealing with this issue for like 4 years (lol) and never really knew that a forum like this existed till now and never knew where/who to ask for help.

You should disable IPv6 on the PC also, IMO.

 

[insidious925]

You should disable IPv6 on the PC also, IMO.

I have it disabled on the PC as well

 

[kanewolf]

I have it disabled on the PC as well

Where do you have the DNS set? On the PC or on the router ? If on the router, have you tried overriding the DNS on the PC, just in case your router settings are not correct ?

 

[insidious925]

Where do you have the DNS set? On the PC or on the router ? If on the router, have you tried overriding the DNS on the PC, just in case your router settings are not correct ?

I have it only on the PC. I didn't know you can change it on the router. you think its worth a shot?

 

[insidious925]

Where do you have the DNS set? On the PC or on the router ? If on the router, have you tried overriding the DNS on the PC, just in case your router settings are not correct ?

that didn't seem to fix things either...

 

[bill001g]

It is not likely a DNS issue if it affects youtube and netflix. DNS is only used when you very first open the site. Once you start to play a video it is only using the IP addresses it previously got from DNS. It does not talk to the DNS server again until the session closes and many times it will keep the name/ip cached so even a second different video will not need DNS.

Normal web pages open huge numbers of tiny session....with lots of garbage tracking and ad sites also. These cause a lot dns traffic.

Do the standard leave a constant ping command run in the background to 8.8.8.8 and see if that is affected when you see issues on the web browser. If you do see loss then it really should be also affecting game traffic.

If it really is just web based things then you start to suspect the browser. I would try another browser. Web browsers have gotten so loaded with bloat that they now have all kinds of setting that can mess things up. They have things like proxy and even DNS. Maybe try to wipe all the cache/stored data and reset everything to defaults.

 

[insidious925]

It is not likely a DNS issue if it affects youtube and netflix. DNS is only used when you very first open the site. Once you start to play a video it is only using the IP addresses it previously got from DNS. It does not talk to the DNS server again until the session closes and many times it will keep the name/ip cached so even a second different video will not need DNS.

Normal web pages open huge numbers of tiny session....with lots of garbage tracking and ad sites also. These cause a lot dns traffic.

Do the standard leave a constant ping command run in the background to 8.8.8.8 and see if that is affected when you see issues on the web browser. If you do see loss then it really should be also affecting game traffic.

If it really is just web based things then you start to suspect the browser. I would try another browser. Web browsers have gotten so loaded with bloat that they now have all kinds of setting that can mess things up. They have things like proxy and even DNS. Maybe try to wipe all the cache/stored data and reset everything to defaults.

Hello! Thank you so much for clarifying the DNS stuff for me (super helpful). How do I leave a constant ping command run in the background?

 

[bill001g]

Open a cmd prompt and use the ping command with a -t option.

 

[insidious925]

It is not likely a DNS issue if it affects youtube and netflix. DNS is only used when you very first open the site. Once you start to play a video it is only using the IP addresses it previously got from DNS. It does not talk to the DNS server again until the session closes and many times it will keep the name/ip cached so even a second different video will not need DNS.

Normal web pages open huge numbers of tiny session....with lots of garbage tracking and ad sites also. These cause a lot dns traffic.

Do the standard leave a constant ping command run in the background to 8.8.8.8 and see if that is affected when you see issues on the web browser. If you do see loss then it really should be also affecting game traffic.

If it really is just web based things then you start to suspect the browser. I would try another browser. Web browsers have gotten so loaded with bloat that they now have all kinds of setting that can mess things up. They have things like proxy and even DNS. Maybe try to wipe all the cache/stored data and reset everything to defaults.

I googled and ran "ping 8.8.8.8 -t" and it shows that the ping is ranging from 5ms to 15ms being the max while playing with 0 packet loss.
While browsing the web and watching youtube had a min of 3ms, max of 12ms and 0 packet loss but still was buffering like crazy.

 

[bill001g]

This means there is not really a network issue it is likely software related. It is most likely something wrong with the browser but it can be many things.

 

[insidious925]

This means there is not really a network issue it is likely software related. It is most likely something wrong with the browser but it can be many things.

Is there anything that I can do to pinpoint the issue? Not sure what else to really do at this point as the problem has been persisting for years now.

 

[bill001g]

Try another browser first.

Maybe you can boot into safe mode with networking. Not sure what is restrictions this places on say netflix.
Maybe try to temporarily disable the virus/malware protection. Of course be very careful what sites you open when you do that.

Although it won't tell you what the problem is you can confirm it is some issue with windows or the browser by booting a linux USB image. These almost always have a browser pre installed now days. You should be able to test but again if it works it doesn't tell you a lot more than you already suspect now. Some setting in either windows or the browser is messing things up.