Has your internet speed been sluggish lately? Pages hanging, loading times dismal, streaming media at a snail’s pace?
I mean, why pay for broadband with THESE kind of performance issues?
Well, it could be a BUG introduced into your operating system by your friend and mine – Microsoft. A recent update defaults your Internet Explorer internet options proxy setting to “ON” which will slow your broadband connection down to dial-up like internet speeds. But, no fear, here is how you fix it.
- Open Internet Explorer
- If you don’t see a menu, press the “Alt” key and it will magically appear
- Click “Tools” and look at the bottom of the menu: click “Internet options”
- Click the “Connections” tab
- Click the “LAN settings” button
- Under “Proxy Server” make sure that “Use a proxy server…” is NOT checked
- Click the LAN Settings “OK” button
- Click the Internet Options “OK” button
- Just to be safe, restart all open web browsers
That’s it! Yay, you did it! BUT, there is one other teensy weensy little problem. You will have to do this EVERY TIME you restart your computer. That’s right – when you reboot Windows automatically resets the browser proxy to “ON” – thanks Microsoft (please fix it). Oh, and this affects any windows based browser you use.