[SOLVED] Slow network w/PCLOS 2010.7 KDE

[dccombs]

I have a dual-boot with debian 5.06 gnome/pclos 2010.7 KDE

When surfing the net while using pclos, my network hangs a lot, pages take a long time to load. I have NetZero DSL. The problem is the same using both FF or Opera.

When using Debian, pages load almost instantly, and it rarely hangs.

Any idea what could be the cause of this? Any help would be sincerely appreciated.

[YouCanToo]

Check your DNS settings!

You might set them for OpenDNS

208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

or used Google DNS ones

8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4

[dccombs]

Check your DNS settings!

You might set them for OpenDNS

208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

or used Google DNS ones

8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4

Thank you !!....I set them for open DNS and it is much improved!!

I googled "DNS settings" and read a wiki page, but it was over my head. Could you explain in very simple terms what the DNS settings are, and what changes with the settings?

Thank you again for taking the time to help me, it is sincerely appreciated.

[menotu]

Could you explain in very simple terms what the DNS settings are, and what changes with the settings?

I'm a layman I maybe able to explain 

When you browse the web each web site (url) you call up has to go your ISP's - Domain Name Server - DNS server to retrieve the correct IP Address of that web site and quite often your ISP's servers can be very busy (or just plain slow) and using Open DNS removes your ISPs DNS servers out of the equation and uses the Open DNS servers instead (or others they have access to) to retrieve the address for you.

Of course there is more complexity to it but that's basically what it does.

With an OpenDNS account you can monitor your web traffic (in the Dashboard) and even prevent certain types of sites loading (a bit like Net Nanny software)

The link below gives a list of other DNS servers you can use.

http://theos.in/windows-xp/free-fast-public-dns-server-list/

[YouCanToo]

Check your DNS settings!

You might set them for OpenDNS

208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

or used Google DNS ones

8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4

Thank you !!....I set them for open DNS and it is much improved!!

I googled "DNS settings" and read a wiki page, but it was over my head. Could you explain in very simple terms what the DNS settings are, and what changes with the settings?

Thank you again for taking the time to help me, it is sincerely appreciated.

DNS is short for the Domain Name Server

DNS translate domain names to IP numbers and back

Domain names are easy for us humans to remember but computers do not use names, they use numbers.  I am sure that most people can not remember every IP address for every domain name on the internet. This is where DNS shines. You type google into your web browser and the first thing that happens is it checks your machines cache and see if it is store, if not it asks your ISP's DNS. Eventually working its way to the root name servers if need be. This all happens in a fraction of a second.

For example on my system if I request google the total DNS lookup take a whopping 22.236 ms  that is 22.2 millionths of a second to tell my machine that one of google's IP is 74.125.53.105

When you machine receives the IP number that what ever transaction you requested is or can be processed. The DNS server can also do what is called a reverse lookup where when you enter an IP address in the dotted quad format (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) it can return the domain name. A good example of this is when using the whois command.

The biggest problem with DNS is cause by something called a stale DNS. This is when the DNS is not refreshed often enough and holds old (stale) information. This is more common than you might think. I am thinking this is what lead to your issue to begin with.  There is no regulation(s) that says just how often DNS must be refreshed. On my DNS server I refresh it every 3600 seconds (1 hour)

I hope this help clears things up somewhat. If you have question feel free to ask.  Simple put DNS translates names to numbers and back.

[dccombs]

Thank you both for the explainations!!