🚀 go-pugleaf

A mate of mine has just loaded the free ISP CD from Barclays Bank which, it
seems, installs IE4 as the browser and uses BT Click as the service or
dialler.

He's never been on the Internet before in his life and didn't even know what
a browser was until last night, so during the installation he just accepted
all the default settings but then had trouble connecting. I went round and
sorted that out (the TCP/IP protocol wouldn't bind to the dial-up adapter -
uninstalled and reinstalled adapter and protocol; now working fine).

The problem is that when connected to the Internet, the computer slows right
down to a snail's pace; when typing a new URL in the address bar, each
character takes seconds to appear - I hit the first w (of www.) and after
about 3 seconds nothing had happened. I thought it wasn't working, so I hit
it again. After about 20 or 25 seconds I ended up with 5 w's up there and I
realised that each keystroke was taking about 4 or 5 seconds to appear and
web pages are taking minutes to download. I moved the mouse to see how the
cursor behaved and it took absolutely ages to get from one side of the
screen to the other, moving very, very, slowly and jerkily. It's like the
whole computer seems to be immersed in very thick treacle and almost grinds
to a halt.

This ONLY happens when connected to the Internet - the computer runs
normally when viewing web pages offline (in the history folder) or doing
anything else such as word processing or using PaintShop Pro. I've helped
two other people install the Barclays Net software but never come across
this before.

He's got a PCtel 288I HSP internal modem, which is one of these "winmodem"
things that utilises the computer's main processor rather than having one of
it's own which I never did like. Call me old fashioned, but I prefer an
external modem with lots of LED status lights and it's own innards - you
know where you stand with them. According to PCtel's website, system
requirements for this modem are Cyrix 6x86 @ 100MHz (he has a Cyrix 6x86
running at 110MHz) and 8Mb RAM (he has 32Mb).

Apart from the Internet software he's just loaded from Barclays, he also has
Cheyenne Bitware (I think that's what it's called anyway)
installed. This is some sort of telephone answering and fax software, so
could this be conflicting in some way?

Any ideas on the above or, can anyone think of anything else that may be
causing the problem?

I apologise for the cross-posting, but I'm going on holiday soon and he'd
like his machine working before I go so I need help fast.

Thanks in advance,

John.

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