Device-Specific Slow Internet

My grandma has the slowest DSL internet package available under AT&T.

However, for simply browsing the web, this is sufficient for every device on the network except for her's.

Here are the things that are different and similar about the devices:

Her's: Low-end gaming desktop
Other: tablets, WiFi-enabled phones, laptops

Her's: Original Windows install; bloatware present.
Other: In the case of laptops, one runs OS X, one runs Linux Mint, and one runs a clean install of Windows

Her's: avast! antivirus
Other: No antivirus, software firewall present in OS X and Linux. I am not familiar enough with mobile devices to know.

Her's: Internet Explorer (which I understand is actually becoming respectable in recent versions)
Other: Chrome, Chromium, Safari

Her's: Wired connection over Ethernet with a redundant wireless connection to modem
Other: Wireless only, usually from no less than 20 feet from modem

What can I do to improve her web browsing capabilities without changing anything on the front end (i.e., OS, browser, etc.)?

1) dl spybot search and destroy.
2) load her system up in safemode with networking
3) run spybot search and destroy
4) try IE, see how it net surfs in safemode

if it's smooth and quick your problem is software, and might be solved. restart windows in normal mode, and see how responsive your browser is. If the problem is solved amen.
If you restart the PC and the problem comes back, she's probably installed some bloatware/adware that spybot missed... like those junk yahoo toolbars and stuff. You can either go through the task manager looking up what's working, or check her firewall for what's on the net... or you can do a fresh install of windows, just straight up reformat the drive. i'd suggest that option btw.

If her browsing is still sluggish in safemode after you ran spybot, it might be hardware. first dl an alternate browser, and see how it works. If it is also sluggish in safemode, the chances are its a hardware problem. However, i suggest you first reformat the drive, reinstall windows, make sure everything is up to date and test again. If the problem persists it's certainly a hardware issue.

At that point you'll need to ascertain what piece of hardware. First disable the wireless card, and test the Ethernet connection. then disable the Ethernet connection and enable the wireless. See if the problem remains with each connection. If the problem remains the issue is systemic (motherboard/processor/ram) and i've got you as far as i can... try adding ram and see if the problem goes away. That's about all i've got. If the problem vanishes in one setup you've found the culprit.

It got better with safe mode

It got a little worse (though it was still far better than before) when I booted back into normal windows, having run PCDecrapifier and Spybot Search and Destroy

I uninstalled as many things as I could that I knew she would never use and reducing the number of things that ran at startup down to AntiVirus, Spybot S&D, Dropbox, and HP Help center (which can NOT be deleted until I bring a live CD and delete it without Windows running)

Now, what can I do to to find out what those last few things are that are making it slower?

Also, she is willing to give Linux a second try (I made her try it Ubuntu 10.04 back when it was the most recent version and she had a 2.0GHz processor and 256MB of RAM)
Should I do this? If so, what distro should I use (I was thinking Mint with Mate or Cinnamon)

Last, but not least, where would I buy a phone line filter? Her current filter is as old as DSL is, because she was one of the early adopters and she has never replaced it.

fgf80 said:

256MB of RAM

Click to expand...

problem found-

Most web browsers these days will eat up 150-300mb of ram alone.

I'd say she's due a bump to 2gigs of ram. bet the pc will run much better with more ram.

The cpu isn't great but i'd say the ram is the biggest thing.

azanimefan said:

problem found-

Most web browsers these days will eat up 150-300mb of ram alone.

I'd say she's due a bump to 2gigs of ram. bet the pc will run much better with more ram.

The cpu isn't great but i'd say the ram is the biggest thing.

Click to expand...

Probably my fault (could have worded it better), but read again. That was her old computer, and I was talking about the fact that she is willing to try Linux if you believe it would help.
I don't get faster internet, but I am active in my computer's security under Windows.
Last time, on her old computer, she hated it Ubuntu (this time, I would use Mint because it physically resembles Windows XP in terms of layout), but admitted it was faster.

Her current computer has a dual core 3.5GHz processor, 6GB of RAM, and 256MB of dedicated RAM for the integrated graphics card, and runs Windows 7 Home Premium, OEM.

oh... wow... then if it's running good in safemode, and not so good in normal mode... it sounds like she still has "something"

Just fresh install windows 7, reformat... you should be doing that with a pc every 6 months anyway.

Problem probably will go away.