Web pages take forever to load . . .

Why does it take so long to bring up a web page lately? Is anyone else experiencing this? I have noticed it on Edge and Chrome. I have very high-speed Xfinity internet speeds thru an ethernet cable. I have the most powerful computer I have ever owned, with a 1TB SSD, 64GB of memory, and fast Intel i9 processor (12th gen), as well as a lot of video card ram (12 GB). With the Windows 11 Pro Version 25H2 (OS Build 26200.8037), sometimes it takes quite a bit of time to bring up some web pages that I normally visit every day. This computer came with Win 11 Pro installed. I have Norton AV. Is it Norton, the security of Windows, or both, or is it the browsers. Otherwise, this thing works apps instantaneously on almost everything else. Video rendering is fast, image editing is a snap, etc.

You have to isolate where it is breaking down. Are other devices on your network working as expected?
If not-look toward the network, not windows.

You have all those things you mentioned and are paying for that high speed internet service, but what speed are you actually getting?If it's not what you're paying for, contact your ISP.

If it points back to just this one device, things to try:

Clear browser cache in Chrome..

1. On your computer, open Chrome.
2. At the top right, click More. Delete browsing data.
3. Choose a time range, like Last hour or All time.
4. Select the types of information you want to remove.
5. Click Delete data. If you delete cookies while signed in to Chrome, Chrome refreshes the Google cookies that keep you signed in.

Clear cache in Edge.
Clear dns resolver cache. Flush DNS Resolver Cache in Windows 11

You can try changing the dns server to use google or cloudfare rather than your ISP dns server.
How to change DNS server settings in Windows 10 and 11 | PDQ

Reset network adapters

Hi Glasskuter -

Thanks for the tips. Here are my upload and download speeds (attached) I came up with when clicking the link you put in your post. Also, the second attachment is what I get when clicking the second link, this one remains and keeps circling indefinitely. A question: If I reset my network adapters, A) will it mean that I have to sign into my Xfinity modem/router again and put in the passcode, and B) will it interfere with my other wi-fi computer on another floor, and cause disruptions there?

I used Chrome forever, until one day all my bookmarks decided to move around, while some vanished. I don't love Edge, but everything is right where it should be, when using it. I also noticed that YouTube videos are slower to load on both browsers, but longer on Edge. As far as cleaning out the cache goes, I really hate having to put in my username and password every time I do that. While I have a password manager, not all websites are equal. Some, you can just click on the pw mgr. link and it fills out the rest, or some variation of this. Sometimes, copying and pasting stuff from the manager, and sometimes having several sign-ins listed for one website, as they changed their pages. Everyone seems to want to move the goalposts sometimes. Anyway, all of this interrupts my workflow.

With those speeds, I would be contacting my isp.

ERR_HTTP2_SERVER_REFUSED_STREAM likely points to a security software problem, where it's blocking or interfering with network traffic.

Temporarily disable Norton AV, and test your speeds on a relatively safe website (ie. www.microsoft.com). If your SpeedTest results are relatively fast, but browser performance is terrible then your AV or some browser add-on's are dragging page load times.

Another trick is to create a new Windows local user account, and check out the browser speed from a clean user profile.

Tried disabling AV - no change. Finally bit the bullet and cleared the cache and cookies, and got it to go a lot faster. Did another speed test before that with Ookla. See attached. BTW, upload speed has always been high when uploading videos and high-res pix!

Two days ago I noticed that Chrome was taking a very long time to load web pages. It only happened on first web site I loaded. Edge didn’t exhibit this behavior. I tried all their suggested fixes and nothing worked. Since I have all my setting, links, and login info saved to my Google Account, I finally just uninstalled and reinstalled Chrome. Problem fixed! Don’t know if this will fix your issues. It’s possible that the last Chrome update went wonkie.

SoFine409 said:

Two days ago I noticed that Chrome was taking a very long time to load web pages. It only happened on first web site I loaded. Edge didn’t exhibit this behavior. I tried all their suggested fixes and nothing worked. Since I have all my setting, links, and login info saved to my Google Account, I finally just uninstalled and reinstalled Chrome. Problem fixed! Don’t know if this will fix your issues. It’s possible that the last Chrome update went wonkie.

Click to expand...

Hi SoFine409 -
This problem has been around for a while thru several updates of both browsers. The problem is not universal. Some web pages pop right up, while just a bit ago, the Win 11 forum took 20 seconds. It is perplexing!

Google AI says . . . Slow DNS Resolution is the most common culprit when a speed test shows 450 Mbps but browsing feels sluggish. Before a page starts loading, your computer must "look up" its address. Comcast's default DNS servers can sometimes be slow to respond or time out, adding 10–20 seconds of delay before the first piece of data arrives.


Recommended Troubleshooting Steps

1. Change Your DNS: Manually set your device or router to use a faster public DNS like Google DNS (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4) or Cloudflare DNS (1.1.1.1). Users often report this "magically" fixes the issue.
2. Flush Your DNS Cache: Clear out old lookup data. On Windows, open the Command Prompt and type ipconfig /flushdns. On Mac, use the Terminal command sudo dscacheutil -flushcache.
3. Test in Incognito/Private Mode: Open the slow pages in a private window. If they load instantly, a browser extension or corrupted cookie is likely the cause.
4. Check for Local Outages: Use the Xfinity App or Xfinity Assistant to see if there are known performance issues in your specific neighborhood.
5. Restart Your Gateway: Unplug your modem/router for 30–60 seconds. This can clear temporary firmware glitches and refresh your connection to the local node

john1955 said:

Google AI says . . . Slow DNS Resolution is the most common culprit when a speed test shows 450 Mbps but browsing feels sluggish. Before a page starts loading, your computer must "look up" its address. Comcast's default DNS servers can sometimes be slow to respond or time out, adding 10–20 seconds of delay before the first piece of data arrives.


Recommended Troubleshooting Steps

1. Change Your DNS: Manually set your device or router to use a faster public DNS like Google DNS (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4) or Cloudflare DNS (1.1.1.1). Users often report this "magically" fixes the issue.
2. Flush Your DNS Cache: Clear out old lookup data. On Windows, open the Command Prompt and type ipconfig /flushdns. On Mac, use the Terminal command sudo dscacheutil -flushcache.
3. Test in Incognito/Private Mode: Open the slow pages in a private window. If they load instantly, a browser extension or corrupted cookie is likely the cause.
4. Check for Local Outages: Use the Xfinity App or Xfinity Assistant to see if there are known performance issues in your specific neighborhood.
5. Restart Your Gateway: Unplug your modem/router for 30–60 seconds. This can clear temporary firmware glitches and refresh your connection to the local node

Click to expand...

Hi John 1955 -

That seemed to make the web pages come up faster.

Thanks to all who have helped on this. I even changed out my ethernet cable to see if that was part of the problem.