could I have picked up a 'garden virus' ?

Under usual conditions, this computer is working normally. I access online banking, credit cards, local news sites, mail but when I am on DG, it goes to slow mode. Bear in mind that is really slow because I am still on dial up.

I went so far as to load Firefox because I've heard it said that DG runs better with that browser. It did not matter, if anything it is worse.

I have checked to make sure I have the ad settings turned off.

I don't know any reason that DG should be doing this and hope someone can help me find a solution.

Sometimes when it loads so slowly, it will work a bit faster if I hit the enter key after the mouse click. Then it acts like I have already been to that thread by taking me to the end of the thread rather than to the most recent posts.

Sometimes, I can stop the loading and refresh with more success.

Other times it works as fast as ever.

What the heck is going on? I have not found this issue on any other site I visit.

I have been watching to see if anyone else has similar problems but there is no mention so it has to be me or mine.

Is there anything I can, or need to do to change this beyond a DSL connection?

Any thoughts or suggestions will be appreciated. Please keep in mind I am not computer literate.

Thanks ~ pod