Troubleshooting a Google slow down makes me think about dumping PC-Cillin

Over the past couple of months, I’ve noticed problems with viewing Google results. I’d type a search term in the box on the Google site and the search results would appear only after a delay of a few seconds. Then, when I’d click any of those search results I’d get a further delay, sometimes so long that my only recourse was to hit the Stop button and then the Reload button.

Occasionally, something else would happen: I’d type in a search phrase and hit Enter, and instead of showing a list of results, Google’d show me a fragment of HTML code. This also started happening when I’d click a result: no site, just some HTML code.

I was on the verge of devoting some time to troubleshooting this when a hard drive crash gave me something else to focus on, and a chance to reinstall Windows and all my software. When I did so, Google appeared to behave a little better, so I let it ride. But over the weeks, the flakiness started creeping back in and this week it got to the point where it was seriously derailing my online work.

So, I decided to troubleshoot.

I normally use Firefox as my browser, so I loaded up Internet Explorer 7 to see whether the same thing was happening with it. Nope, IE 7 and Google worked smoothly together. That made me think it might be a problem either with Firefox or with one of my Firefox add-ons.

To double-check, I tried using Google on my second desktop PC. My main workhorse computer runs Windows XP and has a cable Internet connection provided by Cox Communications. My second computer is a Vista machine with a separate DSL Internet connection from BellSouth.  I ran some Google searches using Firefox on this second machine and encountered no problems at all.

Okay, so maybe Firefox wasn’t at fault. It seemed like there were four possible problem areas on my XP machine:

• Spyware or a virus.
• A Firefox add-on.
• A problem on Cox’s end of the Internet connection.
• A software conflict or hardware problem (router, perhaps?).

As spyware is so often the cause of system slowdowns, I ran some extra scans to check that out first. My system came up clean.

A Firefox add-on? The version of Firefox on my Vista machine is pretty clean; the only add-on I have installed is Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer, which I can’t live without. On my XP machine, though, Firefox is loaded up with a whole bunch of add-ons. I disabled the lot of them, planning to reinstate each one-by-one should this solve my problem. But no, Google’s sluggishness persisted.

Next on my list was Cox. I really didn’t want the problem to be with them, because I knew I’d probably be entering into support hell if that were the case, but I did wonder whether their much-touted “turbo caching” of popular sites was causing problems. I did some checking to see whether they had any reported network problems (none) and whether as a user I had any control over cache settings from their end (I didn’t). I decided to put off any further Cox troubleshooting until after I’d checked all other possible causes.

So, a software conflict? I have very different programs installed on my Vista and XP machines, which meant a lot of territory to cover. It made sense to start by checking out software that could be affecting my Internet access, in particular my security suite.

I use Trend Micro’s PC-Cillin Internet Security 2007. I opened up its main console and took a look at the Internet & Email Controls. I had the spyware filter and phishing protection enabled; the spam and web site filters disabled.

The phishing filter provides a warning when you try to access a site known for phishing (a type of fraud designed to lure you into handing over your ID, password and financial details). It also warns you when you access any site with “phishing characteristics”. Hmm…I thought, I wonder how long it takes PC-Cillin to mull over the phishiness of each site?

Bingo! As soon as I switched the phishing filter off, my Google problems disappeared.

Of course, that means to get Google back to its old, slick ways I must do without the phishing filter. That’s a trade-off I can live with.

The real problem with PC-Cillin

After fixing the problem, I decided to do a search of Trend Micro’s technical knowledgebase to see whether there was any mention of this issue. While there was no specific reference to the phishing filter, I did come across an article about system sluggishness when running both PC-Cillin and Spybot Search & Destroy. I don’t have Spybot installed on my XP system, but I was interested to see that the article recommended checking which version of PC-Cillin you have installed and, if the version number is lower than 15.30, to upgrade it.

Why? Not why should I upgrade, but why doesn’t this happen automatically?

PC-Cillin phones home to its mother site every day to download new virus signatures and other updates. So why should I have to upgrade the program manually? Surely this should happen automatically. After all, I’m paying a yearly subscription to get the product and its updates.

I’ve been using PC-Cillin for several years now and have been mostly satisfied with it. I used to use Norton, but Symantec made the product so unwieldy and unstable I gave it the hook and opted for simpler fare. Now, I’m contemplating a return to the Norton fold, especially as Symantec has responded to the complaints and produced what, from all accounts, is a sleeker, faster and more reliable Norton Internet Security 2008.

It’s not just the phishing problem and the lack of program updating that have prompted me to consider dumping PC-Cillin, it’s the truly excruciating subscription renewal experience they put their customers through. I’ve been through PC-Cillin’s subscription renewal at least a dozen and a half times on my own PCs and those of clients, and never - not once - has the process gone entirely smoothly. Either the program won’t download or the credit card processing goes awry or no download link is provided or the program won’t install properly or I have to provide yet another email address to satisfy their useless account procedures or… well, you get the drift.

With subscription-based software being the new trend, it behooves software suppliers to provide a smooth, efficient and pleasant subscription process, not the sort of hell Trend Micro puts its customers through.

My subscription falls due in a few months. The more I think about it, the more I’m looking forward to a change.

Comments

[Phil]

Thanks for this post. I've had so many computer problems which I eventually traced back to my anti-virus. I used Norton but had to remove it because it slowed my computer to a crawl. I now also have PC-illin but its firewall prevented me from using Skype. I uninstalled the Firewall and all is fine. I'd like to get rid of virus protection totally and use web based email clients but that's probably unrealistic. Nice to hear others have similar problems.
Phil

[Fred]

I too have dumped PC Cillin. Not just for it turning the computer into a turtle. Their new subscription service does an auto-renew without asking. Suddenly one day you get an email thanking you for the purchase!! They (Digital River Inc) hit me twice in one month. Somewhere in the "I agree" fine print you agree to the auto-renew. They refunded both times but what a hassle to find the opt-out and refund on the sites. PC Cillin used to be a great unobtrusive program.