Every day here everyone keeps complaining that the internet is slow as all heck, but only at some certain part of the day. I noticed that everyone has MSN as their home page, and when they call me, I try it myself. Of course, the site is super slow (only when they call me), but every other site works just fine.

That is, until today when someone mentioned another site not working well.

Personally, I think it's just MSN. I've been down this road before, so I'm wondering if anyone else has noticed the same sluggish behavior in the mid-afternoon.

Anyone?

I am on parallel T1s and have also experienced slow load times with MSN

network load?
[both internal and your ISPs]

guessing by the way you phrase it that you're a tech guy for a group of people, and that all of you are connected to the same local network......so if the problem lies outside the building it will affect everyone.

Look out for downloads - is someone in your office downloading a movie? a database backup? etc. The datapipe coming into your 'office' can only carry so much information.

How far is the network from the exchange? DSL lines are affected by distance [eg 8mb/s is touted where I live, but I can only get 7mb/s and the missus only 6mb/s as we live a mile or two from the exchange]

If it's  not your work place causing the issues, and it's not your ISP, then who else may have a connection nearby (next door, for example) - even if they don't have the same ISP they'll be going though the same network-infrastructure unless they have a completely different cable

We don't have DSL - We have cable, which is waaaay better than that wireless garbage we used to have.

Every time someone calls me about a slow internet, is when MSN is slow. So thats the only thing I can think of. This other person tho says that this other site is really slow too, tho.... I have other suspicions about that one.

Other than MSN, as far as I can tell, all other 'surfing' works perfectly, and I've been surfin' for many many many moons. hahahaha. So, if there's even a slight hic-up in there somewhere, I'll notice it.

The sucky part is (and i'm sure there are other people here that go through the same thing)......

I'm the guy that chose the new internet.
I'm the guy that installed everything.
I'm the guy who forgot more about computers than any of these old crows will ever know.

Therefore, if the 'interweb' don't work, then I better fix it, or I lose my job.  Know what I mean?

Stitch, maybe I misunderstood your question. Are you having performance issues when using MSN (like the title suggested) or on your outward facing network?

I 'think' i'm having problems with just msn's website loading. All other websites will work fine.

Yet, this only seems to happen mid-afternoon. Very strange.......

You will most likely need to run some performance tests to see if there are any bottlenecks, but I would add that the service providers will usualy help you as well, just ask them.

Todays food for thought is this: Connection speed depends on the type of connection (DSL vs. cable) you have; DSL would definitely become slower the further you are away from the “trunk”. Cable would only become slower during peak usage hours, unless you have fiber.

Having been in the Telecommunications / Engineering business for over 32 years as not only an Engineer, but also the Area Manager to one of America's largest telephone companies, I always laugh when people use the buzzword "trunk".

Stitch -- it works like this...

When someone refers to a "trunk" line, trunk lines are the phone lines coming into the PBX ("One-Ring-A-Dingy" Switchboard) from the telephone provider -- more about this can be found here

All other lines are no longer affected by distance from the "C.O. -- Central Office" -- this is accomplished by what we in the industry know as, "Repeaters" ... the concept works the same as it does in Electrical Engineering when we install Transformers along the entire route from the Sub-Station to your home / business ... the more Repeaters / Transformers we establish along the entire route, the stronger your signal will always remain.

For those who were sold the bill-of-goods by your ISP to subscribe to DSL -- they had a helluva Salesperson ... DSL is; always has been; and always will be ... nothing more than Accelerated Dial-Up With Ads Removed.

We often run into these "bottlenecks" but its simply because SA has a really crappy phone line infastructure run by only one company... a daft government subsidized monopoly called "Telkom" (we have the 3rd highest prices in the world), they get just about everything wrong hence our not very exciting internet speeds (only just got 4mb connections introduced and its incredibly expensive "see www.hellkom.co.za" . /bitching

Anywho, im guessing its just the general server load on msn ... millions of people loggin in. The best solution i can think of is tell all your clients to make google their homepage... download msn messenger and check their hotmail through that if they have to - or get gmail, suicide rate may drop as well .

Problem solved