WinXP Pro w/ latest firefox (2.0.0.12 I think)

For some reason, FF often takes FOREVER to load pages (and I mean minutes here). On the same computer, if I open IE the same sites load blazing fast, so I know it's not the internet connection or computer. Any idea what could be wrong? Sometimes it's perfectly fine, other times it's varying degrees of slow. I've cleared cache, etc, but no help. It's been doing it for a while, more than just this version, I just didn't realize then it was just FF having the issue.

It could be a specific extension (add-on) that you have installed for Firefox. You could try a bland no add-on's installed version of Firefox to test it.

*oh and Firefox should be noticeably faster than IE in most cases.

What does the status bar say when you click on a link? Does it hang on 'Connecting...'? What extensions do you have loaded? FF is much faster than IE for me, especially since I have Flashblock and Adblock installed, and http pipelining enabled in the config.

You can just run:

That will temporarily disable all addons.

More info here

So, dump FF & switch to IE
Sorry, had to say it

I'm also thinking it may be an extension that's causing the issue.

I made a new profile in FF and copied over only my bookmarks.html file. Seems to be working fine.

the only extensions I had installed were greasemonkey and some download thing.

And did you have any greasemonkey scripts installed?

a few - stuff to make fedex/ups/usps shipping easier, a couple to change affiliate links

Did these ones affect links at *any* website?
If so, those are probably the culprit.

no, they were site-specific

Well, try adding back your add-ons (and then your greasemonkey scripts) one at a time until you see the slowdown again.

After working for a while, I added adblock. Things were fine for a while, then slowed down again. Removed adblock, still slow.

Gonna try uninstalling FF, wipe all reg entries and files, and reinstall from scratch. See if that helps...