I had recently "cleaned up" my computer and regularly run AdAware, Spysweeper and Norton Anitivirus PROGRAMS (I also clear temp. internet files) with a good degree of success. However, over the last week, web pages are taking forever to load, especially those on Yahoo.
 I've run my virus and spyware programs and nothing comes up as suspect. Is there anything else I can do to get to the root of this problem? I'm clueless...any error messages like 404 page cannot be displayed..what internet connection is used 56k adsl cable?..what o/s/..and what ie browser is used.?.more info hopefully more solutions..Sorry--I use Windows '98 on a cable modem and I believe Internet Explorer 6.0.
I don't get many error messages like the one MENTIONED, but have started to get alerts for internal programs on my HP which say they will be shut down. Also, some pages are not re-setting when I return to them. Sounds like a hidden virus that can't be detected, to me.  
Anyway, thanks for the reply. I'll tell you as much as I know. Not much of a 'tech-ie", here...ok its your choice but i have seen so many people using win9x and IE6 with problems it a joke...try this >http://www.wilderssecurity.net/bhblaster.html and download this also if you can it may come in handy>http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/   added to reply>http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q220902youknow what helps too is going to control panel > internet options> and dleete files and clear history... and have you checked for errors and defrag'd lately?Webpages may take longer to load because you may have cleaned your temporary Internet files folder. If you have a slow connection, you will notice the difference.

To Raptor--  I thought clearing out temporary internet files was something one should do to optimize the best browser performance.
  Slow it down?DELETING it will save Hard Disk Drive space, but it will also force your browser you download certain files, such as photos, again which it could normally access from the Hard Disk Drive.

This should only apply to very slow connections or slow WEBSITES.