[SWLUG] Slow DSL connection (Name resolution??)

[Peter Bradley]

Hi,

I wonder if any of you network experts could give me some advice please.

My SuSE 8.2 Linux box connects to a D-Link DSL-604+ wireless ADSL router
via an ethernet connection (i.e. not a wireless connection).  Everything
worked fine more or less straight out of the box, but I notice that the
internet connection is very slow.  I think it is a problem with name
resolution because download speeds are fine; the problem is worst on
sites that rely on adverts (linuxtoday/theregister) and so are
downloading from multiple sites whereas sites that don't (like groklaw)
are pretty fast; and the message in the status bar is usually "Resolving
host <hostname>" when I'm experiencing delays.

The router instructions are, of course, Windows only.  They say to
configure DHCP to "obtain an IP address automatically".  On my Linux box
dhcpd is not running (neither are named or squid).  dhcpd won't start
either.  It gives a message saying that DHCP is not configured to listen
on any ports.

I have a small Win XP Pro installation, which runs much quicker than the
Linux installation.

I'm afraid my knowledge of networking is very limited.  Can anyone point
me in the right direction on this?

Peter