hello thebuggyone, could you specify how you're measuring download speed in firefox (through a flash based website?) & which security related programs are running on your pc? thank you...

speedtest.net and watching slow download speeds. i use avg and superantispyware for viruses but have no firewall whatnot up. Other pcs on this home network get better speeds.

speedtest uses flash for speed measurements & adobe has introduced a special protected mode for its flash plugin only for firefox, which might cause slowdowns when there is interference between the following processes (so you might not observe it on IE or other browsers): firefox.exe, plugin-container.exe & FlashPlayerPlugin_11*.exe - please make sure that your av-engine isn't blocking/sandboxing them in any way (if there's an option to whitelist those processes please try this)..

alternatively you can also try disabling the protected mode for adobe flash or downgrade to flash 10.3 (it is still supported by adobe) & see if this is making a difference...

no that didnt work.

So no one has an idea? I really like firefox but i need the speed I am losing. I would greatly appreciate any help.

Try to boot the computer in Windows Safe mode with network support (press F8 on the boot screen) as a test to see if that helps.

Booting in safe mode worked but how do i use that for reg mode. I started firefox in safe mode and it was still slow so i am assuming its being interfered with another application. i just cant figure out how to identify it.

Which security software (firewall, anti-virus) do you have?

It may be interfering with downloading files by Firefox.

See also http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx

i use avg no firewall and superantispyware