I live in the US, use IE8 on an XP Home 32 bit system on DSL and currently have no problems.  That's not to say that I at times will experience slow loading and navgating on the site.

Very good point BigDogBigFeet, those setting will make a difference.

Thanks Philly! You're right setting those too high will not allow the WC site to run properly.  I also noticed that yrag had mentioned script blockers and other security software as another source of site conflict.

I have the same settings as you.

Both are set to defaults for me.

I suspect something that gets changed once a while are causing this bug, since it happens randomly and irregularly. That is, once it happens, it randomly happens for couple of months then it's gone for long while

Last year was worse at about 4 months, and year before were shorter period. The unusual pattern confuses me - why do those happen??

I have only one thing to say here.  I have only been with WC for 4 years now. They have always come through for me. I assume they always will. They have told us they are moving the site. They have told us they're making things better. I don't know about what goes on where you all are from, but around here, when they upgrade the Interstate Highway, it really slows traffic down for a while, detours, and all.  It's called progress. Same with this site. If we just be patient and give them some time, they are making things better....progress usually means sacrificing the now, for the better future.

  I feel that , given time, WC will once again be the stable, enjoyable site we have grown accustomed to.   My 2 Cents.  

I've been using every version of Firefox since becoming a member here years ago and I've never had it crash on me. But I will agree that the site seems to always be slow, It'll start out running fine...then slow to a crawl...then I just go do something else.

It’s just a thought but could it simply be a lack of ram? Mine freezes from time to time but fortunately only when I try to get too fancy in PSP so I’m sure it’s a ram thing with me.

I have never had a "crash" using FF.  That being said, there have been many times when the site was all but useless in terms of navigating  throufh the galleries , etc. The page draws just take forever.  Ten mnites later all is fine.  Ten minutes later slower than watching rocks grow.  I am aware of the server transitions etc.  Be that as it may, it seems to me that this random lack of performance has been the case since Impulse came to the fore, although I certainly have no way fo proving that.  The times of poor performance have dramatically increased without doubt.

see the thing is,these problems are "new" 2 months ago, never ever had any problem with WC loading,none whatsoever

now it is time for WSI  (Wincustomize Scene investigation (another version of CSI) to investigate these recent events

I moved to central IL on Oct.3rd and have used my mothers Dell/Vista/DSL rig for keeping in touch.(Mine is in storage).Using IE7 I have yet to experience any freezes of the site and loading the home page has been rapid in most cases.Browsing the forums and galleries has it's usual highs and lows in speed however.

On the plus side,I have had no ads when logged on,so I think things are getting better. That or I'm not online long enough.  

Don't have a speed spell Wiz?

Ive never understood why WC, compared to most sites I visit is so slow, sure some days it whizzes along, but they are few and far between, over the past year or so it seems to me that download counts are down, comments are down, forums are pretty slow etc.. I would have to blame a god portion of that on site unreliability. Its also been raised by others to me....often.

Maybe I think irrationally but it would seem to me that getting the sites running like most other sites, fast, reliable etc is the most basic of needs to maintain a succesful web presence, It literally blows my mind that here I am, I dunno, 3-4 years later experiencing the same issues as I did when I first arrived. I dont think a day goes by that I'm not tapping my mouse in an aggravated fashion as I wait for pages to load.

I typically am on a clean'ish install, no toolbars, blockers, etc.. and its the same in all browsers.

I love it here but I find myself visiting, like some others, less and less.

Sidenote...the OP said 'almost crash'

This is sooo slooow.

I cannot get any of the links to open.

Not happy. I pay too.

I think it's just system load.....when I come on in the morning usually around 6:45am eastern things fly along fine but somewhere between 7 and 8 things start to balk.......I can click on a forum link and wait, wait, wait and then stop it, click again and woosh there it is. It usually happens several times a day. I get the same kind of response at DA and many of the news sites certain times during the day. I don't necessarily see it at ALL other sites but few others have the traffic Wincustomize does.

I've used IE, FF & Opera here and I can't remember a crash I could blame on the site.

I guess it depends on the load, and time of day, as of right now it is flying by for me, no problems at all

Funny thing is that I'm not compaining about slowness. It's the browser freeze for couple of minutes that I'm complaining about.

I know what you mean.

I am sure things will get back to normal soon.

I am really happy to know  that this is happening to more of the community than just me.

It means I'm not the only one with a messed up computer. Lol

I have got to admit that i only froze up once today

and the speed has gone up nicely

Try a room heater