Technical internet type n00b help needed!
 

OK, I tried asking this on a serious computer problems type forum. The 'people' there asked me what my system specs were (at least I *think* it was that. Never was good at reading 1337...), and I after I told them I couldn't get a word in edgeways over the laughing (if you define laughing as lolololololololololololol!!11!!!1!!!1one!1!!1!!ele ven!!11!!1).
So I thought I'd ask here, a forum for a web-comic being a breeding ground for nerds and their computer literate ilk (*just SHUT UP you stupid jerkass! Don't insult until AFTER you have the advice!*).
Anywho, here's my problem. I can't download *small* files. Huge things (like 100mb upwards) are a OK, but most things smaller don't download AT ALL. They open, go to the download window, then only download the first seconds worth of file (usually about 30kb) before stopping. Nothing dramatic happens, no errors or nothing, it just stops downloading anymore. Then about half an hour later it says it's finished (even if the file was only tiny and would've taken only a few seconds). Why? WHY THE FUGGIN' HELL IS IT DOING THIS?!? It's so damn annoying, and there's no reason I can see. But then, I don't know much about the internet...
Also, whenever I click on a hyperlink that opens another window to display, the display comes up blank, with nothing in the address bar. Not a huge problem (since it can just check the URL from properties and copy/paste), but maybe they're related?
Oh, and here are some specifics about my connection incase it helps. I get my daily dosage of the good stuff (y'know, 8 bit theater, pictures of kittens, pr0n) from my university's server . They advised me to get a 10/100 ethernet adapter (which they convienently sell), but I have a SiS 900 based ethernet adapter as part of my motherboard. Thought I'd go with that first, and it seemed to work (I'd never used it until a week ago). What is 10/100 and 900 ethernet adapters? I said those terms like I knew, but I have no idea... and does it have anything to do with my problem?
Oh, and no I can't ask my university to check if they have a firewall or something up that's causing this. Standard policy is to blame me first, charge 20 quid to have someone come poke my computer then decide that they DO have something up blocking small downloads(but not large, NOOO that would make some kind of sense!) but they wouldn't change it for the likes of me anyway.
Thanks for just wading through all this crap, it's not like I expect anyone to know (or care) but if you have any advice (no, literally *any*) I could use it. I can't download my pictures of kittens! And pr0n!!! KITTENS AND PR0N!!!!! KITTEN PR0N!!!!!!!!

That's the only thing I can think of. Probably to prevent spyware, which usually downloads really quick (few seconds)/is very small. However, someone else might have a different idea of what could be causing it. I usually don't figure things out completely until they happen to me.

It's a good idea (thanks) but this also stops things bigger (like 10mb downloads). Maybe it's just an over-zealous spyware preventer?

Hrm. Well, first off I would say to implement my standard list of sugestions:
1) Download Spybot Search & Destroy: www.safer-networking.org
2) Download Ad-Aware: www.lavasoft.com
3) Zone Alarm: www.zonelabs.com (Zonelabs.org is a fake site)
4) Firefox: www.mozilla.org/firefox, and never use IE again.
5) A decent anti-virus package, such as Norton or McAfee (these are the only two I have experience with and so I can't really recommend any others).
6) Stop using Outlook. www.mozilla.org/thunderbird (incase you can't tell, I'm a big fan of their software)

Thats almost always a good start. To answer your question about the 10/100 and the SiS 900 ethernet cards....don't worry about it. They're the same thing, SiS just likes to put a big shiny number on their's. On-board ethernet cards work just as well as off-board ones.

Once you go through the standard list, you're really looking at larger issues than those you might be able to control. A firewall is possible, but unlikely because the drive-by downloads that tend to be really small that a firewall like that might be intended to prevent would also block web pages. I would say run Firefox in safemode, see what happens there and report back. (Note to get to safemode, right as your computer starts turning on press F8 until it starts beeping then select the Safemode option) If you can download small stuff there, then its likely a program on your computer that isn't Windows.

Thanks, and nice list by the way (I already have alot of those things on my computer, and tried turning them off to see if it helped, it didn't =P). Firefox doesn't work. It just doesn't seem to connect to anything (gives me a timed out message). Safemode doesn't let me connect to the internet at all (I'm in Win98, and it doesn't load up my server info. Just the basic stuff...).
Thanks, but this seems like something I may just have to live with. I asked some friends and they get the same problem. Kinda ironic really - I finally get broadband (crap broadband, but still better than dial-up) so that I can download all those nice big files I've always wanted, and now I can't download small stuff.
What have I done to anger the Gods!?!
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Oh yeah...

Hrm. My apologies on that DarkBlack. I should've said 'Safe Mode with Networking'

...Uh... are you being sarcastic? I... can't tell...

So your in Windows 98? You might wanna upgrade that, or just update it. I don't think thats the problem, but its worth a shot.

I refuse to upgrade from Win98. All I hear about 'better' versions is how they crash, stop certain games from working, and take up more RAM. But it is probably the fault, come to think of it. I'm using the latest version of IE, with nearly the oldest version of Windows...

Windows XP never crashes. And I hear nothing about game incompatibility anymore. Just that the newest games are hard to run because of the insane system demands they make.

But that doesn't apply to you anyways since you are running 98!