Slow Page Loads in all browsers with long idle time to start

Question

When browsing the internet (all browsers) I experience a significant delay before the page load is initiated. I've used Chrome's Developer Tools to analyze the issue and in looking at the Performance tab, there is significant Idle time before any activities are started (see image). In addition, if I look at the network timeline, I see a gap in the waterfall timeline with no activity after the initial page request is made. Any suggestions as to the root cause or ideas for further troubleshooting?

Chrome Developer Tools - Network tab for google.com page load

Chrome Developer Tools - Performance tab for firefox.com page load

Answer 1

There are possibilities here - the 2 most likely are a failing DNS server and MTU negotiation issues.

First thing I'd try is (temporarily) hard code DNS entries for machines in your hosts file. If that greatly speeds things up you have a DNS issue.

If that does not work I would try reduce the MTU to say 1470 bytes (temporarily) and see if that fixes the issue.

If neither of those things work, look look to AV software and see if it is intercepting packets etc.