Why does the site load so slowly with ZoneAlarm running?

[kranky]

My subscription ended just when I got ZoneAlarm as a gift. If I have ZA running, pages here take about 3-4x longer to load. At other sites running FuseTalk, I get about the same results whether or not ZA is active. BTW, I'm on dialup.

Any thoughts as to why ZA would slow this site down so much, but not other sites running the same FuseTalk software?

 

[RossMAN]

Do you have broadband DSL or cable internet?

 

[Ikonomi]

What options regarding ads and stuff do you have running in Zone Alarm? I usually use ZA, but it doesn't affect the loading speed.

 

[kranky]

RossMAN, I'm on dialup.

Ikonomi, under Privacy I have Cookie Control = Medium and Ad Blocking = Off and Mobile Code Control = Off. Since all sites seem to be working, I assume the firewall settings aren't an issue.

When I go to load a page here, the ad at the top of the page displays pretty quickly, then there is a very long pause where I can see there is transmit/receive activity, and then the rest of the page will load all at once.

With ZA turned off, the behavior is the same, but the very long pause is much, much shorter.