Well, those times are slower than what the forum might take on a dial-up connection. As Bob mentioned, a faster computer would certainly improve your viewing speeds, on all sites. However, I have a computer at home that is even slower than the one you are using, and with a 28.8 modem that connects at about 16k, and the page loads are about like this... (this is from click to complete)
Initial load of main index: 8-12 seconds
Load of most popular topic (Kubota Owning) from main index: 10-12 seconds
Load individual messages within that topic: 7-8 seconds
Load of entire thread in a topic, 4-5 messages: 10-12 seconds, and longer for larger threads
Previewing or posting a message: 10-16 seconds
Here at work on my cable modem, I connect on average at about 256kbps... I am at about 240 right now. Sometimes connections are as high as 1,000kbps, but that doesn't affect the loading times here.
And, those times are 1 second or less on all pages, except for the 24/48 hours/7 days checks, which load in 1, 2, and 8 seconds the first time, and if I don't clear my temporary internet files, those pages load instantly. If I do, they take 1,2, and 8 seconds.
My system is a PIII 450mhz/256 mb ram, and I use IE 5.0 with no proxy server. You may be connecting through a proxy which might slow your connection down, and be very inconsistent. I can say that when my proxy was removed, it was like a clogged drain being opened. At times things got extremely frustrating, with long, mysterious hang-ups, similar to what Bird describes (although he is not on a cable modem). In fact, at times that it got really bad, I connected through a dial-up and pages loaded faster! /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif
What I mentioned above are just my two most popular examples, I have tested on many systems, connections, and configurations. While the loading times go up and down from system to system, there are no 'hang ups' - those would happen on each system if it were a problem on the site.
<font color=blue>>></font color=blue>Muhammad
<font color=blue>Forum Master</font color=blue>