For some reason it takes my computer/browser a very long time just to send a message or reply to a thread on the forums. I'm using Firefox right now and I was debating if I should switch to Internet Explorer or if that idea will even help. Any suggestions?

I download files at about 50 kilobytes a second.

It is pretty obvious you need to get a faster connection since it seems your using dial up, however, there are way to speed up the forum here. At the top of the forum click on My Control's, then click on board settings and you will see the following options



and use these settings in the following order of the options I have listed above

No
No
No
n/a
5
5

then press ok, that way your ISP doesn't have to spend the time downloading the images or the information in people's signatures. Thus this way the forums should load a bit quicker for you when you click on a topic or post an a topic.

If Saint_Michael's idea doesn't work, there are a few other things that may be slowing you down. First, are you behind a proxy server? Proxy servers, especially if shared by a large number of people, can considerably slow down your connection. If you're behind a proxy find out who manages it and ask if they can speed it up.

Secondly, firewalls can slow a connection down, but its pretty rare. Make sure you're firewall isn't doing it by turning it off for a few seconds and visiting a page (or posting a reply in this case). If it speeds up considerably then you need to tweak your firewall settings, or get a new firewall software package.

Finally, is the connection being shared? Sharing a dial-up connection really slows it down, to the point of it being almost unusable. Make sure you've got nothing like a virus or trojan happily sending spam emails off 24-7. They will eat up your connection like there's no tomorrow. Try running an anti-virus scan - there are plenty of free anti-virus software downloads available, just search the forums here and you'll find reviews and links to them.