Solved: Is it OK to dicuss specific Internet servers?

The Internet speed is more determined by the speed at which you connect to the Internet rather than the speed of the computer.

For example, if you have a 1 Ghz computer and a 3 Ghz computer, the 3 Ghz is not going to be 3 times faster connecting to the Internet. In fact you likely won't see much difference. Any difference will be from things like how fast is loads IE. But the connection speed is the same.

The visuals only show your local LAN connection speed. Again a faster computer typically won't surf the Internet any faster than a slower one. It isn't generally dependent on your processor speed but your Internet connection speed. So if you have a cable connection to the Internet, that doesn't get any faster because you have a faster computer as you are experiencing.

Not sure of a way to disable it. Just don't use it. Use whatever different browser you want like Firefox or Opera.

Yes, if you click on a web site in an e-mail, the default web browser will start. This would be the same regardless of whether IE or Firefox were set as the default.

It doesn't so much disable it as misconfigure it so you can't access the Internet with it.

That would not solve the problem you described of IE opening when you click on a web site link in an e-mail. In fact it would make it worse since that web page wouldn't even open.

What is it you are going to demand from your ISP. They are simply providing your Internet access.

Actually this new information is helpful. All we knew about before was that your new computer was no faster than you old one regarding Internet access. Nothing until now about it dropping so regularly. That would be an entirely different problem altogether. And you are experiencing what is becoming an all to common problem with support, or lack of support, these days.

One reason for disconnecting the phones is to make sure they aren't causing interference on the DSL line. They should all have filters on them anyway. Also there should be a filter on a fax if you have it.