Windows 7 firewall slows internet

I have windows 7 and mostly the default settings for windows firewall.
Any internet application I run firefox (latest version), internet explorer 8,safari and even downloading files run EXTREMELY slow when the windows firewall is on and I try to browse the web.
If I turn windows firewall off they run as I would expect them too.
I have allowed firefox, safarai and internet explorer through the firewall for all profiles
(Public, private, and domain)
I also opened ports 80 and 443 on outbound connection for all profiles.
All those rules are enabled, and set for tcp and udp. Not even sure if I need udp but I digress.
Any ideas what else I may need to change??

Thanks

reset to default, your 'opened' ports are default settings, so it sounds like you made changes to port rules.

well actually it's my sister pc so who know what she did only going by what she told me.
To reset to default do I just do use recommended settings, or is there some other way to reset to default?
Thanks

I tried resetting to default still same things. SLOOWWW internet. It's Fine without windows firewall. My friend had this issue before he told me he just disabled windows firewall and used a free firewall instead. I would prefer to use windows firewall If I could get it internet explorer to work right...

You could also be using a proxy... would check to ensure you are not.

Internet options / Connections tab / LAN Settings towards the bottom.

Check to make sure your proxy settings are not checked.

proxy settings are clear...

what kind of files are you downloading? What antivirus are you running?


Have you removed the custom rules you created for the 80 and 443 ports?

Norton antivirus, not sure how that is relevent since if i disable the windows firewall everything is fine. Doesn't matter what file it is exe, zip etc they all take forever a 5 meg file took 20 minutes!! If I disable the firewall it all works great..

Maybe Norton isn't playing well with the WF. Try disabling its realtime protection temporarily, and the download a known safe file and see what goes.