Hi there, ran into this problem a few times but don’t upgrade enough to remember exactly why it happens, so hopefully now this’ll show up on the openSuSE searches next time it happens. Technically this is a problem with name resolution of IPv6 addresses (AAAA records), but the request goes out on IPv4 to port 53. Turning off IPv6 WILL NOT fix this, this is a DNS server problem.
=== Begin pasted text to end-user friend so they can fix it themselves next time ====
The slow loads are caused by buggy Domain Name Service(DNS) software on the Linksys/Cisco Access Point(AP). DNS is like a phone book, it turns names into numbers, but we’re running out of numbers, and IPv6 fixes that. This is a Good Thing, but right now the buggy software responds quickly to the old “A” format queries, but not the newer IPv6 “AAAA” format, which eventually time out harmlessly but make you think the net is slow. The workaround is to manually enter the ISP’s DNS server address(es) in the YaST Network Settings | Hostnames tab. There are three slots, the hot-keys are <Alt-1>, <Alt-2>, and <Alt-3>, and since I’m doing this from memory that’s the best cross-check I can give you…
You can find the correct DNS server IP addresses (Remember, DNS is broken so we have to use numbers) by going to the DSL/Cable modem’s status page. On Linux you find this by opening a terminal window and typing “ip a”, which will give you your computer’s IP address. It will generally be 192.168.<sub-net>.<address>. On Windows 2000/XP you’d use IPCONFIG /ALL, but all the Windows installs are old enough to not speak IPv6 (or they may just have a workaround).
Open a browser and try the traditional Linksys/Cisco default address “http://192.168.<sub-net>.1” . Sometimes they use “http://192.168.<sub-net>.254”. Access the AP’s “Status” page, where you should find the IP address assigned by the modem, as well as a “Gateway” address, which should be the modem itself. Point the browser at the modem and dig around until you find a detailed status page listing the ISP’s name servers. There should be at least two of them. You can use up to three.
Copy and paste each DNS IP address into the YaST window, hit Ok, the network will restart, and you should get fast loads on all the commercial sites with a 1000 lookups per page.
Have a lot of fun!