Base Filtering Engine in Vista causing very slow DNS lookups and slow internet performance

Hi,

I just figured out the reason for my extremely slow DNS lookups. It is
Base Filtering Engine service in Vista. If I stop this service,
everything runs at blazing speed. As soon as I start it again, when I
try to go to a web site for the first time in that windows login
session, it takes about 10-20 seconds for the "Looking for www.somewhere.com"
message to disappear in Firefox, and after that, the page loading is
relatively slow, too, saying "transferring..".

Similar behavior, if I use IE.

I'm using ZoneAlert, and Windows Firewall is disabled. Also, I have
Spybot Search and Destroy and AVG Antivirus. Disabling these do not
change anything.

If I visit a web site that was visited before, during that windos
login session, I do not see the wait during "Looking for www...".

I have no clue what the problem is, or how to fix it, beyon this
point. Any help is appreciated.

Thank you.

gtforce@xxxxxx wrote: disabling a program is not the same as uninstalling it. try that next.
start with zonealarm. keep us posted.

I think, the culprit is my VPN connection. After I tried a number of
things, messing with my network settings, now (I don't know why now,
and it wasn't before) after I log into Windows, the first time I use
the browser, it asks if I need to connect to my VPN. I choose "Do not
ask again" and cancel, and everything works fine.

I don't really know what's the connection between VPN and Base
Filtering Engine service, but there seems to be a bug in Vista about
VPN, since I remember reading somewhere one other guy saying that he
had trouble with his internet connection, and turned out it was his
VPN, so he removed it. At least, I did not need to remove mine.

VPN should engage, when you ask it to connect, and should stay silent,
when it's disconnected. Clearly, for some reason only MS knows, that
is NOT the case in Vista. The VPN connection interferes with your
regular direct connection, even when it's disconnected, and this is
what is causing trouble. I hope MS will fix this in Vista SP1.

ok, this is driving me crazy. After I "thought" I solved the problem,
it came back. This time, I completely deleted my VPN connection, and
it made absolutely no difference.

I restart my computer, everything works for a random period of time
(max 2 hours or so), and after that, I start getting EXTREMELY slow
DNS lookups, my Firefox saying "Looking for [insert web address]".
Once it resolves the address, if I try that address again, it connects
without any wait.

When this problem starts happening, if I disable "Base Filtering
Engine" service, the connections become essentially instant.

I have no idea, why the computer works fine after a restart, and after
a random while, it starts having this problem. Anyone have any
suggestions about this delayed nature of the problem?

I also tried several DNSs, (my ISPs, a public one, and OpenDNS), and
that seems to make no difference, as expected.

Anyone else having this problem?

Thanks.