I'm a frequent reader, sometime poster -- the site is so slow lately (AARGH!) that I was forced to look for this forum...

I surf at work, on break or at lunchtime. I'm with a big corporation with a nice speedy network connection, IBM laptop with XP, and IE the only choice. Our sys admin is pretty strict, so options for any tech remedies are about zero here. My problem is that all FT pages are very slow-loading -- though the ads seem to have first priority to pop up. I understand that ads help to cover costs of this terrific forum, but they really should can the glitz.

FT used to be fine. Given all the posts to this thread, it seems I'm not alone in suspecting the Flash animations and bulky banners to be the issue. They are SOOOO annoying that I will resist their message. Even those dancing iPods.

I'm surprised that the tech department, who is understandably devoted to their Macs, does not also have a MS/IE setup around the shop for testing. Because no doubt, the ad agency that is creating these monsters is also using Mac. Help us please! It's so frustrating!