Slow sites in IE? Check the Phishing filter

I’ve had an issue with slow access to our mailing list server software for a while.  I don’t remember when it started, but it has been excruciatingly slow to access.  So, if there were problems with someone’s account on the mailing lists, or management needed to be performed on the delivery queue, it was something that could take the better part of an hour to resolve.

Yesterday, like a bolt from the blue, I finally realized that the Phishing filter in IE was causing the slowness.  Why?  Well, an error message indicated that Microsoft’s site for verifying valid sites was down.  So, I couldn’t access the mailing list software at all.

I turned off the Phishing filter and all was good.  In fact, it was even better than good — it was great!  Access to and the speed of the mailing list software was almost instantaneous.  It makes you wonder if the servers Microsoft uses for validation of Phishing sites is adequate.  If that was causing the slowness for me, and there are hundreds of thousands of people all using the same infrastructure at Microsoft, its no wonder that the Phishing technology in IE is so slow.

I don’t recommend turning off the Phishing mechanism.  But, if you trust a site and it seems extremely slow to access, try turning Phishing checking off for that instance.  I’m sure the speed will improve.