Last couple nights I was unable to go online when hopping onto my PC. I was either disconnected or "Limited Access" (which was like being disconnected). I have a router. I disconnect then reconnect and everything is fine.

Any idea as to why this is suddenly happening?

Also my provider (Comcast) is supposed to deliver 25 Mbps download speed, but I typically average around 12 Mbps. That's half of what they advertise. Is this standard?

Unrelated: Many times while using Firefox I click on a link and instead of going to that url it gives me "about:blank" then defaults to google.com (which is my default url). I click on the url several times and go through the whole "about:blank to google.com" a few times before it actually connects to the url I intend to go to. What's that all about? I have current version of Firefox.

1. Wired or wireless connection?
2. PC or Mac?
3. Firefox is an insecure browser, use chrome, edge, or safari.

The most common cause for this is that after connecting you are failing to get a valid IP address. There could be any number of reasons. Have you tried rebooting the router?

Yes and No. There are too many factors that could influence speed.

As Noodle said...
1. Wired or wireless connection?
2. PC or Mac?

Have you tried another browser? IE if Windows..

Wireless. PC


Chrome seems to work a lot better and does not present this particular problem. I've been using Firefox for about a decade, and 5 years on the PC I have currently. It has only recently given me this problem when clicking on links. Why now? Is it a Firefox issue or possibly something going on with my PC?

As stated above, it may be an IP issue.
Do you have DHCP activated and a static IP? If so and your DHCP pool is not properly configured, you might be using the same IP as another device that got it from the DHCP server. Check your network card configs in your PC and see if you're using a static IP. If so, check if it is on your router's DHCP pool.
If it is, remove it from the pool and you should be fine!

Probably hard to decide if it's Firefox or your computer. You could try a fresh install and see if that helps, but who knows if the Windows registry could hold on to some values causing the problem.

If a more secure browser like chrome doesn't have the problem, use the more secure browser.

As to your speed issues, you'd likely want to test at various points in the day as cable internet speeds are dependent on overall network loads.

If it's slow morning, noon, and night, then there could be issues. You'd likely want to check for packet loss, but if you're on wireless you could try a wired connection. Wifi routers, I've been told, can go bad over time and degrade in performance. Maybe a new one compatible with your wifi card could help. Also your wifi card type could be a limiting factor on speed.

Lots of variables here.