crappy internet

hiya,
ok so heres the problem my internet is ok however when i click on a link and it goes to another web page the page does not come up and it remains a blank page with nothin on, there is nothin in the tool bar a white screen and no loading down the bottom. No matter how different links i try which come up into another window none of them load. Someone please help me with this situation because it means i cant get the full use out of the internet.
Also i have a cable modem running 512kb/s from telewest blueyonder. The download times are fine sometimes i get like 70kb/s average which is good. However when im goin through web pages just general stuff like yahoo search engine it may take ages to load i mean ok a few times this is acceptable because it gets busy but not all the time it is as if it is a 56kb modem, also when i play online games which is one of the reasons i got cable modem, the ping time is 1000 it used to be like 200 to 300 which was good but i dont know what happened but it has now gone to 1000 on whatever server or time of day.
Thanks for any help you can give me also i am runnin on windows 98.

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