[CentOS] Internet problem

Hey folks !  
I am facing the following problems with internet on my acer aspire 2920 laptop running centos 5.2 ; whenever I launch mozilla firefox 3 beta 5 it takes at least one and a half hours just to load the homepage http://www.google.com/ig  which in my windows partition takes just under 1 second and also my internet connection is a speedy 256 kbps / up to 2 mbps on BSNL in india .... 
Does any one have any suggestions and / or solutions ?
Yours, 
KMB   


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