Troubleshooting slow web surfing

I work at a rural location with inherently slow DSL. While there I have windows 7 on a desktop and a laptop. On the laptop, within past couple weeks I've noticed that IE churns a bit before going to a website after I click on it. Since last night it's really bad, occasionally failing all together. An example would be this web site. I'll click on the forums tab and have issues.

I've installed blackberry software, including their Roxio media stuff. The free version of AVG is on it.

I've never dealt with internet issues beyond someone walking me through some settings once to make IE faster via cable/broadband. I see there are programs out there that will assist but who knows if they're legit or not. Any pointers on troubleshooting this would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Karl