intenet browser

Help is needed:

Simple question to ask:
I stay in Canada for a short while. I used the LAN cable. the lap top confirms that the connection to network is established. However, when I run the IE 6.0, it is detecting the proxy settings for long long time and no response since. Sometimes I was lucky to go through and the IE is working properly but extremely slow. May I know what is the possible reason and how to rectify?

Thanks indeed.