Takes forever to load any topic and downloads index.php

[deliciouspoison]

I'm pretty sure I'm not retarded but it may turn out to be that I am.

Here's what's happening:

I have an SMF board ( 1.0.8 ) implemented.  Whenever I click on a link to a topic in the "recent posts" section the page never loads and instead (after several minues) I am prompted to download "index.php".  I do not believe it's a browser issue - I have used Firefox 1.5.0.6, IE6, Safari, and Camino.  Each exihibits the same behavior.

In an attempt to fix it, I backed up the database and loaded it on a new server.  I am experiencing the same issues.

Here's the server info:
Apache 1.3
PHP 4.3.11
Tomcat (Java) 5.0.27
CGI / Perl 5.8
Python 2.2
Frontpage 5.0.2.5012

For example when I click on a link such as this:
"hxxp:www.braxtanfilm.com/smf/index.php?topic=2618.from1157641999;topicseen#msg36785 [nonactive]" it takes 2 minutes or so before it finally (I assume) times out and loads "index.php".

But when I navigate to the topic manually like this:
"hxxp:www.braxtanfilm.com/smf/index.php?topic=2618.0 [nonactive]" it doesn't screw up.

After moving the database I experience the same issues.  Does anybody have any suggestions?

EDIT (9/7/06):  Links restored for troubleshooting purposes.

[Fizzy]

A link would really help to see what's going on.

[deliciouspoison]

Links have been restored.

[Fizzy]

Check the animated avatars.

350kb between just two avatars will have that effect. The page waits for the avatars to load which causes the slow-down.

[deliciouspoison]

Eek.  Talk about blocking!  In order to check the size of an image (width and height) the image probably has to be buffered.  Waiting for each image to be buffered caused the connection to timeout.  By removing the check on avatar size the overhead is reduced.

The other solution could also be to eliminate avatars.

Does that sound right?

[Fizzy]

That sounds good to me