I had to install a 11g release 1 on Windows for demonstration purpose of APEX.
APEX comes standard with 11g, so that’s nice. When using Embedded PLSQL you don’t even need Apache…

But when I’m using http://localhost:8080/apex/apex_admin, the login-page popped up after a minute or two.And every page I use has the same horrible performance.  Using the loopback by the way like http://127.0.0.1:8080/apex/apex_admin on the server gives the same result.  Interesting too, also http://localhost:1158/em does not perform as I would expect.

Outside the server though, using the full computer-name , such as http://<host>.<domain>:8080/apex/apex_admin, it works like hell. Seemed that the cause was not in the Oracle-corner. Metalink gaves no solution or what so ever, another clue that this was not Oracle.

I was not able to install a Mozilla Firefox (firewalls etc.) or another browser on that server to investigate in simple wy  if the cause was indeed Internet Explorer (7.0.5730.11). But after a while, deep down in a forum, I found out that it was a setting in Internet Explorer on the server.
Tools –> Internet Options –> Advanced Tab –> http1.1 settings.  Uncomment the item ‘Use HTTP 1.1 through Proxy settings’.

Looks like this:

IE_http_setting

And it’s working normal again..

Seems like a riddle: it begins with an M, ends with icrosoft…