There are basically 5 reasons why CF would run slow.

Either A) You have a very, very low end machine or a high end machine that is clogged with virii and spyware. This is possible, albeit, unlikely. It takes VERY little power to run telnet/mud clients extremely fast. I mean, we're talking about a technology that ran fast in the late 80's, let alone now.

B) CF could be running slow. This isn't the case, most of us can connect and play without any noticable delays.

C) You have a very very slow connection. This is likewise unlikely, since even dial-up should play CF relatively quickly. Unless you're on dial-up from like, Austrailia/Europe/Asia, you should be able to play CF just fine. Broadband is overkill for telnet.

D) There is latency in a server between yourself and CF. This is most likely. There's really nothing you can do about this besides changing to a new ISP.

E) Your network is misconfigured. This could also happen, but is probably not likely unless you're at work or have multi-router/multi-switch setup at home.

My recommendation is to try it from someone else's house who has a different ISP, using your computer, and see if that helps. If that's the case, its D. If it still runs slow, its probably A, in which case you should have a tech-savvy friend reinstall Windows and clean off the junk.