Safari 16.6 very slow to load pages on Mac OS Ventura

I resolved this issue, which many others have posted about, but all the posts are too old to permit further replies. I am sharing the solution here, in case others have tried everything else. It seems specific to Virgin Media's broadband service.

Safari started taking a very long time to load web pages (e.g. 45 seconds to load the Google search page). I tried all the troubleshooting steps suggested in posts here and in Apple Support articles and spent about three hours working with Apple Support, but nothing worked. We finally discovered, by switching from Wi-Fi to a mobile personal hot spot, that the problem was with my network. I had recently upgraded my broadband service with Virgin Media, which was very fast for Safari on my phone and iPad, but very slow on my Mac.

THE SOLUTION was to go to System Settings | Network | Wi-Fi | Details | Proxies and switch OFF "Auto proxy discovery".

I found this solution on a Virgin Media Communities post. Apparently, "Auto proxy discovery" on Virgin Media's network wreaks havoc with Safari on a Mac. It causes no issue with Chrome or other browsers, nor with other broadband providers. The senior Apple Support technician said it is not the default for that setting to be turned on, and it's no problem to turn it off. It fixed the problem, and now web pages load instantly in Safari.