[deanhills]

So previously the same Website (below) used to load very fast with VPS 9 - Virmach.  Am I right in thinking this could have something to do with the connection upload speed, as Virmach upload speed is 1 Gbps  whereas with VPS 15 Hostlease it is 100 Mbps.
http://dhwebs.net

If one checks the Hostlease Website it has the same pause before it loads:
https://www.hostlease.com/

Compared with other Websites I work with, they also appear instantly (most of the time) compared with VPS 15 Website that has that slight pause before it loads.  

That slight pause before the Website loads is not that bad, but I'm just wondering from a technical point of view, what is it that effects the loading of the same Website to be different from one VPS to another?

[Manal]

I too have experienced slight load before visiting their website. After months of investigation(I have a plan with them), I found out that their firewall actually delays the connection and checks the IP reputation before passing the visitor to the website. I had one of my IP(from range which was dynamic) blacklisted in several black listing services(due to previous owners of the IP) and it took me around 10-15 seconds to load the website while it loads faster with vps and VPN services. Whitelisted or non listed IPs doesn't face the issues.

[deanhills]

I too have experienced slight load before visiting their website. After months of investigation(I have a plan with them), I found out that their firewall actually delays the connection and checks the IP reputation before passing the visitor to the website. I had one of my IP(from range which was dynamic) blacklisted in several black listing services(due to previous owners of the IP) and it took me around 10-15 seconds to load the website while it loads faster with vps and VPN services. Whitelisted or non listed IPs doesn't face the issues.

Thanks @Manal. This makes perfect sense. Like the equivalent of IPs that browsers identify as "unsafe". If the IPs are regarded as safe the Website comes up immediately. Otherwise they have to be verified according to their rules.