Craft CMS site running slowly on WAMP local server

Working locally on a client's site, page loads were sometimes timing out. After editing php.ini, httpd.conf and even my hosts file, I tracked the problem down using Craft's log file:

******************************************************************************************************
2014/12/10 11:47:59 [warning] [application] The request to freegeoip.net failed: Server error response
[status code] 520
[reason phrase] Origin Error
[url] http://freegeoip.net/json/
******************************************************************************************************

Disabling the Smartmap plugin fixed the issue immediately.