My internet is running slower than hell...

scorpionldr · #1 09-13-2010, 10:19 AM

Does anyone have a clue how to speed up internet on computers? It seems like mine is running really slow lately, I've run both Spybot and CCleaner and neither seem to affect it.

L-A · #2 09-13-2010, 11:34 AM

If it's just Internet, it's either your hardware or your ISP.

**baba** · #3 09-13-2010, 11:38 AM

It could also be the browser. Firefox is a resource hog and completely bogs my computer down after two or three tabs are open.

scorpionldr · #4 09-13-2010, 11:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by baba

It could also be the browser. Firefox is a resource hog and completely bogs my computer down after two or three tabs are open.

I usually have around 8 open. But thats just me.

**baba** · #5 09-13-2010, 11:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scorpionldr

I usually have around 8 open. But thats just me.

This could be your problem. I hear the open source version of Google Chrome called Iron runs lean and fast.

MakiSupaStar · #6 09-13-2010, 11:54 AM

Stop looking at porn.

**jmattbassplaya** · #7 09-13-2010, 12:21 PM

If you're on Facebook be sure to turn off chat. I can run about 8 tabs at once on Firefox with no issues at all unless FB chat is open - then I have trouble with anything more than 2 tab.

Strat-Mangler · #8 09-13-2010, 12:23 PM

That's like saying "My arm hurts."

We need a *lot* more info than that.

- Are you on wireless or wired?
- Is it DSL or cable?
- If it's DSL, verify your cabling (such as your phone cable needing to be a max length of 10 ft)
- Is it every website or just some?
- Are you using things Peer-to-Peer applications like BitTorrent while experiencing the slowdowns?
- Have you performed ping tests?
- On and on, and on, and on...

Troubleshooting is what I do for a living. At some point, I even worked for an ISP. There are dozens of factors that could slow your Internet connection down. Spyware is but one of many many many possibilities.

scorpionldr · #9 09-13-2010, 12:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by baba

This could be your problem. I hear the open source version of Google Chrome called Iron runs lean and fast.

Something about the concept of Google making a browser just gives me chills.

stratovani · #10 09-13-2010, 12:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmattbassplaya

If you're on Facebook be sure to turn off chat. I can run about 8 tabs at once on Firefox with no issues at all unless FB chat is open - then I have trouble with anything more than 2 tab.

How do you turn off or otherwise get rid of FB chat? I've looked everywhere, and I can't figure it out!

LowDown Hal · #11 09-13-2010, 12:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmattbassplaya

If you're on Facebook be sure to turn off chat. I can run about 8 tabs at once on Firefox with no issues at all unless FB chat is open - then I have trouble with anything more than 2 tab.

How do you disable CHAT on FB ?

scorpionldr · #12 09-13-2010, 12:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Strat-Mangler

That's like saying "My arm hurts."

We need a *lot* more info than that.

- Are you on wireless or wired?
- Is it DSL or cable?
- If it's DSL, verify your cabling (such as your phone cable needing to be a max length of 10 ft)
- Is it every website or just some?
- Are you using things Peer-to-Peer applications like BitTorrent while experiencing the slowdowns?
- Have you performed ping tests?
- On and on, and on, and on...

Troubleshooting is what I do for a living. At some point, I even worked for an ISP. There are dozens of factors that could slow your Internet connection down. Spyware is but one of many many many possibilities.

Wireless is in use, the router always seems to tell me that the connection between us is great.

It's cable, its a few websites....my mail, talkbass, youtube, etc. I almost never do torrenting as I prettymuch gave that up (with exceptions). I stay off gaming websites (as they take up a lot of bandwidth)

Ping test? where do I find it?

All of our computers (with the exception of my father's, he's on windows 7) are running xp. I think windows 7 dominates things a little bit, but its never been like this (as in within the past 6 months).

Any time i ever experienced slowdown its been a simple case of spybotting and Ccleaning.....
Oh, and for a while we had net problems (cuz we don't live in a great area for net) but we had a signal amplifier put in.

I do keep the chat on, but it doesn't really affect anything. Now if I kick in a game or something like Frontierville or Farmville, we're asking for trouble...

L-A · #13 09-13-2010, 12:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scorpionldr

Oh, and for a while we had net problems (cuz we don't live in a great area for net) but we had a signal amplifier put in.

Do you mean network problems, and a WIFI amplifier?

Agito · #14 09-13-2010, 12:48 PM

The government be stealin' ur bandwidthz

scorpionldr · #15 09-13-2010, 12:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by L-A

Do you mean network problems, and a WIFI amplifier?

No I mean the actual cable modem would have problems holding a signal. basically you have to run a line from the house into an adapter (think for pedals, etc) that has a co-axial port, and then run the modem into that, and its supposed to boost the signal to make it clear enough to be broadcasted. over the period of 6 months since we went to cablevsion we had problems with the tv's signal (it was skipping a lot, kind of like a cd does), and we fixed that, but neglected to fix the computer modem. So now we have signal amplifier adapters on both of those

Mazatleco17 · #16 09-13-2010, 12:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MakiSupaStar

Stop looking at porn.

Then what's the point of internet? Besides TB of course

macaroni tony · #17 09-13-2010, 12:54 PM

should be pretty easy to catch it then...

scorpionldr · #18 09-13-2010, 12:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Agito

The government be stealin' ur bandwidthz

then your losing it too.

MJ5150 · #19 09-13-2010, 01:01 PM

Did you contact your ISP to find out if there are issues in your area? Any exposed cables that may be damp, wet, or chewed on by some rodents? Any kinks in your ethernet cable?

-Mike

Strat-Mangler · #20 09-13-2010, 01:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scorpionldr

Wireless is in use, the router always seems to tell me that the connection between us is great.

It's cable, its a few websites....my mail, talkbass, youtube, etc. I almost never do torrenting as I prettymuch gave that up (with exceptions). I stay off gaming websites (as they take up a lot of bandwidth)

Ping test? where do I find it?

All of our computers (with the exception of my father's, he's on windows 7) are running xp. I think windows 7 dominates things a little bit, but its never been like this (as in within the past 6 months).

Any time i ever experienced slowdown its been a simple case of spybotting and Ccleaning.....
Oh, and for a while we had net problems (cuz we don't live in a great area for net) but we had a signal amplifier put in.

I do keep the chat on, but it doesn't really affect anything. Now if I kick in a game or something like Frontierville or Farmville, we're asking for trouble...

What I gave you were a bunch of questions to start. To pinpoint & fix the issue, you'd need about a dozen more questions that'd point in any which way depending on what the answers are.

Plug in your PC and see if you can replicate the issue. If you can go to all of the websites and online functions that were previously causing you grief without a single issue, you've narrowed it down to it being caused by the fact that you're on wireless.

If that's the case, it could be anything that's using the same frequency range as your wireless router. For example, if you have a 2.4GHz wireless router, it could be, say, that cordless phone that you that happens to also work in that range. For that specific reason, wireless routers can work with multiple frequencies. So if a particular channel is resulting in interference (let's say you're currently on channel 5), switch it to channel 8 and see if that fixes the issue. Repeat the process in the other direction (and set it to channel 1, for instance) and see if you *still* have issues.

All of this is based on the assumption that plugging your PC into your router with an ethernet cord fixes the problem.

Otherwise, it's either your PC, your modem, your wireless router (maybe you even have those units that combine both modem & router), the outside wiring, the cable company node (in which case other people in your neighborhood would be experiencing the same issues), or a problem on their back-end.

A ping test is designed to measure how long it takes for your PC to say "hello" to another PC (or website that's being run on a PC) and for it to say "hi" back. So you could ping, say, www.abc.com and see how fast it replies back.

Here's how you do in XP : http://wiki.phoenixlabs.org/wiki/How..._IP_address%3F

If *specific* websites are causing problems, there might be a problem with routers that are routing the packets of data. To check that out, use the tracert command... much in the same way as a ping command. If you see a row of asterisks, that means that the data is not even reaching that particular routing point in which case you should take that info down. Depending on where it fails, it can either be your problem, the cable company's, or it can be out of everybody's hands if, for instance, some random router in another state/country is at fault... in which case, there's nothing you can do.