Slow Internet Connection . . .

[bayview]

   Have any of you been experiencing a slow Internet connection. . .   Especially on Sunday?  I have waited over 30 seconds for a page to load, or sometimes it won't load at all. . .

   I downloaded and ran Microsoft Security Essentials.  It did find a Trojan - Win32-Alureon.  It was able to remove the virus.  I then downloaded Malwarebytes.  It did find some web search type programs.  Quarantined them.  I didn't stop there . . .    Downloaded Glary Utilities.  It cleaned up my registry.

   The computer seems to be running fine . . .   Just the slow Internet connection.  Besides IE 8 I have tried Firefox and Google Chrome.  They are all slow connecting.

   I did try to "adjust" IE 8, without any luck.  Adding and removing "Add-ons", setting advance tools, adjusting pop-ups, the compatibility, resetting and removing temporary internet files.  Went through the complete IE 8 reset.  I ran msconfig to add/remove startup programs.  Reset the "winsock".

   The Windows Security Center is complete with the Firewall "on".  User Account Control is "on".

   It seems like I have tried everything.  I wish I had my older computer on location, so I could find if it is computer or internet related.  But !!!

   Maybe my Verizon DSL line is just having problems.  I have been getting a lot of Verizon Fios ads in the mail. . .   They have been very aggressive.  Representatives have been to my door about once a week.  Surely this is just a coincidence.



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[RainDog]

Downloading torrents? Some ISPs throttle that traffic.

[muldoon]

It very well could be slow DNS.  It's a common problem that affects many people.  One alternative is to switch to other DNS servers instead of the ones your ISP is pointing you to. 

Here is a guy with a verizon problem as well and how it fixed it
http://pl.atyp.us/wordpress/?p=1141

some other posts that may help you
http://www.liewcf.com/archives/2006/08/opendns-replacement-for-slow-isp-dns-servers/

http://www.opendns.com/start/

[glenn kangiser]

Our ISP is often slow also

[RainDog]

Local Internet congestion can also result in slower-than-normal connection speeds.

[bayview]

  Five days in a row with a bad connection. . . I called Verizon DSL (out sourced to the Philippines) last night - they will "monitor" the problem . . .

  Here is a couple of sites I found interesting.

speedtest.net    and     pingtest.net

   I received a "F" from pingtest . . .


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[glenn kangiser]

I got a "B"

[fishing_guy]

I aced the test   I love broadband!

[MountainDon]

I ran pingtest four times this morning;  F,  A,  A,  A

[OkieJohn2]

I just ran pingtest and got a B+, not bad for my towns free wifi.
Some of you may also be interested in tracert, google it for more info

[John Raabe]

I was having slow and dropped DSL service over the last few days. Called the phone line service number (here 611) and they sent someone out to do line checks. They found a bad connection about a mile down the line (where my copper line hits fiber cable). They replaced that and things have improved with no drop outs.

Here is the speedtest I was using: http://speedtest.net/

I would get speeds all over the map when the line was bad. Now I get about 13+ mb/sec. This is about the best I can do on these little old copper wires.

[Redoverfarm]

I am not sure this is good or not but

647 kbps Down
159 kbps Up

That is with   http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/

I too have copper for about the last 5 miles.  With that distance I think they turn the speed down so I do not have problems with error's.

[MountainDon]

I am not sure this is good or not but

It depends what you are paying for.  

I had 1436 kbps down and that was very good as we're paying for 1500 down.

Over the years we've had DSL I've had problems with dropping from time to time. A service request always fixed it. Last summer though we had an episode that ticked me off. Service virtually disappeared, it was virtually impossible to get or maintain a connection. After troubleshooting the repair guy told me there was nothing he could do without a service upgrade.

At that time we were still on the base, lowest speed DSL choice. It was still loads faster than a dial up and I was happy enough.  I was told that with the change to a fiber optic system, plus more of my neighbors selecting higher speed services, the signal strength for me was too low to work. The solution was for us to opt in to the fiber optics. The downside was I could not use my old ISP; I'd have to change to Qwest.

Talking to the ISP revealed that was correct. The big phone company had decided they could not lease the fiber optics to third party ISP's. So I had almost no choice. We did not want cable. We had to change modems. Qwest was actually good about that part and gave me a free one. I owned the old one; it was not a phone company lease.The only bright spot was we could retain our old email addresses, which we'd had for 10+ years. We pay the old ISP $5 for our email and Qwest discounts our bill by $5. I still think the whole thing stinks, but we do have a nice clear and fast DSL signal.

I must also ad that the Qwest service guy (on the phone) was really great. The situation seemed to matter to him and he followed up on everything. I sent his supervisor an email kudo for him.

[Redoverfarm]

Don where I am at I am just happy to get what I have after using Dial-up for a couple years prior.  When I got the DSL it was iffy that I would have it because of the distance using copper.  I did notice that when I am in town at a friends that his is alot faster than mine.  Oh Well.

[bayview]

   I was getting "F"s this morning with the ping test . . . I got home from work about 4 today.  Now getting "A"s . . .

   Obviously Verizon has done something without coming out to my home.  Whatever it was, web pages are "snapping" open.  Generally less than 1 or 2 seconds.  I was previously waiting up to 30 seconds . . . If it would open at all.

   Well now I can access my favorite web site . . . Bet you can't guess which one!

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[glenn kangiser]

We are not real dial up friendly, eh, Bayview.....

[bayview]

We are not real dial up friendly, eh, Bayview.....

   That was exactly the problem Glenn . . . I have a DSL line that was operating at the speed of dialup.

   I am now back to normal . . .   With my DSL line I mean! 

   I think that my computer is now accessing a different server.  Seems that my ip address is different.


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