re: internet has become slow and sluggish

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Hi Everyone;

       We have run Spybot and Mcafee Anti-Virus programs.  Even though there were not any viruses detected, there was spyware detected and cleaned from the system.  Unfortunately, the internet is still sluggish with 56K equivalent downloads despite of the computer having cable connection through the wireless router.  This situation has been going on now for about 3 weeks.  Is there a way of "restoring" the system back to a time frame when the internet had peek performance?  For instance, I noticed within Windows XP at Menu Select Bootup, there was an option to Restore Windows Back To An Original State or something along those lines.  

       Any more suggestions will certainly be appreciated.  

       Thank you

       George

Have you download and installed the latest Microsoft Security patches? There was one specifically to deal with the MSBLAST virus. Go to windowsupdate.microsoft.com and get all the Critical Updates.

One thing to test, try pinging a website that you KNOW has ping enabled to see if you are getting any packet loss.

for example, "ping www.whateverdomain.com"

See what the packet loss, if any is. If there is, it may be either your connection to your LAN or the internet. Then ping the router, see if you get packet loss... the router should have an IP address similar to: 192.168.0.1 or something like that, depending on what router brand you have. This is just the beginning of a long method to narrow down the problem.

Let us know the outcome.

go here, it has loads of optimisation tips:
http://speedguide.net

Hope that helps,
Liam

Hi Everyone:

       I thought I would take a moment and provide a followup of the status of the sluggish internet performance.  I got the IP address of the router and pinged to it.  After reviewing the summary of the ping, there was not any data packets lost.  However, when I looked at the information provided by Microsoft Broadband Utility Software, it did indicate a data packet loss.  With these two different things contradicting one another, I am not sure which of the two to go by.  Should the data packets sent always equal the data packets received?  Just curious on that part.  

       Now, I have not pinged to a website on the internet because I do not know the IP address of any websites which allows pinging.  Could someone provide an IP address of a reliable site which can be pinged?  
If I get lost data packets from pinging the internet and not the router, what exactly would that indicate?  
A problem with the internet connection and not the router?

       In conclusion, I am interested in reading more feedback on this post.  As everyone can tell, I still have many sub-questions to this post.  

       Thanks again to everyone for providing feedback.  I certainly welcome more comments.

       George

Try pinging 198.6.1.2
Ping using increasingly larger packet size.
If using a PC, use the minus L flag. Basic ping is only 32 bytes. Increase the size and note if the time increases. You can see here that it does increase some (but I'm behind a huge T3 connection) - from 35 ms average to 50ms average:

C:\>ping -l 64 198.6.1.2

Pinging 198.6.1.2 with 64 bytes of data:

Reply from 198.6.1.2: bytes=64 time=31ms TTL=243
Reply from 198.6.1.2: bytes=64 time=31ms TTL=243
Reply from 198.6.1.2: bytes=64 time=31ms TTL=243
Reply from 198.6.1.2: bytes=64 time=47ms TTL=243

Ping statistics for 198.6.1.2:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 31ms, Maximum =  47ms, Average =  35ms

C:\>ping -l 1000 198.6.1.2

Pinging 198.6.1.2 with 1000 bytes of data:

Reply from 198.6.1.2: bytes=1000 time=47ms TTL=243
Reply from 198.6.1.2: bytes=1000 time=32ms TTL=243
Reply from 198.6.1.2: bytes=1000 time=31ms TTL=243
Reply from 198.6.1.2: bytes=1000 time=47ms TTL=243

Ping statistics for 198.6.1.2:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 31ms, Maximum =  47ms, Average =  39ms

C:\>ping -l 1500 198.6.1.2

Pinging 198.6.1.2 with 1500 bytes of data:

Reply from 198.6.1.2: bytes=1500 time=46ms TTL=243
Reply from 198.6.1.2: bytes=1500 time=46ms TTL=243
Reply from 198.6.1.2: bytes=1500 time=62ms TTL=243
Reply from 198.6.1.2: bytes=1500 time=46ms TTL=243

Ping statistics for 198.6.1.2:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 46ms, Maximum =  62ms, Average =  50ms

You can also use the "do not fragment" flag to see if it breaks anywhere. You can see here that it breaks down between 1450 and 1500 bytes..

C:\>ping -l 1500 198.6.1.2 -f

Pinging 198.6.1.2 with 1500 bytes of data:

Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set.
Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set.
Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set.
Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set.

Ping statistics for 198.6.1.2:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 0ms, Maximum =  0ms, Average =  0ms
C:\>ping -l 1450 198.6.1.2 -f

Pinging 198.6.1.2 with 1450 bytes of data:

Reply from 198.6.1.2: bytes=1450 time=47ms TTL=243
Reply from 198.6.1.2: bytes=1450 time=31ms TTL=243
Reply from 198.6.1.2: bytes=1450 time=32ms TTL=243
Reply from 198.6.1.2: bytes=1450 time=31ms TTL=243

Ping statistics for 198.6.1.2:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 31ms, Maximum =  47ms, Average =  35ms

Ping www.bbc.co.uk
This site allows pings.

You might want to play around with some of the registry values such as the MTU and similar values as they might be restricting the rate of your download, take a look at:

http://www.speedguide.net

for more information.

Liam

What OS is this ?

If XP then
HOW TO: Restore the Operating System to a Previous State in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q306084

Also, I would install a firewall ( free from zonelabs.com ) to see if there is anything unusual running on the network, and also get the latest drivers.

Does this happen when he is both Wireless or wired ?

Have you tried to get the newest drivers for everything ?

How about disabling the wireless connection as a test.

I hope this helps !

Hi,

      Let me give these suggestions a try and post the results.

      Thanks again everybody

      George

Hi Everyone:

      By the way, how is the IP address of a website determined?  I am interested in knowing for the purpose of pinging.

      Thank you

      George

Websites are provided IP addresses by the hosting provider, something out of your control, unless you run your own server and host your own site.

As for the issue of finding out the IP address.... just open a command window and type: nslookup www.domain.com and you'll get the IP address reported to the domain. Or do a whois search at www.samspade.org, where you have plenty of other tools as well.

Have you tried changing your dns servers? You could be experiencing dns timeouts...

Hi,

      With respect to changing the DNS servers, how exactly could I do that?

      Thanks

      George

In TCP/IP properties of Local Area Connection.
Look for dns tab, and what servers are there. If any, remove them and add 198.6.1.3

Or, does he get IP address via DHCP? whatever is giving him the DHCP address could be handing the wrong DNS server IP.
Try setting it regardless, to 198.6.1.3  well-known UUNET cache nameserver always available

Hi,

      Regarding the last post, I am not sure I understand the network concepts of SSID and BSSID.  Could some clarification be given to these terms?

      Thank you

      George

Sorry,

SSID = Network Name of a wireless network
BSSID = the MAC address of the wireless interface

So you can disable the broadcast of the Network Name but usually the MAC address will still show up.  

Hi Everyone:

      I greatly appreciate everyone's feedback.  Basically, I fixed the slow, sluggish internet performance (slow loading of pages and slow download speeds) by deleting the extra entries within My Network Places.  There were two extra computer names which did not belong there and apparently offsetting the bandwidth.  It is almost like these extra computer names once existed, but, the user forgot to go back and delete them when assigning new computer names.  

      With regards to the appropriate reward of points, I will let everyone review their responses and compare it to the mechanics of how I fixed the problem.  
I prefer to handle this situation this way as an act of fairness.  Personally, I prefer to split the points to all of you who responded to this post.  In any case, I would like for everyone to let me know what they are comfortable with regarding this matter.

      Thank you.

      George

Check this link , it worked for me.
http://download.com.com/3000-2086-10224281.html?part=61683&subj=dlpage&tag=button

Don't tell me your in a Verizon network... I've had the same problem a few times. I just had to ride it out.