Question

re: internet has become slow and sluggish

Asked by: GMartin

Hi Everyone:

       I am trying to help a friend of mine who connects to cable modem through a wireless base station or router who is experiencing very slow internet performance.  In fact, the loading of web pages and downloading of files is almost equivalent to the old 56K connection.

       Is there anything he can do to increase his internet performance?  

       Thank you.

       George

This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

  • Plus...
  • 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
  • Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
  • Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
  • Never be left without tech help again

Subscribe Now

Asked On
2003-09-05 at 21:06:34ID20730737
Tags

slow

,

become

,

internet

,

sluggish

Topic

Broadband Internet

Participating Experts
8
Points
500
Comments
24

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

  • "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
  • "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
  • "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.

Screenshot of an Article

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Access the answers to your technology questions today.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

image of each brand's logo

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Experts Exchange Logo

Try it out and discover for yourself.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

Related Solutions

  1. Sluggish operation while on the net
    I have a p4 1.6 GHz, 845 chipset, 128 MB SDRAM, Motorola SM56 PCI speakerphone modem, NVIDIA Riva TNT2 M64 32 MB Graphics card. Windows 98SE based machine. My problem is that whenever I connect to the net my system becomes sluggish. This is especially noticible when I scroll ...
  2. Airport base station & Netgear wireless router
    I have both an Apple Airport base station and a Netgear wireless router. The Airport is directly connected to the Netgear router, which connects to a cable modem. If I connect to the Airport wirelesssly, which device should issue an IP address via DHCP? Removing the airp...
  3. Should I configure Base Station (Wireless Router) As A B…
    Hi Everyone: For about two weeks now, I have been experiencing dial-up speeds across a DSL connection. After numerous contacts with Bellsouth and many open post at EE, I am still in the process of trying to get this issue resolved. A Bellsouth representative mentio...
  4. G5 as wireless adsl modem
    Hi, Can I use my G5 as wireless adsl modem? mean that my dell notebook will connect to apple for internet access..

Free Tech Articles

  1. WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
    It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
  2. SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
    SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
  3. Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
    This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
  4. Create a Win7 Gadget
    This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
  5. Outlook continually prompting for username and password
    There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
  6. Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
    There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...

Cloud Class Webinars

  1. Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
    Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
  2. Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
    Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
  3. IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
    Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
  4. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
    Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
  5. Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
    Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
  6. How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
    Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.

Join the Community

Answers

 

by: drev001Posted on 2003-09-07 at 08:30:33ID: 9304998

This will scan for the latest viruses:

http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/

Read Instructions

 

by: GMartinPosted on 2003-09-07 at 15:07:10ID: 9306207

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

 

by: drev001Posted on 2003-09-07 at 16:03:06ID: 9306360

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.

 

by: mkachurakPosted on 2003-09-08 at 05:33:46ID: 9308998

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.

 

by: Liam2k3Posted on 2003-09-08 at 08:00:43ID: 9309956

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

Hope that helps,
Liam

 

by: GMartinPosted on 2003-09-08 at 10:49:37ID: 9310854

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

 

by: lrmoorePosted on 2003-09-08 at 11:33:59ID: 9311078

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

 

by: drev001Posted on 2003-09-08 at 11:36:12ID: 9311096

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

 

by: Liam2k3Posted on 2003-09-08 at 11:45:17ID: 9311171

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

 

by: SysExpertPosted on 2003-09-09 at 13:22:19ID: 9323869

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 !

 

by: GMartinPosted on 2003-09-09 at 20:32:27ID: 9325887

Hi,

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

      Thanks again everybody

      George

 

by: GMartinPosted on 2003-09-09 at 20:36:47ID: 9325906

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

 

by: mkachurakPosted on 2003-09-10 at 04:02:10ID: 9327759

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.

 

by: lrmoorePosted on 2003-09-10 at 19:14:55ID: 9333782

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

 

by: GMartinPosted on 2003-09-10 at 21:54:15ID: 9334372

Hi,

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

      Thanks

      George

 

by: lrmoorePosted on 2003-09-10 at 22:01:44ID: 9334399

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

 

by: spark99Posted on 2003-09-11 at 09:10:20ID: 9338079

If he is not experiencing a problem when "wired" then I would try changing channels on the base station/ router.  There could be some form of interference on the channel it is currently set to.

If the problem persists when wired then its possible someone else is "piggybacking" off the wireless network and sucking up all the bandwidth.  To stop this require MAC authentication in your IP table for your respective wireless device.  Also change it from an open wireless system to a closed wireless system.  This will disable the broadcast of the SSID but unfortunately not the BSSID.  A change to the SSID would not hurt either.

 

by: GMartinPosted on 2003-09-11 at 22:30:17ID: 9342359

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

 

by: spark99Posted on 2003-09-12 at 06:22:41ID: 9345636

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.  

 

by: GMartinPosted on 2003-09-12 at 23:05:04ID: 9350901

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

 

by: koquitoPosted on 2003-09-22 at 09:24:37ID: 9406848

 

by: lind4everPosted on 2003-09-26 at 10:59:40ID: 9438291

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.

 

by: GMartinPosted on 2003-09-26 at 20:24:37ID: 9440895

Hi Everyone:

       The problem is fixed.  Basically, there were some extra computer names within Network Neighborhood which were unnecessary and apparently sucking up bandwidth.  Once I deleted the extra, unnecessary computer names, the internet performance became outstanding once again with respect to loading of pages and downloads.  I confirmed my fast internet performace at this great site
http://us.mcafee.com/root/genericURL_genericLeftNav.asp?genericURL=/root/speedometer/test_0600.asp&genericLeftNav=/en-us/wrapper/catalog_nav.asp.  

      Thanks again everyone for the wonderful and prompt feedback.

      George

20120131-EE-VQP-002

3 Ways to Join

30-Day Free Trial

The Experts

98% positive feedback on 31,087 answers since March 2000. angeliii is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his work with MS SQL Server & Develoment.

He has also proven his knowledge of Visual Basic Programming, PHP Scripting and Oracle Databases.

The Experts

97% positive feedback on 10,752 answers since July 2000. lrmoore has more than 18 years experience in the networking industry.

The six-time Mircosoft MVPs specialties include firewalls, virtual private networking, and network management.

Testimonials

"...and excellent source for support... Kind of like having your very own IT dept." Electriciansnet

Testimonials

"I was apprehensive at signing up at first. However... it has already made my life as an IT administrator much easier." JaCrews

Testimonials

"WOW! You guys have great, active, and knowledgeable people on here." moore50

Business Clients

Business Clients

In the Press

"If you’ve got a question... Experts Exchange can supply an answer.”

In the Press

"...an invaluable aid for both IT professionals and those who require tech support."

In the Press

"where IT professionals provide quick answers on just about any topic"

Business Account Plans

Loading Advertisement...