This is weird! My internet connection is really really slow. Please Help!!!

dvdbunny

dvdbunny

dvdbunny

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20 Dec 2004
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Hey Guys,

For a few months now I have had a really slow internet connection. I have the Netgear RangeMax ADSL modem wireless Router model DG834PN. I have had it for several years now. I got three computers on my home network.

My main PC which is downstairs connected to my router. Then I have a laptop upstairs connecting wirelessly using it's built in wifi. The laptop has xp home with service pack 2. The pc has xp home with service pack 3. Both computers are completely clean. I was worried about the main computer but have today thoroughly scanned it and it shows to be clean. Then I have a mac in another room upstairs which is connecting via a devolo powerline wall plug. There is another devolo downstairs connecting to my router. I never really use the mac for anything. To be honest it's on the network but I never liked the mac interface as I am more a windows guy and to me it felt complicated. I have never once ran a virus scanner on this mac or bothered with any updates. I have used it only a few times in all these years. Had some office program installed on it. bought some ink, flight tickets, car insurance, car hire on the mac. So I have entered credit card details and yet have never deleted the temporary internet files or cache or anything like that. I really don't know how. Like I said I am more a windows person.

Anyway the room with the mac get's it's internet connection through the power circuitry of the house using these devolo devices. Now because of this. The mac never got the best connection speed as well as it's in a room on the far side of the house. I had to use these devolo devices as even though the mac has built in wifi the signal could not be picked up because of the thick walls and the fact that the mac is on the far side of the house. Whereas the laptop is upstairs on the same floor as the mac but close to a back stairs which is a short walk to the main computer where the router is. The speed over a year and half ago which is when I got the mac and devolo device was 3.5 megs. I felt this was the best it could do because the internet connection is coming through the powerline and it's on a very long mains circuitry. The house is old and was never updated where all the sockets would be on one circuitry. But luckily the main computer room is connected to the upstairs. Anyway so for years we were getting 3.5 megs up there. As my laptop was working on wifi and closer the speed was about 3.5 megs as well.

Now my laptop constantly stops streaming video news feeds. Get's so slow and it's not the computers they are all up to date and very fast and can playback 1080p video perfectly smoothly. These video streams are standard definition. The connection to the internet comes to a crawl. But the strangest thing is last week I did a test and thought it was a fluke but again today and the mac gave readings on different speed test sites of getting 6.2 megs, I ran it again and got 6.3 megs. Then again and got 5.3 megs then again and got 6 megs. This seems impossible. As the best it could do in all these years was 3.5 megs. Remember this is coming from the fact that the mac is connected via a devolo device. Last week the speed was 5.3 megs, 5.5 megs and then dropped to 4.5 megs only coming back again into the 5 meg range. Today I quickly rushed downstairs to my main computer and did a speed test and it was 2700 megs, then 3000 megs, then 3300 megs, then 1200 megs, then 1500 megs, and once again crappy 120kb/s then 20kb/s. I don't get it. I go back upstairs and 6 megs is the mac. My laptop internet speed is crap like on the main computer downstairs. The time I ran these test were 7pm and 12:30pm and last week 5pm.

I don't understand what could be wrong

I have an 8 meg connection but as I am about half mile from the exchange I get 7 megs. Best speed I ever got which was consistent for over a year was 820kb/s. This was through my main computer that's connected to my router.

Now for many months I only get between 20kb/s to 180kb/s. Most of the time it stays under 60kb/s. BT engineers have come to my house and have been down the exchange and everything is how it should be. They have speed tests and say my line should get 7meg downstream.

My laptop is just upstairs and used to be very quick on a wifi connection. I could stream and download quite quickly not as good as the incredibly quick connection I used to have on my main computer.

Please guys what is happening?

I feel is my neighbours piggy backing off my connection? So basically getting a free connection to the internet and stealing all my bandwidth?

Or is it possible some hacker has gained access into my home network through some remote software and managed to install something or just hack into my router and stop my main computers internet from functioning while he gets fast speeds into the mac while at the same time able to download anything from the mac?

Is this actually possible

This is really serious as my isp have said that there servers are fine and they are not doing any maintenance and said it must be a problem on my end.

I am paying far too much already for my 8 meg connection at about £45 per month and 6 months of crap speeds is just getting ridiculous. I know you can pay far cheaper for the same service elsewhere. But my office pays the first £30 of this connection each month so it's okay.

What can I do I really need to fix this problem as soon as possible.

I am very grateful for any help you could give me on this

Many many thanks in advance
 
Any chance you can basicaly sum up whats your situation and what the problem is in just a paragraph or two? I started reading through but after the first paragraph i decided not to bother as its too late to read something so long that is full of irrelevent stuff.
 
ok im never going to read all that....1 line did stand out though so il answer u


I feel is my neighbours piggy backing off my connection? So basically getting a free connection to the internet and stealing all my bandwidth?

cant u just connect to your router webpage(http://192.168.1.254/ something like that) and see what devices are or have been connected to it ?
 
memory said:
ok im never going to read all that....1 line did stand out though so il answer u


I feel is my neighbours piggy backing off my connection? So basically getting a free connection to the internet and stealing all my bandwidth?

cant u just connect to your router webpage(http://192.168.1.254/ something like that) and see what devices are or have been connected to it ?
Click to expand...

I already done this and it doesn't show anyone connected. But I thought a hacker wouldn't make himself appear in there! Well perhaps there is no hacker but something is definitely up.

Guys if you can't read the above paragraphs how can you read my book then? Trust me I read all that paragraph in less than a minute. Please help me out on this!

Many thanks in advance
 
dvdbunny said:
I already done this and it doesn't show anyone connected. But I thought a hacker wouldn't make himself appear in there! Well perhaps there is no hacker but something is definitely up.

Guys if you can't read the above paragraphs how can you read my book then? Trust me I read all that paragraph in less than a minute. Please help me out on this!

Many thanks in advance
Click to expand...

If your book is written like your original post, i don't think anyone will willingly read it through.

If you think theres a hacker, disable wireless and try using the net without it, see what happens. If problems continue then wireless is irrelevent as its not a problem.
 
I tried disabling wireless and it improved and I got 3 megs, then 2.7 megs then 1.5 megs and back to crap 1.2 megs and below again. Re-enabling wireless it goes back between 0.25 meg and 1.2 megs.
 
Do the process of elimination.

unplug all the phones in the house, plug a wired phone (not a radio wave phone) into the master socket and dial 17070 from your bt phone, press 2 and do a quiet line test and listen for line noise. There should be no crackling at all.

Connect your router with no extension wires through a filter directly to the master BT socket and wired to the nearest computer. Make sure everything else (sky boxes and additional phones) are disconnected from the master socket and any other phone sockets around the house. Being an old house, do you have an old fashioned bell box anywhere? These can increase noise on the line and reduce your speed. Log onto your router and see what speed your router is connected to the line at. This will be under 'router status'. You should be getting close to the speed for which your paying for.

Report back stating your ISP provider.
 
Last edited:
Many thanks for your reply

There is no point unplugging all phones as my internet connection comes from a BT line that was installed only for one room for internet access. As ADSL allows you to surf while at the same time use a phone. I have a cordless phone with the base station connected to the line as well. The phone is working fine. When the BT engineers came here a few months ago they fixed the phone which at the time did not have a signal. They said now that both internet and phone should be working fine.

My ISP is merula

What else can I do?

I do have a bell box but this shouldf not be a problem as for years the connection was working incredibly and then all of a sudden like I said where the mac is I am getting 6 megs and where the laptop and main computer is I am getting crap speeds.

I have rebooted my router and this doesn't help

In my router settings the router is connected to the line at

downstream 7616 kbps
UpStream 448 kbps

A long time ago I got downstream 8128 and upstream 512

Not anymore

Many thanks in advance
 
Tried testing without the mac connected? without the home-plug connected?

You say you've had the modem/router several years, have you checked that the firmware is up to date?
 
If turning wireless on and off causes a massive detrement to your speeds which are progressively slowing yet your sync rates are respectable I would question the integrity of your router and or modem. I assume you've tried restarting it?
 
I have tried restarting the router and it makes no difference

downstream 7616 kbps
UpStream 448 kbps

those above numbers are decent but I am not actually getting that from speed tests on my main computer. These speeds are fast only from the mac.

I have tried disconnecting the mac and the home plugs and it makes no difference

I mainly use speedtest.bbmax.co.uk with the mac tests I did yesterday I was getting 6 megs and on my main computer crap speeds.

I have not updated the firmware ever on my router but I don't think it would make much difference as why is the mac giving me unbelievable 6 meg speed and my main pc giving me crap speeds?
It can't be the router!

My main computer connects to the internet via a CAT cable, the ADSL line from the wall goes into my router and a cat cable connects my router to the ethernet port on my PC.

Lastly, In my router settings I made a preset for azereus non known as vuze (bit torrent client). I opened ports for that. This was done several years ago and I have had no problems with internet speeds until the last 6 months. I think perhaps I should delete this preset. As I have noticed something strange and I wonder if you believe this could be the reason to my problems: When I start vuze before I even download a torrent I notice it shows in the download bar at the bottom of the screen a speed constantly moving like 192kb/s and yet I am not downloading anything, then suddenly it says 2 seeding and disappears. I wonder if vuze is running even when I turn off vuze. I check control alt delete and saw in the windows task manager that vuze.exe was not running and cpu usage was normal. I even deleted vuze and reinstalled it and funny enough all my settings were kept even though I had deleted the folder from program files. I don't understand how it could remember all my details. Is the user data kept in another folder on the computer? Even after the new install it still shows that weird downloading going on! Could it be that vuze is taking up all my bandwidth or someone has hijacked the bit torrent terminal on my computer?
 
OK... there's a lot of confusion and random information here!

First things first... don't trust these speed test sites too much. A lot of the servers aren't very good, which affects the results. It's better to download something from a site which you know has a lot of bandwidth, e.g. Microsoft.

Download this on each of your three computers. Post back with the download speeds on each.
 
dvdbunny said:
. I turn off vuze. I check control alt delete and saw in the windows task manager that vuze.exe was not running and cpu usage was normal. I even deleted vuze and reinstalled it and funny enough all my settings were kept even though I had deleted the folder from program files. I don't understand how it could remember all my details. Is the user data kept in another folder on the computer? Even after the new install it still shows that weird downloading going on! Could it be that vuze is taking up all my bandwidth or someone has hijacked the bit torrent terminal on my computer?
Click to expand...

Vuze also keeps settings in C:\Users\yourname\AppData\Roaming\Azureus if your using vista. It will be documents & settings on an xp machine. Delete that folder & it'll get rid of the settings.
 
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