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cable connection very slow

J

jayfest

Junior Member
I am running XP with no router. For the last several weeks, even though I have a cable modem,
I have been getting internet speed as if I had about a 19K phone modem.
The ping numbers come back in hundreds of milliseconds. I checked for spyware,
viruses, then I moved everything off the C drive and restored the OS from the backup CD,
and I'm still getting this slow connection.
My ISP, Comcast, says things look good from their end. I tried plugging the cable modem into a USB port
or the network port on the motherboard, but that got me no internet connection at all.

I'm not positive, but this problem may have started when I installed a 2nd hard drive on my machine.
I think I would more likely blame my installation if I were getting NO connection at all,
but what could I have done hardware-wise to cause a SLOW connection?
😕
 
Pings don't really have any value in determing what you speed might be. Go to www.dlsreports.com and run their speed tests. OBTW there is a bunch of broadband stuff on this site.
 
You said that you just added a new hard drive. You might want to make sure that your drivers are still in good shape. It would be safe to uninstall the drivers and reinstall them.

I do not know how old your computer is, but if the LAN adapter is in the PCI port, you might want to double check to see that it is sitting snug, since you just fiddled in there.

You might want to change your ethernet cables to make sure that there is nothing wrong with the cables. If nothing works, go out to best buy, buy a PCI LAN adapter, install it, and if that does work fast then you know that there is something wrong with your adapter or motherboard. The good thing is you should be able to return that adapter within 30 days with a receipt without a restocking fee, though you might want to double check. I have done this on multiple occasions, though not with the intention of trying out hardware and not paying for it.

I have never had a modem with a USB outlet, so I cannot help you on that avenue.

Sometimes a firewall or antivirus might cause problems, conflict with something in your hardware. Deactivate auto protection and what-not to see if that is the reason.

I know you said that you did not have any viruses, but it is possible that your internet connection is being hogged by some sort of worm, though I do not know why it would slow you down this much. If you are using Windows XP, you should easily be able to see bytes sent and bytes received. If bytes sent are more than bytes received, you know something other than you is surfing the web.

I had a lot of cable problems with my cable provider. They had to change modems a few times, and I am also told that you have to look at the cable connection (at the tip of the physical cable) that connects to your modem from the wall. During moving, for example, it is possible that you might have tugged on the cable which would have caused the cable not to split, but to lose connection. You will see some sort of "white gooey stuff" in the cable. If this is looks bent instead of flat, then same thing that happened to me might have happened to you. This is all I have heard from the Road Runner technician who came in the house and did all this stuff, I wish I could give you a better source. And just so you know, Cable Service providers, in general are bad with customer service compared to satellite service providers.

Hopefully one of these will solve your problem. If you have any other details that you might come across, you know where to post them... Good luck.
 
Download DrTCP:
http://www.dslreports.com/front/DRTCP021.exe

Run the program, it will show the current settings of TCP/IP parameters. Write them down.

You can change any variable that you want, click Apply, and reboot the computer, if no good; you can always change to your original values.

Start with:

MTU - DSL =1492, Cable = 1500, ISDN = 1322, DialUp = 576

Tcp Receive - 256960 (This is the varaible to play with!)

Window Scaling - Yes

Time Stamping - No

Selective Acks - Yes

Path MTU Discovery - Yes.

Black Hole - NO

Max Duplicate - 2

TTL - 64

Notice it said above Start with

These settings are not written in "stone" there is variability depending on the computer other setting. So try few setting and measure your Download for each setting.

In addition, in case a person has a Router the Router's MTU if set differently can affect the general MTU.

Link: Measuring the "Speed" of Internet Connection.

:sun:
 
I appreciate everybody's suggestions. Since I have had this problem for several weeks now, I have
talked to several people (including 3 or 4 calls to Comcast) and tried many of these already, of course.
Forgive me if I ever sound impatient with any of you.

I downloaded that little utility DrTCP, and I tried your values and I also tried it with the Tcp Receive number lower,
but it seemed to have very little effect. The results I got at www.testmy.net were 17Kbps, which, as I mentioned,
is like a slow phone modem. I have also tried disconnecting my new hard drive, using a different cable, shutting off the firewall ,
but that had no effect.

Should I try increasing Tcp Receive? I went to the "Tweak" section of DSLreports.com, but it says I need
the Java Virtual Machine, which I no longer have since I reformatted my drive. I had backed up a previous version
and tried installing it, but it didn't seem to help. And of course, if I want to download the new version,
I have to do it at my 17KBps speed and it keeps timing out. I've ordered a 256MB Flash Drive.
When it arrives, I can download the JVM at work and transfer it to my machine at home.
Then maybe I can try some of the tweaks.

I do notice that my bytes sent is greater than my bytes received (it was like 1200 vs 300 when I looked),
but they're both so slow that I'm not sure it makes any difference. I did try an upload test once
and I think it gave me upload speed results very close to the download speed. If I do have a virus or worm,
wouldn't restoring the OS from the restore CD (which included a reformat of my drive) have wiped that out?
And since I have now finally managed to download the upgrade to the virus software, if that is not finding
anything, what could I even do about any worm that might still be there?
 
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