Please explain the way these internet connections work

[RSI]

Sometimes it really pisses me off... I'm downloading something, or loading a web page, and it just stops - the little lights turn off, etc.

Please explain, in detail if possible, what this means.. I would really like to gain a better understanding of this.

I just cancelled my Primus Canada internet account ($19,95/month Canadian), because my parents didn't want to pay that anymore, and I'm using Funcow, which costs about $2/month (no ads, free pop and web email, etc, full isp).

It is (obviously) slower than Primus Canada. But it's annoying, because what is the REASON that it's slower? When your internet connection lags like that, what's the cause?? Why does it just STOP?? Someone, please, explain all this crap to me! thanks

-RSI

 

[RZSupraTRD]

I had somehting like that I'm using a ISP by the name of Vividnet. At first the I could get on easily and it was pretty slow. Well what happened is the company gained more and more users and they only had so many servers and I was conatantly kicked off. I called and I asked they just put up more stations and put up new numbers. The slowness part again was the servers were just too busy and cut me.

 

[element]

They probably have you sharing connections with too many users at a time, and so their hardware is busy sending data to others while you wait. Sucks eh? you get what ya pay for (well usually).

 

[RSI]

I don't get cut off, though..

I connect high too, with my 33.6 I get 31.2, I only got 28.8 tops with my Primus account, yet Primus was way faster.

When the internet connection is actually WORKING it goes fast enough, but too often it just hangs for a while before picking up again. Blargh.

-RSI

 

[IsOs]

Sounds like the problem is with the server side. Too busy to respond to your computer. Call your ISP & complain... oh... on second thought, they only charge $2/month so maybe they won't be able to afford upgrading their system soon.

 

[Ulysses]

What did you expect for $2/month.

Try to get your folks to go back to the $20/mo. deal. Tell them it's an investment in your education, your future, your emotional stability, and a way to meet chicks - that gets 'em every time.
Well, some of the time.

 

[tmj]

Your problem is almost certainly packet loss.

Do a traceroute to some place on the internet, like ftp.freesoftware.com or something.

C:\WINDOWS> tracert ftp.freesoftware.com

Look at the list of servers, and pick one that's 4 or 5 hops away. Let's say you end up with 209.133.31.2 or something. Then type this:

C:\WINDOWS> ping -t 209.133.31.2
Pinging 209.133.31.2 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 209.133.31.2: bytes=32 time=356ms TTL=249
Reply from 209.133.31.2: bytes=32 time=261ms TTL=249
Reply from 209.133.31.2: bytes=32 time=363ms TTL=249
Request timed out.
Reply from 209.133.31.2: bytes=32 time=360ms TTL=249
Reply from 209.133.31.2: bytes=32 time=261ms TTL=249
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 209.133.31.2: bytes=32 time=162ms TTL=249
Reply from 209.133.31.2: bytes=32 time=395ms TTL=249

>> Then press [Ctrl] + [C] to view the results.

Ping statistics for 209.133.31.2:
Packets: Sent = 10, Received = 7, Lost = 3 (30% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 195ms, Maximum = 395ms, Average = 279ms
Control-C

If you get something like 5% or 10% packet loss, you're going to have some nastly slowdown problems. I used to have a 56K dialup ISP, and I had this exact same problem. Tech support was useless, they wouldn't do anything except "check your modem settings, reinstall netscape" blah blah so I cancelled my dial-in and got DSL instead.

By the way, this isn't really a "General Hardware" topic -- try Networking.

 

[Bozo Galora]

tmj - what is "-t" for

 

[arthurb1]

Bozo, that -t tells ping to keep pinging until you give it a Ctrl-C or Ctrl-Break to make it stop. If you put a number after that -t, like 10, then it will ping it 10 times, instead of the standard four.

 

[Bozo Galora]

thanx

 

[Eli]

I thought it was "-n xx" for number of times to ping.

 

[arthurb1]

Eli...lol you are right....man...that was a good sized brainfart I had there....