Low internet connectivity

[Rumblyguts]

Hello,

Posting a question here as a last resort. We have very intermitant internet service over the past couple months. Sometimes it is lightning fast; other times a homepage won't open. This occurs on two seperate machines from two manufacturers, at sepreate times, and one machine is brand new. I can't identify a "trigger" or pattern to the poor service. OS's are XP and 7.

Steps taken to diagnose and fix problems:

1) Called ISP, went through their flow charts with an agent. Cabled into the modem (taking router out), got a ping, and the ISP said that their modem was working correctly. However, the internet rate was still extrememly slow. They told me to call the computer company.

2) Called the computer company, went through their steps of trying to get rid of me, reset the router, did a hardwire to the modem, etc....no dice. Told me to call the ISP or wipe the drive LOL

3) Went to local coffee shop, had lightning speed internet, so it's local to our house.

4) Switched-out ethernet cable from modem to router (and thus the computer), and it worked great.

5) Well, it worked well for a while, back to intermitant internet.

6) Virus scan etc. all come up clean.

7) Exchanging modem today to see if that will help

Other: When an ISP pings their modem or checks connectivity, can they check the output rate to my computer? Can they check, besides my doing a ping, that the modem is connecting to my computer?

Looking for other ideas to try, any suggestions?

Thanks, Rumbly

[Maytime]

Hi Rumbly,

Do you have cable, DSL, etc? I used to be an ISP tech support guy, and one thing you need to pinpoint is where the hiccups are happening from a) your computer to your router b) router to modem or c) modem to ISP. One way to test this is to use the "tracert" command, short for Trace Route. First, you need to open a command prompt; hold the windows button and press R, type cmd, hit enter. A black window should pop up. Now we need to find a DNS server to point to. We can find this by typing "ipconfig /all" (no quotes), and scrolling down to DNS servers, make note of one. On a new line, type "tracert xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" where the x's is the IP address of the DNS server. When you hit enter, it will trace the route to that server, going through your router, modem, and whatever infrastructure your ISP has set up. You will be able to see the speeds at which it takes to get through each hop.

I have to go now but at least it is something to try.

Regards

p.s. Note the time of day that the hiccups are occurring, and look for patterns. It could just be a high traffic time.

Edit to add: With regards to your ISP ping question, their ability to run connectivity tests remotely depends on how fancy their monitoring systems are. Older cable modem monitoring programs are generally DOS or Unix shells that only give information about the state of the modem. Newer programs have the ability to run a wide array of tests to examine bandwidth, ping statistics, etc.

Also, although you may be "connected" to the Internet, there may be an issue with how the network is resolving domains into IP addresses, which would look like you couldn't point to google.com or other common sites. One way to check to see if you have a DNS (Domain Name System) problem, is to go back to a command prompt like before, and type "nslookup www.google.com" again without quotes. This will see if the domain google can be resolved to its assigned IP address. If it can't, then you can call your ISP and go from there, since there isn't a whole lot you can do on your end.

[CommoNCO]

Are you broadcasting a wireless signal? Not sure what type of modem you're using, but if it has the capability of being wireless, perhaps you have a neighbor using a bit of your bandwidth....

[Rumblyguts]

Update:
Got a new cable modem from the ISP, and it appears to be working fine. Looks like this issue may be solved. but I'm not calling it solved until a good week's worth of using it.

HOWEVER

After the modem switch, the elderly computer will log on via wireless for roughly one minute, then disconnect. Reconnecting (manual or auto) only occurs after restarting the computer.

Haven't tried hardwiring the old computer to the modem yet due to the sleeping child the modem's room. Was able to check local, mask and router ISP's on both computers and they look correct with the new modem.

CommoNCO: We're on a secure wireless router. Neighbors are reliable; street is deserted.

Maytime: Cable modem. Thanks for tracrt command and DNS info; that should come in handy. Hoping not to use it

ISP will be contacted tomorrow, and I'll post more questions or the solution tomorrow

Thanks,
Rumbly

[Rumblyguts]

The modem switch worked; the internet has been working fine on the new computer.

Unfortunatly, I think the old computer's network card is kaput (works for a minute, then kicks off).

Thanks for the help.

Rumbly

[SF_BHT]

Originally Posted by Rumblyguts

The modem switch worked; the internet has been working fine on the new computer.

Unfortunatly, I think the old computer's network card is kaput (works for a minute, then kicks off).

Thanks for the help.

Rumbly

Great..... Your other PC can be fixed if it is the network card for between $10-30 usd.