I hate networking.

[dimtim]

Okay, so it's been about 5 months since I purchased my last router. Now it has happened again. My internet has started to become extremely slow, and I think my router or cable modem is to blame. I don't understand any of the settings in my router, like DHCP, DNS, WAN, just to name a few. Is there any possiblity that I don't need a new router or modem, and that I just don't understand this stuff and somehow that is making my internet incredibly slow. I'm pretty sure it isn't anything on my computer like spyware or anything, because I keep all of that stuff up to date, and I understand Windows fairly well.

Any help would be appreciated.

Tim

[kschang]

Why do you think it's the router?

Hardware don't "croak" just a little. Solid state stuff either work or die, they don't work "sort of", at least not generally.

[CrayonEater]

Well, if you use Internet Explorer or download stuff without checking it out thoroughly on Google or do a lot of downloading from P2P networks then your machine may well be owned, irrespective of what your A/V or A/S software says. That said, give a little more detail about the slowdowns and what kind of equipment you have e.g. does it seem like your connection is conking out for a few seconds or minutes or is it all around slow? BTW, there's a speed test at DSLreports that may help you determine your throughput. Try it during a "slow" period and during a "fast" one, if your connection goes through that kind of thing.

[AlanHK]

I doubt it's the router too, they either work or don't work.

Could be either software on your PC, or the ISP is overextended.

If you can borrow another PC or preferably laptop, you could plug it into your router and see if it gets any better speed. Or you could download a Knoppix ISO and boot to Linux from a CD and see how that fares; Knoppix is pretty user-friendly and won't change your PC unless you decide to install permanently. If it works faster on the same hardware with Knoppix then it's a Windows problem.

[redwudz]

I don't think your router has anything to do with the problem. If I get permanent slowdowns with my cable modem, it usually means my ISP has reprogrammed my modem. It happens a few times a year. Try unplugging the power from the cable modem for about 5 minutes, then plug it back in. This resets the modem and it will reacquire the signal. This often fixes it for me.

Another problem with slow cable modems is the ISP tying too many modems onto your local node. The signal can only be shared so much, then they need to upgrade and split off to more nodes. About all you can do is complain about it in this case. They will usually upgrade when enough people complain. My setup started at 4MB/s, went down to 700KB/s and has now went back up to 4MB/s when they upgraded.

As mentioned, you need to check your transfer speed on occasion. You can also look in DSL Reports to see what others that use the same ISP are getting for speeds to make a comparison. Typically, a ISP won't do much on their own about low speeds unless they get a lot of complaints or there is some local competition for customers. In my area high speed DSL availability got them to do some upgrades.

But try the modem reset. It's worked for me several times.

[Dv8ted2]

I don't understand any of the settings in my router, like DHCP, DNS, WAN, just to name a few.

DHCP stands for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol - This is what assigns IP addresses that change. Within a router, you can set the scope of IP addresses that you can use. You can also set reservations so that certain addresses do not get used. DNS stands for Domain Naming System, which is self explanatory. WAN is a wide area network. Wide area networks are slower than local area networks.

[RLT69]

Another problem with slow cable modems is the ISP tying too many modems onto your local node. The signal can only be shared so much, then they need to upgrade and split off to more nodes. About all you can do is complain about it in this case. They will usually upgrade when enough people complain. My setup started at 4MB/s, went down to 700KB/s and has now went back up to 4MB/s when they upgraded.

700KB/s!! Damn that's worse than DSL

It might be worth your bother to call your cable company and ask them what the minimum speed they guarantee. I had Adelphia working on some lines one time and the engineer informed me that they guaranteed a minimum speed of 1Mb/s. He said if the rate ever drops below that and stays there, call them.

[Dv8ted2]

Another problem with slow cable modems is the ISP tying too many modems onto your local node. The signal can only be shared so much, then they need to upgrade and split off to more nodes. About all you can do is complain about it in this case. They will usually upgrade when enough people complain. My setup started at 4MB/s, went down to 700KB/s and has now went back up to 4MB/s when they upgraded.

700KB/s!! Damn that's worse than DSL

It might be worth your bother to call your cable company and ask them what the minimum speed they guarantee. I had Adelphia working on some lines one time and the engineer informed me that they guaranteed a minimum speed of 1Mb/s. He said if the rate ever drops below that and stays there, call them.

You rarely get what you are supposed to. There is always some overhead and the ISP's oversell. With cable internet being a shared resource, it is dictated also by how many people are using the service in your area at the same time.

[RLT69]

You rarely get what you are supposed to. There is always some overhead and the ISP's oversell. With cable internet being a shared resource, it is dictated also by how many people are using the service in your area at the same time.

That was my point about the minimum. Our cable provider guaranteed a minumum rate of 1 Mb/s, our "normal" rates are around 3Mb/s. Thus we have a range from 1Mb/s to 3Mb/s. According to the engineer if we drop below 1MB/s, then there is a problem with the service.

[Abbadon]

Maybe too many users in the ISP internal LAN, however, the problem could be the DSL modem, yep, the modem.

Believe or not, most, if not all routers and DSL modems run a mini version of Unix/Linux OS, with time, this image become corrupted. Some ISPs just go ahead and replace the modem, others could send a guy with a pristine image that it is upload it to the modem (replacing the corruped one) and BANG!, everything is working smoothly again.

[TBoneit]

Or you could go look at the lights on the modem & router and see if your computer is always doing something over the internet.

Many times from what I see here at work, slow internet is because of so much adware/spyware/malware has taken over the internet in a computer. For instance something as simple as having your HOSTS file taken over can slow you down if everything you do gets redirected through their tracking server.

Try a free spyware cleaner such as Spybot Search & destroy, Ad-Aware, Ewido (now part of AVG) http://www.ewido.net/en/download/ and this page has other cleaners C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\Free Software Downloads and Software Reviews - Download_com.htm

Good Luck

[dimtim]

Wow, a lot of responses. Thanks for the help. My internet is fast again today, but yeah, I'm pretty sure the slowdowns are because of the router or modem because when I plug in my old computer to the router, the internet is still slow. I don't know, whenver I try to set up a router, I feel like a 5 year old lost in Disneyland with all of the Acronyms. Usually I just do the quick setup or whatever and hope it works.

Thanks again
Tim

[INFRATOM]

for one computer you don't need a router, you can connect the modem directly to internet but make sure your modem is set to log you in. Some modems are one port router so you can login to your ISP and also do DHCP. by pass the router in this case to test if slow down is from the router, I beleive 90% of the slowness if unusual is from spyware. Try http://housecall.trendmicro.com its free and pretty good.

[DereX888]

simplest test of your router would be to move some large file from 1 computer to another...

[TBoneit]

Did you try unplugging the Router and the Modem for a couple of minutes to reset them both.

[DereX888]

Did you try unplugging the Router and the Modem for a couple of minutes to reset them both.

I dont know about modems, but no router can be reset by unplugging.

[kschang]

You don't need a full reset, just unplug and replug will give it a quick reset without pushing the button.

[Lucifers_Ghost]

Another problem with slow cable modems is the ISP tying too many modems onto your local node. The signal can only be shared so much, then they need to upgrade and split off to more nodes. About all you can do is complain about it in this case. They will usually upgrade when enough people complain. My setup started at 4MB/s, went down to 700KB/s and has now went back up to 4MB/s when they upgraded.

700KB/s!! Damn that's worse than DSL

It might be worth your bother to call your cable company and ask them what the minimum speed they guarantee. I had Adelphia working on some lines one time and the engineer informed me that they guaranteed a minimum speed of 1Mb/s. He said if the rate ever drops below that and stays there, call them.

Having worked for one of the major ISP's in Canada, I can give a little info on this. Generally, there is no mimimum, unless there is "tiered" service (ie. lite speed, high speed, extreme, blah blah). Whatever speed you get on your line/cable, they will put you on that plan. If you call in and ask for high speed at 5mb lets say .. but your line can only handle 2.5mb, they will either a) put you on the next lowest plan or b) say you must take it as is and no tech support will be offered.

It also depends on benefits of each level of service. At Bell Sympatico, they have 4 levels of service:

Lite: up to 256kb - 1gb of bandwidth combined
Basic: up to 1mb - 2gb of bandwidth combined
HSE: up to 5mb - unlimited bandwidth
Ultra: is only 5 meg now but should be going up soon (as far as I know)

So, even knowing that hse is 5mb and a person might only get 2.5, they might take HSE anyway for the benefit of unlimited bandwidth.

It happened often that customers would call in and complain that their speed was slow for hse as they were only getting 2.5. Of course, they never read the terms and conditions. The HSE is rated as anything OVER 1mb and up to 5mb. They alwayts want discounts and blah blah.

Anywho .. just thought I would chime in here....
LG

[TBoneit]

Did you try unplugging the Router and the Modem for a couple of minutes to reset them both.

I dont know about modems, but no router can be reset by unplugging.

Well depends on what you mean by reset, Unplugging will hopefully let memory in it clear in case it was coruppted or the firmware had a memory leak somewhat like win98 where a daily reboot would help.

Or in some cases the router i sbuilt into the modem, We have one here at work like that single ethernet port that plugs into out network and DSL is everywhere. Or like mine at home DSL modem with built in 4 port + Wireless router.

Anyway the Westell here at work sometimes the speed drops and unpowering for a minute restores everything.