Cable modem speed problem

[Pete Angelakos]

I have been running a D-Link wired/wireless network for over a year with no
problems.
Recently I have not been able to view Netflix movies at night because of
slow download speeds.
The speeds are slow on all the computers on my network (wired & wireless).
I have a 5MB Charter cable connection. When I test the download speed during
the day at
www.speakeasy.com , I get speeds between 4 & 5MB. When I run the same test
in the evening,
I get speeds of less than 1MB. However, when I bypass my router and connect
directly to my
cable modem, my speed returns to 5MB. I thought the problem must be my
D-Link router, so I purchased
a new Linksys WTR54GS router. This did not correct the problem.
Please help!!!

TIA

 

[Paul]

I have been running a D-Link wired/wireless network for over a year with no
problems.
Recently I have not been able to view Netflix movies at night because of
slow download speeds.
The speeds are slow on all the computers on my network (wired & wireless).
I have a 5MB Charter cable connection. When I test the download speed during
the day at
www.speakeasy.com , I get speeds between 4 & 5MB. When I run the same test
in the evening,
I get speeds of less than 1MB. However, when I bypass my router and connect
directly to my
cable modem, my speed returns to 5MB. I thought the problem must be my
D-Link router, so I purchased
a new Linksys WTR54GS router. This did not correct the problem.
Please help!!!

TIA

OK, so that is a wireless connection. Any chance the local wireless
conditions (channel congestion) gets worse at night ?

This is a good reason to use a wired router. A wired router means
one less thing to go wrong.

You can also watch network activity with software like Wireshark.
I use that for debugging wired Internet problems. For example,
I've seen one major Internet server, sending duplicate packets
due to misconfiguration, and the effective datarate under that
condition is close to zero (my Ethernet LED was flashing like
crazy, but the download rate was very low, as many packets were
a waste of time). So sometimes you can see things, that
help explain the poor performance. I don't know if this works
with wireless connections as well or not, or if there is a
means to adapt it to wireless.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireshark

Paul

 

[Pete Angelakos]

OK, so that is a wireless connection. Any chance the local wireless
conditions (channel congestion) gets worse at night ?

This is a good reason to use a wired router. A wired router means
one less thing to go wrong.

You can also watch network activity with software like Wireshark.
I use that for debugging wired Internet problems. For example,
I've seen one major Internet server, sending duplicate packets
due to misconfiguration, and the effective datarate under that
condition is close to zero (my Ethernet LED was flashing like
crazy, but the download rate was very low, as many packets were
a waste of time). So sometimes you can see things, that
help explain the poor performance. I don't know if this works
with wireless connections as well or not, or if there is a
means to adapt it to wireless.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireshark

Paul

My download speed problem is with wired & wireless.

 

[Paul]

My download speed problem is with wired & wireless.

I don't see a mechanism that is consistent with
your test conditions. Normally, if the rate
dropped at night, you might blame that on the
ISP, but you're saying, if the (wired) router
is removed, the rate pops back up. And it
shouldn't do that, if the same wired router
is capable during daylight hours, of the full
rate.

Paul

 

[Pete Angelakos]

I don't see a mechanism that is consistent with
your test conditions. Normally, if the rate
dropped at night, you might blame that on the
ISP, but you're saying, if the (wired) router
is removed, the rate pops back up. And it
shouldn't do that, if the same wired router
is capable during daylight hours, of the full
rate.

Paul

You are correct -- this makes no sense. I have performed the same speed
checks
for several days and the results are always the same.

 

[Pete Angelakos]

I suspect that the evidence you have seen is just
coincidental, that seasonal changes in temperature are
causing a bad connection externally, that it is intermittent
and if you keep checking you will find that it's not just a
matter of whether it's a direct connection to the modem or
through the router even if it seemed that way once.

You may be correct, but this has been happening consistently for several
days.

 

[GT]

My download speed problem is with wired & wireless.

This sounds simple to me - more people log on to the internet in the evening
and your connections speed and contention drops. Therefore lower speeds.
When you did manage to get a fast speed in the evening, I suspect the
download test was cached in either your PC or you ISP cache (as you had just
done it wirelessly).

Slower downloads in the evening are unfortunately normal.

 

[Pete Angelakos]

This sounds simple to me - more people log on to the internet in the
evening and your connections speed and contention drops. Therefore lower
speeds. When you did manage to get a fast speed in the evening, I suspect
the download test was cached in either your PC or you ISP cache (as you
had just done it wirelessly).

Slower downloads in the evening are unfortunately normal.

The speed tests were done on wired connection on different days after
computer was rebooted.
I do not believe cache is an issue.

 

[Pete Angelakos]

I have been running a D-Link wired/wireless network for over a year with no
problems.
Recently I have not been able to view Netflix movies at night because of
slow download speeds.
The speeds are slow on all the computers on my network (wired & wireless).
I have a 5MB Charter cable connection. When I test the download speed
during the day at
www.speakeasy.com , I get speeds between 4 & 5MB. When I run the same test
in the evening,
I get speeds of less than 1MB. However, when I bypass my router and
connect directly to my
cable modem, my speed returns to 5MB. I thought the problem must be my
D-Link router, so I purchased
a new Linksys WTR54GS router. This did not correct the problem.
Please help!!!

TIA

I now believe that my problem is caused by Charter "overloading" my
neighborhood and the speed
goes down at night when kids are home from school and parents are home from
work.
I was talking with Linksys tech support list night and was asked to
disconnect from the router and connect
directly to the modem. This time the speed did not return to normal. I had
done this several times
previously and always the speed returned to normal. So it must vary greatly
during the evenings.

Thanks for all your help.