Cable speed and Windows Settings

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rob Schneider
  • Start date Start date
Thanks for the lesson in bandwidth and pressure (usage). But I just
never
suspected usage variables WOULD affect ADSL; kind of like strong
arteries would
not be affected by the amount of aerobic pressure, but a person with
weak
(closed) arteries might keel over from a heart attack after shoveling
snow for a
minute or so. I thought that difference was PRECISELY what
distinguished a
modem from cable! Apparently so many people are now on cable it's
getting just
like using a modem!
 
why don't they just call them interfaces?
Ken Blake said:
In %[email protected], R. C. White wrote:




You're welcome. Yes, I know (from the Quicken group) that you're
an accountant; but you're a pretty good techie too.




The problem is that there's no commonly used term for "the device
that connects the line to the computer, regardless of how it does
it." So most of fall back on the term "modem" and use it in this
broader, but not quite correct sense. I know I do, unless I
specifically need to differentiate between such a device and a
real modem




Yes, some manufacturers call it a modem; they don't have a better
name either. Mine is a Cisco. It doesn't say "modem" anyplace on
the device, and I no longer have the box to check.

But remember that the "D" in "DSL" or "ADSL" stands for
"Digital."
Click to expand...
 
This is a very good site, but unfortunately over my head. Actually,
though,
it's extremely well produced and written, but it's just something 1. I
am
unable to do, and 2. I wouldn't risk being worse off by upsetting
integral
system files, etc. But I'll definitely forward these pp. to people here
who
may benefit from them and , in turn, benefit me! Thanks.
 
Thanks for the suggestion. That's a possibility.  But I just bought a new computer (well, last year) and a complete software package.  What I would like to do (since I've never actually seen it) is see what a real ADSL or fast connection looks like!  I'll try to do that soon; go to someone's home (I know several with ADSL) and just ask them to go into different websites that I usually access and see how fast it is!  But like I said, I'm 99% certain there's a problem.  What I would like to hear from someone (and I asked this question before) is if there is something in the Properties boxes (install/uninstall) that I should have checked/installed and also if there is a problem with not having a WINS number (which I don't) in my Properties list of numbers (DNS, etc.).  I don't know what WINS stands for, but there is no number listed for that category.

Randy Harris wrote: Any chance you could try a different computer on your cable connection?
Perhaps you know someone with a laptop?
 
Thanks for the suggestion. That's a possibility. But I just bought a new
Click to expand...
computer (well, last year) and a complete >software package. What I would
like to do (since I've never actually seen it) is see what a real ADSL or
fast >connection looks like! I'll try to do that soon; go to someone's home
(I know several with ADSL) and just ask them to >go into different websites
that I usually access and see how fast it is! But like I said, I'm 99%
certain there's a ?>problem. What I would like to hear from someone (and I
asked this question before) is if there is something in the >Properties
boxes (install/uninstall) that I should have checked/installed and also if
there is a problem with not having >a WINS number (which I don't) in my
Properties list of numbers (DNS, etc.). I don't know what WINS stands for,
but >there is no number listed for that category.

WINS should not be a factor for the symptom you have described. DNS could
be. If your DNS is particularly slow, you might see a long delay after
clicking a link on a page - BEFORE the next page begins to load. If you do
not see that long delay, the page just seems to load very slowly, there is
little that you can do on your computer to speed things up. In your earlier
postings, you commented that web pages seemed to load slower than with your
dial up service, if that is the case, the problem is almost certainly with
your ISP (as suggested by others in this thread).

Also in an earlier post, you commented that your email was extremely fast at
the same time web access was extremely slow. This would also be consistent
with a problem at your ISP. The ISP mail server would likely be inside his
firewall, you would access it without going out onto the internet. It
sounds as though the bottleneck is between the ISP's LAN and the internet
(his gateway). That was the reason I suggested a different computer, you
could eliminate your system and all of its settings as possible problems in
a single step.

Have you talked with neighbors that use the same cable modem service? If
the problem is the ISP's gateway, they will be experiencing the same
symptoms as you!

Regards,
Randy
 
Another thought occurs to me. The poster may want to check for proxy settings in IE, Tools, Internet Options, the Connections tab, LAN settings button. Uncheck all options on that panel, then OK your way out, close IE and reopen. Some ISP will set this through their installation package, in an effort to save THEM bandwidth by serving up cached pages for commonly requested web sites. Depending on how busy their servers are, there can be a noticeably delay while it is checked and sent back to the user, especially if the page is not cached already and has to be retrieved. There is no advantage to the user from this configuration.

--

Bill James
Microsoft MVP·DTS

Win9x VBScript Utilities » www.billsway.com/vbspage/
Windows Tweaks & Tips » www.billsway.com/notes_public/

Randy Harris said:
Thanks for the suggestion. That's a possibility. But I just bought a new
Click to expand...
computer (well, last year) and a complete >software package. What I would
like to do (since I've never actually seen it) is see what a real ADSL or
fast >connection looks like! I'll try to do that soon; go to someone's home
(I know several with ADSL) and just ask them to >go into different websites
that I usually access and see how fast it is! But like I said, I'm 99%
certain there's a ?>problem. What I would like to hear from someone (and I
asked this question before) is if there is something in the >Properties
boxes (install/uninstall) that I should have checked/installed and also if
there is a problem with not having >a WINS number (which I don't) in my
Properties list of numbers (DNS, etc.). I don't know what WINS stands for,
but >there is no number listed for that category.

WINS should not be a factor for the symptom you have described. DNS could
be. If your DNS is particularly slow, you might see a long delay after
clicking a link on a page - BEFORE the next page begins to load. If you do
not see that long delay, the page just seems to load very slowly, there is
little that you can do on your computer to speed things up. In your earlier
postings, you commented that web pages seemed to load slower than with your
dial up service, if that is the case, the problem is almost certainly with
your ISP (as suggested by others in this thread).

Also in an earlier post, you commented that your email was extremely fast at
the same time web access was extremely slow. This would also be consistent
with a problem at your ISP. The ISP mail server would likely be inside his
firewall, you would access it without going out onto the internet. It
sounds as though the bottleneck is between the ISP's LAN and the internet
(his gateway). That was the reason I suggested a different computer, you
could eliminate your system and all of its settings as possible problems in
a single step.

Have you talked with neighbors that use the same cable modem service? If
the problem is the ISP's gateway, they will be experiencing the same
symptoms as you!

Regards,
Randy
Click to expand...
 
why don't they just call them interfaces?
Click to expand...


I can't tell you why your suggestion, or anyone's suggestion,
isn't in common usage. But I can tell you why *I* don't like that
suggestion: it's much too broad a term, applying to all kinds of
things, not just these devices, and the term would cause great
confusion.
 
Hi.  To answer your last question first, so far as I know, the people I've spoken to are not interested in hooking up, although cable wires are all over the place just waiting to be hooked in!  I don't like to generalize, but I seem to be the only one interested in this.
     But I think I solved the problem, although I can't yet be 100% certain.  This is embarrassing, at least a little:  I think it was the browser.  I always use Communicator.  Just now, for the first time, I accessed from Explorer and pages had no hesitation at all.  It's difficult to measure the difference at this time of night (after 2:00 a.m.), but the last hour or so I've been experimenting searching for just about everything just to test the new-found speed, and I don't think I had one problem!  Now checking from Netscape/Communicator, the download is definitely faster than this afternoon, but pages get stuck, unlike in Explorer; and it's possible when times slow down I'll see an even more discernible difference.  Slide shows on Yahoo that used to bog down in Netscape didn't bog down at all in Explorer.  So I'm assuming there's a limited compatibility in a non-microsoft browser.  Also a key site, the Yahoo mail, popped up immediately; so that was another test, because Yahoo mail caused the main problem.
     This morning I ran into another problem:  I get the message:  Cannot open offline (something like that):  Connect, etc.  So what seemed like very fast (even faster than last night) popups of Yahoo mail were merely cached copies, apparently.  The problem is, I'm definitely hooked up to LAN and I didn't change anything since last night; so why am I suddenly getting a message that I'm not connected?

Randy Harris wrote: <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
Thanks for the suggestion. That's a possibility.  But I just bought a new
Click to expand...
computer (well, last year) and a complete >software package.  What I would
like to do (since I've never actually seen it) is see what a real ADSL or
fast >connection looks like!  I'll try to do that soon; go to someone's home
(I know several with ADSL) and just ask them to >go into different websites
that I usually access and see how fast it is!  But like I said, I'm 99%
certain there's a ?>problem.  What I would like to hear from someone (and I
asked this question before) is if there is something in the >Properties
boxes (install/uninstall) that I should have checked/installed and also if
there is a problem with not having >a WINS number (which I don't) in my
Properties list of numbers (DNS, etc.).  I don't know what WINS stands for,
but >there is no number listed for that category.

WINS should not be a factor for the symptom you have described.  DNS could
be.  If your DNS is particularly slow, you might see a long delay after
clicking a link on a page - BEFORE the next page begins to load.  If you do
not see that long delay, the page just seems to load very slowly, there is
little that you can do on your computer to speed things up.  In your earlier
postings, you commented that web pages seemed to load slower than with your
dial up service, if that is the case, the problem is almost certainly with
your ISP (as suggested by others in this thread).

Also in an earlier post, you commented that your email was extremely fast at
the same time web access was extremely slow.  This would also be consistent
with a problem at your ISP.  The ISP mail server would likely be inside his
firewall, you would access it without going out onto the internet.  It
sounds as though the bottleneck is between the ISP's LAN and the internet
(his gateway).  That was the reason I suggested a different computer, you
could eliminate your system and all of its settings as possible problems in
a single step.

Have you talked with neighbors that use the same cable modem service?  If
the problem is the ISP's gateway, they will be experiencing the same
symptoms as you!

Regards,
Randy
 
Thanks for the post. I'll definitely experiment with this too.
But as I said in another post, I think I've solved my problem: I was
using Communicator instead of IE Explorer! I think using a Netscape
browser in some way slows down communications. Why it doesn't do so
with newsgroups and email I don't know. But webpages have been popping
up. Even Yahoo mail pops up. There may be a "cache-effect" in some of
this. But I make sure I check fresh pages too. Most significant of
all, I've been trying to upload a very big (1.5 MB) file for the last
several weeks without success. It uploaded, from IE, in about fifteen
seconds or less. Simply by launching from IE seems to make a
difference.
But I'm so unfamiliar with IE that I'm running into problems every
twenty minutes! Just now, everytime I click on a new IMAGE in Yahoo (as
distinct from a cache image) I get the message, to the effect, MUST BE
ONLINE, even though I'm on LAN (cable) and the regular text page
downloads. I had thought there was a contradiction somewhere, since
other Yahoo image files downloaded immediately, but then I realized
those were the same ones I downloaded last night, so we're in the
"cache-effect" issue (it was using already stored image files: maybe
I'm wrong about this, since I thought cache files deleted automatically
and a few hours and certainly after logging out).
Another interesting problem is periodically pages flash on with
only BLANK THUMBNAILS. I thought maybe I had somehow selected a filter
(which we don't even have, I think, in Communicator), but I didn't.
Then the cookies problem emerged. I *did* set to get no cookies, and
ran into trouble. Oddly, by closing IE and opening it again, the
problem disappears, until I access more pages and then maybe again the
page has only blank thumbnails. Anyway, I'll find my way around IE soon
enough. Browsers become second-nature in a couple of hours, but if
people are familiar with problems in IE, I'd appreciate a crash course!

Bill said:
Another thought occurs to me. The poster may want to check for proxy settings in IE, Tools, Internet Options, the Connections tab, LAN settings button. Uncheck all options on that panel, then OK your way out, close IE and reopen. Some ISP will set this through their installation package, in an effort to save THEM bandwidth by serving up cached pages for commonly requested web sites. Depending on how busy their servers are, there can be a noticeably delay while it is checked and sent back to the user, especially if the page is not cached already and has to be retrieved. There is no advantage to the user from this configuration.

--

Bill James
Microsoft MVP·DTS

Win9x VBScript Utilities » www.billsway.com/vbspage/
Windows Tweaks & Tips » www.billsway.com/notes_public/
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for the advice. I've always used Netscape, ever since the HTML came
out. Right now I'm using 4.7; I keep getting invitations to download the
latest, but I'm wary of downloading anything (is this reasonable?). Actually,
as it turns out, I do (come to think of it) have Netscape 7.0, but used it less
than an hour and reverted to my 4.7. There were several problems. By far the
most important was losing my old email, which I didn't want to sacrifice. I
know, logically, there must be a way to "import" but I couldn't make it work. I
had nothing in my folders, sent file folder, inbox, etc. etc. When I reverted
back to 4.7 they all appeared again. I figured it wasn't worth the trouble.
There was once a quantam leap between, say Netscape 2.0 and 2.5 (HTML, color
fonts, formats, etc.) but this is not the case anymore. The question is, how
many times one is willing to put up with a learning curve to get little perks
that one is not interested in, such as telling people you're on line, etc.!!!
But some people here might take exception to focusing on Netscape in a
Microsoft newsgroup, so I'll just sum up and say I've always used Netscape and
like it. But since you're a Netscape enthusiast, let me ask two relevant
questions:
1. You don't think using a Netscape browser (specifically 4.7) should
impede the speed of my LAN (cable) connection? It definitely seems to be doing
this. Just now I tried accessing my Yahoo mail from Netscape and the usual
endless delay just opening the window started. Back in IE it pops up
immediately (well, as the Major-General used to say, "almost" immediately!).
2. Second question is the trouble I'm having sending an .msa through my
Netscape. I attach a Windows Player file, mail it from IE, but when I try to
open it in Netscape, it doesn't open, but says something like, "Path unknown."
That's strange. I open it in Netscape just to test its transmissibility at
all. Do .msa files open only in IE? I would test it in IE but, fairly new to
IE (although I used it a while maybe ten years ago), I'm having problems setting
up my mail parameters.
 
ASP and ASP.NET pages especially load slow in Netscape 4.x. This is true even when I load the pages with a browser on the server, using localhost as the address, which doesn't use any Internet connection at all. The 4.x versions of Netscape are getting to be pretty old technology, and if you really want to use Netscape the newer versions will perform better for you.

--

Bill James
Microsoft MVP·DTS

Win9x VBScript Utilities » www.billsway.com/vbspage/
Windows Tweaks & Tips » www.billsway.com/notes_public/
 
Thanks for the advice. I've kinda settled on a dual citizenship in this
area: I now use IE for accessing webpages and Netscape to send and
download email and access newsgroups. In addition, I always use
Netscape for its Composer. As I said in a previous email on this
subject, for some reason I lose all my stored email when I use 7.0. I
tried importing, but it doesn't work for some reason. For me, it's just
not worth the bother. Of course, I enjoy new things too. It's always
nice to have a new interface, or, more simply, a "new look." But at a
certain point, for what one is getting, the learning curve is not worth
it. After the html and other composition formats that followed 2.0, the
new stuff just doesn't interest me that much: interactive channels,
etc. When it gets to the point where I can download complete movies in
five seconds, as someone posted in this thread, then it'll be worth
switching browsers! Still, I'll get back into Netscape 7.0 and see if I
can resolve outstanding problems. I've got it installed, why not use
it? (Oddly, I just got a message asking me if I wished to update to
7.2!)
 
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