Major internet problem.

[Guest]

My girlfriend has a laptop and it's internet performance has become very poor
of late.
I've had a look at various posts here but none of the solutions I've seen
seem to help.

She has 1 Meg. broadband but Internet access has become vey slow
(32kbps-49kbps).
Downloads are painfully slow (they start off slowly and get slower the
longer they go on) and more often than not they fail completely with an
"unexpected error has occurred" message.

The spec;
Mobile AMD Athlon XP-M 2600+
1.51 GHz
192 MB of RAM
35.25 GB capacity
27.04 Free space
service pack 2
AVG free
Zonealarm
Search and Destroy
Bazooka
CW Shredder
Smart link 56k Voice Modem (which I keep removing but which keeps reappearing)
Sagem F@st 800-840 modem (which the laptop can't detect)

I've run all the security programs in safe mode several times so I'm fairly
confident that the machine is clean and I've reinstalled the broadband modem
but I can't update the drivers because the computer wont detect it.

 

[Jack \(MVP-Networking\).]

Hi
There is probably a DialUp Modem in the Laptop, you have to disable it (not
just remove) and it would nor reappear.
As for the broadband connetion, http://www.ezlan.net/clean#refreshnet
http://www.ezlan.net/Internet_Speed.html
Jack (MVP-Networking).

 

[Guest]

i think
moden isn`t working properly ,remove/uninstall modem..............and
install again
.....may u find improvement .

 

[Guest]

Just browsing thru. Let me add the following minor points in case they're of
some value:

1. You mean speed is down to xx "Kbps" or "KBps" ? (just double-checking).

2. Somewhere I read that all is not always as it seems - with ADSL, anyway.
It appears that Service providers lease out portions of their existing
customers'
lines or bandwidth to others who then sub-lease out theirs and so on and so
forth, so that pretty soon what's left for you isn't much. Anyway, I think
you
get the idea. I'll try to find the article and post it here. It may have
come from
"MySpeed PC" FAQ or HELP. Not sure.

3. As odd as it might seem, there might be some environmental causes.
I'm on ADSL here in Thailand and we're just ending the rainy season in these
parts. During it's height, all kinds of problems and speed down to zilch
most
times. If good weather for while, like now, it's back up to 40 - 100 KB/s or
so
(that is, Bytes; not bits). Now that's a fact - but can't say if it's 100%
true or
just coincidental.

4. Check Google and download free version of "MySpeed PC". This will show
you graphically what your connection is like. There's also a trial version of
"Visual Route" there which will show you where the bottlenecks are.

 

[Guest]

@ Jack
Thanks for the reply, I think that's the problem. My girlfriend's mother
borrowed her laptop and took it to work, while there it was connected to a
LAN. Now it's back home I am unable to disable the in-built modem because (I
think) of the LAN connection. When I try to disconect it I get a message
which says it's unable to perform the operation and it mentions something
about protocols. Sorry it's a bit vague but I'm typing this from memory. Do
you think if the laptop was reconnected to the LAN that the internal modem
could be disabled then?

@ ASIF
Yep, I've tried that and it doesn't seem to help. Thanks anyway. I also ran
the diagnostic software which came with the modem, it checks the bandwidth,
line and network and it all checks out fine. The laptop just will not find
the broadband modem e.g. it's not listed in the device manager or phone and
modems tab.

@ tedoniman
Just to clarify; it's definitely "xx Kbps".
I downloaded the MySpeedPC thing, very interesting. It appears that my own
broadband connection is not as fast as I'd thought!

 

[Guest]

Try: http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/ (PChuck's Network) and check out
the help. Chuck's around here a lot too if he's not too busy.

On the MySpeed PC thing, click on the blinking word in bottom-right corner of
graph to toggle between "KBps" (8 x Kbps) and "Kbps" display.

--
Ted...


:

snip

@ tedoniman
Just to clarify; it's definitely "xx Kbps".
I downloaded the MySpeedPC thing, very interesting. It appears that my own
broadband connection is not as fast as I'd thought!

snip