Slow Broadband

[Guest]

Hi, I apologize upfront if I have placed this post in the wrong forum...

I have Windows XP Professional. I am experiencing a slower internet access
and I believe that the problem is something that I must be causing and am not
aware of how to fix it..

I should start out by mentioning that I access my internet through Comcast.
Over the past several months, I noticed (thru accessing various broadband
test sites) that my download speeds were only ranging between 2.4 and 2.8
kbps. Comcast advertises speeds up to 6.0 kpbs. I contacted comcast who came
out to my home to troubleshoot the problem. After a good couple hours of
changing cable wires and splitters, etc. the technician diagnosed the problem
to be a faulty cable modem (it was about 4 years old).

Sure enough, when he installed the new modem, the speed was greatly
increased (even past 6.0 kpbs).We thought we had te problem solved. Now for
the tricky part..

I have a Linksys Wireless G router attached to the system and also an HP
Wireless Printer. Oh and my system is brand new - Dell; pentium 4; 3.6 mghz.
Before the tech left, I had him reinstall the router and we then checked the
speed again. There was little or no difference at all and I was still getting
around 6.0 kpbs of speed. I thought for sure the problem was fixed when the
modem was replaced and I was a happy guy.

The technician left and I then powered the system down. When I turned the
system back on about two hours later, I noticed a large degredation in speed
again. I ran the broadband speed test and saw that I was back at where I was
before the modem was replaced, which was about 2.4 - 2.8 kbps.

So I am perplexed. I contacted comcast who is willing to come out to my home
again, but I honestly feel they are not causing this issue, and that it must
be something inherent in my system that is causing the speed flucuations. My
gut keeps pointing me back to the Linksys Wireless G Router or the HP
Printer, but yet there were no issues with this equipment when the technician
reintalled them yesterday when we were running at 6.0 kpbs.

Finally, I also want to point out that an eror message popped up a couple
times yesterday which said the following - IEXPLORE.EXE - Application Error.
The instruction at “0x10003e8d†referenced memory at “0x10003e8dâ€. The memory
could not be “writtenâ€. I don't know if this is relevant to my situation or
not.

So with all that said, I am wondering if anyone out there can help me or
give me some troubleshootig tips. Sorry for the long post

 

[R. McCarty]

Do you know if your modem is set for "Bridging" mode ? essentially
it becomes a pass though device and your connection is controlled
by the LinkSys router. Which vendor/model is your modem ? Are
you connecting to Comcast via PPPoE ? Have you updated the
firmware in your LinkSys Router to the latest available ?

 

[Guest]

Thanks for your reply. I will attempt to answer some of your questions, but
am having trouble understanding some of the things you are asking and what
you suggest that I do to troubleshoot the situation.

(1) How can I find out if my modem is set for "bridging" mode. Can I check
myself or do I need to contact Comcast?

(2) The modem that the tech installed yesterday was a modem made by "RCA". I
do not have the model number handy (I am at work right now) but it is fairly
small in size and according to the Comcast tech, it is the latest model.

(3) You asked if I was connected to Comcast through PPPoE. I don't know what
that is. What I can tell you is that I am a normal user (non-business) and
use the internet for personal/home use.

(4) I will check to see if my Linksys router has been updated with the
latest firware available. I can tell you that the router was purchased in
January of this year and I haven't made any updates since.

Do you have any opinion on the HP Wireless printer? Any cause for concern
there?

I'll wait to hear from you,

FRANK

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "Frank" <[email protected]>

| Thanks for your reply. I will attempt to answer some of your questions, but
| am having trouble understanding some of the things you are asking and what
| you suggest that I do to troubleshoot the situation.
|
| (1) How can I find out if my modem is set for "bridging" mode. Can I check
| myself or do I need to contact Comcast?
|
| (2) The modem that the tech installed yesterday was a modem made by "RCA". I
| do not have the model number handy (I am at work right now) but it is fairly
| small in size and according to the Comcast tech, it is the latest model.
|
| (3) You asked if I was connected to Comcast through PPPoE. I don't know what
| that is. What I can tell you is that I am a normal user (non-business) and
| use the internet for personal/home use.
|
| (4) I will check to see if my Linksys router has been updated with the
| latest firware available. I can tell you that the router was purchased in
| January of this year and I haven't made any updates since.
|
| Do you have any opinion on the HP Wireless printer? Any cause for concern
| there?
|
| I'll wait to hear from you,
|
| FRANK

If you are connected to COMCAST then you are Cable Internet. PPPoE (Point to Point Protocol
Over Ethernet) is a DSL protocol. Therefore it is NOT a part of your equation.

If you are new to networking and Router linked Internet, I suggest you go wired and NOT
WireLess until you learn all aspects of the technology and the most imoportant part...
Securing the WireLess capability. If you don't you will be the subject of "War Driving" and
either your personal information would be compramised or someone will use your Internet
connection for nefarious activity and YOU will be responsible.

 

[R. McCarty]

I think Comcast does offer DSL service. Suppose I should have asked
the OP which technology he is connected with, so my fault for assuming
it was DSL.

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "R. McCarty" <[email protected]>

| I think Comcast does offer DSL service. Suppose I should have asked
| the OP which technology he is connected with, so my fault for assuming
| it was DSL.
|

I really doubt that COMCAST offers xDSL as that is a Internet over POTS technology and
COMCAST is not a Telecom industry member offering copper pair wiring telephone service.
Indeed, their commercials always state that COMCAST is *always* better and faster than DSL
and you should get their service instead. It would be self defeating to tell audiences not
to use DSL if they also offered it ;-)

I find it interesting that when DSL ISPs up their service, the Cable Internet companies do
as well. Presently COMCAST offers 6 Mb/s download and companies like Verizon offer 3 Mb/s
download (residential). So they are faster than DSL. However Verizon's FIOS (Fiber to the
Premises, FTTP) offering is ever faster. 15Mb/s down and 2Mb/s upload. I like this
competition. Cable Internet companies want to get into the Telecom Industry by offering
Voice over IP (VoIP) technology for telephone over the Internet services. Verizon wants to
get into the Television Industry but offering FIOS which they eventually will offer
telephone, Internet and the coming Television services.

http://www22.verizon.com/FiosForHome/channels/Fios/HighSpeedInternetForHome.asp

 

[Guest]

Gentlemen,

I am connected to the Internet through a Comcast CABLE Modem. I do not use
DSL. based on this, I am hoping you can help me with my situation as
described above. Should I assue the questions originally asked of me do not
pertain to me now since I am not using DSL? Thank you,
FRANK

 

[Vagabond Software]

Hi, I apologize upfront if I have placed this post in the wrong forum...

I have Windows XP Professional. I am experiencing a slower internet access
and I believe that the problem is something that I must be causing and am
not
aware of how to fix it..

I should start out by mentioning that I access my internet through
Comcast.
Over the past several months, I noticed (thru accessing various broadband
test sites) that my download speeds were only ranging between 2.4 and 2.8
kbps. Comcast advertises speeds up to 6.0 kpbs. I contacted comcast who
came
out to my home to troubleshoot the problem. After a good couple hours of
changing cable wires and splitters, etc. the technician diagnosed the
problem
to be a faulty cable modem (it was about 4 years old).

Sure enough, when he installed the new modem, the speed was greatly
increased (even past 6.0 kpbs).We thought we had te problem solved. Now
for
the tricky part..

I have a Linksys Wireless G router attached to the system and also an HP
Wireless Printer. Oh and my system is brand new - Dell; pentium 4; 3.6
mghz.
Before the tech left, I had him reinstall the router and we then checked
the
speed again. There was little or no difference at all and I was still
getting
around 6.0 kpbs of speed. I thought for sure the problem was fixed when
the
modem was replaced and I was a happy guy.

The technician left and I then powered the system down. When I turned the
system back on about two hours later, I noticed a large degredation in
speed
again. I ran the broadband speed test and saw that I was back at where I
was
before the modem was replaced, which was about 2.4 - 2.8 kbps.

So I am perplexed. I contacted comcast who is willing to come out to my
home
again, but I honestly feel they are not causing this issue, and that it
must
be something inherent in my system that is causing the speed flucuations.
My
gut keeps pointing me back to the Linksys Wireless G Router or the HP
Printer, but yet there were no issues with this equipment when the
technician
reintalled them yesterday when we were running at 6.0 kpbs.

Finally, I also want to point out that an eror message popped up a couple
times yesterday which said the following - IEXPLORE.EXE - Application
Error.
The instruction at "0x10003e8d" referenced memory at "0x10003e8d". The
memory
could not be "written". I don't know if this is relevant to my situation
or
not.

Regarding the IEXPLORER error... Are you running a '97 version of any
Microsoft Office application, such as Excel, Word, or PowerPoint 97 mixed
with an XP (2002) or 2003 version of an Office application, such as Outlook
or FrontPage XP/2003?

Regarding the slow broadband connection... Open a command prompt and type
the following command:

tracert ftp.lucasarts.com

When you start seeing the "Request Timed Out" messages, you can use
Control-C to break out of the program. You should be seeing no times
greater than 40 or 50 ms (milliseconds). Run this command (if possible)
during morning hours and again during evening (primetime) hours. If you see
a significant difference in the output or numbers greater than 40 or 50 ms,
please post the out here.

Good Luck,

Carl

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "Frank" <[email protected]>

| Gentlemen,
|
| I am connected to the Internet through a Comcast CABLE Modem. I do not use
| DSL. based on this, I am hoping you can help me with my situation as
| described above. Should I assue the questions originally asked of me do not
| pertain to me now since I am not using DSL? Thank you,
| FRANK

Well to start with COMCAST advertises 6 Mb/s not 6kb/s. In addition, you are NOT guaranteed
the maximum speed. Especially on Cable. Cable Internet which is a shared Internet
technology. If there are many users on your cable "trunk" then others can influence your
maximum download and upload speeds. If you are getting 2.4 - 2.8 Mb/s. (not 2.4 - 2.8
kb/s.) that is not bad. With Verizon DSL I am rated at 1.5 Mb/s and I get 1.5Mb/s. One of
the reasons is that DSL does not suffer the same "shared access" trunk problem. I will also
state that I have had my DSL Modem for more than 5 years with no problems.

One issue that can limit your Broadband experience is malware. Many forms of adware/spyware
will use up your bandwidth such that when you access a speed test web site you don't see the
true picture since the Internet is being shared amongst multiple applications. This could
also be why you had an IE "Application Error". You should scan your computer using such
software as Ad-aware SE v1.06 and SpyBot Search and Destroy v1.4 to see if there is
non-viral malware degrading your Internet activity. Additionally, Peer-to-Peer (P2P)
software such as Grokster and Morpheus will consume bandwidth (if you have such P2P software
installed).

I don't know what site you accessed to test your speed but the following is a good
location...

http://www.dslreports.com/stest

In addition, you really should be discussing Cable access problems in a Cable News Group.

The following URL will take your default News Reader to an appropriate Cable Internet News
Group.
news://aioe.cjb.net/comp.dcom.modems.cable

 

[Vagabond Software]

From: "Frank" <[email protected]>

| Gentlemen,
|
| I am connected to the Internet through a Comcast CABLE Modem. I do not
use
| DSL. based on this, I am hoping you can help me with my situation as
| described above. Should I assue the questions originally asked of me do
not
| pertain to me now since I am not using DSL? Thank you,
| FRANK

Well to start with COMCAST advertises 6 Mb/s not 6kb/s. In addition, you
are NOT guaranteed
the maximum speed. Especially on Cable. Cable Internet which is a shared
Internet
technology. If there are many users on your cable "trunk" then others can
influence your
maximum download and upload speeds. If you are getting 2.4 - 2.8 Mb/s.
(not 2.4 - 2.8
kb/s.) that is not bad. With Verizon DSL I am rated at 1.5 Mb/s and I get
1.5Mb/s. One of
the reasons is that DSL does not suffer the same "shared access" trunk
problem. I will also
state that I have had my DSL Modem for more than 5 years with no problems.

I don't want to take anything away from David's excellent post, but I want
to offer some caution about the "shared trunk" problem. First, even legacy
cablemodem service (less than the new 5MB+ service offered today) is
supported by a huge community trunk. It is HIGHLY UNLIKELY that the
community trunk is being over-loaded. I have never known this to be the
case of slow broadband performance, not one time.

Having said that, it quite common for cablemodem providers to lag demand
when buying bandwidth to the Internet backbone (UUNET, CerfNot, etc). That
will cause all the subscribers in a community (or communities) accessing the
Internet through that backbone router to suffer degraded performance during
peak hours, but this is not a case of the local fiber trunk being
overloaded.

Carl

 

[Stephan]

Hi Frank,

I have comcast cable as well and I am on the same speed tier as you.. and I
do tend to get consistent speeds in the range advertised by Comcast, except
at certain hours of the day. There is a discussion group in the forums at
www.dslreports.com that has been commenting about this slowdown people are
experiencing in Northern California.

With regards to your problem, if you think that the router might be a
factor, one way to test that is to connect your computer up directly to the
cable modem as a temporary test. You would probably need to power down
everything.. the modem and the computer, and then hook them up directly and
power them up one at a time. If you dont get ANY network connectivity after
doing this, you may need to wait several hours. I understand that some
providers look up a specific code in the device connected to them (the mac
address) and if they have the number of your router in their system and then
you connect the modem directly, by passing the router, that's a new number
and it might take a while for their database to update.

In any case, if you connect directly and find that you are getting
consistent speeds, then you know that the problem lies with your router.

However, it seems unlikely that that is the case.. many many people use
those routers and have no problems.

Your Iexplore error code.. does it come after running a speedtest.. at
www.speakeasy.net ? if so, I've experience the same problem. I have no idea
what that is, but I just ignore it... as it is specific to one site.

Unfortunately these problems are not always easy to figure out, especially
if you're not particularily computer savvy, and even then it's sometimes
just a case of messing around and finding the problem fixed and not knowing
specificall what fixed it...

Regards, Stephan