Thread: My internet is an absolute failure.

Ok, I supposedly have 8mb t'interweb; wireless to my laptop from a D-link ADSL router. Which is nice; but the speed is abnormally slow, and ALWAYS has been.

A few months ago we checked over the line and socket and everything and replaced the wire, which did help a bit but the speed is still awful.

I'm currently recieving download speeds averaging 12kb/s. Which is the most morbid thing ever for an 8meg connection.

I know it can go far faster than this; but I don't know where to even start looking for a problem.

Any help?

1)
wireless speed horribly slow (interference, weak signal, etc.)

2)
someone's leaching all your bandwidth cause your wireless is unsecured

3)
your machine is infected with something, and that thing is taking up all your bandwidth


that's all I can think of off the top of my head

Originally Posted by Ynot

1)
wireless speed horribly slow (interference, weak signal, etc.)

My laptop is sitting next to the router; and it says signal strength excellent and it doesn't seem to make a difference when i plug the cable in.

Originally Posted by Ynot

2)
someone's leaching all your bandwidth cause your wireless is unsecured

The wireless is password protected

Originally Posted by Ynot

3)
your machine is infected with something, and that thing is taking up all your bandwidth

It's the same for all machines in the house, which is four; and my laptop is absolutely spotless



It's destroying me.

Originally Posted by Carôusoul

My laptop is sitting next to the router; and it says signal strength excellent and it doesn't seem to make a difference when i plug the cable in.

Ok, it's not the wireless at fault, then

Originally Posted by Carôusoul

The wireless is password protected

when you say password protected, do you mean wireless encryption is enabled, or just that you need a password to change router settings?
someone could still be using your wireless if it's not secured (encrypted) even if the router asks for a password to access settings

enable WPA encryption if your router supports it, disable SSID broadcasting if it's on, change the SSID name (can be anything, just write it down so you don't forget it)

The WPA encryption looks daunting, but most offer a passphrase option (sort of like a password) - if passphrase is an option, use that, and pick a password
Note down the code it gives back

Originally Posted by Ynot

Ok, it's not the wireless at fault, then


when you say password protected, do you mean wireless encryption is enabled, or just that you need a password to change router settings?
someone could still be using your wireless if it's not secured (encrypted) even if the router asks for a password to access settings

enable WPA encryption if your router supports it, disable SSID broadcasting if it's on, change the SSID name (can be anything, just write it down so you don't forget it)

The WPA encryption looks daunting, but most offer a passphrase option (sort of like a password) - if passphrase is an option, use that, and pick a password
Note down the code it gives back

OK, I've disabled wireless, and am just using a cable now, and it remains slow.

Originally Posted by Ynot

1)
wireless speed horribly slow (interference, weak signal, etc.)

2)
someone's leaching all your bandwidth cause your wireless is unsecured

3)
your machine is infected with something, and that thing is taking up all your bandwidth


that's all I can think of off the top of my head

1. Not necessarily true, i get 50-60 Mb/s on my wireless, and i'm halfay across the house!

2. That could be a problem

3. This is probably the most likely

Originally Posted by Seismosaur

1. Not necessarily true, i get 50-60 Mb/s on my wireless, and i'm halfay across the house!

it depends on the materials in the way of the signal

my parents house is full of steel reinforcement, and wireless is a no go even through one wall (signal gets refracted all over the place by the steel)

also something to note: 8Mb is a max.

I have a decent 1Mb connection and it maxes at about 100 kb/s. So, I went and sleuthed a bit and heres what I found.

8MB =/= 8Mb. A lower case b means bits and upper case means bytes. So, if the speed is 8Mb, you actually just have a 1MB connection.

of course, thats still not too near what you're getting. do the lights on your modem flash like mad even when you're not using the internet?

Originally Posted by arby

8MB =/= 8Mb. A lower case b means bits and upper case means bytes. So, if the speed is 8Mb, you actually just have a 1MB connection.

deduct another 5% as well for overhead (not all the information in a TCP/IP packet is useful data, the packets also contain source & dest. IP's, parity bits, various flags, etc.)

but the speeds he's quoting are less than 56K, so something's going on

Originally Posted by arby

also something to note: 8Mb is a max.

I have a decent 1Mb connection and it maxes at about 100 kb/s. So, I went and sleuthed a bit and heres what I found.

8MB =/= 8Mb. A lower case b means bits and upper case means bytes. So, if the speed is 8Mb, you actually just have a 1MB connection.

of course, thats still not too near what you're getting. do the lights on your modem flash like mad even when you're not using the internet?

Yes the lights seem to be flashing alll the time, on the router.

Hmm, I'll check up on the MB Mb thing, but still im well slower.


I'm currently trying to connect to a game, downloading at 5kb/s. shiver.

Originally Posted by Ynot

it depends on the materials in the way of the signal

my parents house is full of steel reinforcement, and wireless is a no go even through one wall (signal gets refracted all over the place by the steel)

My house is made of concrete.

std::

Originally Posted by Seismosaur

My house is made of concrete.

exterior walls, maybe
but internally?