Broadband problem: slow!!!

Ok, where do I start? I just moved into my apartment where I go to school. Charter Communications (extremely poor company, check out BBB) is the only cable broadband service provider in the area.

After getting the network set up everything worked well. We have a motorola cable modem and a linksys WRT54G wireless router. Speed seemed great and a speed test at speedtest.net verified 8 MEG download speed; this is pretty good considering we have 10 MEG broadband.

For the last week the internet has been EXTREMELY slow. I'm talking under 1 MEG, usually 500-900 KB/s. My buddies and I have been trying to nail down the problem with no luck. We've reset the modem and router many times, by-passed the router all together with no luck.

Anti-virus/spyware/adware tests come up negative on all machines and indicative speed tests are done on one computer with all other computers on the network shut down. We thought that it was maybe a bad coaxial cable or outlet, so we tried all the others in the apartment with no luck.

BTW, apartment is fairly new and was built with the last 7 years.

We've tried calling charter but they have been absolutely no help. They tell us to go through the standard "know-nothing" proccedures and came to the conslusion that something is wrong with our networking system. Of course nothing is wrong with the service they provide.

I've had my mother check our internet service at home provided by the same carrier. They live ~140 miles away. Our internet at home is rated at 3 MEG and her speed test came out to be 2.9 MEG. I also had my girlfriend try, same company ~200 miles away, 5 MEG rated service, and it came out to be 4 MEG download.

My conclusion is that the modem might be going bad. We're thinking of buying a new one and trying it out, but if it doesnt work just to return it.

Another thing could be a flaw in the cable system in the apartment complex. We're going to contact the apartment management and see if anyone else is having the same problems. That might narrow it down.

Anyone else have any tips/ideas? We don't really know where to go from here.

 

What I would do you may have done already but it will help identify the problem.

Try another computer and see if it has a slow connection

Disconnect the wireless and plug straight into the modem see if it's any faster

Flush the DNS cache, release and renew> if you don't know how google it.

Reset the modem then try connecting straight through it

Call Charter which I have as well (and see if theres an outage in your area) there often is on occasion. I hate Charter but they actually aren't the worst out there.

Lastly go into Charter get a new modem for free- plug it in- connect through the modem not with the Linksys and see if that helps.

If all else fails relax call Charter and freak out, or smash all the electronics, either won't really help the situation but can be pretty satisfying after such hassle




Good luck.

 

Yep, did all that except flush the DNS cache. Did it, no improvement. Ready to strangle charter through the phone. The irregularity of the connection speed is ridiculous. One day we got 9 MEG, tested it an hour later, <1 MEG. Now it is consistantly that. Sometimes it will climb above 1.5 MEG, but thats a rarity.

 

And you tried hooking the modem straight to a computer bypassing the wireless? Wireless "g" operates in the 2.4gigahertz range same as alot of cordless phones. You could be experiencing interference.

Charter uses a EQA test on all modems that checks of many things as signal to noise ratio. This can help determine that if you slow bandwidth is due to line noise or bad wiring. A RF short can cause internet slowdowns by infusing noise in the line. Dont count out that substandard coax (RG59) running through multiple splitters can ruin your signal from the tap. Either case, Charter should come out and determine the cause. If its because of noise coming from the cable tap outside then it should be a free service call. If the fault is determined to come from bad wiring in your home, expect to pay for the service call. GL

 

Tried bypassing router and going straight from modem. No phone service in the apartment since we all have cell phones, unless it is coming from a different apartment. Noise is a consideration as well as a faulty modem. We're checking other users in the apartment to see if they get the same inconsistant speeds. That might narrow it down to bad wiring.

On the positive side, I just tested and got 7 MEG through the wireless router, so probably around 8 MEG wired, but i'll have to see what it does throughout the rest of the day/night.

 

Have you tried pinging the sites you normally visit? Are you seeing high latency on the first handful of hops (the ones Charter run)? If you have normal latency on all hops after Charter that would indicate an issue within your node, something Charter could potentially fix.

Secondly, when you are talking about these speeds, are you saying 500-900 kilo BYTES, or are you talking bits? Cause if you're getting 900KB that's well over 1megabit. 128 bytes in a mbit, so 900KB divide 128 = 7.03megabit which is close to your rating. Just want to make sure you understand what numbers you're talking about here. Cause based on you saying you're not getting 1mbit but then in the next line saying you're getting 500-900KB just doesn't add up.

 

Cable internet is a lot like a garden hose. If you're the only one using the hose, you get great water pressure. When people start splicing into the hose, you get less and less water. If there are more customers on your particular cable hub, you'll notice a drop in throughput, especially if everyone is doing some serious downloading.

Not so much a suggestion, but just a little FYI that may explain the sudden degredation at certain times of the day.

 

yea its not a completely dedicated line, you pay big bucks for those

to get on average around 1mb/s is good man, what are you doing that you possibly need more

not only that but its determined by the servers as well....I mean you could have gone onto the bandwidth test or whatever it was when the server wasnt lagged and nobody was on your line locally

if you arent having problems with intermittent disconnects or lagging completely, then its not worth complaining about to the cable company....you could just for the heck of it ask them to check the outside coax line to see if any squirrels have chewed on it, but that does not seem to be what you complain of

 

I lived in a college apartment complex and would have slow downs at peak hours like anyone else on cable, the node was obviously overloaded, but no way you're going to see drops in your rated speeds that drastic, and consistently. If you're buddies aren't p2p'ing, you shouldn't have that drastic a spike in speed. While the last 2 posters are correct in that you technically share bandwidth with everyone else on your node, you're not going to see speeds of 128kbytes when you're rated at around 1100kbytes. I certainly would complain about it that. These drops are even less prevalent if you live in a house, or in a more rural area without high concentrations of apt. complexes.

 

Cable isn't so swell in apartment complexes. DSL (if it works) would be a better link for you. Move.

 

Is your wireless secure? If several neighbors are leaching... then you will have a drastic slowdown. GL