Painfully Slow Internet

[Merlin]

Hello there

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can improve my Broadband Internet connection. It is driving me nuts and is often slower than dial up. Not only am I often unable to get online at all, I am constantly being logged off.

My set up is that I am running Windows XP (Service pack 3), Internet Explorer, ISP is Plusnet and Im using a wireless dlink DSL-2640B modem router. The router is in the next room and is less than 5 metres away. Signal strength is often shown as low. My PC is nearly 3 years old, so hopefully not yet out of date.

Would a high gain antenna for the router improve things for example?

Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

Merlin

[mulac]

Have you tried plugging the ethernet cable in ?

[ShelleyCowie]

Hello there

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can improve my Broadband Internet connection. It is driving me nuts and is often slower than dial up. Not only am I often unable to get online at all, I am constantly being logged off.

My set up is that I am running Windows XP (Service pack 3), Internet Explorer, ISP is Plusnet and Im using a wireless dlink DSL-2640B modem router. The router is in the next room and is less than 5 metres away. Signal strength is often shown as low. My PC is nearly 3 years old, so hopefully not yet out of date.

Would a high gain antenna for the router improve things for example?

Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

Merlin

Do you live in the town or out in the countryside? Sometimes that make a difference.

I have not heard too much about plusnet, hopefully u are not paying for 8 meg. Also depends how far away you are from an exchange. (The little green boxes dotted around for people who wonder what on earth am on). The further away you are then the slower the connection.

I am changing over to BT this month. Getting option 3 with the home hub and telephone, i have heard alot o good things about them.

If you want further info i can send you some by PM later, i used to work for BT and know the set up of our networks! ;)

[Merlin]

Do you live in the town or out in the countryside? Sometimes that make a difference.

I have not heard too much about plusnet, hopefully u are not paying for 8 meg. Also depends how far away you are from an exchange. (The little green boxes dotted around for people who wonder what on earth am on). The further away you are then the slower the connection.

I am changing over to BT this month. Getting option 3 with the home hub and telephone, i have heard alot o good things about them.

If you want further info i can send you some by PM later, i used to work for BT and know the set up of our networks! ;)
Hi ShelleyBain

I am in the country about 6 miles from Thurso and yes I am paying for 8 Meg. It feels more like 8 K instead. A friend of mine who also lives in the country about 8 miles from Thurso does not seem to have a problem with his.

Thanks for your prompt reply.
Merlin

If I 'Fire my Guns' I will probably shoot my self if i dont get this fixed. I like AC/DC too

[ShelleyCowie]

Hi ShelleyBain

I am in the country about 6 miles from Thurso and yes I am paying for 8 Meg. It feels more like 8 K instead. A friend of mine who also lives in the country about 8 miles from Thurso does not seem to have a problem with his.

Thanks for your prompt reply.
Merlin

If I 'Fire my Guns' I will probably shoot my self if i dont get this fixed. I like AC/DC too

Have u contacted ur ISP? Also maybe get a line test done. See if they can send an 8meg file down the line and they can check how fast its running. I could go into details but will be here for ages explaining it all. :lol: But ping tests should show how much bandwidth is capable in your area.

Thing is all these ISP's say we can have 8meg even though the area we are in does not have the correct set up for it.

P.s its breaking benjamin - Blow me away ;)

[Gizmo]

Hi ShelleyBain

I am in the country about 6 miles from Thurso and yes I am paying for 8 Meg. It feels more like 8 K instead. A friend of mine who also lives in the country about 8 miles from Thurso does not seem to have a problem with his.

Thanks for your prompt reply.
Merlin

If I 'Fire my Guns' I will probably shoot my self if i dont get this fixed. I like AC/DC too

You are NOT paying for 8 meg, you are paying for 'up to' 8 meg, where exactly is the exchange you are connected to?, if you are connected to the Thurso exchange then you are likely to getting the most basic of broadband connection due to your distance from the exchange.

[Kodiak]

Hi Merlin

My Son lives quite a bit further out from Thurso than you do, 12 miles from Thurso. He also uses Plusnet and he did have the same problem as you do. He used a Wireless Router, the same D-Link, and connected 4 computers to it. 3 of these were very slow connections but the 4th, a laptop was very fasr.

The difference was that the LapTop was connected direct into the Router via a cable and Not a wireless connection.

So what he did was this, he connected all his computers to the Router by cable and the speed increased dramatically. As he now says "My connection is wizzing along"

I do not know if this solution will help you or not but it seemed to work for him. He had to make all the cables safe and hidden so no one would trip up on them but he said it was worth it.

[Merlin]

Hi Kodiak

Many thanks for the advice regarding direct connection. It may be my only option. I even tried bringing the router into the same room as my PC via a telephone extension, but this made no difference. When you say connect directly into the router, do you use the ethernet lead from your PC into one of the 4 connection ports in the router?

Thanks again for the advice.

Merlin

[Kodiak]

Hi Kodiak

Many thanks for the advice regarding direct connection. It may be my only option. I even tried bringing the router into the same room as my PC via a telephone extension, but this made no difference. When you say connect directly into the router, do you use the ethernet lead from your PC into one of the 4 connection ports in the router?

Thanks again for the advice.

Merlin

Yes that is correct :)

K

[EDDIE]

Hello there

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can improve my Broadband Internet connection. It is driving me nuts and is often slower than dial up. Not only am I often unable to get online at all, I am constantly being logged off.

My set up is that I am running Windows XP (Service pack 3), Internet Explorer, ISP is Plusnet and Im using a wireless dlink DSL-2640B modem router. The router is in the next room and is less than 5 metres away. Signal strength is often shown as low. My PC is nearly 3 years old, so hopefully not yet out of date.

Would a high gain antenna for the router improve things for example?

Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

Merlin

The router u have is g range so its not got a very good range really you ideally want a n range min especially if u ever get a laptop so u will have better range and signal strength if u are living in a house were no matter what router u have the wall block the signal u can get these gadgets were u plug it into power socket and then plug the other one into the other power socket in the room were u want wireless connection and then the signal goes via your powerlines then to your pc.
Whether u are paying for 8mb or 1mb internet access thats just one big con if u are paying for 8mb its anything up to 8mb so u might only be getting 1mb speed were u live but your paying for 8mb?
The other thing as well u have to make sure that your pc is is defragged regular and that your computer software isnt running slow and isnt fill of spyware that can slow your internet access and speed down as well
If i was u i would do the basics first and use programs like nortan 360 to give your computer a good clean out and then look at upgrading the router to like a n range.
If u are not using any programs that detect and remove spyware then there will be about 90%chance your computer is fill of spyware
If u are sure all the above things mentioned are ok u could then phone up your internet provider and tell them your internet is slow and they might give you differnet dns settings so u can connect up in a different bit the reason im saying this is because when i bought my belkin router it wouldnt work with orange so i had to phone up and get the settings of them and manually set up the router to get it to work and it was the dns setting were i got 2 lots of numbers to try.

[blueivy]

Hello there

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can improve my Broadband Internet connection. It is driving me nuts and is often slower than dial up. Not only am I often unable to get online at all, I am constantly being logged off.

My set up is that I am running Windows XP (Service pack 3), Internet Explorer, ISP is Plusnet and Im using a wireless dlink DSL-2640B modem router. The router is in the next room and is less than 5 metres away. Signal strength is often shown as low. My PC is nearly 3 years old, so hopefully not yet out of date.

Would a high gain antenna for the router improve things for example?

Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

Merlin

The slow speed of your internet connection, as most people have said, could be a large number of things but the main factors affecting your broadband speed are line quality, distance from exchange, exchange itself, number of people on the same exchange as you connected to broadband and even the weather (depending if your line is above or below ground).

The problem with being disconnected however is usually down to two things - your ADSL filter either not installed or being faulty or you have line problems.

My first port of call would be the ISP themselves. Remember to mention the disconnections more than the line speed being poor. If you concentrate on the line speed being poor they may try and fob you off as most broadband speed problems are out of their hands and down to your line. If you concentrate on the disconnections then that indicates there is a problem and they should take that forward with BT.

Remember as well that while you think you are paying for 8MB you're not. You're paying for UP TO 8MB. The ISP's have already been asked to make it clearer to their customers on this exact issue, something most of them ignore. If you get 512K, then you are still getting up to 8MB and will pay the same as a customer who get's 8MB (although I've never yet seen a customer who get's 8MB in a line test - the hightest I have had here was 6.2MB).

Your wireless problem is something entirely different. Somebody has mentioned that because you have a G router that you will not get a good signal is not quite true (sorry Eddie!). A N rated router won't give you any more signal strength at 5m than a G (or B or A) rated router. The problem you have is down to two things in my opinion - a very bad router that has no power in it's wireless connection OR the environment you are in.

Wireless signals degrade substantially when they go through walls. They degrade even further when the walls are thick (such as in an old house). However I would still expect you to get a decent signal from the next room.

First thing to try is move the laptop into the room where the router is. If you get a strong signal then all good. With the battery in, move the laptop slowly into the next room and watch the signal strength and note when it drop to low. If it drops down to low when you move into that room then maybe it's the walls, electrical interference, pipes or something else in the walls between the rooms.

If however you get a weak signal even when you're next to the router then it's likely to be the router.

My suggestion is not to bother with a high gain antenna for 5m as you'd be wasting your money. Replace the router first.