Internet connection suddenly very slow on Windowns 7

[jaward1]

Hi. Thanks for reading this.

Over the last 2 or 3 days I have had a problem with my internet speed. I have tested the router on 2 computers and it has dropped from an average game download speed on Steam from 1 mb/s to around 300kb/s. Any ideas why?

I have done a virus scan and found nothing....I have do a hijack this log and found nothing bad...I have reset my router, made sure the wires are all in place...we have an unlimited download plan so I doubt it is due to my network provider. It is just suddenly a very slow connection and this persists all day (as far as I am aware).

It is making streaming youtube videos and the like very frustrating! Are there any settings I can change? Any programs that speed up internet speed?
Any help appreciated, thanks,
Jimmy.

EDIT: I did an internet speed test and found my download speed should be at least 2.3 mb/s! The mystery becomes more perplexing by the minute....

[Bal]

Have you contacted you provider and got them to run a test on the line?

[jingda]

Are you sure there is no security software hindering your connection. some anti virus software may make the internet a bit lag. Turn off your firewall.

Also tell me all these
1) How many packets received per seconds
2) How many packets send per seconds
3) How many data received
4) How many data sent

[Kraai]

It is your ISP, contact them, they may throttle you.

[jingda]

In my previous post if you see all those packets receive is low, call up your ISP just as Kraai and Bal have suggested.

[jaward1]

Wow thank you for the quick replies guys! I will contact my ISP provider and see where that goes! Thank you very much again and I hope this solves the problem...it just seems strange that it's only over the last 3 or 4 days that this has been happening! I haven't downloaded or installed anything so I assume it is not my computers fault...
We'll see,
Cheers,
Jimmy

[Kraai]

let us know what happened!

[jaward1]

I will Kraai! Thanks!
Im scared of being throttled though!

[jingda]

You still have not answered my questions

[jaward1]

Hi Jinga sorry, I'm not 100% how to check for this information?
And Kraai, I rang up my ISP and they detected a 'fault in the connection' when they ran a test so they are going to send an engineer over tomorrow! They also upped my speed to a solid 3mb/s they said to make up but so far I haven't noticed a difference!

[Kraai]

hehe... yes, in most cases it is the fault of the ISP. After they sorted out your "connection fault", you can do an independent speedtest at http://speedtest.net where you can actually post your results here and to them. It will be a good idea to do a before and after speedtest.

To do the test jinga is talking about, you can run your command promp (On windows XP it is start > run > type in cmd and enter ) to call up the command promp. In the black box, you can type

ping daniweb.com (and enter)

That will show you some ping speed results to daniweb server as well.

[jaward1]

Hi Kraai, thanks for the advice! I got 2.65mb/s download speed, 0.19mb/s upload speed so I will check it after the engineer has been round!
And Jinga....I got 4 packets sent, 4 receieved, 0 lost, it took 159ms and I pinged with 32 bytes of data! Is that enough information?
Thanks,
Jimmy

[Kraai]

2.65 MB/s on a 3 MB/s connection is not bad download at all. It is that 0.19 MB/s upload that looks a bit too low for me.

I think you should at least get around 0.400 MB/s upload. There may be "noise" on your line.

[jaward1]

How do I solve that?! Or is that a job for Mr Engineer later?

[jaward1]

But my download speed IS very slow....300kb/s on Steam....is that due to upload speed? Im such an amateur at this....

[Kraai]

No, if you experience 300 kb/s to certain servers, that is slow, and it may mean that the server you downloading from is slow, or your ISP has a throttle on that server/or service. If speedtest.net gives you 2.65 MB/s download speed, but you actually download from certain servers at 300 kb/s it means your connection is OKAY, but the server/service you are downloading from is slow/throttled or your ISP is having a "user policy" in place to such servers, throtteling your connection to such services or servers.

Ask the techie when he/she comes to investigate why you get a good speedtest.net result, but your actual download from Steam is dial-up quality. Also, the techie must look into your upload speedtest result and see if he can resolve that.

Edit: Also, do a ping test to Steam AND see for packet losses and specially the latency (ping speed)

[uv4u]

this may be because of fair use policy, every isp gives unlimited data plan but hides fair uses policy, they provide only 6 to 8 gb at high speed after fair uses speed automatically dropped down, so ask to ur isp,

[Bal]

Have said contact your ISP from early on in the thread ( which you have done now).

Once they fix the issue from their side, you will need to run the test's again.

It's no point the ISP upping you speeds till they fixed the 1st problem as you will still have the loss.

[skilly]

hmmm...your ISP found fault in the connection? sounds vague....

i was thinking more about your router. if it is wirless, you need to create a password..etc. you can get to your router's settings by typing its IP address in the address line of your browser(at least that's how mine works). any smartphone can hack wireless routers to steal your bandwith, and a password is not always enough(especially if it is weak) also, bittorrent software should always be closed when you aren't using it.

if you get to your router's settings page, check the security log
glad if i could help
-skilly
-edit -how am i being unclear?
perhaps you need me to tell you how to find your router's IP address?

[Bal]

Skilly

Did you read the full topic??

jaward said

I rang up my ISP and they detected a 'fault in the connection' when they ran a test so they are going to send an engineer over tomorrow!

Until that fault is fixed it's no point doing Ping's or any other test's as they are not reliable.