Member Avatar for actfray

I recently moved into a new house where the owner has a high-speed internet connection through Comcast. I installed a wireless-B adapter (made by Linksys) so I could tune in to his signal. After a few days, my computer reverted back to its old dial-up habits. It still takes a long time to connect to pages, and even when I try to get on Google or Yahoo, I sometimes get a page saying "Page not found".

My signal strength with the adapter is "excellant". I have installed a firewall and had a computer-literate friend of mine clean out all the garbage and unnecessary programs that are running and taking up space. I have 256 MB of memory which I am told is standard. (Someone suggested getting more would speed up my computer).

I hate the idea of paying for high-speed and having to deal with all the inconveniences of dial-up performance. Any suggestions as to what else I can check for?

Thanks!

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A few focused checks will isolate whether this is a radio/link problem, a name-resolution/path problem, or something on the PC itself. already notes an "excellent" signal; that only tells you RSSI, not whether packets are being lost or routed correctly. The troubleshooting below complements the suggestions in the thread and targets gaps not yet covered.

Run three quick tests from a command prompt to narrow the fault to local, upstream, or DNS:

ipconfig /all
ping -n 20 <router_IP>
ping -n 20 8.8.8.8
nslookup www.google.com

If you cannot reach the router or see high packet loss to it, the problem is local (wireless link or NIC). If the router is fine but ping to 8.8.8.8 is lossy, the issue is upstream (router/ISP). If pings work but nslookup fails or times out, suspect DNS configuration.

Wireless-specific checks not yet emphasized here: verify the adapter’s current link rate in the OS (if it’s stuck at 1–11 Mbps that explains "dial-up" speed), update the wireless driver/firmware, and disable any NIC power-saving modes. Look for channel congestion and overlapping APs (move the AP to a nonoverlapping 2.4 GHz channel or try 5 GHz if both devices support it). Test with a different adapter or a direct Ethernet cable (and a known-good cable) to separate radio hardware from router/ISP problems.

If the wired test is also slow, inspect NIC duplex settings (mismatched 10/100/half/full causes massive retransmits), check for router-configured bandwidth limits or per-MAC QoS, and try booting a clean environment (Linux live USB) to rule out OS-level services. If the adapter intermittently disappears, that points at hardware or driver failure—swap the adapter before replacing the whole PC.

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All 10 Replies

Member Avatar for GReddy4u

I recommend Cable for Internet, in this case, lets see. Signal is saying excellent. Check and see what your connection speed is. Getting more memory would speed up your computer, how fast programs run and internet shows up. But with 256mb, that should be all u need for simply internet browsing. Well, check ur connection speed and get back to me.

Member Avatar for alc6379

It's probably spyware. Have you run SpyBot or Ad Aware yet?

Member Avatar for TallCool1

I recently moved into a new house where the owner has a high-speed internet connection through Comcast. I installed a wireless-B adapter (made by Linksys) so I could tune in to his signal. After a few days, my computer reverted back to its old dial-up habits. It still takes a long time to connect to pages, and even when I try to get on Google or Yahoo, I sometimes get a page saying "Page not found".

My signal strength with the adapter is "excellant". I have installed a firewall and had a computer-literate friend of mine clean out all the garbage and unnecessary programs that are running and taking up space. I have 256 MB of memory which I am told is standard. (Someone suggested getting more would speed up my computer).

I hate the idea of paying for high-speed and having to deal with all the inconveniences of dial-up performance. Any suggestions as to what else I can check for?

Have you tried something like TweakTest?

It can tell you quite a bit about your setup, and the tools are available on the same site. MTU (maximum transfer unit) settings can make a big difference in broadband performance, and the default values are very often incorrect.

Member Avatar for dvr

does your neighboor know you are doing this?
and are you connecting through the network adapter or through your modem?
if your nieghboor doesn't know you are doing this he could of found you out and changed his settings. if he knows ask him to restart his router(power down then power up), if he doesn't know then go get a cable modem.

Member Avatar for actfray

It's not my neighbor that has the router; it's my housemate who lives upstairs. He has checked out everything for me, and even he's mystified. Tonight, I could not even get a signal from the adapter. I did a complete virus scan, but nothing unusual was found. I also installed AdAware a few nights ago.

If my computer is still under warranty, I'll probably just exchange it or have it repaired.

Member Avatar for chanto!

It's not my neighbor that has the router; it's my housemate who lives upstairs. He has checked out everything for me, and even he's mystified. Tonight, I could not even get a signal from the adapter. I did a complete virus scan, but nothing unusual was found. I also installed AdAware a few nights ago.

If my computer is still under warranty, I'll probably just exchange it or have it repaired.

If the wireless access point / router has MAC filtering turned on, try turning it off... it just might speed up your connection... mine did.

Member Avatar for RC_Razor

im all behind but that tweaktest was kewl.. never seen that before thanks tallcool1

Member Avatar for sameer8465

i just got my 512kbps broadband adsl router a few weeks ago it worked fine for 1 week,i use wpa-psk, security is turned on so nobuddy is using my router except me but still my browsing speed is as slow as dial up.I am having a new laptop with 3 gb ram and is 100% free of any viruses, i use wireless but still the browsing is very slow.I tried using ethernet but still the same problem! help plz.

Member Avatar for cpyou

I have a similar problem,
I have two computers, the desktop uses a wireless adapter
and the laptop uses an 802.11bgn 1T1R Mini Card Wireless.
I access the highspeed wireless through the neighours router (with permission).
The desktop has no problems on highspeed but the laptop is very slow and i am always getting "page cannot be displayed".
Both computers do well on dialup.
Any thoughts?
Thanks

Member Avatar for cpyou

I have a similar problem,
I have two computers, the desktop uses a wireless adapter
and the laptop uses an 802.11bgn 1T1R Mini Card Wireless.
I access the highspeed wireless through the neighours router (with permission).
The desktop has no problems on highspeed but the laptop is very slow and i am always getting "page cannot be displayed".
Both computers do well on dialup.
Any thoughts?
Thanks

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