Internet service slowing down?

I have a dim 2400 system. It has been working fine. I use Broadband (cable).

Lately, (just during the last few days) I've noticed my internet connection
seems to vary in speed quite a bit. In the early afternoon it is usually
fine. But in the evenings of late it seems to slow down. It is also slowing
down right now. I am wondering if this is just the time of the year where
maybe there is just a lot of traffic?? (School is about to start, etc. Would
a large amount of such usage slow down my speed).

If not, what could the problem be??

I use a firewall (Zone Alarm). I regularly run my anti-virus program (AVG)
and there are no viruses. I also run anti-spyware (both Ad-Aware and
Spybot). I also defrag my drive and do the usual IE and OE maintenance.

Any ideas??

MB

On Thu, 19 Aug 2004 12:17:27 -0400, MB wrote:

I have a dim 2400 system. It has been working fine. I use Broadband (cable).

Lately, (just during the last few days) I've noticed my internet connection
seems to vary in speed quite a bit. In the early afternoon it is usually
fine. But in the evenings of late it seems to slow down. It is also slowing
down right now. I am wondering if this is just the time of the year where
maybe there is just a lot of traffic?? (School is about to start, etc. Would
a large amount of such usage slow down my speed).

If not, what could the problem be??

I use a firewall (Zone Alarm). I regularly run my anti-virus program (AVG)
and there are no viruses. I also run anti-spyware (both Ad-Aware and
Spybot). I also defrag my drive and do the usual IE and OE maintenance.

Any ideas??

My first guess would be what you described above, the number of people
getting online taking up bandwidth and slowing everyone down. Cable
Internet is particularly known for that in many areas. I also have cable
and got lucky since it just arrived in this area not many other people have
it yet.

You aren't downloading a lot of stuff are you? My ISP places limits on how
much I can download. For the plan I have I can download 350MB per hour at
which time I'm slowed down for an hour. When I first began hitting this
wall and seeing my connection go from 200kbps to 50kbps I thought something
was wrong, but a phone call to my ISP cleared it up. They said this was to
keep the file sharing folks from using up all the bandwidth all the time.

Dave
--
We are the US military. Your asses will be kicked. Resistance is futile.

US Army Signal Corps!
www.geocities.com/davidcasey98

Remove IH8SPAM to reply by email!

"MB" wrote:

I have a dim 2400 system. It has been working fine. I use Broadband (cable).

Lately, (just during the last few days) I've noticed my internet connection
seems to vary in speed quite a bit. In the early afternoon it is usually
fine. But in the evenings of late it seems to slow down. It is also slowing
down right now. I am wondering if this is just the time of the year where
maybe there is just a lot of traffic?? (School is about to start, etc. Would
a large amount of such usage slow down my speed).

If not, what could the problem be??

One factor is the arrangement of cable internet, which involves
local nodes serving groups of customers. With customer growth
and/or changes [typically increases ;-] in customer usage
patterns, the node gets overloaded. I've seen this several times
in the four-plus years I've been with Comcast. So far, Comcast
has been pretty good with their traffic analysis, and
rearrange/increase nodes quickly. I've never seen this type of
slowdown last longer than a few days before jumping back up
again.

Another factor could be that several new customers on your node
have just discovered streaming video - porn sites or otherwise
;-.

Finally, is it every site you visit at a given time, or does it
vary. Remember, there are always two parts to your internet
connection, your computer and the one you are talking to. I have
seen periods when a server that regularly talks to me at kiloByte
speeds in the 400s all of a sudden drop back to 40-50KB/sec for a
day or two. While other servers are talking to me at the same
old 300-400KB/sec they always have.

I use a firewall (Zone Alarm). I regularly run my anti-virus program (AVG)
and there are no viruses. I also run anti-spyware (both Ad-Aware and
Spybot). I also defrag my drive and do the usual IE and OE maintenance.

Any ideas??

Last one, check out http://www.dslreports.com/stest, and run a
speed test from time to time, during regular times as well as
slowdowns.

The four main test servers shown are often busy, but there's a
link to a couple hundred other speed test sites. [Just did mine
and found I was within 5% of Comcast's 3mbps goal - not bad for
mid-day, particularly since it was 5% *above* that goal. ;-]
--
OJ III
[Email to Yahoo address may be burned before reading.
Lower and crunch the sig and you'll net me at comcast.]

Any ideas??

Other than the problems mentioned about the way cable is distributing the
bandwidth, what browser do you use ?

Have you tried throwing cwshredder and spywareblaster at IE ?
(if you use it)

They can be found here (not the "home" site, but legit)

http://www.lurkhere.com/~nicefiles (cwshredder)
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com (spywareblaster)

Does it only happen when you`re browsing, or when you do anything ?

--
Please add "[newsgroup]" in the subject of any personal replies via email
--- My new email address has "ngspamtrap" & @btinternet.com in it ;-) ---

Dave,
Off the topic of the original poster, how do you feel about having your ISP
limit your bandwidth usage? To me, that would seem like a self-defeating
proposition of the broadband offering. Content providers are working hard to
offer users programming of value, and some ISP's are just saying NO.
RTWhite

On Thu, 19 Aug 2004 11:06:02 -0600, David Casey
wrote:

On Thu, 19 Aug 2004 12:17:27 -0400, MB wrote:

I have a dim 2400 system. It has been working fine. I use Broadband (cable).

Lately, (just during the last few days) I've noticed my internet connection
seems to vary in speed quite a bit. In the early afternoon it is usually
fine. But in the evenings of late it seems to slow down. It is also slowing
down right now. I am wondering if this is just the time of the year where
maybe there is just a lot of traffic?? (School is about to start, etc. Would
a large amount of such usage slow down my speed).

If not, what could the problem be??

I use a firewall (Zone Alarm). I regularly run my anti-virus program (AVG)
and there are no viruses. I also run anti-spyware (both Ad-Aware and
Spybot). I also defrag my drive and do the usual IE and OE maintenance.

Any ideas??

My first guess would be what you described above, the number of people
getting online taking up bandwidth and slowing everyone down. Cable
Internet is particularly known for that in many areas. I also have cable
and got lucky since it just arrived in this area not many other people have
it yet.

You aren't downloading a lot of stuff are you? My ISP places limits on how
much I can download. For the plan I have I can download 350MB per hour at
which time I'm slowed down for an hour. When I first began hitting this
wall and seeing my connection go from 200kbps to 50kbps I thought something
was wrong, but a phone call to my ISP cleared it up. They said this was to
keep the file sharing folks from using up all the bandwidth all the time.

Dave

zone alarm probably has a conflict with your anti virus.turn off zone alarm
and see if the speed improves. it happened to me and took many hours to find
this out. may not be your problem but it sure was mine.


larry


"Jim Higgins" wrote in message
news
On Thu, 19 Aug 2004 12:17:27 -0400, in
, "MB"
wrote:

I have a dim 2400 system. It has been working fine. I use Broadband
(cable).

Lately, (just during the last few days) I've noticed my internet
connection
seems to vary in speed quite a bit. In the early afternoon it is usually
fine. But in the evenings of late it seems to slow down. It is also
slowing
down right now. I am wondering if this is just the time of the year where
maybe there is just a lot of traffic?? (School is about to start, etc.
Would
a large amount of such usage slow down my speed).

If not, what could the problem be??

I use a firewall (Zone Alarm). I regularly run my anti-virus program
(AVG)
and there are no viruses. I also run anti-spyware (both Ad-Aware and
Spybot). I also defrag my drive and do the usual IE and OE maintenance.

Any ideas??

The problem with saying "the Internet" slows down is that you
generally aren't able to distinguish between the speed of data
transport from source to destination and the speed of the source
itself. If you play around on Yahoo or Hotmail in evening "prime
time" or between roghly 1200 - 1300 east coast or west coast time
then you're going to see decreased performance because Yahoo,
hotmail (etc) are loaded at these times. People play at night
and check email during lunch time. Pay attention to the pattern
for a few days and see if that doesn't explain it.

--
Jim Higgins, quasimodo AT yahoo DOT com
icbm: 33.55.34N, 80.24.21W

Shoot, cable isn't the only culprit here - even DSL is affected by
traffic
that arrives at the SLIC, and clogs the server there. DSL guarantees a
given BW from your connection to the SLIC but after that they can easily
be suffering an "infrastructure" problem (not enough HW to support the
traffic).
Plus there's the additional factor already mentioned about the BW at the
SITE - if the connected site can't handle the requests being thrown at it by
a bunch of "high speed users", it can also slow the response greatly.
The rapid increase in number of "high speed users" is putting a larger
burden
on sites that were designed for "mediocre" traffic, methinks.

My ISP limit my bandwidth? Nowadays, that's not the total equation.

NGA

RTW wrote in message news
Dave,
Off the topic of the original poster, how do you feel about having your
ISP
limit your bandwidth usage? To me, that would seem like a self-defeating
proposition of the broadband offering. Content providers are working hard
to
offer users programming of value, and some ISP's are just saying NO.
RTWhite

On Thu, 19 Aug 2004 11:06:02 -0600, David Casey

wrote:

On Thu, 19 Aug 2004 12:17:27 -0400, MB wrote:

I have a dim 2400 system. It has been working fine. I use Broadband
(cable).

Lately, (just during the last few days) I've noticed my internet
connection
seems to vary in speed quite a bit. In the early afternoon it is
usually
fine. But in the evenings of late it seems to slow down. It is also
slowing
down right now. I am wondering if this is just the time of the year
where
maybe there is just a lot of traffic?? (School is about to start, etc.
Would
a large amount of such usage slow down my speed).

If not, what could the problem be??

I use a firewall (Zone Alarm). I regularly run my anti-virus program
(AVG)
and there are no viruses. I also run anti-spyware (both Ad-Aware and
Spybot). I also defrag my drive and do the usual IE and OE maintenance.

Any ideas??

My first guess would be what you described above, the number of people
getting online taking up bandwidth and slowing everyone down. Cable
Internet is particularly known for that in many areas. I also have cable
and got lucky since it just arrived in this area not many other people
have
it yet.

You aren't downloading a lot of stuff are you? My ISP places limits on
how
much I can download. For the plan I have I can download 350MB per hour
at
which time I'm slowed down for an hour. When I first began hitting this
wall and seeing my connection go from 200kbps to 50kbps I thought
something
was wrong, but a phone call to my ISP cleared it up. They said this was
to
keep the file sharing folks from using up all the bandwidth all the time.

Dave

On Thu, 19 Aug 2004 18:27:56 -0400, RTW wrote:

Dave,
Off the topic of the original poster, how do you feel about having your ISP
limit your bandwidth usage? To me, that would seem like a self-defeating
proposition of the broadband offering. Content providers are working hard to
offer users programming of value, and some ISP's are just saying NO.
RTWhite

Well, at the time I discovered it I didn't like it at all. I was
downloading quite a bit of stuff that day and it added a number of hours to
my download time. But my daily usage doesn't come anywhere close to the
350MB per hour limit my ISP places on us. I can totally understand the
limits since many of the folks in my computer classes at college run 24/7
file sharing programs and if they were in my neighborhood would be taking
up all the bandwidth all the time. I am sure there are a few folks who are
getting cable Internet out here since it has been in this area now for
about the past 5 months or so.

I did sign up for the minimum account (.5MB speed) but the ISP has since
increased everyone to 1.5MB no matter their account. Those who signed up
for the 1MB accounts are allowed 650MB per hour bandwidth while those with
my accounts are allowed the 350MB.

After using dial-up for almost the first year here in this house, I was
ready for anything faster. I had DSL in the apartment which was problem
free and fast so dropping down to dial-up sucked to put it nicely. ;-)

Dave
--
We are the US military. Your asses will be kicked. Resistance is futile.

US Army Signal Corps!
www.geocities.com/davidcasey98

Remove IH8SPAM to reply by email!

lARRY:

Somehow, turning off ZA doesn't seem like a very smart idea, although it may
well be the culprit.

Again, most of the time the speed is just fine.

Maybe it's just a temporary screwup.

Mel
"Larrry" wrote in message
m...
zone alarm probably has a conflict with your anti virus.turn off zone
alarm
and see if the speed improves. it happened to me and took many hours to
find
this out. may not be your problem but it sure was mine.


larry


"Jim Higgins" wrote in message
news
On Thu, 19 Aug 2004 12:17:27 -0400, in
, "MB"
wrote:

I have a dim 2400 system. It has been working fine. I use Broadband
(cable).

Lately, (just during the last few days) I've noticed my internet
connection
seems to vary in speed quite a bit. In the early afternoon it is
usually
fine. But in the evenings of late it seems to slow down. It is also
slowing
down right now. I am wondering if this is just the time of the year
where
maybe there is just a lot of traffic?? (School is about to start, etc.
Would
a large amount of such usage slow down my speed).

If not, what could the problem be??

I use a firewall (Zone Alarm). I regularly run my anti-virus program
(AVG)
and there are no viruses. I also run anti-spyware (both Ad-Aware and
Spybot). I also defrag my drive and do the usual IE and OE maintenance.

Any ideas??

The problem with saying "the Internet" slows down is that you
generally aren't able to distinguish between the speed of data
transport from source to destination and the speed of the source
itself. If you play around on Yahoo or Hotmail in evening "prime
time" or between roghly 1200 - 1300 east coast or west coast time
then you're going to see decreased performance because Yahoo,
hotmail (etc) are loaded at these times. People play at night
and check email during lunch time. Pay attention to the pattern
for a few days and see if that doesn't explain it.

--
Jim Higgins, quasimodo AT yahoo DOT com
icbm: 33.55.34N, 80.24.21W

whatever!! maybe do some research on zone alarms conflicts with mcafee
and other anti virus programs and you may learn something.
larry
"MB" wrote in message
...
lARRY:

Somehow, turning off ZA doesn't seem like a very smart idea, although it
may
well be the culprit.

Again, most of the time the speed is just fine.

Maybe it's just a temporary screwup.

Mel
"Larrry" wrote in message
m...
zone alarm probably has a conflict with your anti virus.turn off zone
alarm
and see if the speed improves. it happened to me and took many hours to
find
this out. may not be your problem but it sure was mine.


larry


"Jim Higgins" wrote in message
news
On Thu, 19 Aug 2004 12:17:27 -0400, in
, "MB"
wrote:

I have a dim 2400 system. It has been working fine. I use Broadband
(cable).

Lately, (just during the last few days) I've noticed my internet
connection
seems to vary in speed quite a bit. In the early afternoon it is
usually
fine. But in the evenings of late it seems to slow down. It is also
slowing
down right now. I am wondering if this is just the time of the year
where
maybe there is just a lot of traffic?? (School is about to start,
etc.
Would
a large amount of such usage slow down my speed).

If not, what could the problem be??

I use a firewall (Zone Alarm). I regularly run my anti-virus program
(AVG)
and there are no viruses. I also run anti-spyware (both Ad-Aware and
Spybot). I also defrag my drive and do the usual IE and OE
maintenance.

Any ideas??

The problem with saying "the Internet" slows down is that you
generally aren't able to distinguish between the speed of data
transport from source to destination and the speed of the source
itself. If you play around on Yahoo or Hotmail in evening "prime
time" or between roghly 1200 - 1300 east coast or west coast time
then you're going to see decreased performance because Yahoo,
hotmail (etc) are loaded at these times. People play at night
and check email during lunch time. Pay attention to the pattern
for a few days and see if that doesn't explain it.

--
Jim Higgins, quasimodo AT yahoo DOT com
icbm: 33.55.34N, 80.24.21W