Internet woes
 

Hey guys!

So yeah, my DSL (?) internet has been super chunky for the past couple of weeks.

Downloading a TV show used to take about one hour and fifteen minutes.

Now it's something like three and a half hours, if it even downloads at all.

I thought perhaps I got a nasty virus so I reformatted yesterday but I still continue to have this same problem.

The two monitors on this screen keep turning blue and then to grey, about once every 8 seconds or so.

http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/2529/52905227.png

I'm running Windows XP SP3 with nothing much on it right now. No Norton Anti-Virus, just Microsoft Security Essentials.

I have a 2Wire AT&T wireless router connected by an ethernet cable to my tower.

What are some of the tests I can do to problem solve why my internet is being such a pill with me?

Thanks ahead! :)

Re: Internet woes
 

When I have download issues and have done the troubleshooting you have done already, I go to my ISP. Sounds like your problems originate there.

Re: Internet woes
 

Thanks Grok.

I think you're probably right on this.

I followed the instructions that I found here:
http://forums.att.com/t5/DSL-Routers.../2883349#M1884

I have to continuously refresh pages for them to even load correctly.

And sometimes, when I'm downloading something, I'll have speeds like 50 bytes per second.

That's not very good for DSL internet. :)

Re: Internet woes
 

Run a traceroute to one of the slow pages (according to your description any should be fine). Most likely you'll see then where the problem is.

Re: Internet woes
 

I'm no good with computers to be honest.

Can you point me to a page on how to do this traceroute thingy?

Cheers! :)

Re: Internet woes
 

On Linux it's simply:iirc on Windows it'sBut my memory is pretty faint.

Re: Internet woes
 

So to not get banned from this site, I probably should avoid doing a trace route from a porn site...

Yes? :)

Re: Internet woes
 

That depends on whether you post the output here. ;)

Re: Internet woes
 

Okay. I tried this.

But my cmd DOS thingy in Windows XP that I see for about 1 minute, it suddenly closes after doing it's junk.

How can I keep it open to post it's results?

Re: Internet woes
 

How about open just a DOS shell, then put command
I suspect you are just running from the "run" in menu-start

Use run to run "cmd" then you will get a DOS shell, from there run the commands

Re: Internet woes
 

Okay, here it is.

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/5928/14989944.png

If you have a better site that I can use, I'll do this again.

I just know that if I have two browsers opened, they both "hang".

And with only one open, I still sometimes have to keep hitting "Refresh" for the page to fully load correctly.

Thanks ahead. :)

Re: Internet woes
 

Your tracert output looks quite ok. The telia servers seem to be a bit slow but that's far beyond your network or that of your ISP.
The only thing that might concern me is the timeout (asterisk) between your home router and your ISP's counterpart. But since that's only a single event (at least in your output) I wouldn't want to draw any conclusions based on that without further tests.

Re: Internet woes
 

Yeah, when watching the output, those asterisks took about 15 seconds before it moved on again.

Is there some kind of big site I can do this traceroute with?

I'd like to try it again since my internet seems to drop about every 8 seconds or so.

Thanks!

Re: Internet woes
 

That's normal because an asterisk marks a timeout. Therefore it will always take multiple seconds before one appears.
If you can recreate that result multiple times you should call your ISP.

Google? Facebook? Whatever floats your boat.

Re: Internet woes
 

I don't even have a boat.

Stupid abject poverty. *lol*

Okay, I'll call AT&T tomorrow.

I just worry that if it's a problem on my end, they will end up sending me a monster bill with all of their horror charges. :(