Trouble with internet connection speed

Hi everyone!

My friend has an old laptop she uses for her university work. The other day she was complaining to me that her internet connection seemed to have got dreadfully slow. I looked at it and it was only running at 1200bps!

I checked in Device Manager, which says it is set to the highest speed 112000 odd, as I remember.

I also checked the dial up connection on my machine, and it ran at the correct speed.

The modem is a Gold Card NetGlobal 56K + 10-100MB card bus. (I'm assuming that's a modem and network card all in one?)

Do any of you guys have any ideas as to what could be making her modem run so slow?

Cheers,

Justin.

 

This refers to the speed at which the modem is allowed to communicate with the CPU , not the modem to internet speed.

When you dial in , your modem sends a series of test packets defined by the protocol used (V90, or V92 most commonly) . The ISP modem recieves it and responds with the packet specified in the protocol. THis is the handshake, all the screeching and squaking you hear when you first dial in. By sending these pre arranged packets back and forth, the two modems can figure out what the maximum speed they can connect to each other at before so much data is corrupted and has to be resent that it actually decreases the amount of data getting through. They then set a speed based on this.

The second thing to know is that connection speed is measured in bits per second (bps) while download speed is measured in Bytes per second (Bps) where there are eight bits in one Byte. (1.2KBps= 9.6Kbps)
So, if you are connecting to the ISP at 1200bps, (1.2Kbps) you are very slow indeed compared to 56Kbps.

The first thing to do is check the phone line for noise. Pick up a phone and press any one number button and listen. You should hear silence. If there is noise, you need to call the phone company and ask for a line test. Do not mention computers or dialup connections. They are only required to provide voice quality (9600bps, or 9,6Kbps) service. Mention noise on the line.

If that is not the problem, the next thing to do is unplug all phones and answering machines in the house. Try connecting. IF you connect at a higher speed, it means that one of the phones is defective and causing a voltage drop or line noise when the modem connects. Replace the bad phone.

If that is not it, it is probably the modem. Generally the best thing to do in this case on a PC is to just buy a ten dollar PCI card modem . But you have a laptop. The internal modem is not likely replaceable, and a PCMCIA modem is costly. So before you buy a new modem, see if you can try to connect with another machine to verify that it is this modem *(or take the laptop to another house and try to connect)

One last possibility is that if your ISP has multiple connection numbers there is a problem with the one you are using. Try one of the alternates.

 

Hi Oshwyn and thanks for the advice.

I just thought I'd post a HJT log, to make sure there was nothing wrong in that department.

Logfile of HijackThis v1.99.1
Scan saved at 5:06:26 PM, on 5/09/05
Platform: Windows 98 SE (Win9x 4.10.2222A)
MSIE: Internet Explorer v5.00 (5.00.2614.3500)

Running processes:
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\KERNEL32.DLL
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\MSGSRV32.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\MPREXE.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\mmtask.tsk
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\ATI2PLXX.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\MSTASK.EXE
C:\PROGRAM FILES\ALWIL SOFTWARE\AVAST4\ASHSERV.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\EXPLORER.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\TASKMON.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\SYSTRAY.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\IRMON.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\ATIPTAXX.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\ATI2CWXX.EXE
C:\PROGRAM FILES\ACER\POWERKEY\POWERKEY.EXE
C:\PROGRAM FILES\SLEEP MANAGER\SLEEPMGR.EXE
C:\PROGRAM FILES\SYNAPTICS\SYNTP\SYNTPLPR.EXE
C:\PROGRAM FILES\SYNAPTICS\SYNTP\SYNTPENH.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\ACER\SNAPSHOT\ACERTMB.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\KEYMAP.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\E_S10IC2.EXE
C:\PROGRAM FILES\ALWIL SOFTWARE\AVAST4\ASHMAISV.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\LTSMMSG.EXE
C:\PROGRAM FILES\MICROSOFT OFFICE\OFFICE\OSA.EXE
C:\PROGRAM FILES\MICROSOFT OFFICE\OFFICE\FINDFAST.EXE
C:\PROGRAM FILES\OLYMPUS\CAMEDIA MASTER 4.1\CM_CAMERA.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\SPOOL32.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\RPCSS.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\WMIEXE.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\PSTORES.EXE
A:\HIJACKTHIS.EXE

R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Page_URL = www.acer.com
O2 - BHO: Yahoo! Companion BHO - {02478D38-C3F9-4efb-9B51-7695ECA05670} - C:\WINDOWS\DOWNLOADED PROGRAM FILES\YCOMP5_1_6_0.DLL
O2 - BHO: AcroIEHlprObj Class - {06849E9F-C8D7-4D59-B87D-784B7D6BE0B3} - C:\PROGRAM FILES\ADOBE\ACROBAT 5.0\READER\ACTIVEX\ACROIEHELPER.OCX
O3 - Toolbar: &Radio - {8E718888-423F-11D2-876E-00A0C9082467} - C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\MSDXM.OCX
O3 - Toolbar: Yahoo! Companion - {EF99BD32-C1FB-11D2-892F-0090271D4F88} - C:\WINDOWS\DOWNLOADED PROGRAM FILES\YCOMP5_1_6_0.DLL
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [ScanRegistry] c:\windows\scanregw.exe /autorun
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [TaskMonitor] c:\windows\taskmon.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [SystemTray] SysTray.Exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [IrMon] IrMon.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [LoadPowerProfile] Rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,LoadCurrentPwrScheme
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [AtiPTA] Atiptaxx.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Ati2cwxx] Ati2cwxx.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [AcerPowerkey] "C:\Program Files\Acer\Powerkey\Powerkey.exe "
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [SleepManager] "C:\Program Files\Sleep Manager\SleepMgr.exe "
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [SynTPLpr] C:\Program Files\Synaptics\SynTP\SynTPLpr.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [SynTPEnh] C:\Program Files\Synaptics\SynTP\SynTPEnh.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [AspireTimeMachine] c:\windows\acer\snapshot\acertmb.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [KEYMAP] C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\Keymap.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [EPSON Stylus C63 Series] C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\E_S10IC2.EXE /P23 "EPSON Stylus C63 Series" /O7 "EPUSB1:" /M "Stylus C63 "
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [ashMaiSv] C:\PROGRA~1\ALWILS~1\AVAST4\ashmaisv.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [LTSMMSG] LTSMMSG.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\RunServices: [LoadPowerProfile] Rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,LoadCurrentPwrScheme
O4 - HKLM\..\RunServices: [ATIPOLAB] ati2plxx.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\RunServices: [SchedulingAgent] mstask.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\RunServices: [avast!] C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashServ.exe
O4 - Startup: Office Startup.lnk = C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\OSA.EXE
O4 - Startup: Microsoft Find Fast.lnk = C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\FINDFAST.EXE
O4 - Startup: CAMEDIA Master.lnk = C:\Program Files\OLYMPUS\CAMEDIA Master 4.1\CM_camera.exe
O12 - Plugin for .spop: C:\PROGRA~1\INTERN~1\Plugins\NPDocBox.dll
O16 - DPF: {EF99BD32-C1FB-11D2-892F-0090271D4F88} (Yahoo! Companion) - http://us.dl1.yimg.com/download.companion.yahoo.com/dl/toolbar/yiebio5_1_6_0.cab

I couldn't see anything, but I'm a bit of a newbie at dealing with them.

Thanks for your help,

Justin.

 

Hijackthis log looks clean.
I would definitely recommend updating IE to IE 6 to patch the security holes present in IE 5 (MSIE: Internet Explorer v5.00 (5.00.2614.3500) , not even 5.5 ? When did she last do a windows update????)

I would definitely try connecting from another location (work, your home etc) and see if you get better speed. Same with using one of the alternate numbers for the ISP. If those do not help, it is almost certainly the modem.

 

Hi all!

Just to let you all know, I tried connecting to my ISP on her computer, and I can get a perfect connection, so it isn't the modem. It must be the ISP, which is a whole other story. My friend wants me to talk to them, but so far every time we have tried to ring them looking for technical support (which they only give from 9.00am to 9.00pm) they are busy, and suggest leaving a number so they can ring us back in 2 hours!

This is rubbish, and I advised her to join up with another ISP, where she can pay less and get the same number of hours, with 24 hour support, available straight away, nearly every time (my ISP, who I won't advertise here).

So, anyhow, the problem's solved.

Thanks all,

Justin