Sorry about the OT post, but this group has a lot of smarts as a whole.
I have a Linksys wireless router and my home network seems to have
slowed down rather dramatically. Does anyone know how to test the speed
of a network? Even my dsl is damn slow now. I'm actually contemplating
trying The Geek Squad to assist if I can't get this figured out. Many
thanks to anyone who can help. Mark L.
On Thu, 29 Jul 2004 01:30:39 GMT, Mark L. <[email protected]> wrote:
> Sorry about the OT post, but this group has a lot of smarts as a whole.
> I have a Linksys wireless router and my home network seems to have
> slowed down rather dramatically. Does anyone know how to test the speed
> of a network?
Open up your favorite browser, point it to your Linksys's IP address.
Go into the "advanced" tab, take a look at succsesful vs. dropped packets,
wired and wireless both. Depending on what you see there, well,
take a look at which one has problems. Depending on your firmware,
you either have a "restart counters" button there, or you can unplug
power from it & plug it back in to reset them. If you're dropping packets,
that would be the first suspect. If you're dropping wireless packets,
change to a different channel (er, on both devices) and see if it changes.
Just a start, but I see there are other responses and I bet we all aer
saying pretty much the same thing. That or I'm completely wrong, which
has happened before as well.
Dave Hinz
Agreed. I thought they were the same type of program, but they do
compliment each other well. I need to install them on the wife's pc,
she surfs a lot and it seems as if every week I have to look at her pc
to see what 'must have installed itself'. ;-) Mark L.
[email protected] wrote:
> On Sat, 31 Jul 2004 02:36:21 GMT, "Mark L." <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
>
>>Great info, Dave. Even though I have spybot installed, Adware found a
>>few things. And after resetting the router, it seems to be running at
>>top speed again. A 5Meg download took around 6 seconds. :-)
>
>
> adaware and spybot are a good team. add to that spyware blaster and
> you'll about have it covered.
Greetings and Salutations...
On Thu, 29 Jul 2004 01:30:39 GMT, "Mark L." <[email protected]>
wrote:
>Sorry about the OT post, but this group has a lot of smarts as a whole.
> I have a Linksys wireless router and my home network seems to have
>slowed down rather dramatically. Does anyone know how to test the speed
>of a network? Even my dsl is damn slow now. I'm actually contemplating
>trying The Geek Squad to assist if I can't get this figured out. Many
>thanks to anyone who can help. Mark L.
>
As other folks have mentioned, if you have not done it
already, download AdAware (www.lavasoft.de) and Spybot Search and
Destroy (www.safer-networking.org). They are both excellent
programs, but seem to find a SLIGHTLY different set of adware and
spyware items. Install, run the online update, and let them go
to town. Quarantine anything the programs find.
If you don't have a good anti-virus program, either buy
one, or download it. AVG (www.grisoft.com) is an excellent and
inexpensive option.
(Before doing the following, make a backup of any important
data on your system. While these steps should not destroy anything,
there is always that joyous chance of disaster.)
Also, go into your system and clear off ALL cookies, history
files, and temp files (delete all files in C:\windows\temp or whatever
is on your system). Track down any other work files you can and
delete them. IF YOU ARE NOT SURE ABOUT A FILE DO *NOT* DELETE IT. If
you use Internet Exploder to cruise the net, shut it down, and find
the "Temporary Internet Files" folder. Delete everything in it.
Empty the recycle bin. Run a GOOD defrag on the system (one that
will actually optimize things, as opposed to simply shuffling things
around a bit). I prefer Norton Utilities myself, but others work too.
After all this, reboot the system, and see if the speed
has improved. I suspect that it might well have helped.
The next step is to bring up the task manager (ctl-alt-del
once) and see what programs are running. Systray and explorer
NEED to be running...almost anything else may not. Find out
what each of the listed programs do, and decide if you want to
allocate system resources to that job. If not, bring up the
"run" command (START button->RUN) and run "MSCONFIG". Use
it to turn off anything extra.
Finally...Find and treasure the name and contact number
for your local computer geek. If you screw up the system you
will NEED such a person to clean up the mess without losing
everything. Many support places will simply format your
hard drive and re-install a clean copy of windows...which will
get you back to running, but, will likely lose all your data.
You probably don't want that.
Did I mention...make a good backup before randomly
deleting things?
Regards
Dave Mundt
I did move my whole setup recently, maybe it's worth a look..... Thanks,
Stephen
S R wrote:
> I had a situation where I was getting terrible, inconsistent performance
> with my DSL service. I don't have a wireless network, I have a two pc wired
> network with a linksys router. I am not sure which component caused my
> problems, but after I cleanly routed the wires away from all power sources
> and the computers, my performance went right back to normal. I had
> inadvertently kicked some wires around and really did not pay much attention
> to how they were run. I was almost to the point of dropping DSL for cable.
>
> Of course, tech support never mentioned to check how the wires from the
> router and modem were run. They just ask if they are plugged in.
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Stephen R.
>
>
>
> "Mark L." <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>
>>Sorry about the OT post, but this group has a lot of smarts as a whole.
>> I have a Linksys wireless router and my home network seems to have
>>slowed down rather dramatically. Does anyone know how to test the speed
>>of a network? Even my dsl is damn slow now. I'm actually contemplating
>>trying The Geek Squad to assist if I can't get this figured out. Many
>>thanks to anyone who can help. Mark L.
>>
>
>
>
Thanks Rob, Qcheck looks like a real handy program, I'm gonna try it
tonight.
Rob wrote:
> Try to cut the problem in half. Test how long it takes to transfer a file
> from one PC to another. This takes the internet out of the equation but
> still uses the router somewhat. I used this to determine that my slowdown
> was somewhere upstream of the router. My problem turned out to be a surge
> suppressor I was using on the coax cable line coming into the modem. I
> unplugged it and things work fine. I used Qcheck from www.ixiacom.com to
> test my transfer speed across the network, it is free and seems to do a
> pretty good job.
>
>
> "Mark L." <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>
>>Sorry about the OT post, but this group has a lot of smarts as a whole.
>> I have a Linksys wireless router and my home network seems to have
>>slowed down rather dramatically. Does anyone know how to test the speed
>>of a network? Even my dsl is damn slow now. I'm actually contemplating
>>trying The Geek Squad to assist if I can't get this figured out. Many
>>thanks to anyone who can help. Mark L.
>>
>
>
>
I have Norton on all pc's, and run Zone Alarm Pro. No Kazaa, etc.
Eric Johnson wrote:
> Start with the basics.
> 1) Look at the wireless admin interface and see if anyone is pirating a
> signal if you have more wireless connection than PC's in the house....
> 2) Virus scan, worm scan trojan scan.. Every machine on the network
> 3) p2p networks like kazaa and the like?
>
> My money is on some viral infestation...
>
>
> "Mark L." <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>
>>Sorry about the OT post, but this group has a lot of smarts as a whole.
>> I have a Linksys wireless router and my home network seems to have
>>slowed down rather dramatically. Does anyone know how to test the speed
>>of a network? Even my dsl is damn slow now. I'm actually contemplating
>>trying The Geek Squad to assist if I can't get this figured out. Many
>>thanks to anyone who can help. Mark L.
>>
>
>
>
> Not necessarily, depends how many people share the cable segment, time of
> day etc. and some DSL services are faster than others.
> Mike, (DSL, 7.1mbps, that's a seven)
You get that much, or sometimes? When I had dsl my fastest was around
80-90kbps and usually slower, no sharing through a 'net, but that is
"verizon" I suppose... therefore we went to cable.
Alex
Great info, Dave. Even though I have spybot installed, Adware found a
few things. And after resetting the router, it seems to be running at
top speed again. A 5Meg download took around 6 seconds. :-)
Dave Mundt wrote:
> Greetings and Salutations...
>
> On Thu, 29 Jul 2004 01:30:39 GMT, "Mark L." <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
>
>>Sorry about the OT post, but this group has a lot of smarts as a whole.
>> I have a Linksys wireless router and my home network seems to have
>>slowed down rather dramatically. Does anyone know how to test the speed
>>of a network? Even my dsl is damn slow now. I'm actually contemplating
>>trying The Geek Squad to assist if I can't get this figured out. Many
>>thanks to anyone who can help. Mark L.
>>
>
>
> As other folks have mentioned, if you have not done it
> already, download AdAware (www.lavasoft.de) and Spybot Search and
> Destroy (www.safer-networking.org). They are both excellent
> programs, but seem to find a SLIGHTLY different set of adware and
> spyware items. Install, run the online update, and let them go
> to town. Quarantine anything the programs find.
> If you don't have a good anti-virus program, either buy
> one, or download it. AVG (www.grisoft.com) is an excellent and
> inexpensive option.
> (Before doing the following, make a backup of any important
> data on your system. While these steps should not destroy anything,
> there is always that joyous chance of disaster.)
> Also, go into your system and clear off ALL cookies, history
> files, and temp files (delete all files in C:\windows\temp or whatever
> is on your system). Track down any other work files you can and
> delete them. IF YOU ARE NOT SURE ABOUT A FILE DO *NOT* DELETE IT. If
> you use Internet Exploder to cruise the net, shut it down, and find
> the "Temporary Internet Files" folder. Delete everything in it.
> Empty the recycle bin. Run a GOOD defrag on the system (one that
> will actually optimize things, as opposed to simply shuffling things
> around a bit). I prefer Norton Utilities myself, but others work too.
> After all this, reboot the system, and see if the speed
> has improved. I suspect that it might well have helped.
> The next step is to bring up the task manager (ctl-alt-del
> once) and see what programs are running. Systray and explorer
> NEED to be running...almost anything else may not. Find out
> what each of the listed programs do, and decide if you want to
> allocate system resources to that job. If not, bring up the
> "run" command (START button->RUN) and run "MSCONFIG". Use
> it to turn off anything extra.
> Finally...Find and treasure the name and contact number
> for your local computer geek. If you screw up the system you
> will NEED such a person to clean up the mess without losing
> everything. Many support places will simply format your
> hard drive and re-install a clean copy of windows...which will
> get you back to running, but, will likely lose all your data.
> You probably don't want that.
> Did I mention...make a good backup before randomly
> deleting things?
> Regards
> Dave Mundt
>
>
Dave, good idea to check for dropped packets. Except the Linksys
advanced tab doesn't have an option to show dropped packets, unless it's
under a different name.....
Dave Hinz wrote:
> On Thu, 29 Jul 2004 01:30:39 GMT, Mark L. <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>Sorry about the OT post, but this group has a lot of smarts as a whole.
>> I have a Linksys wireless router and my home network seems to have
>>slowed down rather dramatically. Does anyone know how to test the speed
>>of a network?
>
>
> Open up your favorite browser, point it to your Linksys's IP address.
> Go into the "advanced" tab, take a look at succsesful vs. dropped packets,
> wired and wireless both. Depending on what you see there, well,
> take a look at which one has problems. Depending on your firmware,
> you either have a "restart counters" button there, or you can unplug
> power from it & plug it back in to reset them. If you're dropping packets,
> that would be the first suspect. If you're dropping wireless packets,
> change to a different channel (er, on both devices) and see if it changes.
>
> Just a start, but I see there are other responses and I bet we all aer
> saying pretty much the same thing. That or I'm completely wrong, which
> has happened before as well.
>
> Dave Hinz
>
> Sorry about the OT post, but this group has a lot of smarts as a whole.
> I have a Linksys wireless router and my home network seems to have
> slowed down rather dramatically. Does anyone know how to test the speed
> of a network? Even my dsl is damn slow now. I'm actually contemplating
> trying The Geek Squad to assist if I can't get this figured out. Many
> thanks to anyone who can help. Mark L.
>
heh... just yesterday 7-29-04 I set up a linksys router in my apt... cable to modem
to router to eMac by wire, then wireless to win-xp computer. I am thrilled by how
well it works, having invested $110, no slow-downs on the xp box. Too often
there is a cut-off and the connection (wireless) must be "refreshed" but that is
still easy. you might try the repair button in your linksys software as well as a
refresh. But I do have cable internet, not dsl... cable is faster (gloat).
Alex
Try to cut the problem in half. Test how long it takes to transfer a file
from one PC to another. This takes the internet out of the equation but
still uses the router somewhat. I used this to determine that my slowdown
was somewhere upstream of the router. My problem turned out to be a surge
suppressor I was using on the coax cable line coming into the modem. I
unplugged it and things work fine. I used Qcheck from www.ixiacom.com to
test my transfer speed across the network, it is free and seems to do a
pretty good job.
"Mark L." <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Sorry about the OT post, but this group has a lot of smarts as a whole.
> I have a Linksys wireless router and my home network seems to have
> slowed down rather dramatically. Does anyone know how to test the speed
> of a network? Even my dsl is damn slow now. I'm actually contemplating
> trying The Geek Squad to assist if I can't get this figured out. Many
> thanks to anyone who can help. Mark L.
>
I tried pcpitstop.com and it all checks out ok. But I know there is
something funky here. Even files over my network are moving slowly.
Thomas Kendrick wrote:
> To compare internet access speed:
> www.pcpitstop.com
> www.dslreports.com
>
> Other items to check - put the wireless PC right next to the wireless
> router. There is some speed degradation with wireless distance.
>
> The drop in performance is accessing the public internet as opposed to
> transferring data on your local network between PC's in your house,
> right?
>
>
> On Thu, 29 Jul 2004 01:30:39 GMT, "Mark L." <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
>
>>Sorry about the OT post, but this group has a lot of smarts as a whole.
>> I have a Linksys wireless router and my home network seems to have
>>slowed down rather dramatically. Does anyone know how to test the speed
>>of a network? Even my dsl is damn slow now. I'm actually contemplating
>>trying The Geek Squad to assist if I can't get this figured out. Many
>>thanks to anyone who can help. Mark L.
>
>
"Mark L." <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Sorry about the OT post, but this group has a lot of smarts as a whole.
> I have a Linksys wireless router and my home network seems to have
> slowed down rather dramatically. Does anyone know how to test the speed
> of a network? Even my dsl is damn slow now. I'm actually contemplating
> trying The Geek Squad to assist if I can't get this figured out. Many
> thanks to anyone who can help. Mark L.
Before you do anything else, at least confirm the problem has something to
do with the router or is even at your end. Bypass the router and hook you
system directly to the internet. If you've still got a slowdown, then you
know the problem likely has nothing to do with your network.
"AArDvarK" <[email protected]> wrote in
news:8xiOc.4246$Xn.2252@fed1read05:
>> Not necessarily, depends how many people share the cable segment,
>> time of day etc. and some DSL services are faster than others.
>> Mike, (DSL, 7.1mbps, that's a seven)
>
> You get that much, or sometimes? When I had dsl my fastest was around
> 80-90kbps and usually slower, no sharing through a 'net, but that is
> "verizon" I suppose... therefore we went to cable.
>
> Alex
>
>
I apologise for the flip comment, but with DSL I'm contracted for a
minimum of 80%. of 7.1mbps down / 768mpbs Up. Actual speed depends upon
the path to the target server athe what speed that server can serve, and
not my connection to ISP. Speeds vary between 80kbs - 7mbps depending
upon target server. I regularly pull stuff from a private UK server at
7mbps.
"Eric Johnson" wrote in message
> Start with the basics.
> 1) Look at the wireless admin interface and see if anyone is pirating a
> signal if you have more wireless connection than PC's in the house....
> 2) Virus scan, worm scan trojan scan.. Every machine on the network
> 3) p2p networks like kazaa and the like?
>
> My money is on some viral infestation...
Or the last few versions of AIM. Took 6 hours to clean the adware/crap off
one of my home network boxes after letting my teenage daughter use it for
the summer, and before getting her a new laptop ... and I don't even want to
see/know what that looks like by now.
--
www.e-woodshop.net
Last update: 7/10/04
Thanks for the link, my net speed is fine. I must have something going
on with the Linksys router, and I don't use encryption. I'm getting
closer now....
dteckie wrote:
> "Mark L." <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
>
>>Sorry about the OT post, but this group has a lot of smarts as a whole.
>> I have a Linksys wireless router and my home network seems to have
>>slowed down rather dramatically. Does anyone know how to test the speed
>>of a network? Even my dsl is damn slow now. I'm actually contemplating
>>trying The Geek Squad to assist if I can't get this figured out. Many
>>thanks to anyone who can help. Mark L.
>
>
> Go here to test your broadband speed http://nyc.speakeasy.net/.
> I assume you are using your pc over the air connection (wireless). If
> you are using encryption option to communicate especially 128 bit
> encryption it slows connection down considerably. (router has to do
> lots of encryption/ decryption both ways). Turn off the encryption if
> on, and see if it makes a difference. DSL is not that reliable you
> will get lots of fluctuations in speed. Other possibility could be
> the Linksys router. You can try connect directly to the DSL modem (
> bypassing the router)to check if the linksys router is the culprit.
> PC 's and equipment is the most unregulated manufacturing industry in
> the world, very poor quality control, get it on the market first to
> get the $$$$ and fix problems later mentality. To make it worse
> retailers instead of getting rid of and not selling inferior or
> products that don't work punish the consumer by charging 10 - 15%
> restocking fees when you return a product that does not function.
> Compusa is the bigest culprit. My modis opperendi is if doesn't work
> properly or I spend more than 20 minutes waiting for tech support on
> the phone it goes back for refund period.
On Sat, 31 Jul 2004 02:36:21 GMT, "Mark L." <[email protected]>
wrote:
>Great info, Dave. Even though I have spybot installed, Adware found a
>few things. And after resetting the router, it seems to be running at
>top speed again. A 5Meg download took around 6 seconds. :-)
adaware and spybot are a good team. add to that spyware blaster and
you'll about have it covered.
"Mark L." <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Sorry about the OT post, but this group has a lot of smarts as a whole.
> I have a Linksys wireless router and my home network seems to have
> slowed down rather dramatically. Does anyone know how to test the speed
> of a network? Even my dsl is damn slow now. I'm actually contemplating
> trying The Geek Squad to assist if I can't get this figured out. Many
> thanks to anyone who can help. Mark L.
>
As well as the other suggestions, you should check that no one else is
hijacking your bandwidth.
You wireless router is probably able to talk to any wireless network cards
within 200yds so
someone else may be hitching a free ride on your network.
When I added wireless at home, I was able to connect to my neighbours
wireless router and then
get onto the internet through his adsl line.
If this is happening, most routers allow you to restrict access to only
accept known MAC addresses
Start with the basics.
1) Look at the wireless admin interface and see if anyone is pirating a
signal if you have more wireless connection than PC's in the house....
2) Virus scan, worm scan trojan scan.. Every machine on the network
3) p2p networks like kazaa and the like?
My money is on some viral infestation...
"Mark L." <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Sorry about the OT post, but this group has a lot of smarts as a whole.
> I have a Linksys wireless router and my home network seems to have
> slowed down rather dramatically. Does anyone know how to test the speed
> of a network? Even my dsl is damn slow now. I'm actually contemplating
> trying The Geek Squad to assist if I can't get this figured out. Many
> thanks to anyone who can help. Mark L.
>
"Mark L." <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> Sorry about the OT post, but this group has a lot of smarts as a whole.
> I have a Linksys wireless router and my home network seems to have
> slowed down rather dramatically. Does anyone know how to test the speed
> of a network? Even my dsl is damn slow now. I'm actually contemplating
> trying The Geek Squad to assist if I can't get this figured out. Many
> thanks to anyone who can help. Mark L.
Go here to test your broadband speed http://nyc.speakeasy.net/.
I assume you are using your pc over the air connection (wireless). If
you are using encryption option to communicate especially 128 bit
encryption it slows connection down considerably. (router has to do
lots of encryption/ decryption both ways). Turn off the encryption if
on, and see if it makes a difference. DSL is not that reliable you
will get lots of fluctuations in speed. Other possibility could be
the Linksys router. You can try connect directly to the DSL modem (
bypassing the router)to check if the linksys router is the culprit.
PC 's and equipment is the most unregulated manufacturing industry in
the world, very poor quality control, get it on the market first to
get the $$$$ and fix problems later mentality. To make it worse
retailers instead of getting rid of and not selling inferior or
products that don't work punish the consumer by charging 10 - 15%
restocking fees when you return a product that does not function.
Compusa is the bigest culprit. My modis opperendi is if doesn't work
properly or I spend more than 20 minutes waiting for tech support on
the phone it goes back for refund period.
I had a situation where I was getting terrible, inconsistent performance
with my DSL service. I don't have a wireless network, I have a two pc wired
network with a linksys router. I am not sure which component caused my
problems, but after I cleanly routed the wires away from all power sources
and the computers, my performance went right back to normal. I had
inadvertently kicked some wires around and really did not pay much attention
to how they were run. I was almost to the point of dropping DSL for cable.
Of course, tech support never mentioned to check how the wires from the
router and modem were run. They just ask if they are plugged in.
Hope this helps.
Stephen R.
"Mark L." <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Sorry about the OT post, but this group has a lot of smarts as a whole.
> I have a Linksys wireless router and my home network seems to have
> slowed down rather dramatically. Does anyone know how to test the speed
> of a network? Even my dsl is damn slow now. I'm actually contemplating
> trying The Geek Squad to assist if I can't get this figured out. Many
> thanks to anyone who can help. Mark L.
>
To compare internet access speed:
www.pcpitstop.com
www.dslreports.com
Other items to check - put the wireless PC right next to the wireless
router. There is some speed degradation with wireless distance.
The drop in performance is accessing the public internet as opposed to
transferring data on your local network between PC's in your house,
right?
On Thu, 29 Jul 2004 01:30:39 GMT, "Mark L." <[email protected]>
wrote:
>Sorry about the OT post, but this group has a lot of smarts as a whole.
> I have a Linksys wireless router and my home network seems to have
>slowed down rather dramatically. Does anyone know how to test the speed
>of a network? Even my dsl is damn slow now. I'm actually contemplating
>trying The Geek Squad to assist if I can't get this figured out. Many
>thanks to anyone who can help. Mark L.
I had thought about that too, but I don't see the lights on the modem go
on when I'm not using it. If someone were hijacking my dsl line, the
modem lights would be flashing even when I'm not online myself.
AJS wrote:
> "Mark L." <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>
>>Sorry about the OT post, but this group has a lot of smarts as a whole.
>> I have a Linksys wireless router and my home network seems to have
>>slowed down rather dramatically. Does anyone know how to test the speed
>>of a network? Even my dsl is damn slow now. I'm actually contemplating
>>trying The Geek Squad to assist if I can't get this figured out. Many
>>thanks to anyone who can help. Mark L.
>>
>
>
> As well as the other suggestions, you should check that no one else is
> hijacking your bandwidth.
> You wireless router is probably able to talk to any wireless network cards
> within 200yds so
> someone else may be hitching a free ride on your network.
> When I added wireless at home, I was able to connect to my neighbours
> wireless router and then
> get onto the internet through his adsl line.
> If this is happening, most routers allow you to restrict access to only
> accept known MAC addresses
>
>