Internet Problem

[rbmrtn]

That traceroute results would indicate it is on suddenlinks side, basically right after it leaves your premises. You can't even get past the first hop which is usually the gateway onto your ISPs network.

You need your ISPs tech support to investigate.

 

[target2019]

That traceroute results would indicate it is on suddenlinks side, basically right after it leaves your premises. You can't even get past the first hop which is usually the gateway onto your ISPs network.

You need your ISPs tech support to investigate.

Agree 100%. Al has enough hard data to eliminate his equipment as part of the problem.

 

[winger]

Rather than pick a random DNS server, you can see how many of them perform, then use a good one. Freeware from one of my heros:

https://www.grc.com/dns/benchmark.htm

Thanks, I think. Spent all afternoon yesterday messing with DNS. I had the router setting DNS, changed that. Both laptops were set on "Auto", changed that to Google DNS.

And, 8.8.8.8 is faster than 8.8.4.4, so I swapped them on the laptops.

One of my hero's too. I hadn't used any of his software in a while. Wish I knew and understood a 1/10th of what Steve Gibson knows about PCs.

 

[TromboneAl]

That traceroute results would indicate it is on suddenlinks side, basically right after it leaves your premises. You can't even get past the first hop which is usually the gateway onto your ISPs network.

You need your ISPs tech support to investigate.

That's what I thought, but if it's on Suddenlink's side, then why would the results change when I make modifications here?

The ping times have stayed down at 20 ms since plugging in and unplugging:

 

[Lsbcal]

...
The ping times have stayed down at 20 ms since plugging in and unplugging:
...

Dumb question, what are you plugging in and unplugging? Is it the modem?

 

[davismills]

Al,
I would shutdown all devices connected to your router except maybe one hard wired PC. Don't forget smart phones, rokus, etc. Once you've done that, try your continuous ping exercise utilizing that one hard wired PC. If you still have the problem, shutdown the hard wired PC and connect your wireless laptop to the router and repeat the ping drill. This might lead to the offending device by elimination, if this is indeed the problem.

I still think you have a layer one (Physical layer of the OSI model) problem as in a bad network interface card or a bad cable somewhere or even a bad port on the router. I once had a bad network card that was broadcast storming an entire floor of 100 PCs. The culprit in this case had moved his PC stretched the CAT 5 cable and broken the network card. The switch/router was overcome with the storm. We shutdown the offending PC and the network quickly returned to order.

You might also try swapping out your coaxial cable from the cable modem to the wall as well.

I hope this helps.

 

[TromboneAl]

Dumb question, what are you plugging in and unplugging? Is it the modem?

I plug one end of an ethernet cable into an open port on the router, and the other end into my laptop.

The modem plugs into the top port (gray). The Tivo plugs into the second one. I plug the computer into the third one down.

 

[Lsbcal]

I plug one end of an ethernet cable into an open port on the router, and the other end into my laptop.

...
The modem plugs into the top port (gray). The Tivo plugs into the second one. I plug the computer into the third one down.

And now what are you unplugging and the re-plugging in to get the (good) 17 - 19ms pings you showed in today's results?

 

[target2019]

Unplug tivo from router to isolate this problem further.

 

[rbmrtn]

Unplug tivo from router to isolate this problem further.

Yes. You need to make things a simple as possible to isolate the issue. Get rid of the Tivo thing, turn the wireless off on your laptop, plug directly with a cable into the modem. Then verify the test pings and tracert. Also it would be good to test with a second PC/laptop in the same configuration.

 

[someguy]

One relatively simple thing that almost no one checks but is often the source of intermittent packet loss: autonegotiation issues with speed or duplex. Try hard setting both sides to 100/full (or 1000/full if both sides can do gigabit) and see what happens. If you can't set both sides, set the one you can control at least.

Otherwise, as others have suggested, make it simple. Try plugging your speed test machine straight into the modem. Make sure Windows Firewall is turned on first to avoid security issues. Or at least unplug/disconnect everything else.

 

[TromboneAl]

It was fine until today, and it's back to the slow pings. I did the plug/unplug trick and that didn't solve it. I removed the Tivo and that didn't solve it.

It's happened now with two different routers, so that's unlikely to be the problem.

It's bad on my wife's laptop also.

I rebooted in regular mode, and the pings are fast again. On both my computer and Lena's.

 

[TromboneAl]

But it didn't last. Slow again.

I tried disabling the ethernet adapter, and that didn't fix it.

They'll both be slow. I do the ping 8.8.8.8 /t on Lena's, and the instant I turn my computer off, her's speeds up.

I get mine rebooted and they're both fine.

 

[target2019]

But it didn't last. Slow again.

I tried disabling the ethernet adapter, and that didn't fix it.

They'll both be slow. I do the ping 8.8.8.8 /t on Lena's, and the instant I turn my computer off, her's speeds up.

I get mine rebooted and they're both fine.

What are these computers? Difficult to build a picture in my mind.

Are they desktops or notebooks, or a combination?
Notebooks usually have ethernet, as do desktops. Desktops usually have just onboard ethernet, but sometimes a wireless card or usb device has been added.

The ideal is ethernet cable from computer to router. If that's how you run, then disable the wireless adapter.

In each computer, is the configuration to obtain IP address and DNS automatically?

 

[TromboneAl]

Two laptops, HP Envy 17 (me) and an ASUS T100, both connected wirelessly.

Both are configured to obtain IP address and DNS automatically.

Thanks.

 

[TromboneAl]

Found the Problem: OneDrive

I finally determined that OneDrive is causing this problem. Apparently it's having problems syncing my files. When I pause syncing, then my ping durations stay low.

I'll have to learn more about OneDrive (formerly SkyDrive). I don't want any syncing, I just want to store backups on it. I haven't yet found a way to turn off the file syncing.

 

[ERD50]

I finally determined that OneDrive is causing this problem. Apparently it's having problems syncing my files. When I pause syncing, then my ping durations stay low.

I'll have to learn more about OneDrive (formerly SkyDrive). I don't want any syncing, I just want to store backups on it. I haven't yet found a way to turn off the file syncing.

Finally?

Al, this problem was 'solved' before:

http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/connection-problems-router-isp-73896.html#post1501106

[10-07-2014, 09:40 AM] Today I discovered that this problem happens consistently when, first time in the morning, I do a backup of my book. A 17 MB file is copied to the Skydrive (Onedrive), and the problem happens a few seconds after that.

Perhaps the Explorer/Skydrive system is hogging all the bandwidth improperly. And maybe my disconnect/reconnect thing just happens to be complete at the same time Skydrive is done.

and was mentioned again way back in post#11 of this thread. I think everyone assumed you had eliminated this variable.


-ERD50

 

[target2019]

Al,
Glad to hear you uncovered the problem. I started having problems with Firefox within the last day or two. So far I've uninstalled Dropbox, which was a trial Dell loaded onto the system. Funny thing (ha-ha) is that it was launched as a process, even though I've never used it on this machine.

I also have McAfee, and look at that with a critical eye.

For some reason Firefox was looking for a system proxy server. That should be off by default.

Not meaning to bore y'all to tears, but this crap is too complicated. I've been cleaning up for a loooong time.

Excuse me while I boot ubuntu so I can surf without interruption...

 

[TromboneAl]

Finally?

Al, this problem was 'solved' before:

http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/connection-problems-router-isp-73896.html#post1501106



and was mentioned again way back in post#11 of this thread. I think everyone assumed you had eliminated this variable.


-ERD50

Yes, lousy memory and computers don't mix.

I was working on this problem off and on, and I failed to look back at that old thread.

This is a little different in that the slowdown happens even if I am not currently backing something up to OneDrive. It seems that OneDrive either had gotten behind, or had some other problem, so it was hogging bandwidth at all hours.

But, if I'd taken the time to read through the thread you referred me to, I probably would have figured it out sooner.

 

[ERD50]

Yes, lousy memory and computers don't mix.

I was working on this problem off and on, and I failed to look back at that old thread.

This is a little different in that the slowdown happens even if I am not currently backing something up to OneDrive. It seems that OneDrive either had gotten behind, or had some other problem, so it was hogging bandwidth at all hours.

But, if I'd taken the time to read through the thread you referred me to, I probably would have figured it out sooner.

Understood, but the more basic troubleshooting lesson here is to eliminate variables (as several posters pointed out). All these links in the chain from computer to web-site and back again can make this kind of troubleshooting pretty complicated.

If the problem isn't isolated easily, one really needs to disconnect everything else (and validate that from the router connection list) to get the system as simple as possible. From these threads, I've gained some good tools to use to ping/traceroute one step at a time from computer, to computer's network card, to router, to modem, to ISP to DNS and finally to outside URLs.

In this case specifically, you really needed to disconnect the other computers, and disable other programs on your computer to be certain there was no other traffic. Being able to boot into a basic Ubuntu/Linux OS is handy for this - you can keep that stripped down so you know there aren't background programs running, trying to grab the network.

These threads are good, I learn things from almost every one of them.

-ERD50

 

[TromboneAl]

In this case specifically, you really needed to disconnect the other computers, and disable other programs on your computer to be certain there was no other traffic.

That's exactly what I was doing.

Note that there are about 85 background processes running on my machine. I disabled a lot, but realize that many require rebooting after disabling, and others could cause problems if disabled.

But before systematically eliminating every possibility, my usual approach is to first google a description of the problem and look for things like "Oh, yeah. That happened to me, and all I had to do was blah blah and it fixed it."

That fixes most problems.

Next is to post a description here or somewhere else, and see if anyone has experienced the problem and found a solution.

The final step is to do the kind of thing you suggest. It's problematic because once you find the solution, it may turn out that you made some change that will cause problems later. I set restore points, but that's messy.

Also, you have to do things like find out what igfxtray module or ISCT Tray or persistence module do before you can disable them.

 

[target2019]

Coincidently, see my previous post. Similar happened to me, but it was McAfee trying to update, and it brought my system to its knees for an extended period. This was the second day in a row that it happened. AV software usually connects automatically, but the software developer may go too conservative in the software update process. There was no indication in Task Manager that it was hogging CPU during the update. But it was definitely tying up the internet connection on this system, in some way. So I made the one setting change it allows, which is to ask before updating. Duh!

Why am I sticking with Crap-afee? One year subscription was included in the system cost! And it leaves me more knowledgeable about what my clients go through with the latest Dell systems.

Al, I empathize with you. I look at the task lists on quite a few computers. There is no way to manage, but perhaps make a screen capture and save that to a folder on the drive.

 

[travelover]

Given all the software available and all the incredible capability of that software, I don't understand why every computer does not come with a "why is my computer running slowly" icon. This task seems ideally suited to computer.

Sent from my BNTV600 using Early Retirement Forum mobile app

 

[target2019]

Given all the software available and all the incredible capability of that software, I don't understand why every computer does not come with a "why is my computer running slowly" icon. This task seems ideally suited to computer.

If computers were not customizable, that would be possible. But the list of possible causes is very long once OS, applications, and network are added.

It is also hard to measure "my computer runs slowly."

Another thought is that most OS and application experiences are great. Bugs get fixed, newer models are much, much better. But we're left with internet and security issues, which I think lead to a very high percentage of problems. The connectivity we expect is not 100% reliable, and safeguards throughout the internet and all of the connected devices does cause individual problems at times.

We use simple tools to troubleshoot, add personal experience, and perform research. So, the "why" icon is available, but it is you or me, isn't it?

 

[travelover]

..........
We use simple tools to troubleshoot, add personal experience, and perform research. So, the "why" icon is available, but it is you or me, isn't it?

Sorry, but I don't buy it.

It would be fairly simple for a computer to measure the time between when you click your mouse and when the requested action actually occurs. It could determine "excessive" when that interval increases by X% over when the computer was first put into service.

Why should one have to look at all the programs running individually and do an internet search to decide which ones are critical to the computer's operation and which are just wasting computing power? Isn't that information all readily available?

And couldn't the computer easily tell you if the problem was internal or if it was waiting for additional data from the internet? Can't it measure download speeds and display that information?