Internet Problem

[TromboneAl]

Occasionally, and most often early in the morning, we'll have trouble loading web pages. We'll get Server not Found errors, and if we click on "Try Again," 20 times or so, the page will eventually load.

Sometimes one page, for example, google.com will load fine while another, say facebook.com, will fail to load.

Many things are exceptionally slow.

But after a while, things will return to normal.

I've assumed that this is just a problem that our ISP, suddenlink, is having, but when I call, they say they know of no problems. They offer to send someone out, but since it's so intermittent, I doubt he could find anything. At this point I don't want to take the chance that some of our equipment is bad, and thus incur a charge.

What do you think is going on?

 

[braumeister]

Cable or DSL?

 

[Amethyst]

Yes, I've had this issue. ISP tries to sell me faster data rate.


Basic stuff:



Did you try restarting?



Is your upload/download speed fast enough?



Acc to my ISP (FIOS) these things can affect your internet speed:

• Network traffic/congestion
• Internet usage in your home
• Laptop/computer speed
• Watching Video On Demand (VOD)

 

[mpeirce]

Lately I've been running into various DNS issues when I'm asked to "fix my internet". Often it seems to be a bad DNS server at an ISP and can be fixed by changing the DNS server to any of the public DNS servers out there like OpenDNS (208.67.222.222 & 208.67.220.220) or Google (8.8.8.8 & 8.8.4.4)

Obviously there are lots other things that go wrong, but this worth a try.

 

[TromboneAl]

Cable.

>Did you try restarting?

Yes, multiple times.

>Is your upload/download speed fast enough?

Usually, yes. Right now it's very slow:

Speedtest.net by Ookla - My Results

and now it's OK:

Speedtest.net by Ookla - My Results

I picture the cable guy telling me to reboot, and then it's fine (by chance), and I get charged for a visit.





Is your upload/download speed fast enough?

 

[ERD50]

I've tried this series of ping tests to try to isolate the problem (your ip #'s for your router etc may be different):

ping -c5 0 << to internal network card << 1 mS
ping -c5 192.168.1.1 << ROUTER ~ 1 mS
ping -c5 8.8.8.8 << GOOGLE DNS ~ 26 mS [compare to your DNS]

ping -c5 xx.xx.xx.xx << - sub the IP that Speedtest.net by Ookla - The Global Broadband Speed Test shows, this to my router (VOIP Adapter) ~ 2 mS


ping -c5 www.<your isp> << my ISP ~ 14 mS
ping -c5 www.<try other sites> <<<<<<<<<<< ~ 27mS

Those were my ping times, yours should probably be lower with cable (I have a fixed wireless connection, some additional delays I think). Try with different DNS as suggested by others.


-ERD50

 

[Dimsumkid]

Check your ethernet cables, I had similar issues where some pages load fine and others wouldn't. I just kept swapping them out and replacing them, testing each until it cleared up. This was for wired and wifi connections. This resolved my problem. Cheap fix, but very irritating.

 

[MRG]

Al,
My guess based on your speeds only, is it's your ISP bandwidth or routing issues. The standard respose of any good network guy is "we're not having any problems". Past that, not sure where to go other than to the ISP. If you can tie your problems to anytime the speed is slow that might give you some leverage with them. Best wishes.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Early Retirement Forum mobile app

 

[ERD50]

....
>Is your upload/download speed fast enough?

Usually, yes. Right now it's very slow:

Speedtest.net by Ookla - My Results

and now it's OK:

Speedtest.net by Ookla - My Results ....

Your 'very slow' is about all I get on my connection. That absolutely does not result in 'pages not loading'. For example, the er-org portal refreshes for me in less than one second. A highly customized google news page loads in about 2 seconds, reliably.

I suspect DNS issues. Try the google DNS or open DNS.

-ERD50

 

[AllDone]

have you tried swapping out your router?

 

[ERD50]

Ummm, are you still doing your backups in the morning?

Occasionally, and most often early in the morning, we'll have trouble loading web pages.

from an older thread:

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

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.

-ERD50

 

[MRG]

Your 'very slow' is about all I get on my connection. That absolutely does not result in 'pages not loading'. For example, the er-org portal refreshes for me in less than one second. A highly customized google news page loads in about 2 seconds, reliably.

I suspect DNS issues. Try the google DNS or open DNS.

-ERD50

Yes I see your point. It's slow not stopped, causing timeouts. The DNS is actionable and easily swapped. Your post made me change my thinking, I would start there too. I do get intermittent DNS problems and they do timeout, giving 'page not loaded'.


Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Early Retirement Forum mobile app

 

[imoldernu]

Depending on the Microsoft version you are running, you may want to try this...
In "Internet Connections"

Go to: Properties, and uncheck this: Internet Protocol Version 6(TCP/IPv6)

Also... for the past three days, I have been receiving large Microsoft Updates when starting up. Also, auto updates to antivirus and other installed programs will "update" when the computer starts. These auto updates are becoming more intrusive and some of the newest "fix your compter type" programs are also searching for driver updates. By themselves, none of these should slow your computer to any degree, but taken together, a nuisance.

To see what may be causing a probem, download process explorer. Even if you don't understand the processes that are running, this shows what is using the memory. You can then google to see what the process is that's causing the problem.

http://filehippo.com/download_process_explorer

Am not a techie, but just my guesses.

 

[Theseus]

At this point I don't want to take the chance that some of our equipment is bad, and thus incur a charge.

In the past when Charter still had a presence on the Broadband DSL Reports forum with techs that knew their stuff and were bestowed with the independence to make things happen, it was an awesome resource. Charter made a megacorp-style decision and did away with that, much to the chagrin of customers that dared put some of their own effort into making things work. I looked and Suddenlink does apparently have some sort of online tech support presence, can't vouch for their abilities, but it might be worth a shot if you care to do some self-diagnosing with their input.

Suddenlink forum | DSLReports, ISP Information is the link for the Suddenlink forum; sticky "Approved Suddenlink Tech Support Agents" brings up a list of online tech support.

 

[Ronstar]

I had a similar problem when an animal had partially chewed through the cable line

 

[target2019]

If you have a diagram of all devices and how wired (or wireless), it helps. There are problems in your LAN, and then there are problems beyond, which require alerting the ISP.

One possibility is DNS.

You could try to flushdns on the computers. If Windows, run command prompt as administrator.

ipconfig /flushdns

There is cached content in your router and modem, too. The following link explains DNS very well.

https://timwolverson.wordpress.com/tag/clear-dns-cache/

 

[Dash man]

Do you have antivirus scans running on a schedule the coincides with your slow periods? They can slow things down.


Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum

 

[target2019]

Al,
Is this a continuation of this problem?
http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/connection-problems-router-isp-73896-2.html

 

[W2R]

I had a similar problem when an animal had partially chewed through the cable line

+1

Another possibility - - We had internet problems every time it rained, in College Station. The rain was getting into the connection just outside our house.

 

[Ronstar]

+1

Another possibility - - We had internet problems every time it rained, in College Station. The rain was getting into the connection just outside our house.

Definitely - rain can be a problem. When I was having problems, the Comcast tech first checked all connections inside and out. Seems logical for a situation where the internet works, then starts having sporadic problems

 

[MRG]

I had a similar problem when an animal had partially chewed through the cable line

Yes. We had issues every time it rained. The cattle grazing in the new fresh grass also stepped on the cables. The place was built 30 years prior. The cable was just laying on the ground on top of a neighboring pasture.

The phone company said our 30 year service was a temporary connection!

Actually I miss living in Hooterville, but Internet stunk.

Al, I'm guessing you don't have cattle in your yard, probably not your issue. A wet, broken cable might be, or any sat. connection, even the ones you don't see.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Early Retirement Forum mobile app

 

[TromboneAl]

Al,
Is this a continuation of this problem?
http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/connection-problems-router-isp-73896-2.html

No, that was different. I think.

 

[TromboneAl]

Your 'very slow' is about all I get on my connection. That absolutely does not result in 'pages not loading'. For example, the er-org portal refreshes for me in less than one second. A highly customized google news page loads in about 2 seconds, reliably.

I suspect DNS issues. Try the google DNS or open DNS.

-ERD50

The pages not loading and the slow performance tend to occur at the same time.

Thanks for all the things to try. It's easy to put this on the back burner, because things work in general. Also, I've learned that ignoring a problem that might be on the ISP side is often a good strategy. It can get fixed without your wasting time with tech support.

 

[Closet_Gamer]

Al, are you on a Mac?

There is a known Mac bug where the Mac will lose aspects of its connection to the wifi router. (Amazing how long it's been going on that Apple hasn't fixed it. It's all over their help boards.)

The challenge is that it doesn't show that the wifi connection is totally dropped. It will report a "connection timeout." What happens is that it cycles connecting and dropping the connection to the router...during the brief window it stays connected, you get the page your loading. When it's down, you get errors like you describe. Maddening.

The steps to temporarily remediate are straight forward, but sort of long. If you're on a Mac let me know and I'll post them.

 

[eytonxav]

Here is a pretty reasonable list of things to try:
Fix a Slow Internet Connection | Delete Computer History