Sudden VERY slow internet

[DracoM]

Three weeks ago, changed from BT to Sky broadband. Seemed to be OK after a bit of faff.
Suddenly, this a.m., Google Chrome is INCREDIBLY show and for the most part not able to connect tagged regular sites.
Ironically, The Radio 3 forum is absolutely unaffected, Cricinfo is VERY slow but just about works, and nothing else does.
Got the Sky engineer this a.m., went through a routine, but system is now back to exactly what is was like when I phoned them for help!!


Help!!

[Dave2002]

Various possibilities.

If you know how to, check that the DNS is set up and working properly.

Also check your wireless LAN passwords if you are using wireless, and maybe reset them.

Another idea is to flush all the browser caches.

Yet another suggestion is to make sure you have sufficient spare disc space on your computer. This could be the major problem - many systems need at least 10 Gbyte spare in order to work.

If you are using Windows (I might say, heaven forbid...) try using CCleaner to remove unwanted files and applications, and maybe also redo the registry.

Run a virus checker too, if you have one.

My hunch is to do the DNS first, and then the wireless LAN passwords. If that doesn't fix things, then it becomes a tedious slog going through other options. My reasoning is that these are things which can be accidentally changed, or not set up properly when there is a change in network provider, though the problems may not be related to the change at all.

Does the problem affect other browsers too - e.g Firefox, Safari?

[DracoM]

Firefox I use to piggyback into emails.
Sky engineer checked DNS, and LAN - which is why I am so *****d off. He was helpful, patient - he would have to be with an idiot - and I thought we'd done it, but Google Chrome still accesses nothing. Except THIS site? Weird?

[Frances_iom]

Firefox I use to piggyback into emails.
Sky engineer checked DNS, and LAN - which is why I am so *****d off. He was helpful, patient - he would have to be with an idiot - and I thought we'd done it, but Google Chrome still accesses nothing. Except THIS site? Weird?

there were problems with Chrome + DNS - there were 2 solutions - one to switch off DNS prefetch - (under spanner - options - under hood - privacy tabs) or to switch to Google DNS 8.8.8.8 (tho I recall that some networks don't allow this actually forcing all DNS no matter what you have set thru their own DNS server as provides a method of tracking your web accesses - wouldn't surprise me if SKY did this)

[DracoM]

Many thanks.
Got to try something, because it's driving me mad.

[Dave2002]

Can you take your computer to another location - is it a laptop? if so, you could try it there to check the machine itaelf is OK - or not!

Does your problem affect only one machine, or several?

[johnb]

You say you have Firefox installed as well as Chrome. Does Firefox exhibit the same problems?

You mentioned it affects tagged sites - does it also affect sites you navigate to via, say, google?

[DracoM]

Firefox generally speaking no.
Sites I navigate to - yes, sometimes
BUT
NOT today.........!!!!
So I begin to wonder if this is all to do maybe not with the set up I have on board my kit so much as the vagaries and interruptions to feed via the machinations of BT fiddling about with re-laying, upgrading etc cabling in this already notoriously hilly area?
e.g. this a.m. there is absolutely no problem with anything at all.

[Dave2002]

If there are local infrastructure problems there can be slow performance. We had that before Christmas when we had almost no service for over two weeks, and the service we had was very slow. This was due to flooded communications conduits.

Slow performance can be due to the infrastructure itself being slow, but can be exacerbated by time outs in some software. Software which can operate within the constraints (i.e just inside time out limits) may be slow but functional, whereas if any software often goes over time out limits then data rates can grind almost to a halt due to repeated time out/retry cycles with little or no data transferred.

If you can check on the service that may give you some clues, though I have a hunch that problems are often mysteriously/spontaneously "fixed" after having been reported, yet a negative (i.e no problem) report comes back! Sometimes also the various providers just don't get their act together, and apply the wrong passwords etc. so that kit doesn't connect properly. This happened to us very early on in our broadband experience, when eventually our provider admitted that communicating various codes to and with BT had been done incorrectly, but it took days of pressure, assurances and denials etc. to get things put right.

[DracoM]

Dave2002, all I can say is that so many of the things you say in that last posting ring a bell. Uncanny! Almost as if you are sitting in my study staring at my kit in my part of the country!

Many thanks, Very reassuring - well, sort of!

[Dave2002]

DracoM

Good luck with it all anyway. I have had quite a lot of experience of problems of various sorts - but I'm not "in the business".
If it's working now, just enjoy it.

Ah - one other thing - are you running with an ADSL link? You could try changing the micro filters - and do a before and after check with http://www.speedtest.net - sometimes changing the micro filters makes a big difference. Either the micro filters themselves go faulty, or alternatively just switching them around causes the line adaptation to kick into action, and get a new set of parameters. I think the line adaptation algorithms can be initialised at the ISP end if you push for it, but changing the micro filters does the trick sometimes.

It might be worth getting some higher quality micro filters if that's what you're using. I'll see if I can find which are rated at present.

Sky might not use ADSL, but I'm not sure what technology it uses in your part of the world.

[Sydney Grew]

Traceroute can perhaps help. And MTU settings. Sometimes an ISP gets these wrong somewhere along some routes, thus throttling the capacity at a certain unsuitable bottleneck. It would explain a) the sudden onset of the problem and its equally sudden departure, and b) the fact that it affects only certain addresses. Think of "roadworks, wide détour along not so pretty country lanes."

I had that problem once and the ISP although cheap proved incapable. Help-desk in Ceylon. Gave them a fortnight but in the end fixed it only by switching ISPs.

[Dave2002]

Sydney

Thanks for reminding me about traceroute, though as DracoM has now gone fairly quiet I guess he's sorted for the time being.
It's been a few years since I felt the need to do that sort of thing frequently.

Examples

Windows - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314868

Mac - http://support.godaddy.com/help/arti...te-in-mac-os-x

Linux, Unix and similar - https://www.digitalocean.com/communi...network-issues

Here is one I just did on Mac OS X - I think it's sufficiently anonymous to not give too much away:

Traceroute has started…

traceroute: Warning: www.google.com has multiple addresses; using 173.194.67.104
traceroute to www.google.com (173.194.67.104), 64 hops max, 72 byte packets
1 dsldevice.lan (192.168.1.254) 77.950 ms 87.654 ms 100.054 ms
2 lo0-central10.pcl-ag04.plus.net (195.166.128.185) 35.374 ms 33.630 ms 44.745 ms
3 link-b-central10.pcl-gw02.plus.net (212.159.2.174) 32.656 ms 40.479 ms 34.381 ms
4 xe-0-2-0.pcl-cr02.plus.net (212.159.0.206) 31.873 ms 31.987 ms 67.201 ms
5 ae1.ptw-cr02.plus.net (195.166.129.2) 34.330 ms 70.622 ms 33.450 ms
6 ae2.ptw-cr01.plus.net (195.166.129.4) 32.221 ms 31.413 ms 31.294 ms
7 72.14.222.97 (72.14.222.97) 34.902 ms 32.729 ms 31.853 ms
8 209.85.246.244 (209.85.246.244) 34.104 ms 31.873 ms 34.531 ms
9 209.85.253.94 (209.85.253.94) 34.177 ms 32.387 ms 32.379 ms
10 72.14.242.166 (72.14.242.166) 38.308 ms 37.797 ms 41.014 ms
11 209.85.250.163 (209.85.250.163) 38.769 ms 38.354 ms 39.657 ms
12 * * *
13 wi-in-f104.1e100.net (173.194.67.104) 39.431 ms 37.715 ms 36.875 ms

Interesting that at first sight it appears that the greatest delays are at my end. Maybe I need to look into that.

[DracoM]

Dave

Gone quiet because [fingers etc] prob seems to be solved. Turns out that indeed BT are VERY slowly laying new cable, the local exchange is in some turmoil, AND Sky and BT finally got a bit more of their act together in exchanging relevant codes / dates etc.

So as a cocktail to interrupt feed, not bad?

[johnb]

Interesting, I've never used tracert (the Windows command line utility) before.

When I use it to trace the route from my PC to this forum (for3.org) it seems to go via London, NewYork, Washington, Atlanta to FutureQuest in Orlando (all in 128 ms) !!!!