Problem with High Speed Cable Internet

exalted512

I've been having problems with my internet lately. Its through our cable company.

The cable guys come over and try to fix it but can't. They give us a new cable modem, click repair a couple times on my computer, then leave even though it still wasn't working...

Anyway, they call my girlfriend's cell phone and leave her a message and tell her their engineers have found the problem and are currently trying to fix it...Well, I decide to plug my laptop in and voila, it works.

So now what? My computer has been having problems lately with pop ups. Massive spyware issues. I downloaded spyware bot and it didn't do ****. I already have adaware...Anyway, I deleted the spyware bot to see if it had put some type of firewall up but it didnt help.

I'm lost at this point, so any help will be greatly appreciated
-Cody

hearingimpared

I'm having problems with Comcast high-speed internet tonight. Email is crawling, webpages are loading unbearably slow. I called Comcast and was told that they have been getting lots of calls from my area and they want to send a tech out Friday. . . what a crock of ****. They have a problem, they know they have a problem, but they just won't admit it.

They do this crap all the time. Your problem I'm sure is unrelated.

Just venting.

Refefer

High speed cable networks have a huge problem inherently: Everyone on the service is sharing the same bandwidth. What this means is that during the day, you might hit your advertised speeds (because everyone is at work, obviously), but at night when everyone wants to do their email, it'll slow down significantly. That, unfortunately, is the way it works. However, on the upside, you get increased reliability over DSL.

Now DSL is interesting: You're not sharing your bandwidth with other people, like in cable, however it's finicky in that it's unreliable and usually much more expensive for similar speeds.

Exalted, as for your spyware/adware/pop up problem you've got a variety of choices. First off, ditch Internet Explorer. Popular alternatives are Mozilla Firefox (www.mozilla.com) and Opera (www.Opera.com) both of which are free and will make your browsing experience much more enjoyable.

As for the already existing crap that's managed to install itself, I would download the 14-day free trial of Ewido (www.ewido.net). That's the software of choice I use in 99% of computer cases. I also think the retail version is worthwhile as it does an excellent job at blocking malware before it installs.

On another note, for every day your service is out you can demand your account get "credited" for the lost service. Also, if you want to switch services, you can drop your contract and usually get out of closure fees due to poor service. If they still demand you pay, threatening them with legal action usually results with them dropping it. Filling papers always will.

Hope that helps.

disneyjoe7

Refefer wrote:

However, on the upside, you get increased reliability over DSL.

Now DSL is interesting: You're not sharing your bandwidth with other people, like in cable, however it's finicky in that it's unreliable and usually much more expensive for similar speeds.

HUH, DSL is unreliable since DSL works off of your phone line let me ask you this question how offend has you phone died? If a bomb took out your neighborhood I would think you would pick up phone expecting the thing to work. How often does your cable go out I say 3 to 1 over you phone line. So since High Speed cable is a cable channel if the TV didn't work do you suspect your Broadband would work also?


I think your statement in whole is so far off the facts. :rolleyes:

PolkWannabie

Yep ... Cable is slow tonight ...

bobman1235

disneyjoe7 wrote:

HUH, DSL is unreliable since DSL works off of your phone line let me ask you this question how offend has you phone died? If a bomb took out your neighborhood I would think you would pick up phone expecting the thing to work. How often does your cable go out I say 3 to 1 over you phone line. So since High Speed cable is a cable channel if the TV didn't work do you suspect your Broadband would work also?


I think your statement in whole is so far off the facts. :rolleyes:

Do you work for the phone company Steve? You seem very defensive about the knock on DSL. The problem as I understand it with DSL is that the signal cannot be boosted very much (hence the distance limitations - you have to be a certain number of miles from a source). The further away you are, the worse your performance is.

Read up on it yourself, I'm certainly not very well-versed in the technology, but cable is definitely a much more reliable medium for INTERNET... not for its intended purpose (phone transmission vs cable TV), but definitely for broadband access.

disneyjoe7

Sorry just not buying it and I don't care what I read on the INTERNET, cable is more reliable medium for INTERNET. Such ****.

As far as your distance issue you're right, more or less. Most DSL when it first came out was from the phone Central Office. And Copper was the method of transmission, as more customer requested it more remote DSL hubs are in the field. These can be anywhere since they are fiber feed for the must part, this is how mine works right now.

PolkWannabie

... And what real speed at what price do you get ?

... And, Oh yeah I seem to recall losing the internet connect via cable for a few minutes a couple of years ago ...

exalted512

Refefer wrote:

On another note, for every day your service is out you can demand your account get "credited" for the lost service. Also, if you want to switch services, you can drop your contract and usually get out of closure fees due to poor service. If they still demand you pay, threatening them with legal action usually results with them dropping it. Filling papers always will.

Hope that helps.

I dont think they should, but should they come out and look at the settings on my computer to see whats making it limited or no connectivity?? I mean, its MY COMPUTERS fault, so I dont think they should...but I dunno. This is the first time I've had a major problem.

Does anyone know what to look for that might be causing this?
-Cody

Strong Bad

I've had Comcast for about 5 years now. Other than having to unplug the modem and plug it back in perhaps no more than 10 times in those 5 years, it's been a serious champ for me.

I run IE, have my PC behind a router and use Norton AV, Anti-Spyware and personal firewall.

No problems whatsoever for me.

PolkThug

SpyCatcher by Tenebril is by far the best (and I'm using the free version) cleanup and prevention software. In its initial sweep it may block too much stuff, but you can deselect programs from being blocked.

Stop using IE, try Mozilla Firefox.

krabby5

I love my cable internet...wouldn't go back to dial-up OR DSL for anything..

maybe 5 problems in 5 years..and they were all minor

exalted512

Maybe I should rephrase my original question.

Right now, my main concern is getting my internet to work on my desk top, because currently it says "Little to no connectivity"

The only thing I did was download spyware bot which i deleted yesterday in hopes that was the problem.

Thank you for all your suggestions on different spyware detectors, but it doesnt help me if I dont have the internet...lol. After I get it back online, I will probably download all of them because its driving me crazy, but in the mean time, anyone have any suggestions on getting my computer to work?

Its a Dell XPS and I'm running windows xp.
-Cody

PolkThug

In the mean time, you're on the Internet right now, so download this and burn it to a CD, take it home and load it:

http://download.tenebril.com/pub/bin/spycatcher-express.exe

bobman1235

"Little to no connectivity"... doesn't that mean you're on a wireless network? If you're on a wireless network, a million things could be wrong, most notably hardware failures on the router and wireless card, both of which have pretty high failure rates from almost any manufacturer. If you'ree on a wired network, are you plugged directly into the cable modem, or are you going through a router? The router could be bad, or set up wrong - try going directly to the cable modem.

One other thought is that all your popups and spyware problems are actually affecting your OS or network driver enough to give you connectivity problems. It's not out of the realm of possibilities. I know a lot of people get up in arms when I suggest this, but it may be time to scrub the hard drive and start with a fresh install of Windows. Even if it's not the cause of your problem, it'll definitely get rid of your Spyware / popup issues.

ND13

My cable company just upgraded our service from 4.0 to 10.0 speeds. A dramatic increase. Doesn't that make it faster than T-4 lines???

bobman1235

ND13 wrote:

My cable company just upgraded our service from 4.0 to 10.0 speeds. A dramatic increase. Doesn't that make it faster than T-4 lines???

Maybe one-way. Most T-carrier lines are rated equally both ways. The way cable companies give us such high download speeds is by capping upload speeds to something horrifically slow (512Kb/s or so). Not to mention that you only see those 10Mb speeds when no one else on your local network is using high bandwidth, since your bandwidth is shared within your "neighborhood". If there was a Halo tournament going on, you'd feel the difference, where as a dedicated T-4 or so would be, well, dedicated.

exalted512

its wired directly from my cable modem.

I tried unplugging everything when it was through my router(for wireless for my laptop, desk top was still wired in) to no avail, so i went straight to the computer from the modem. That was before the cable company ever came by.

I've been thinking about deleting everything and starting fresh, but how would I go about doing that? If I dont have the windows xp discs would i have to buy them?

I wish there was an 'easy' button for this crap...lol. Or at least a 'delete everything that didnt come with the computer' button...lol
-Cody

ND13

bobman1235 wrote:

Maybe one-way. Most T-carrier lines are rated equally both ways. The way cable companies give us such high download speeds is by capping upload speeds to something horrifically slow (512Kb/s or so). Not to mention that you only see those 10Mb speeds when no one else on your local network is using high bandwidth, since your bandwidth is shared within your "neighborhood". If there was a Halo tournament going on, you'd feel the difference, where as a dedicated T-4 or so would be, well, dedicated.

Oh I knew it was for downloads, which is what I mainly care about. I hardly ever upload anything, but the last time I checked it wasn't as slow as you posted on uploads, but nowhere close to download speeds. You also have to remember that I'm not in a very large city(20K or so) and there's not a lot of cable modem users...more dsl and dial-up users here. All I know is, when I'm at home, I can surf faster than I have ever been able to at anyplace that I've worked at that had a T1, T-3 or T-4 line and definitely faster than this DSL I"m on now.

bobman1235

I agree Noel. My home internet (cable) is WAY faster than my work, I was just being a smartass and pointing out the differences between a dedicated T-4 and a cable modem.

exalted512 wrote:

I've been thinking about deleting everything and starting fresh, but how would I go about doing that? If I dont have the windows xp discs would i have to buy them?

They didn't give you any with your computer? I guess technically you'd have to buy them, or request a "restore" disc from whoever you bought the computer from.

It would be nice if you could get another "known good" computer hooked up to see if it's the connection or the computer itself that is having the problem - since the cable company seems to think your connection is ok.

jgido759

bobman1235 wrote:

They didn't give you any with your computer? I guess technically you'd have to buy them, or request a "restore" disc from whoever you bought the computer from.

Unfortunately, most "MART" type stores that sell computers with pre-loaded software do not provide the "original" installation CDs. Most pre-loaded applications (with the exception of the O/S) are "trial" versions and usually require the end-user to purchase the application before the trial expires. The owners instructions for these systems recommend that you "back-up" your system right out of the box so that you can bring the system back to the way it was originally purchased. Only the activation codes are provided for installed software.

PolkWannabie

It's highly unlikely, even if you are the only one on a given sub net, that your cable which at most is probably capped at 30-50 Mbps is faster then a T-4 which operates at 274+ Mbps or for that matter even a T-3 which operates at 44+ Mbps ...

The network admins of places that you've worked that had fast lines no doubt capped the workstations on the network ...

ND13

My new puter at work keeps asking me to create a back-up disc for XP and I keep telling it to remind me again in a couple of weeks, when i don't have anything else to do, I'll get around to doing it.

exalted512

bobman1235 wrote:

I agree Noel. My home internet (cable) is WAY faster than my work, I was just being a smartass and pointing out the differences between a dedicated T-4 and a cable modem.



They didn't give you any with your computer? I guess technically you'd have to buy them, or request a "restore" disc from whoever you bought the computer from.

It would be nice if you could get another "known good" computer hooked up to see if it's the connection or the computer itself that is having the problem - since the cable company seems to think your connection is ok.

No they didnt provide the original software and I never made a back up, live and learn i guess. Anyway, my laptop IS currently hooked up, so i know its the computer.
-Cody

ND13

PolkWannabie wrote:

It's highly unlikely, even if you are the only one on a given sub net, that your cable which at most is probably capped at 30-50 Mbps is faster then a T-4 which operates at 274+ Mbps or for that matter even a T-3 which operates at 44+ Mbps ...

The network admins of places that you've worked that had fast lines no doubt capped the workstations on the network ...

Dude, just going by real world experience. I have yet to use ANY service that's as fast as my home cable. I can put5 bids in, on Ebay,in less than ten seconds. I couldn't get that many bids in on the T$ line I had at my last job and the puter was new, too so it wasn't it. Also, we're not talking about some huge corporation, either, just a small new car dealership with maybe 6 ports.

sucks2beme

Wait till you guys see fiber to the house!:D
Things get fast and very stable.

The spyware thing can bring a computer to it's knees. Always run backups
and create a windows boot disk.
Many spyware programs are crap. I've had to pull some stuff out manually
a couple of times because the program can't take it all out.
I've got a firewall loaded and everything is always patched up to date now.
I haven't had a problem in a while.
Next time, just buy your **** instead of surfing for it!:D

PolkWannabie

ND,

When properly configured, ones little piece of a T3 should fly ... T4's are well beyond this ...

bert26

Cody -

Have you tried to release and renew your IP address from a command line?

That works for me sometimes...

Chris

POLKOHOLIC

this is the year 2006. cable and dsl have come a long way since they were introduced. both are very reliable and whatever the difference in reliability is between the two (that is if there is a difference) it is very insiginificant. i pay 37.99 for verizon 3mbps down 800kbps up. similar services from my local cable isp are about the same. the only difference between my local cable isp and verizon is that time warner is full of **** clowns who would love to bend you over given the opportunity.

one might be cheaper than the other but that just depends on the provider and vary's from locality to locality. in my area its all the same. and dsl has been good for me for about 1.5 yrs - maybe a unplug replug once every few months.

exalted512

bert26 wrote:

Cody -

Have you tried to release and renew your IP address from a command line?

That works for me sometimes...

Chris

i tried that and this is what my computer said:
"Windows IP Configuration

The operation failed as no adapter is in the state permissible for this operation."
-Cody

POLKOHOLIC

this is the easiest thing you can do. its fool proof. backup all of the files that you need. copy them over to another storage medium. make sure you have all system drivers handy. take a windows xp cd. put it into your system. format and reinstall. this works 100% of the time. shouldnt take more than 2 hours and thats if your system is really a pos.