Re: Reboot And Modem Speed..


"JD" <JD@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:Y9BEi.78031$ax1.73870@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Bill M. wrote:
On Sat, 08 Sep 2007 11:37:30 GMT, JD <JD@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Bill M. wrote:
On Sat, 08 Sep 2007 00:34:09 GMT, JD <JD@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Bill M. wrote:
On Fri, 07 Sep 2007 22:59:58 GMT, JD <JD@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

My cable modem slows down to a crawl and I have found that rebooting
the computer fixes the problem. Windows XP he SP2 with all the
patches.

I don't believe it's a modem problem but I've tried all the fixes in
two other newsgroups so I thought I'd post in this newsgroup.
I don't think it's a modem problem, either. More likely a simple case
of spyware, trojans, etc. What are those unspecified fixes you
referred to?

I run a variety of programs including anti-spyware, anti-trojan,
anti-virus and anti-malware. I don't run them all at the same time.
All updated with the latest definitions, all five report a clean
machine.
For the sake of argument, let's say your unspecified anti-* programs
are doing their job. That's a big assumption, so don't hesitate to
come back to it later, if other things don't pan out.
Not sure it's a "big" assumption.

Sure it is. There's a lot of crap software out there being sold and
marketed to do things that they don't do well, but let's move on. I
can't force you to mention any names if you don't want to. :)

All the anti- software I use is Free and is respected and known to do it's
job.

You get what you pay for.

You got an online scan or software you like?



I use a large hosts file which can cause a slowdown with XP so I
disabled the DNS Client Service. No change.

I changed the DNS Server Address to manual. No change.
You seem to be focused on DNS here, so the obvious question is, in
what way do you think your "cable modem" is slowing down? My first
assumption was a slowdown in throughput, but you apparently mean
something else. Can you describe what you're seeing?
My ISP has their own online speed test. As I surf the web, I notice it's
taking longer and longer to connect to web pages, etc.. I run my ISP's
speed test. The results are slow: Download Speed: 69 kbps, Upload Speed:
17 kbps. Rebooting the modem didn't return the speed, but rebooting the
modem and the computer did return the speed: Download Speed: 452 kbps,
Upload Speed: 182 kbps.

Are those speeds normal for your unspecified ISP? The download seems
low by a factor of 10, (considering that this is a cable newsgroup),
so is it possible that you mean kilobytes rather than kilobits? On the
other hand, the upload speed only looks low by half. Confusing.

I'm on basic high-speed which is supposed to be 384 kbps download and 128
kbps upload. When I'm connecting at my normal speed a little above that.

I have since experimented and found I only need to reboot the computer.

What is changing in relation to my cable modem when I reboot?
Something in XP gets crapped up but it clears upon a reboot.
I notice you didn't really address the above question.

The questions immediately following were intended to try to help
answer your question above.

You seem to be stuck on my PC being compromised when I don't think that is
the problem.

All indications point to a computer issue. As you even stated that rebooting
the computer returns your performance.



I think I could tell because of the anti- softwares I use and my browsing
habits. Trust me, I practice safe hex!



Do you have a wireless network that someone else has joined? Do you
have a LAN with other active PC's? Do you run P2P software? Do you
monitor your PC's network activity? Do you monitor your PC's CPU and
RAM utilization? Do you have a router between your PC and the modem?
No wireless network, no LAN with other active PC's, no P2P software and
no router. When my cable modem connection slows down the rest of the
computer runs at it's normal speed.

No router, so your PC is directly connected to the cable modem? In
that case, it seems likely that your PC is being compromised. You
never mentioned whether you're watching your network activity and your
CPU/RAM utilization, and I'll add a request to investigate the running
processes (via TaskManager) to see if anything strange shows up. Of
course, not everything shows up there, but it's a start. It would be
very interesting to see if there's a lot of network activity when your
PC is supposed to be idle.

I run a firewall that doesn't let anything connect out or in unless I
allow it. I doubt my PC is compromised.

Running a firewall does not mean you cannot be comprimised

Taskmanager doesn't have anything strange running.

I will monitor my network activity, I started doing that about 45 minutes
ago and there is not a lot of network activity when my PC is idle.

Which web browser do you use? Do you have any browser toolbars or
extensions installed? Some of them try to intelligently pre-fetch
pages that they think you'll visit, so that can take up bandwidth that
you wouldn't know about unless you checked your network activity.

I use SeaMonkey. I doubt something pre-fetching web pages is going to kill
my connection?

Just trying to think out loud here, since it's been difficult to get
meaningful details.

I've answered every question you have ask. What more can I do?

Well that depends. He is trying to assist, yet you seem to get very
defensive about your computer, when it is implied that it is a computer
issue.

I suggest separating DNS issues from throughput issues as a means of
troubleshooting further. DNS is typically used to convert (resolve) a
domain name into an IP address, so that activity normally happens at
the very beginning of a request. Do you see a too-long delay while
your browser says it's trying to contact the site? On the other hand,
if the name resolution isn't the problem and you're concerned about
slow throughput, then forget DNS and look at what else is happening on
your PC that's taking up CPU time or network bandwidth. An easy test
is to temporarily swap in a different PC and see if it exhibits the
same symptoms.

That is the whole point. There appears to be nothing out of the ordinary
taking up CPU time or network bandwidth. When I lose my modem speed then
pages load slowly, name resolution is slow also.



If nothing else, I strongly recommend adding a router between your PC
and cable modem.


My firewall protects me. I'm not adding a router at this point.

Thanks for taking the time to try and help. You've given me some things to
look while I continue to study the problem.
--
JD..


.

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