Why is my internet getting soooooo slow?

[megamania]

I have dial up on 1960's phone lines which I relieze is the number one killer for my internet speed buy as of late it has gotten worse....much worse. I have noticed I am often waiting for the site I am going to forever to communicate back / connect with me.


what is causing this?

I defragged the computer last month. I have 49% of the memory free.


What else could be slowing me down?

 

[GlassJaw]

a Virus
dial-up
spyware
dial-up
trojan
dial-up

 

[trancejeremy]

I think part of it is just webpages are getting more and more bloated. Because they assume everyone has broadband, even though a lot of people (like me) can't even get it in their area (except Satellite of course, which is insanely expensive and apparently has a very low download cap which at least for a neighbor who has it, means he's back to dial up speeds very quickly once he reaches his quota)

I've also had problems with pages with Google ads. Sometimes the ads just don't load, and the page won't load, either.

 

[WhatGravitas]

Is it only internet becoming slower? Or your entire PC (because spyware/adware/trojan are often affecting the entire system)?

Is Windows Update on Auto-Update (perhaps there's a chunky update right now, that's downloaded in the background)?

Are experiencing this generally or is it less or more pronounced on certain websites (currently, websites get larger and larger)?

Are you using Firefox with a good adblocker, like Adblock Plus (because especially advertisement gets increasingly... more annoying. Talk about Flash Ads)?

Have you recently installed new stuff (because programs some like to hook up "quickstarts" - which may slow the PC if it's an older one)?

Any other strange or suspect behaviour (because you may have other problems...)?

That's the stuff that's often responsible for slowing down stuff. There could also be a thing with your provider - call the support and ask, if you eliminate other reasons, sometimes it's something on their side (I've experienced that once, one call later + one or two days of waiting, and everything worked. Note: I'm talking about 1&1 Germany) - you may want to test it with another PC.

Cheers, LT.

 

[megamania]

I was once able to normally 28 speed then 24. Last week I had a whooping 16 for one day. Currently I'm at 21.6


The rest of the computer is okay.

Certain sites I don't bother with. WoTC has always been a problem with the many images and most morphing/moving. CM somewhat.

 

[hong]

Taxes. It must be taxes.

 

[XCorvis]

That's the connection speed that your modem is negotiating? If that's what's being reduced then look to your phone lines and call your ISP. Try plugging in to the jack where your phone lines come into the house (bypassing your internal wiring) and see if you get better speeds. Basically, I think there's a problem with the lines that is degrading your connection. Sometimes it's caused by electrical interference too.

 

[Redrobes]

Certain sites I don't bother with. WoTC has always been a problem with the many images and most morphing/moving. CM somewhat.

Obviously you have a modem connection issue to deal with and maybe some hidden apps stealing bandwidth but since the web pages are getting larger with more adverts and stuff in them you should try an advert blocking filter. If you run Firefix then you can get AdBlock plus from here...

http://adblockplus.org/en/installation#release

It needs a filter script which you can import as a text file. The main part of mine is below (all stuff *between* the >>>>> )


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
[Adblock]
/(\W|_)(ms|php|page)*ad(s|img|tech|vertising|farm|form|sremote|bureau|sonar)*\d*(\W|_)/
/(\W|_)(adimage|adiframe|addyn|banner|masthead|tracking|tracker)(s)*\d*(\W|_)/
/(\W|_)(atdmt|googlesyndication|mediaplex|scripps|tribalfusion)(\W|_)/
/(\W|_)(midaddle|falkag|hitfarm|marketbanker|casalemedia)(\W|_)/
/(\W|_)(clicksor|adroitweb|free-stats|budsinc|clickxchange)(\W|_)/
/(\W|_)(sageanalyst|imrworldwide|google-analytics|servedbyadbutler|statcounter)(\W|_)/
/(\W|_)(qksrv|searchfeed|maxserving|adjs.php|awrz.net|serving-sys|hbx.js)(\W|_)/
/(\W|_)track(ing|er)*(s)*\d*(\W|_)/
/(\W|_)(fast|double|value)click(\W|_)/
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>


As you can tell it blocks a lot of stuff, mainly adverts and banners and stuff like that but really its quite conservative. No doubt there are loads of stuff it ought to block but does not. Its not designed to block much of WotC stuff but that hbx.js is their hitbox tracker which I strip out. Heh heh.

Another thing I found is that when Firefox loads up it downloads a lot of stuff from various sites when you have lots of sites in your bookmarks toolbar. I expect that the google bar does similar too but I dont use that.

If your on Win2K or XP I would also recommend using zone alarm which pops up the firewall blocker when an unknown app is using your internet connection. The windows one does not do this for some apps dialing out. That can be handy to see when all sorts of stuff like WinAmp, MediaCoder and other stuff nick your bandwidth.

Finding root kits is a nightmare naturally. You would need a serial comms analyser to be really sure about that.

Edit -- Noticed that there are spaces in the names in some of the items in the adblock entries. They are not in the forum edit box so just ensure that all the entries have no spaces in them. E.g. Tribalfusion is one word.

 

[ssampier]

I can't explain why your speed magically slowed down. Do you use an internal modem?

If so, you could dramatically obtain a better, more stable connection by using an external modem. You can find them online or ebay.

 

[megamania]

90% of what was just said went over my head.

I have a line splitter that is plugged into the main line. One for the computer and one for the phone.

I have long considered talking to Verizon about DSL but lately I have heard as much bad things about it as good.

I have McAfee for bugs and the such. Blocks most all pop-ups already.


from there I hate to admit it but I don't believe I have a working Firewall.


Push comes to shove- I need the computer cleaned out and over hauled.