Home Networking/broadband problems

[Wht95Lightning]

I have 3mb down and 256k up from Charter and the actual speeds I get are usually pretty close to that. Today however, my download speed is HALF of what it's supposed to be. I called Charter and they reprovisioned my modem for 5mb down and it made no difference. The guy said my signal/noise ratio looked perfect, 12ms ping time and no packet loss.

Here's what I have done on my end.

Reset both router and modem, upgraded router firmware, disabled the wifi portion of the router (in case somebody is leaching). connected my computer directly to the modem, connected a different computer directly to the modem. Tried different cat5 cables.

None of the above steps made any difference. So I've ruled out the router and my NIC and the cables. I do not have another modem to try. The modem I am using is a Linksys BEFCMU10 - EtherFast Cable Modem that is 3-4 years old.
The speed loss is the ONLY symptom. There has been no drop outs or other bad behavior. Could the modem be weak and still be stable? Other ideas?

Thanks,
Gary

[Silver_2000]

leave the modem off for about 20 minutes and then bring it back up

Also try another PC - You could ( likely ) have software on the PC that is "leeching"
http://bosshelp.com/bosshelp.htm
Doug

[Wht95Lightning]

I tried three different machines and got the same result. Although, the speed has improved quite a bit over the last hour. :confused:

[Silver_2000]

I tried three different machines and got the same result. Although, the speed has improved quite a bit over the last hour. :confused:

Google cable modem network architecture.
Sounds like you have a neighbor who also has Cable and is hogging your bandwidth - Common complaint. Your bandwidth is shared with your entire street or the block or more depending on how its wired. In contrast DSL goes direct back to the CO thenis shared there. Difference is that the CO is monitored and its not that expensive to add bandwidth at the CO.

Make sense ?

Doug

[Wht95Lightning]

Is there some way I can knock the neighbors off besides walking over there and cutting the cable? Charter doesn't refund my money because I'm only getting half of what I pay for. :flaming:

[Tex Arcana]

Try this: power down the modem, disconnect is, and short the cable terminals with a screwdriver for a second. While you're at it, check all the physical connections, make sure they're all tight. The hook everything back up and see if your speeds improve--go to www.pcpitstop.com and do their speed test, or www.dslreports.com.

If they don't, then what Doug said may be true, so reboot the machine into Safe MOde, hit pcpitstop or dslreports, and see if your speed improves; if not, pull up a DOS box, and ping (ping -t www.xxxx.xxx, that will do a constant ping 'til you hit crtl-c) a site, say www.hardocp.com, and see what your times do, if they go form a fairly short time to a long one, then time out for a few pings, then you'll need to call Comcast, and tell them to come out and change your line filters, both the one inside the house, and the one outside.

I had a similar problem, where I would get site timeouts all the time, to thepoint where my chat program (GAIM) would disconnect, and it was happening on 5 minute intervals at the worst, and the problem was the filters. Swap them, problem was solved.

If the safe mode thing alone works, then all of your machines are infected with a botnet, and need to be cleaned and/or wiped.

Let us know, and if you need help, let me know.