Computer-type question to any geeks still awake who likes a good enigma.

[Liberal In Texas]

For the last 3 days our DSL has slowed to snail speed (worse than dial-up) at about 4:30 in the afternoon. Around 9:30 or 10:00 p.m. it starts speeding back up to normal. I'm buzzing along like crazy right now.

We have Earthlink DSL and have checked it on 3 computers. Same thing the last 3 nights. EL has nothing on their trouble sites about disruptions. The EL forum has nothing about similar problems.

Virus scans, modem checks, firewall is nominal. We're at a loss.



PS..we're about 1 block from the phone company branch. We should have good service!

[pokerfan]

1. Sounds like the network is getting overloaded

You might have a 1.5 Mbps connection to the CO, but beyond that you are sharing bandwidth with others.

What does DSL Reports say? Test your speed there and try complaining to your ISP.

[Liberal In Texas]

2. The thought of all of a sudden sharing bandwith is scary.

We even abandoned wireless routers when we discovered that I could easily hack into my next door neighbors "encrypted" wireless. (I guessed his password...it was his dog's name.) (Plus wireless, is by definition, slower.)

I'm not sure what 1.5 mbps to the CO means. (My wife probably does, but she's asleep.)

Thanks for the response.

-L

[pokerfan]

5. You don't share anything between your house and the central office

i.e. the phone company, but beyond that, it's all shared bandwidth. If enough people in your area are heavy users, it can still slow things down.

[Liberal In Texas]

11. Understand. The sudden onset and the time peramaters are what

puzzle me. It's almost like a switch is being thrown. At 4:30 p.m., you can almost hear the engine powering down. Then (at bedtime, I must admit) it revvs back up.

Thanks for the input. I really do appreciate it.

[Crazy Guggenheim]

3. Go to Microsoft and get your updates.

[Liberal In Texas]

6. We do. Except that my wife reads all the forums and is suspect for some

of them. So we don't do those. It took us forever to get SP2 because of all the problems she read about.

We now have that, but now won't update Firefox until they get that figured out.

I'll ask her about the MS updates tomorrow though.

[Crazy Guggenheim]

7. No. Get the Updates.

[Liberal In Texas]

9. OK. You seem pretty strong about that. I will mull it over with her

on the morrow.

Some of those damn updates have nothing to do with stuff we need. Like IE updates. We don't use IE anymore.

And thanks for the help.

[Crazy Guggenheim]

10. Get any of the updates that say Critical. Regardless is you think

you need it or not.

[Liberal In Texas]

12. OK. We'll probably go through closely the missing ones. Do you

really think that could be responsible?

[Crazy Guggenheim]

13. It *could* be a part of it. I'm still thinking of Spyware/Adware on the

system. What kind of anti-spyware software do you have?

On Edit: BTW, I'm an IT Consultant.

[Liberal In Texas]

14. Behind a firewall. ClamWin. SpywareBlaster. SpyBot. Ad-Aware.

Microsoft AntiSpyware. Firefox blockers for pop-ups etc. All definitions/scans up to date.

Plus JV16. Tweak UI. Regseeker. Random IP address turned on.

I think that's got it.

[Jamastiene]

4. It sounds like network traffic flow problems.

When there are lots of people on a network at one time, it slows down. When less are on at the time, it speeds back up. COL, my isp, does that. I remember back when X-Files was popular on television. It was impossible to go online right after it went off. Also, I have noticed that between the hours of midnight and 4:00 a.m. it is super fast. I prefer to be online during those times if I can. It's just network traffic.

Yours may be the same thing from the sound of it. You could ask your isp or try to find a server status page somewhere on their web site. That may help you decide if it is the problem. Or email the sysop and ask them to help.

[Liberal In Texas]

8. The problem with us in contacting EL is that we don't have one of

their "official" modems ie. an EL one we pay monthly for, as soon as they find that out, bye bye. No tech support.

The curious thing is, this just started 3 nights ago, with almost 4 years of fairly dependable service.

[henslee]

15. I like a good enema. Tell me more.

[Liberal In Texas]

16. errr...That was geek, not Greek. n/t

[henslee]

18. Oh.

:P

[entanglement]

17. You might have the old microsoft java runtime, which is open to exploits

Go to Start->Run, type in cmd in the Run box and a command window should open up
Now type
jview and press Enter
You should see something like this

C:\Documents and Settings\root>jview
'jview' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

and you're fine.

If you see something like 'Microsoft Java Runtime' please get back to me and I'll send you the steps to fix it

[Liberal In Texas]

19. Thanks, I'll look into this either tomorrow or over the weekend. Too late

tonight. I'll let you know.

Thanks again.