Slow browsing South Manchester

sandinista · 15-10-2005, 12:36

I am on 1mb broadband, STB, ehternet/usb converter. No probs until 3 weeks ago, since then my internet connection has been slow and uploading/download speeds are a dail up pace. Contacted customer support and they said it was my zone alarm firewall, disabled but no difference. Anyone experiencing the same problems in the South Manchester area.

th'engineer · 16-10-2005, 07:50

have you tried re booting your modem and have you any results from speed tests that show it .

sandinista · 16-10-2005, 11:32

Thanks for your reply th'engineer

, yes I have re-booted many times over the past few weeks, I have run spyware and ad-aware and have no problems and have up to date anti-virus (avg). There are no file sharing or p2p programmes on my pc . Have done a speed test this am and it came out as this

Sun, 16 Oct 2005 10:21:11 UTC
1st 128K took 34250 ms = 3827 Bytes/sec = approx 32 kbits/sec
2nd 128K took 37922 ms = 3456 Bytes/sec = approx 29 kbits/sec
3rd 128K took 23860 ms = 5493 Bytes/sec = approx 46 kbits/sec
4th 128K took 31828 ms = 4118 Bytes/sec = approx 34 kbits/sec

From the source server

Sun, 16 Oct 2005 10:37:50 UTC
1st 128K took 98875 ms = 1326 Bytes/sec = approx 11 kbits/sec
2nd 128K took 130812 ms = 1002 Bytes/sec = approx 8 kbits/sec
3rd 128K took 120844 ms = 1085 Bytes/sec = approx 9 kbits/sec
4th 128K took 104891 ms = 1250 Bytes/sec = approx 10 kbits/sec

th'engineer · 16-10-2005, 12:51

try a tracert to the server or try ping plotter that might identify a problem

Also talk to CS report the problem they should be able to check your connection out

also try changing your proxy server

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/sh...ad.php?t=32161

sandinista · 22-10-2005, 16:07

I have rung technical support again today and got through straight away which was a bonus. Again they insist my slow browsing and snails pace upload and downloads (27Kbps/25Kbps respectively) and loss of bandwidth are due to a problem on my PC. We established it wasn't Zone Alarm.

We did a nestat test which showed an established active connection PID 340 which I have tried to locate in Windows Task Manager but the PID 340 is not there. I have done the netstat test again and it does not show this connection. If anyone could enlighten me as to what is going on I would be very grateful.

Thanks in advance.

Mick Fisher · 22-10-2005, 16:23

This may no longer be relevent in your case, but over the years I have found ZA to be, by far, the cause of the majority of inexplicable PC behaviour that I have had the misfortune to come across.
I have found just disabling ZA is not usually effective. Completely uninstalling it seems to be the way to get back to square one.
If you need it, an effective free personal firewall with a very small footprint can be found here.
http://www.kerio.com/dwn/kpf2-en-win.exe

HTH

sandinista · 22-10-2005, 17:04

Thanks for the reply Mick,

I'll give it a go and see if there is any improvement.

Cheers.

Devo56 · 23-10-2005, 11:33

Hi I am new here and found this site because I was having the same problems as you Sandinista.
I was on a 1meg conn through the Silver Samsung STB and live in Rochdale.
After 4 calls to the Indian call centre I was told it was my PC at fault and to take it in for repair... Hmmmm

I have just carried out an extensive rebuild, rerouted cable and a clean install on the PC.
I was experiencing speeds anywhere between 6k and 90k on various speed test sites.

After phoning customer support to cancel my NTL I got thru to a great NTL agent who went out of his way to help (stayed on phone till 9pm

)
After various tests his end he found the problem to be the STB and ordered a cable modem (using now).
While waiting for the modem he upgraded me to 3 meg and that was just as bad just bigger speed variations.
As soon as the cable modem was fitted speed was back to normal and I have been happy since then plus I can get the 10meg conn when it rolls out now.

I mainly use my conn for gaming on BattleField 2 which is a real conn hog and the 3meg's upload is far better suited, fingers crossed it will be higher on the 10meg.
If you are still having probs perhaps its the STB??

Just incase it helps they fitted a blue NTL 250 cable modem for me.

sandinista · 23-10-2005, 13:46

Hi Devo56, my PC is nearly brand new, got it in August. Tech support told me to take it to my local PC shop as well. I was wondering myself if it was the STB as I was upgraded to 1mb and told I would need a new STB as my PACE one was no good for 1mb but they never arrived with my new STB and as my broadband connection was working ok at the time I didn't bother chasing them up for the new STB. Looks like I might have to cancel NTL if I get no joy off them.

Thanks for the reply M8.

Swipe · 23-10-2005, 15:10

It's not your PC, there seems to be a problem in the area. My browsing has become noticably slow since yesterday. The NTL mail server is also on the blink.

ppolo99 · 25-10-2005, 12:50

yeah i live in withington, mine has been poor, seems fine now tho

sandinista · 27-10-2005, 18:30

Right getting really p****d off with this now. I have taken my PC to my local computer shop Mighty Micro in Macc to get it checked out (cost me ÃƒÆ’Ã†â€™ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã…Â¡ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â£25). They can't find any problem and can get 100kb/s for downloading using their broadband connection as opposed to what I am getting 27kb/s.

Just rung technical support and got the same old line about my firewall causing problems, yawn, told him disabling it dosn't make the slightest difference, it dosen't. He is insistant that I am receiving 1mb to my set top box and I have a problem on my Pc. Call me simple but if they can get 100kb/s download at the PC shop I can't have something on my Pc slowing it down because it would slow it down there as well wouldn't it. Done tracert tests yet again, netsat tests yet again, ping tests yet again. Anyway he says he is upping the power to my server whatever that means told me to wait 1/2 for it to take effect and has given me a reference number to ring back with should there be no improvement. I don't hold out too much hope.

Neil · 27-10-2005, 19:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by sandinista

Right getting really p****d off with this now. I have taken my PC to my local computer shop Mighty Micro in Macc to get it checked out (cost me ÃƒÆ’Ã†â€™ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã…Â¡ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â£25). They can't find any problem and can get 100kb/s for downloading using their broadband connection as opposed to what I am getting 27kb/s.

Just rung technical support and got the same old line about my firewall causing problems, yawn, told him disabling it dosn't make the slightest difference, it dosen't. He is insistant that I am receiving 1mb to my set top box and I have a problem on my Pc. Call me simple but if they can get 100kb/s download at the PC shop I can't have something on my Pc slowing it down because it would slow it down there as well wouldn't it. Done tracert tests yet again, netsat tests yet again, ping tests yet again. Anyway he says he is upping the power to my server whatever that means told me to wait 1/2 for it to take effect and has given me a reference number to ring back with should there be no improvement. I don't hold out too much hope.

Did you get the name of the idiot that fed you this BS?

sandinista · 27-10-2005, 22:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Neil

Did you get the name of the idiot that fed you this BS?

Think he was called Danny, just been on to tech support for the 4th time and still the same old bull, this time they reckoned they had sent some new configs to the set top box and I have had to re-boot and re provision my pc, hasn't made the slightest bit of difference. Cancelling NTL tomorrow had enough

kibblerok · 27-10-2005, 23:36

no problems here at all in withington recently