Broadband problem

[Steevo]

Hello all!

I'm having severe problems viewing web pages and receiving email from my NTL 750K service. This started last Monday and still not resolved so its driving me mad!
I can occasionally view a few sites but the speed is so slow that its worst than my original dial up.
I spent 45 mins with the NTL tech support line on Wednesday, they said there were no maintenance work in my area and that the signal was fine and that it has to be a problem my end. So on they went through all details of my pc and checked all basic defaults, but after all the tests he said it must be a virus thats eating the connection at my end and there was nothing he could do now.

So, I have done a full virus scan with AVG and spyware checker with sybot and adaware and found nothing. I've rebooted the pc and modem several times, still slow connection.
I cannot even download this NTL medic to help me!

The support guy did instruct me to go into cmd and ping web sites and read out the return results, only 1 out of 4 packets successful, 75% loss! Don't really understand that part though only it didn't look good.
I'm using Windows XP pro with a Terayon TeraJet 210 Cable Modem.

Any help would be greatly appeciated
Steve

[seaneeboy]

Hey Steevo, welcome to the site!

Can you post a Line Test - from http://www.broadbandreports.com/linequality - and see what it says?

Thanks!
Sean

[Steevo]

I'm doing all my internet help here at my works pc so hopefully I can access this test from the sick home pc tonight and see what happens. It appears I need to register with this site too before I can access it, I'll do that now Thanks.

[nostra]

when they ran their tests, did they notice any packet loss to the pc or the cable modem or both?

what are you using, usb or ethernet?

[Steevo]

Originally Posted by nostra

when they ran their tests, did they notice any packet loss to the pc or the cable modem or both?

what are you using, usb or ethernet?

Mmmm good question, cannot remember so I'll ping again tonight and post the results. I'm using Ethernet now, had problems with usb 4 months ago eating all resources on Win98 so when I upgraded to Xp, I also fitted an Ethernet card.

[nostra]

there is a possibility that it *could* be due to a faulty nic

would be worth while swapping to usb to just make sure that it is not the NIC causing the problems (i have seen this happen before)

also have you checked your firewall software? tried disabling it and the problem still exists...

you are not using a router are you, direct connection from the Cable modem to the pc?

ps. what modem are you using? is it a silver ntl:100, 120, 200?

[Steevo]

The card did raise my suspicions, its fairly new... but won't rule it out just yet. No router, cable modem plugs directly into my computer.

A quick question would a virus really eat all off my connection? Could I have a brand new virus that has come in because I cannot update AVG?

Its a Terayon TeraJet 210 upright black modem

[nostra]

it could be multiple things

a) yes it could be a virus eating up the connection (by using up most of your bandwidth) but you would tend to notice anomylous results such as

Pinging www.bbc.net.uk [212.58.224.114] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 212.58.224.114: bytes=32 time=740ms TTL=245
Request timed out
Reply from 212.58.224.114: bytes=32 time=420ms TTL=245
Request timed out

this could be a virus or incorrectly configured Peer 2 Peer software (or a problem on the ntl network)

if you had something like this...

Reply from 212.58.224.114: bytes=32 time=22ms TTL=245
Request timed out
Reply from 212.58.224.114: bytes=32 time=23ms TTL=245
Request timed out

i wouldnt think there would be a virus using up your connection

it could be that a virus (if you do have one) or piece of software is using all your bandwidth and the connection is so slow that it is timing out on the ping... one way of doing this would be to use this ping statement

ping -t -w 5000 www.bbc.co.uk

this would then make the ping request wait 5000ms before timing out

i wouldnt be too concerned with AVG not updating as recently the AVG free version servers have been under so much load that it does take a lot to update its definitions, something that has been mentioned here in the last few months.

there are however a number of things on the ntl network which could also cause these problems (such as a low SNR) but without further investigation it would be hard to tell (and we assume that the tech support agent has checked this)

[Steevo]

Thanks nostra, some excellent info there. Have just printed this thread out ready for battle tonight!

[Steevo]

Hi again guys!

Right then, had a in depth look at my pc last night.
My NIC seems to be Ok. Did a ping test on this card by 127.0.01 and no packet loss. I even changed the connection to USB, but no difference so back to Ethernet. At one point using USB I did get a few BSOD with "multiple_Irp_complete_requests" message
Have done a line quality test, but somewhat confused as it was stating my IP was not pingable(?)
http://www.broadbandreports.com/quality/nil/1658461
I have done several ping tests in cmd and although I get between 50 to 75% packet loss, "bytes=32 time=16ms" the time is very low as nostra stated about having a virus.
Think I might try a mates PC and plug it into my modem, see if that would eliminate my pc.

Anymore help would be appeciated, thanks.

[nostra]

might be a good idea to contact support again get the snr in the area checked etc see if the issue is happening on the sacm

if you want to pm me your cable modems mac address i will take a look in till 6.

someone want to confirm me as staff?

btw the above test probably is stating that you have a firewall on the computer which would mean a health check would not be possible