Problems, problems, problems (Middlesbrough area)

[Ste...]

I recently had 4MB installed when I moved from Manchester back home to Middlesbrough for a while. Anyway, I've had several problems.

The main problem is speed. When I am surfing, things seem to be fine. Pages load instantly, for example. But then, as soon as I begin to download anything surfing becomes extremely slow, often sticking on "Connecting to..." for a minute or so. After checking the download speeds, they're often around 20 - 30kbps, which is clearly not using bandwidth up.

I was on 1MB in Manchester, and all was fine. I was connected the same way (directly to the modem). My firewall is set to allow access to all these services, too.

I did various speed tests and I was receiving results which I expected (I think) - a down speed of around 900k.

A second (annoying) problem I am having is in regards to Google. I use www.google.co.uk/ig as my homepage (Google's homepage service). I am constantly getting an error message. This message tells me it appears that my request was from a virus or piece of spyware, which is isn't, I'm sure about that (I'm very careful, and I checked just in case). I was reading these forums and found that this was probably down to proxies. It's been like this for 3 days, and is extremely annoying.

Just wondering if anyone has a clue how to fix these issues? I checked the service status page, and Middlesbrough doesn't seem to be affected. I've never had problems with the internet on this PC before. It's seemingly not a problem with DNS, either, because all sites' addresses work (just slowly)

Edit: For example, at this moment I have a download at 15kbps, and as I posted this message, it took around 30 seconds to connect properly.

[Stuart]

Ste, to the site.

[monkey2468]

Try changing your proxy server.
http://www.cableforum.co.uk/forum/article.php?a=21
http://www.cableforum.co.uk/forum/article.php?a=10

[AbyssUnderground]

A second (annoying) problem I am having is in regards to Google. I use www.google.co.uk/ig as my homepage (Google's homepage service). I am constantly getting an error message. This message tells me it appears that my request was from a virus or piece of spyware, which is isn't, I'm sure about that (I'm very careful, and I checked just in case). I was reading these forums and found that this was probably down to proxies. It's been like this for 3 days, and is extremely annoying.

Ive also been getting this. At first I thought it might have been because my server checks google once a minute to keep a log of its uptime, but it seems to have stopped now. (Im also in Middlesbrough by the way)

[Ste...]

Originally Posted by Stuart C

Ste, to the site.

Thanks

I've tried changing the proxy to all the available ones in Middlesbrough, and still get the same problems (except the Google one, which seems to have fixed irtself).

I'm downloading at 10kbps at the moment, and it's really slow when browsing. This on a 4MB connection is terrible. *shrugs shoulders*

Speed tests are also showing:

Overall Average Speed = approx 971 Kbps, 0.95 Mbps

This is what I got earlier, too (I mistook the speed for download speed). Does this mean I'm on 1MB? Grr, phone call it is then.

---------- Post added at 18:13 ---------- Previous post was at 16:43 ----------

How very annoying, and odd.

I just got off the phone with Customer Services and my billing was all for 4MB, yet the speed which I was set to was 1MB. All sorted now, though.

Still, quite annoying :|