Web access speed slow down 1

[hoc7hoi9]

Hello,
I have a 750mhz Duron with Asus A7V mobo,OS is Win Me, and used to connect to the web with 56k internal modem. Every thing was working fine. A month ago I switched to DSL and the speed was just great. However just a few days ago, I suddenly could not get into any web site. It always came up with "This page is not available... cannot find server..", even though the connection indicated that it was on-line. The technicians from the DSL service company led me through a barrage of tests and concluded that it was a network problem, and advised me to switch to using their Dial-up accessing while waiting for their network to be fixed. I swithced back to my internal 56K. The connection was also fine, indicated that the connecting speed was at 119,000 kps; but once again, as with the DSL, the bytes received as well as the bystes sent were very slow: about 500 bps and 1000 bps respectively after a one minute time duration. As a result, the same message appears on the screen: cannot find server.... I would have thought that my telephone line was bad, but when I tested on my old computer Pent166, Win95, with the external 28.8K modem, and connected through the DSL company's dial-up networking, everything was working fine (I use it to send this note). I could conclude that the problem is not with the telephone line.

At first I suspected that there was the hardware problem, but when I used the external 28.8K on the Duron750, I met the same problem as with the internal 56K or the DSL modem.

I have tried to reinstall WinMe by using the boot disk, and install from CD Rom, but the result was still the same.

Could you please help me fix this problem?
Do I need to reformat my C drive before reinstalling WinMe? Or should I try install Win98 over WinMe (I suspect it could be the WinME problem, but not sure. And if I need to do that, how?)

Pardon me for this lengthy note, but I hope those details will be useful. I'll greatly appreciate your help.

Many thanks.

lehoa

P.S. Just yesterday, I called the DSL company about their network problem. Now they say that perhaps my telephone line was too far from the central, so this is the reason I got a bad connection. However, my DSL connection has been working fine for over a month. Based on the tests with my two computers, I suspect that the problem is with the software on the Duron computer as I have previously mentioned. Thank you again.

 

[cdogg]

Your suspicions are correct. If it worked fine for over a month, then it's not your line or the distance from CO. The fact that your dial-up connection didn't work either is a good sign that DSL is not the problem.

Let me start by asking, "Did you upgrade any software (i.e. Internet Explorer) before this started happening?"

Most likely, it is a setting in Internet Explorer (or Netscape if you don'e use IE). Also, do you have a firewall setup? Popular software firewalls include ZoneAlarm, Black Ice, and Mcafee Personal Firewall. If so, uninstall it, reboot, and try again. If you have a hardware firewall, such as a LinkSys router, then follow it's instructions to remove it from your system and try again...
_________________________


My guess is that it has something to do with your WINS & DNS settings for TCP/IP. A quick test is to go to an MS-DOS prompt within Windows while you're connected and type: ping

http://www.yahoo.com

- If that returns a response, then it's probably just a browser problem
- If that doesn't return a response, try typing: ping 64.58.76.224


*note: the second ping command is to test whether it's a DNS problem

post back with any results...

 

[hoc7hoi9]

cdogg,

I've fixed the problem!

Many thanks for your advice. Actually, I had tried in various ways, i.e., not loading McAfee, Zone Alarm,..., but still encountered the same problem. I made one last test: installed AOL and tried connect through external and internal modems. The result was quite interesting:
1. It took a few attempts before the modem could connect to AOL. Usually the conection was successful when the speed dropped by half. In the 56k speed dropped from 115,000bps to 49,000bps.
2. In the AOL, when connected, I could move to diffrent AOL sites, but when I tried a different site, such as yahoo, I met the same problem: speed was to slow to connect-"this page cannot be displayed", "cannot connect to server"..
AOL didn't understand the problem hence could not solve it.

After having waited in vain for the solution from the DSL provider, two days ago I decided to start from square one: reformat the harddrive, intsall WinMe, and the DSL connection software: IT WORKED!

I do not know what was the real cause of the problem, but am certain that the problem was not from the telephone line (it works on the other machine); not from the hardware: every thing is working OK now. I would guess the problem came from software. Was it from the OS, IE, or other softwares...?

One last note: Loading the AOL was a mistake. After that the computer kept hang up, the DSL could not work.

 

[cdogg]

Yes, when you install AOL, it goes through it's setup routine, allows you to connect to setup your online account and then kicks you off again, while it updates your software. The next step it takes is reopening, then it asks you if you would like AOL to be the "default" program for email, web browsing, etc...

You must say 'NO' at this prompt. Otherwise, the AOL software takes over like the plague...

glad you were able to find a solution

~cdogg

 

[hoc7hoi9]

Cdogg,

I think you'll be interested in this.

The DSL connection problem happened again! This time I noticed that it occured after I was forced to shut the computer down by manually turning the power switch off. (Isn't the refuse-to-shutdown a built-in feature of WinMe?) Thinking of having to go through the whole process as I did a few days ago almost makes me take valium! But before doing the reformatting, reinstalling I called the DSL service. This time I met a 'real' technician! He suspected that the real culprit was the firewall program (I used ZoneAlarm, but did not load it from start-up). He said the forced shut down could corrupt some registry entries even though afterward the program (ZoneAlarm) still works fine. He suggested that I uninstall, on the spot, ZoneAlarm via "custom" method to ensure all realted files are gone. I did, and the DSL connection has worked nicely since then. The explanation the technician gave was that ZoneAlarm, when installed, created so many registry entries; and if one of them was corrupted it could affect the connection. I sincerely believe that was the cause based on all the tests that I've gone through. I have stopped using ZoneAlarm. I miss it though, it worked very well for me before.

Just want to post this not so anyone has similar problems could give it a try.

Many thanks.

 

[cdogg]

What the technician said was correct. However, it should be ok to reinstall the software. I'm not sure if it's causing your system crashes, but you can always uninstall it again if it continues to give you problems. After all, you said it worked fine for around a month. And honestly, you need to have some sort of protection. The best route to take, though requires a little doe, is to buy a router which features a built-in firewall. You can get a LinkSys single-port one now for around $65-80. This will give you more protection than any software firewall such as Zonealarm or BlackIce. Plus, if you get a 4-port router (about $30 more), you can easily share your DSL line between pc's...

 

[moonriver]

I have a Bellsouth ADSL line and had the same problem. My service was connected but I could not open any web pages. I called Bellsouth tech service and he said that the DSL service was down in my state and he didn't know when it would be fixed. After a couple hours I got back on with no problem...So it just might be your server and they don't want to admit it's their fault. AOL and Zone Alarm were probably causing other problems, as I had to remove both compeltely from my computer too, but your initial problem I say, is the server being down.

 

[hoc7hoi9]

moonriver,

One of the best way to solve any problem is to point finger to someone/something else. I think that the way the tech service tries first before it could think of something! (One guy, after hearing my problem, asked me to wait for a minute 'cause he had to check something. Afterwards he picked up the phone and kept calling my name as if he had bad connection, pretended that he didn't hear my response. The truth was I heard him very clearly and both of us used the same telephone line of his DSL's parent phone company!)

The problem did not finish after I deleted ZoneAlarm: it happened again. I have since reinstalled ZoneAlarm (I prefer it to Popup killer) and AdSubtract. I think we need these types of programs when surfing the net. One thing I do is that I keep the start up as simple as possible, and load those programs only when connecting to the net. Sometimes I still experienced the bad connection, I had to restart the pc and reconnect. It works most of the time.

Hope this will be useful to you.