Weird Home Network Issue

[Kraven]

Am scratching my head here..

Cable Internet, 20mb down. I noticed the speed was down to 7mb. Reboot router and speed is back to 20mb. 3 hours later back to 7mb. Reboot and so forth. Changed routers and problem persists.

There are 3 laptops, roku, ps3, xbox, smart Tv, Ipad and Iphone which have access. Xbox, PS3 and Smart TV are usually off and the Ipad on standby.

Bandwidth monitor doesnt show any device swallowing the line.

Thoughts?

Cheers, K

 

[StevenD]

My guess is cheap router with memory leak. Or the processor cannot keep up after all the devices get going.

 

[Neutron]

Take your router out of the picture; connect your PC to the cable modem directly and see if you get the same result. If so it's your modem. Since you already changed out routers and have the same issue I'm thinking it's your modem. Do you still have your VPN connection up?

 

[Voyager6]

Check the signal strengths on the cable modem. It sounds like one of the streams is out of range.

 

[mike123abc]

Some routers cannot handle very many devices.

 

[Neutron]

What router(s) are you using?

 

[Kraven]

Take your router out of the picture; connect your PC to the cable modem directly and see if you get the same result. If so it's your modem. Since you already changed out routers and have the same issue I'm thinking it's your modem. Do you still have your VPN connection up?

Initially using a Buffallo airstation something, then switch to a Linksys 160n.

I did bypass the router,direct modem connection is normal at 20mb. Both routers arent on VPN. Going to try a third router tonight (netgear 3500l), if the problem persists, am enabling MAC and going to connect 1 device per day until I locate the problem.

Cheers, K

 

[Kraven]

Check the signal strengths on the cable modem. It sounds like one of the streams is out of range.

Cable tech support said the signal was strong. How can I check this?

 

[Neutron]

What modem do you have? Motorolla's use 192.168.100.1 for their web interface.

 

[Kraven]

What modem do you have? Motorolla's use 192.168.100.1 for their web interface.

Good question.. something I should know. Ill check tonight..

Cheers, K

 

[Teehar]

Are you certain it isn't your isp having the slowdowns?Charter bounces all over the place for me.I have had to call them many times,they will reboot the router increase the signal and all is well for a good bit.That's one reason I run multiple speedtests per day.I am using a netgear 3500l router,it's been very reliable.They always tried to insist it was my router but,I had already done my homework,connecting from modem straight to pc.

 

[TheForce]

I had a similar problem here a couple years ago and my tech guy at Comcast, said I needed to update my cable modem as the one I had was not capable of handling the new broadband speeds. I had a DOCsys 1.0 before and now I have a DOCSYS 3.0. It's a Motorola SB6121, IIRC.

 

[Kraven]

Here's the kicker... my laptop has been off for 1 day and the speed's been fine/normal for all other devices. Tonight, am turning it back one and monitor
it for a while.

Cheers, K

 

[harshness]

Some malware doesn't tip the traffic scale but it can really cut into your bandwidth by engaging in DOS attacks on devices inside or outside your LAN.

 

[Kraven]

Laptop in question is using MINT.. doubt its malaware-prone. Could be wrong though.

 

[Teehar]

Laptop in question is using MINT.. doubt its malaware-prone. Could be wrong though.

Very doubtful.I'm also kind of skeptical that the laptop would be the culprit.

 

[Kraven]

Am stumped..

Yesterday evening: XP laptop on 2nd floor office speedtest result (7mb). Tried W7 laptop on main floor (20mb down). Brought laptop upstairs (both test to 20mb). Now Linux laptop wont connect to wireless. Thinking it might be the wireless card, I plug in a USB wireless adapter (still cant connect).

Redo router settings, change channel/freq etc No change. Linux laptop wont connect.

Bring laptop into basement, plug to router (wont connect) then tried directly into modem (still wont connect). Reboot in "safe" mode, and had to re-enable networking (dont know why/how it was off). Now wired and wireless work well.

Am seriously leaning on the laptop being the culprit. Going to keep it off for 2 days and see.

Cheers, K

 

[harshness]

You might try booting some manner of CD or USB based distro to see if your Mint install is hosed.

 

[John Kotches]

This type of flaky behavior is typically hardware.