Thanks very much...ended up using the 2007 Vista 64 network driver from Dell, it works just fine.
Root cause turns out to apparently have been an interaction between Windows 7 networking and Avira Premium antivirus, oddly enough. I switched to Microsoft Security Essentials, and everything went back to normal. Don't know what was going on there, but it sure had me going. To get there, first I did a system restore back a couple of weeks, started out fine, but then got slow again pretty quick. Replaced the network driver, still slow. Uninstalled Avira based on intuition, and networking speeded up again.
The "ping speed" as measured by speedtest.net had gone as high as 900+ ms., and download speed as low as 1.5Mb/s. On the other hand, in safe mode with networking, ping speed was around 5ms. and download speed was about 20Mb/s. Big difference. Right now, ping speed is running between 11 and 15ms., which is comparable to what it was before the problem appeared. And download speed is also back to normal, about 20Mb/s. The only reason that I checked my networking speed was due to slow VPN to work, and general sluggish internet performance. Now the VPN is fine again, too.
Odd, but good news to find the cause. Today my networking has been fine, I've been doing speed tests all day, and my system has not been slowing down. So I'm happy now.
Okay, never mind about the antivirus, that was just a coincidence *smile*. While my system stayed fast for a whole day after changing antivirus apps, it then slowed down in the evening. So I knew at that point that I hadn't really fixed anything.
I now believe that there are a couple of problems. First off, flashing my wireless router firmware seems to have helped the overall situation. I've identified the router as at least part of the problem, since when things slow down if I reboot the router then things speed up *smile*. On the other hand, things also speed up if I reboot my desktop, so i think that I'm looking at a combination of things.
I've also been disabling unneeded Windows services on my desktop system...and got rid of Bonjour that came with iTunes, since it is doing nothing for me, but is always there running in the background. I've also removed several other apps that operate using the network...this may or may not help.
I'll see how it goes, my ultimate fallback is a full re-install, which is pretty easy but time consuming...but again, I saw a very fast system when I tried it in "safe mode with networking", so I'm hoping that I'll get rid of whatever is misbehaving, along with flashing the firmware in my router.
Davet50
4 Operator
•
14.4K Posts
0
March 31st, 2011 19:00
The Vista driver will most likely work or you can go HERE and get the Intel Driver
doh_123
159 Posts
0
April 1st, 2011 15:00
Dave,
Thanks very much...ended up using the 2007 Vista 64 network driver from Dell, it works just fine.
Root cause turns out to apparently have been an interaction between Windows 7 networking and Avira Premium antivirus, oddly enough. I switched to Microsoft Security Essentials, and everything went back to normal. Don't know what was going on there, but it sure had me going. To get there, first I did a system restore back a couple of weeks, started out fine, but then got slow again pretty quick. Replaced the network driver, still slow. Uninstalled Avira based on intuition, and networking speeded up again.
The "ping speed" as measured by speedtest.net had gone as high as 900+ ms., and download speed as low as 1.5Mb/s. On the other hand, in safe mode with networking, ping speed was around 5ms. and download speed was about 20Mb/s. Big difference. Right now, ping speed is running between 11 and 15ms., which is comparable to what it was before the problem appeared. And download speed is also back to normal, about 20Mb/s. The only reason that I checked my networking speed was due to slow VPN to work, and general sluggish internet performance. Now the VPN is fine again, too.
Odd, but good news to find the cause. Today my networking has been fine, I've been doing speed tests all day, and my system has not been slowing down. So I'm happy now.
-Roger
doh_123
159 Posts
0
April 2nd, 2011 18:00
Okay, never mind about the antivirus, that was just a coincidence *smile*. While my system stayed fast for a whole day after changing antivirus apps, it then slowed down in the evening. So I knew at that point that I hadn't really fixed anything.
I now believe that there are a couple of problems. First off, flashing my wireless router firmware seems to have helped the overall situation. I've identified the router as at least part of the problem, since when things slow down if I reboot the router then things speed up *smile*. On the other hand, things also speed up if I reboot my desktop, so i think that I'm looking at a combination of things.
I've also been disabling unneeded Windows services on my desktop system...and got rid of Bonjour that came with iTunes, since it is doing nothing for me, but is always there running in the background. I've also removed several other apps that operate using the network...this may or may not help.
I'll see how it goes, my ultimate fallback is a full re-install, which is pretty easy but time consuming...but again, I saw a very fast system when I tried it in "safe mode with networking", so I'm hoping that I'll get rid of whatever is misbehaving, along with flashing the firmware in my router.
-Roger