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March 11th, 2012 22:00
Slow internet with DSL connection
Inspiron 1100 laptop
XP SP3
AT&T basic wired DSL service
Firefox 10.0.2
No wireless card.
I have had this service for about 3 years and very satisfied with it. It is usually reasonably fast, but yesterday evening it became very slow. All pages are loading slow and some just will not finish loading at all.
Today I ran the AT&T Troubleshoot & Resolve Tool, which told me I had an unidentified problem and to call the support number which I did. The support person spent a lot of time but could not resolve it. He got me to go to a page that tested the speed. It took an awfully long time for the page to download and a couple of attempts to get the test to run, but when it did the result was 0.57 Mbps download, which he said was normal for my basic service. He wanted me to delete my browser cookies but I was reluctant to do that in Firefox, so I brought up Internet Explorer which I rarely use and followed his suggestions with that browser but the results were the same as with Firefox. Tonight I went to another site and tested the speed with Firefox and it started out about 0.35 and within a minute fell to 0.25 and then to 0.0 Mbps.
I have Microsoft Security Essentials up to date and have run a full scan, and Malwarebyte's Antimalware and have run a quick scan. I am going to run a full scan tonight but so far have found no viruses or malware.
I have never had a problem with the dsl before and don't know what else to check. I don't know how to figure out if the problem is with AT&T or with my computer. I have not made any changes myself lately in the computer or changed the AT&T hardware in any way.
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ieee488
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March 12th, 2012 07:00
Jim,
Ideally, I would try another computer preferably one runs Linux.
Jim Coates
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March 12th, 2012 11:00
Thank you for the suggestion. I have an ancient desktop that is already setup to use this dsl connection, but I was recently cleaning out the house and donated all of my old crt monitors, thinking to get a used lcd one somewhere. So when I get one I'll try out the connection on that other computer. It has XP too, which I need because I have some expensive audio software that runs on it,
Jim Coates
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March 12th, 2012 13:00
Well it is working normally again. I was able to download this year's tax software with no problem and get the latest version of Mbam antimalware, which a couple of hours ago I could not do.
ieee488
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March 12th, 2012 18:00
Good to hear!
Sometimes there can be a temporary disruption of service.
When it wasn't working did your DSL box's LEDs still show it was?
With my cable modem, when there is a problem on Comcast's end, the LEDs show it.
Jim Coates
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March 12th, 2012 19:00
Yes, the lights were okay. The AT&T Troubleshoot & Resolve Tool showed there was a problem but it did not know what was wrong. I think the tool tried to connect to AT&T site and kept timing out.
I hope it was just a temporary disruption. I would not put it past a provider to temporarily slow down the service so that I would call them about it and then they would try to get me to upgrade to more expensive service. I may be being overly suspicious but these days I don't trust anyone who has a profit motive -- they have all gotten so rapacious.