Very slow internet :(

[ben13]

We have talktalk broadband (upto) 8Mb.
We have one desktop running XP (old IBM P4 michine with 1G memory) and also my vaio laptop also running xp (centrino duo with 1G memory).
Both machines are wifi'd to a D-Link DSL-2740R router.
the internet seems very slow considering the broadband speed (speedtest.net = 8.52Mb/s Download & 0.83Mb/s Upload).
When more than one pc's are connected the speed is awful.
To the point where it takes an age to load any facebook applications and when they do eventually load they just constanly freeze and lose all progress.

Any ideas or suggestions greatly appreciated

Ben13

[di30]

Re: Very slow internet

Hi Ben

No idea, but sometimes this happens with mine too, it can be very annoying, it sounds like you have more or less the same requirements as mine.
I blame my network provider sometimes lol, even though its possibly nothing to do with them and mine are AOL.

It does make me wonder though.
My computer updates on a daily basis and scans in case of anything malicious, which can be a cause I believe to also disrupting the speed, but I'm no techie on this subject lol, hope someone will have the answers for you, good luck.

[ben13]

Re: Very slow internet

Thanks Di, its bloody awful lol. We never used to have this problem when we lived down south and had cable!!!

[di30]

Re: Very slow internet

Thanks Di, its bloody awful lol. We never used to have this problem when we lived down south and had cable!!!

That's ok Ben, hope its sorted for you soon though.
It annoys me when it slows down then times out!!!

Ummmmm wonder if that could also be to do with anything then area wise?

I live just up the road from both County Hall and the Police HQ, and they have antennas everywhere, so wonder if that could cause problems, will be interesting to find out.

When we had a Subaru Impreza, sounds silly I know, but when hubby used to start it coincidently the puter used to automatically shut down, as said it may have been just coincidence, but he would start it up outside the house, then suddenly I heard "Goodbye" from puter lol, the Subaru was also run on a computer system, if the car would not start up, we would have to key code it back in with a unique pin, and going back to the County Hall or the HQ if we parked down there for some reason we had to use the key code to start the car back up every time, strange isn't it?

[ben13]

Re: Very slow internet

Not really. I cant understand the police RF kit interfering with the cars immobilliser system (although it shouldn't).
I work with RF kit alot in my line of work and you wouldnt believe the stuff that interferes with it and what it interferes with!!

[di30]

Re: Very slow internet

Not really. I cant understand the police RF kit interfering with the cars immobilliser system (although it shouldn't).
I work with RF kit alot in my line of work and you wouldnt believe the stuff that interferes with it and what it interferes with!!

Really?
so it's not me then (all in my head) lol?

[ben13]

Re: Very slow internet

Yes really.
The new police radio systems are supposed to be great but the truth is if your near a transmitter then they cause all sorts of problems.
We had to take down a wifi radio link on a town centre cctv system when the police upgraded all comms to airwave as it trashed the signals to the point where everytime a cop radioed it caused the camera image to drop out

[di30]

Re: Very slow internet

Yes really.
The new police radio systems are supposed to be great but the truth is if your near a transmitter then they cause all sorts of problems.
We had to take down a wifi radio link on a town centre cctv system when the police upgraded all comms to airwave as it trashed the signals to the point where everytime a cop radioed it caused the camera image to drop out

Oh dear! That caused some problems then.

[basa48]

Re: Very slow internet

We have talktalk broadband (upto) 8Mb.
We have one desktop running XP (old IBM P4 michine with 1G memory) and also my vaio laptop also running xp (centrino duo with 1G memory).
Both machines are wifi'd to a D-Link DSL-2740R router.
the internet seems very slow considering the broadband speed (speedtest.net = 8.52Mb/s Download & 0.83Mb/s Upload).
When more than one pc's are connected the speed is awful.
To the point where it takes an age to load any facebook applications and when they do eventually load they just constanly freeze and lose all progress.

Any ideas or suggestions greatly appreciated

Ben13

Low download speed isn't usually the cause of slow loading / refreshing web pages, it is more usually the 'latency' or 'ping' speed. If this is low it means the network is crowded and you 'packets' of information are having to wait for a clear space to get onto the network. Once the 'packets' are on the network they move at normal speed through the 'pipes' but keep getting held up in queues at junctions. Web pages are made up of hundreds if not thousands of small packets of data and each packet has to negotiate dozens of junctions in the network. Just one bad junction can slow everything down until an alternative is negotiated by the network servers.

This will be due entirely to Talk Talk having too many customers trying to use too little 'pipe' (or telephone cable).

Try this speedtest and look for the latency / ping test first off. Anything over 50ms is getting low and will affect web page load times.

Speedtest.net - The Global Broadband Speed Test

Sometimes stopping a slow page loading and clicking the reload button helps. Also try turning off the router and waiting 30secs before restarting. That resets the default settings and may re-establish a new address for your PCs.

[di30]

Re: Very slow internet

Cheers for this Basa that is interesting and just had a go with mine......

Ping 106
Upload 0.35mb/s
Download 1.25mb/s

It came up as 2 and a half stars 2.7/5

MP3 5MB - 30 secs
Video clip - 35mb 3 mins
Movie - 800mb 79 min

The blue line was not even near the average ISP white line.

My phone line is with BT and Network AOL.

My ping is way high then............doh!

[pompeyfaith]

Re: Very slow internet

Basa,

Well done for explaining it all in layman's terms have always of had a job understanding the finer technicalities of the internet, but this is very understandable.

Thank You

[pompeyfaith]

Re: Very slow internet

I'm with BT

Ping 30ms
download 5.25M/bs
upload 0.87M/bs

Server Trance FM london

Thats not so bad for BT ive had worse

[di30]

Re: Very slow internet

Its great isn't it PF?

Thanks again Basa.

Now does this mean the outcome of mine is any good? lol

[ben13]

Re: Very slow internet

Ping 70ms
down 3.33
up 0.81

host server tested to was namesco in london.

shocking!!!!

[Jester]

Re: Very slow internet

Is it slow at certain times or is it slow all of the time ?

As has been explained to you, the contention ratios on a lot of ISP's can be quite high. That's one of the ways they keep their costs down, by selling low but having high contention rates.

Peak time is usually in the evenings and weekends. That's when most can find their internet speeds suffering as more people are online.

Also, the distance you are away from your local exchange will also have a bearing on your speed. The further away you are, the lower the overall bandwidth you can get.

Many ISP's advertise their speeds as being up to 8Mb. But the reality is that only those close to the local exchange will get anything near that speed. For example, I am 3 miles from my local exchange and the fastest I have been able to get my broadband up to is 3.9Mb - despite Sky (my ISP) claiming 'up to 8Mb' !!