BluBear Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 Ok chaps, here's one for you. I'm pulling my hair out! My broadband is supplied by BT and I get a consistent connection speed of about 6Mbps. Recently i've noticed my PC seems to struggle on this connection, but all other devices on the network seem to be fine, (2x iPhones, iPad, Mac and MacBook - which are all wireless) I hardwired my PC to the router many months ago after constant headaches connecting over wifi. A Gigabit Netgear Powerline system did the job. Now this is the issue: I can ping (command through cmd) any website and get a nice, constant speedy return of around 50ms, no bother. But, I'm finding browsing the web painfully slow, and you can almost forget about streaming video, YouTube just fails to buffer a lot of the time. Tried using both Chrome and Firefox, both equally slow. Now tonight, for the first time in a while I connected to TS anticipating a fun night flying the North Africa campaign, but Teamspeak just went FUBAR. I'd initially connect with a ping of about 50ms, but this would rapidly increase to 500+ also with a stated +-500ms variation. WTF? The netgear utility confirms the connection to the router is running at about 385Mbps, so it's not the Poweline. I've not installed any new programs, it's virus free and to be honest it's probably only been turned on a couple of times since I flew last about a fortnight ago when all was well. I'm stumped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluBear Posted February 26, 2012 Author Share Posted February 26, 2012 Ok, I just tried something. I have a Mac and the PC next to each other, so I opened a browser on each and downloaded an 18Mb file from download.com on each machine, one after the other. The Mac gave a steady D/L rate of 450KBps throughout the download and the PC, although starting at a similar value, quickly declined to about 50Kbps. ARGHHHHH!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1. DDz Quorum B16Enk Posted February 26, 2012 1. DDz Quorum Share Posted February 26, 2012 Create an account over at thinkbroadband.com. The create a monitor (left menu under tools - look for Broadband Quality / Ping Monitor). You will need to enable ping response on your router for this to work. You will then get (eventually) a graph like this: It will show if you are suffering contention issues Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1. DDz Quorum Friar Posted February 26, 2012 1. DDz Quorum Share Posted February 26, 2012 This may be a stupid post but have you tried a different cable. I had an issue once on site where it was the cable preventing a proper connection. Just a thought. Friar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluBear Posted February 26, 2012 Author Share Posted February 26, 2012 @Rog, i'll certainly give this a try, but I don't think it's a problem with the broadband because it's only the PC that seems to be suffering. @Col, The cable is only a couple of months old, but it's certainly worth a try. Thanks guys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crash Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 Is the memory usage high? might be other things going on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DD_Brando Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 I wonder whether there is any bandwidth limitation enabled in the router settings; QoS, something like that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1. DDz Quorum DD_Fenrir Posted February 27, 2012 1. DDz Quorum Share Posted February 27, 2012 Could the Net Over Power be the trouble Chris? If you wanna isolate it or just remove it as a variable then feel free to borrow the 15m Cat6 of mine. Sorry you're havin trouble chum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crash Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 You could always turn the wireless off on the Mac book and plug the ethernet cable into it Should be able to see if its the cable side of things or not. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluBear Posted February 27, 2012 Author Share Posted February 27, 2012 Thanks for your help/suggestions guys! I just don't quite understand what has caused this issue, when as far as I can see, nothing has changed physically or virtually. I've not installed any new software, or hardware... I'll have another look tonight, grrrrr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flyboy583 Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 Gremlins!!! Thanks for your help/suggestions guys! I just don't quite understand what has caused this issue, when as far as I can see, nothing has changed physically or virtually. I've not installed any new software, or hardware... I'll have another look tonight, grrrrr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crash Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 Getting anywhere Chris? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluBear Posted February 28, 2012 Author Share Posted February 28, 2012 Not really Crash. All i've tried so far tonight is swapping ethernet ports on the router. Going to grab a long cable from work tomorrow and try a direct connection rather than through PowerLine. I've attached an image showing a typical minute or so pinging google. As you can see, there is frequent packet loss or lag. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2. Administrators Jabo Posted February 29, 2012 2. Administrators Share Posted February 29, 2012 Sounds like a sensible option Chris, it could well be one of the powerline devices going faulty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluBear Posted March 1, 2012 Author Share Posted March 1, 2012 Ok, well I have some news. I tried the long ethernet cable and guess what... It was perfect So it seems that one or both of my Netgear Powerline AV500 units is faulty. I bought them at Maplin less than 6 months ago, but not sure if i still have the receipt. The box says Netgear offer a 2 year warranty. Do you chaps have any suggestions where I go from here? I don't really want to spend another £80/90 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1. DDz Quorum FoolTrottel Posted March 1, 2012 1. DDz Quorum Share Posted March 1, 2012 You do have both adapters in a wall socket? Manual states: "You can plug a power strip into the filtered outlet, but do not plug your Powerline adapter into a power strip." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluBear Posted March 1, 2012 Author Share Posted March 1, 2012 The one next to the router is, but the one for my PC is in a multi plug block - not a cabled extension, just one of those blocks that turns a single socket into three. Thing is, it's been like that since I started using them and this problem has only been occurring the last few weeks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1. DDz Quorum FoolTrottel Posted March 2, 2012 1. DDz Quorum Share Posted March 2, 2012 Still, try it like they state it should be plugged. It's for a reason they want the plugs to be as close together, with as little 'interference' as possible in betweeen them... Maybe something changed there? You plugged in a different device somewhere since the last few weeks? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluBear Posted March 2, 2012 Author Share Posted March 2, 2012 I will certainly try it FT. Process of elimination etc Thanks for your suggestions old chap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.