My internet service is supposed to be High Speed but it is extremely slow. Could it be my computer?

Question

I have high speed internet through CHARTER. It is supposed to be a very good internet service. I use a Motorola surfboard installed by the company. I have tried everything possible to get it to run faster, but is is even slower than dial-up. My computer is a 2003 Dell Dimension 2350. Could it just be the computer itself or the surfboard?

Answer 1

You need to diagnose where the bottleneck could be before concluding it is your computer. The bad news it takes a bit of time and technical know how to work through and identify where the issue is located. I have assumed you have a Windows based computer.



Others have suggested doing a check and clean out of viruses and malware which is a good first step but it may not fix the problem.



If your computer functions satisfactory with non-internet based applications such as Word Pad, then I would say your computer is fine. The bottleneck is somewhere else.



A simple thing to try is to replace the Ethernet cable (that's the cable used to connect your computer to the Motorola modem) in case it has been damaged and isn't connecting cleanly.



You can try to turn off any 3rd party firewalls (except for Microsoft's Firewall), anti-viruses, anti-spyware software running in the background if they have been installed and commenced automatically on start-up.



These type of programs are known to slow down and even block access to the Internet if they have not been configured correctly.

If you don't have any of the above mentioned 3rd party products, then check to see that Microsoft's Firewall is configured to allow an internet connection from your modem\router.



You can also do a thorough speed test of the internet connection that will also be useful. I suggest you download and install NET Traffic Meter 2.1.2567 from http://www.softpedia.com/ which is free. NET Traffic Meter is a piece of software that monitors the traffic on a network or modem interface. It includes features to monitor your data volume, download and upload speeds, and can measure the specifications of your internet interface. You can then compare these with those sold by CHARTER.



Another issue could be that your web browser has been corrupted and may need to be reinstalled.



From a hardware perspective your Motorola surfboard modem could be damaged or your Ethernet network card in your computer could be misconfigured or damaged. If the network card is misconfigured it can be configured from Windows control panel. If the modem or the network card are damaged, you would need to replace them.



If you are not technically knowledgeable about computers and networks ask a geek friend to help you out otherwise do some research online to help you with network configuration and firewalls.



I have included a few resources at the end that may help you with your troubleshooting.

Answer 2

The motorola surfboards are typically good, the ones I've used over the past several years were just perfect. I use one now and I get 1 to 1.5 MB/s, not Mb/s. It's not the best number for the service they advertise, but I can see netflix at highest quality, just as an example. I went to dslreports.com and there are some speed tests and other free tools. I find it very useful. Windows comes preset to some defaults that are not necessarily optimal for your internet provider. There is a tool, called DrTCPIP that helps you correct those settings.



I hope you'll find some fixes there.



In addition, I have used TuneUp Utilities 2006, which claims to optimize your system, and they do, but not really as visible as the dslreports tools. The Dell you mentioned should be able to handle the pressure of broadband, granted there is no malware. I found useful avast antivirus and spybot, both free downloads, with a minimal interface.

Answer 3

It could possibly be your computer. Are you running an Internet Security Suite, such as Zone Alarm or McAfee? If not, your machine could be infected with malware that affects the speed and performance of your computer. How long has it been since you've done a Disk Cleanup or ran the Defragmenter? You'd be surprized at how much these things can help. If you don't know how to do these things, just type them in your windows search screen. Have you deleted any unnecessary programs from the startup programs? Some of these run in the background and use resources without you knowing it. How many programs do you have running in your taskbar? Again, they can use resources without you knowing it. Remove any programs that you don't use often. Hopefully these things help. Keep us posted about what helped.

Answer 4

Run a Speed Test at several of the different sites that are set up for that. If it doesn't match what they say you are suppose to be getting then it is on their end and you need to call customer service!