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arette
09-13-07, 01:04 PM
Okay, so I've spent quite a lot of time already troubleshooting this. Some background on the nature of my problem:

I just got a new computer and am experiencing very slow download rates (often less than 100 Kbps). However strange, I can still surf the web like no other...the modem is connected directly to my computer with a cat5 (no router)

First, here's list of components for my one-week-old Dell:


Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E6600 (2.4GHz,1066FSB) with 4MB cache
2GB DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz
256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT- DDR3
320GB Serial ATA 2 Hard Drive (7200RPM)
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition,Service Pack 2
56K PCI Data Fax Modem
Network Associates McAfee 8.0 English, 15-Month Subscription


I have high speed cable internet (with "powerboost", whatever that is) through Comcast. I spent a lot of time yesterday talking with them over the phone and even had a tech come to my house to check my connection. Here's the troubleshooting steps we followed:



All firewalls disabled (Mcafee and Windows)
Modem reset (multiple times throughout procedure)
Network adapter set to "auto-detect" in device manager
No P2P software running
Ping test: 5 ms
Line check: great, no splitting with other customers in my building
Packet loss: 0 out of 1000
Speed Test: nonresponsive!



To validate their service, I hooked up the connection to my old toshiba satellite (that I had intended to replace) and took the same speed test that was nonresponsive on the Dell. The results on my old, outdated laptop were 12000+ Kbps download rate. It literally maxed out the dial (max was 10Mbps) on the speed test and finished in a split second. thus, my comcast connection is great. This led me deal with Dell support (you can imagine the pain).

After many hours of both chatting and talking with various tech support reps, I was told that my system (hardware wise) is running to spec and within the realm of what dell typically sees... and this is out a download rate of about 150 Kbps. They straight out told me that I can't do any better on this system (I made them well aware of my old computer's performace). Below is a list of other things that we/I did:


Tested many different adapter settings in device manager
downloaded driver off Dell's website (can't remember what, I was just told to)
much more that I can't remember now (can dig up if needed thru dell support)


As I find it extremely hard to believe that my old laptop can outperform my brand new Dell, I am in desperate need of assistance; I only have a little time left to decide if I want to return the product. It sounds sad, but maybe I could just download on my laptop and transfer to my new computer... it would just be nice to avoid this extra pain. This website is extremely helpful and I've learned a lot so far. Please respond and let me know if you can provide any more information and/or insight into the nature of my problem.

Thanks,
Tony

Sava700
09-13-07, 02:16 PM
Post a TCP analyzer result.

arette
09-13-07, 05:43 PM
« SpeedGuide.net TCP Analyzer Results »
Tested on: 09.13.2007 17:41
IP address: 69.136.xxx.xxx

TCP options string: 020405b401010402
MSS: 1460
MTU: 1500
TCP Window: 65535 (NOT multiple of MSS)
RWIN Scaling: 0
Unscaled RWIN : 65535
Reccomended RWINs: 64240, 128480, 256960, 513920
BDP limit (200ms): 2621kbps (328KBytes/s)
BDP limit (500ms): 1049kbps (131KBytes/s)
MTU Discovery: ON
TTL: 112
Timestamps: OFF
SACKs: ON
IP ToS: 00100000 (32)
Precedence: 001 (priority)
Delay: 0 (normal delay)
Throughput: 0 (normal throughput)
Reliability: 0 (normal reliability)
Cost: 0 (normal cost)
Check bit: 0 (correct)
DiffServ: CS1 001000 (8) - class 1 (RFC 2474). Similar forwarding behavior to the ToS Precedence field.

arette
09-13-07, 06:07 PM
also here's tracert on yahoo.com

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Anthony>c:

C:\Documents and Settings\Anthony>c:/>
The syntax of the command is incorrect.

C:\Documents and Settings\Anthony>cd ..

C:\Documents and Settings>cd ..

C:\>tracert www.yahoo.com

Tracing route to www.yahoo-ht3.akadns.net [69.147.114.210]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 * * * Request timed out.
2 8 ms 16 ms * ge-1-4-ur01.northwest.in.indiana.comcast.net [68
.86.186.153]
3 7 ms 6 ms * te-8-4-ur04.indianapolis.in.indiana.comcast.net
[68.86.184.41]
4 9 ms 8 ms * te-9-2-ur01.muncie.in.indiana.comcast.net [68.86
.184.17]
5 12 ms 18 ms 18 ms 68.86.90.186
6 12 ms 11 ms 13 ms 68.86.85.58
7 21 ms 16 ms 16 ms COMCAST-IP.car2.Chicago1.Level3.net [4.71.182.50
]
8 24 ms 16 ms 16 ms te-9-2.car2.Chicago1.Level3.net [4.71.182.49]
9 23 ms 19 ms 33 ms ae-32-52.ebr2.Chicago1.Level3.net [4.68.101.62]

10 18 ms 34 ms 20 ms ae-78.ebr3.Chicago1.Level3.net [4.69.134.62]
11 40 ms 52 ms 53 ms ae-2.ebr2.Washington1.Level3.net [4.69.132.70]
12 51 ms 53 ms 53 ms ae-82-82.csw3.Washington1.Level3.net [4.69.134.1
54]
13 44 ms 40 ms 45 ms ae-31-89.car1.Washington1.Level3.net [4.68.17.13
1]
14 40 ms 40 ms 40 ms 4.79.228.2
15 42 ms 43 ms 75 ms ge-3-1-0-p140.msr1.re1.yahoo.com [216.115.108.57
]
16 46 ms 46 ms 49 ms gi1-22.bas-a1.re3.yahoo.com [68.142.238.65]
17 42 ms 44 ms 43 ms f1.www.vip.re3.yahoo.com [69.147.114.210]

Trace complete.

thanks in advance for the help!

trogers
09-14-07, 12:55 AM
Ensure your router and modem are kept a few feet apart and that the modem is placed a few feet away from all other electrical devices.

Try the following with TCP Optimizer:

General Settings tab:
Custom settings - check
Modify All Network Adapters - check
network adapter selection - your NIC
MTU 1500
TTL - 64
TCP Receive Window - 256960
MTU Discovery - Yes
Black Hole Detect - No
Selective Acks - Yes
Max Duplicate ACKs - 2
TCP 1323 Options:
Windows Scaling - checked
Timestamps - uncheck

Advanced Settings tab:
Max Connections per Server - 10
Max Connections per 1.0 Server - 20
LocalPriority - 1
Host Priority - 1
DNSPriority - 1
NetbtPriority - 1
Lan Browsing speedup - optimized
QoS: NonBestEffortLimit - 0
ToS: DisableUserTOSSetting - 0
ToS: DefaultTOSValue - 80
MaxNegativeCacheTtl - 0
NetFailureCacheTime - 0
NegativeSOACache Time - 0
LAN Request Buffer Size - 32768
Then select "Apply Changes" and reboot to take effect

arette
09-14-07, 07:33 AM
thanks trogers. I don't have a router, but I will run the optimizer when I get home from work.

arette
09-15-07, 12:01 PM
that did help my download rate, but I can't seem to test it on any speed test sites. I tried a number of internet sites and geographic locations but the tests never even start... not sure why this would be. Thanks again for the help!

trogers
09-15-07, 12:34 PM
that did help my download rate, but I can't seem to test it on any speed test sites. I tried a number of internet sites and geographic locations but the tests never even start... not sure why this would be. Thanks again for the help!

Could be that your ISP does not accept a value set to DefaultTOSValue.

Try the settings I gave with the following changes:

ToS: DisableUserTOSSetting - 0
ToS: DefaultTOSValue - 0

arette
09-15-07, 06:37 PM
my download rate is still much better, but still can't run speed tests... again I tried various ones. Is it that important to be able to run the tests - i know it's running great right now...

trogers
09-16-07, 01:23 AM
No, it is not important to be able to run speedtests. One other way to test speed is to download a large file and multiply the file transfer speed indicated in the browser by 8 to get broadband speed.

arette
09-16-07, 01:41 AM
It would follow, then, that I'm only utilizing 1/8 of my connection speed for downloads/uploads. Since you mentioned it as a rule of thumb, this is clearly standard. Just out of curiosity, could you elaborate on this? Thanks.

trogers
09-16-07, 01:50 AM
It would follow, then, that I'm only utilizing 1/8 of my connection speed for downloads/uploads. Since you mentioned it as a rule of thumb, this is clearly standard. Just out of curiosity, could you elaborate on this? Thanks.

File transfer speed indicated in the browser is measured in kilobytes per second (KB/s).

Broadband speed is measured in kilobits per second (kbps or kb/s).

1 KB/s = 8 kbps.

So if a speedtest shows your broadband speed at 800 kbps your file transfer speed at the browser would be indicating 100 KB/s.

arette
09-16-07, 07:13 PM
okay, it's a unit conversion - thanks for all your help!!
Tony

SeedOfChaos
09-18-07, 12:36 PM
As for the speed tests, some require Java. Since you have a brand new machine, it's possible that Java isn't installed yet, and that may be the reason for some websites/speedtests to not work.

For example, the one I normally use (closest to me) is http://www.mordax.nl/, and it did not work right after installing Vista Home Premium, because Vista doesn't include Java in its installation (at least in the EU versions, no idea about the US version, may be different).

You can check if Java is installed on your machine with this webpage: http://www.java.com/en/download/installed.jsp

arette
09-19-07, 08:08 AM
good thought, but I do have java - the pages load up fine - the tests are just nonresponsive. If I didn't have java I wouldn't even see the page graphics. However, I was wondering if there are any free download accelerators online that may help me get more out of my connection... any thoughts?