CA3LE

Hi folks.

I have been a loyal member to testmy.net for quite a few years and love the site. But I have never had to use the forum before. Now, I am in need of some assistance.

I have been a Comcast customer for 12+ years through 4-5 different apartments/ houses.
I bought this home 3 years ago and have had Comcast here the entire time.
This is pretty embarrassing but I dont even know what service package I have. I believe its 8mbps down.
Since the day I installed the rented modem, I have had no less than 30mbps down. It caps at 34.2. Thats also the highest I ever hit. Average is 32.XX
Thats not running the speedboost or whatever its called.
That is 24/7, any size test.
I am on my second router (Cisco) since Ive been in this home.
About 2 weeks ago I noticed Netflix on the Xbox was taking a while to load a show (hung at buffering 99% for about 20 seconds.)
I didnt think much of it at the time.
Over the past two weeks, it seems as though someone threw a switch and cut me down to the 8mbps package.
I know this seems ridiculous to complain about not having something that Im not paying for.
But my concern is not that my service has been cut back, its that something on my end is not right.
Heres why: When I run any size test, it seems to hang at different points. Before if I ran a (for example) 15mb test, it would zip right through and do it smoothly. Regardless of size, it would never hang. It may be slower on larger tests, but it was still a smooth bar moving right. Now, when I run any size test, it'll hang for 5-6 seconds at (for example) 44% then continue.

Sometimes it will hang on 2-3 different points during the test.
And my test speeds are not consistent, another reason I dont think it was a change on Comcast end.
I can run 10 12mb tests in a row and have 10 different speeds between 2.XX mbps and 24.XX mbps.

I have used tcp optimizer for years because Im not brave enough to manually tweak.
Nothing has changed with it.

It was business as usual when this began, no changes had been made to the pc.

Here is what I have done to try and figure out/remedy my situation:

Taken the router out of the equation.

Replaced/swapped out cat5 cables.

Tweaked tcp optimizer.

Went to Comcast for new/different modem. Its a router/wifi/modem.

Ran Spybot, Norton and Lavasofts' Ad-aware. Came back clean as a whistle.

Power cycled modems/routers/pc etc.

Any other technical information about the pc is available on demand.

Im certainly no expert but Ive never taken my pc to anyone to have it fixed.
I build my own rigs and do all maintenance for family and friends on their pc's.
I just dont know anything about this stuff.

Thank you in advance for your time and any assistance you may be able to provide.

Shawn O.
Cape Coral, FL.

I had symptoms like that with Time Warner twice. Both times it turned out to be signal integrity issues with their hardware out at a box near the street. Once the signal level was too high. Another time it was too low. On their first trip they'll check the level and integrity of the signal inside your house - going into the modem. Time Warner can test signal levels remotely and identify one that is bad. Comcast can probably do that too. But if it's intermittent, it might not show as out of range during your phone call. One of the times mine failed only when the temperature outside got below 40 F. Insist that they come out and check your modem input. They have sophisticated enough equipment to figure out if the problem is the signal or the modem. If it's other hardware inside the house though they won't help on that. They're responsive to people with troubles, you may have to contact them more than once if they can't detect a problem remotely. Since you can explain all you've tried and they know your problem is real, they may schedule an appointment on the first call.

Two things i would look at first thing would be to trace route testmy.net , see if your going through the DC area or somewhere on the upper east coast. Since your in florida I'm wondering about the storm and possible re routing .

Second i would add to the lost of system scanners 'malwarebytes' , making sure to get the older one , red , not the new blue colored program. Strange ? Yes, the company was either taken over or lost the lawsuit for copy write infringements. Now I'm not certain here but the 'blue' colored program is shareware for a cost, a few other stipulations such as timed and toss. Where the older , or red ( which is still updated and working great.

I say this because malwarebytes find turds that others do not , every time.

i believe you have to have a certain post count to edit...send me a message what edit you want made and i can do it for you...

i sure hope someone in here pops in pretty quick to help with your connection problems

not that long ago i had problems...my speeds dipped dramatically and testmy was the only site that picked up the problem...all the others showed my regular speeds...turned out to be that i just needed to buy a new modem (which you've already done) and these guys in here helped me figure that out. so hang in there

I kinda forgot about this. But here's a follow up. I took pictures up close after they finished working on this.





It's funny... the needles are just paint splatters, lol. It looks real when you stand back though.




... Unrelated... but check out this cool pic I just found on my phone. I always hold bees and other bugs... they never sting me. Well, once I got stung... but it was because it crawled between my fingers and I accidentally squeezed it a little and it stung me right between my fingers. But I don't count that because it really didn't mean to... more of a reaction to the pressure.



... after a long day of fixing bugs, I go outside and hold them. Go figure.

Today I installed Windows 8Pro, 64bit, Not an upgrade a fresh install it only cost $136.00 the upgrade was only $86.00... I have not messed or tweaked in any way this is how I got..



and these are from Windows 7Pro, 64bit..



Windows 8 comes with the new IE 10. we all know that the first version of any software will get better as the bugs get up dated.

Will it cost to try it out ? If so I'd say make sure before spending as we have often found to be the case with hughesnet in the past. IMHO, and glad to see you back.

If you're out of range, it doesn't mean you cannot get service. Hughes might be able to get you running on their Gen4 satellites, but keep in mind, it might be the same deal with being outside of the usable range of DSL or for that matter, wireless service. It may work, but if the powers that be (usually weather) decide, your service may be far more likely to degrade or go out. With satellite, you're very prone to rain fade if you have a marginal signal as is.

Thanks for the replies. I went ahead and had the system installed. I am happy with it so far. I think I was expecting faster speeds then I am getting but it is faster then my HN7000S and the bill will be about 10 bucks cheaper per month. I have 30 days to get out of contract so I will use that time to make my final decision. Right now I see no reason to get rid of it, especially if it picks up any speed.

This is my new toy I have been building.. And this is how she Rolls

Let's see how well it works:



As opposed to east coast server:


A little surprised that it won't go faster to Washington. Would it be an idea and even possible to include a small ping test inside the download/upload test, so one could see whether latency is the bottleneck or not?

Oh WOW!!!!!!!!! What the heck did I get!!! Update, SOMETHING kept reinfecting my computer. It simply would be fine for awhile, then BAM!! I have no access to my external harddrive, No access to my Slave drive. It would show on my computer, Open the drive, Two small short cut files, Try to click on the one that says "show usb files", Says "winlogon.exe can not find specified drive. Heck of it is, I could access my external on the Laptop, Refuse to Move anything from the external, It could be infected.

I google the heck out of it, I know "winlogon.exe" is either infected, or bad.. So I cry a bit, scream FING WINDOWS!!!! i format the slave, the external and C drive, Start over!! So I spend HOURS puting everything back.

Oh, I reinstall windows 7, everythings cool, Sound won't work!! COME ON!! All my motherboard drivers are inistalled, Ran across a free program called "driver pack solution". Big file, Gotta torrent it. Try it,, Impressed with that program. Found the missing drivers, installed, reboot. SOUND WORKS!!

Thank goodness I keep the important stuff backed up to disk, Formatting the C drive was a trick, had to use Hirens, Now, If I EVER have to do that again, It will go much faster, Have Dvier Pack Souluton, have Hirens,

What I think happend, Got that nasty, While Removing the Virus, It messed up winlogon.exe. Maybe even another windows 7 file, I have a tiny usb external, My backup image will be kept on that JUST IN CASE,

Sorry NO WAY!! Am I going back to any Maxthon web site, Could of been any of the skins I tried, There are only 3 pages of them, I am willing to bet the Skin is gone, The Flameers swore it was not there skin, bet someone found it and got rid of it. I posted the issue in there forums, got flamed BAD, Wanna gess what I said back?? Involved the F bomb and few other choice insults, bet I got banned LOL!!

So I got a NASTY NASTY virus. I ran spybot, avast, trojan scanner, Hijack this, I tried them all, threw everything but the kitchen sink at it. Oh they found the problem, could not fix it.

Saw a post about micro trend housecall. Well its free, So its my last shot before a complete reinstall. Scan took 4 min, Found all the problems, Deleted them, Scanned a couple more times, the problem stayed gone.

What really really made me mad, I was being a good boy, I was trying maxthon browser, So I am installing a few skins trying them out.........Last one I installed. BAMMMMMMMMM.......Locked out of my computer, wanted 200 bucks to fix it. CRAP!!

Start in safe mode, Run all the anti virus I had, Nothing. CRAP!! They found it, Could not get rid of it. House call was the answer....

OOPS.....Forgot,. Yes I had a backup image.....Just knew if I restored the image the nasty would stay. I was gonna format the partition and reinstall windows.

I used Acronis True Image 2012 (Pc Backup and Recovery) was able to clone a 750 gig HDD to a 256gig SSD with no snags whatsoever.

Specs at time of test:

Dell 1545 laptop with Intel 5300 Mini Wifi Card, - Connected to MI424WR-GEN3I Actiontec N Router @54 Mbps
NETGEAR WNDA4100 N900 Wireless Dual Band USB Adapter-@ 130Mbps
Netgear Powerline AV 500 Gigabit Ethernet Network connected with Marvell Yukon PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller @ 100 Mbps

Not bad considering I almost exclusivley use my D-Link DIR-857 to handle to wireless signal.

you could use NameBench for testing
http://code.google.com/p/namebench/

I live in Montreal too and I use
208.78.24.238 clouso.risq.qc.ca

No problem... thanks for your patronage. Also, thank you for your service (I assume you're in the military because of your avatar).

Also realize this about speedtest.net... it was created by the former CEO of Speakeasy, a large ISP. So who do you think those tests are designed to benefit? The consumer or the ISP? ... personally, I work for the consumers best interest. I could care less if I make the ISPs look bad. I'm only holding up a mirror. --- Their test is designed to throw away the bottom and top of the results, they say, "The fastest 10% and slowest 30% of your results are DISCARDED" ... the information that you need to know is in that bottom 30%... I don't understand how it could be accurate if it's being adjusted. It's not a benchmark... it's a way of ISPs masking their shortcomings and making consumers feel that the problem they feel has to do with the websites they're visiting. Most of the provider hosted speed tests run Ookla software... the creators of speedtest.net. .... then people come here and wonder why they're getting very different results. It's because I'm telling you the truth. ... and the truth is, if you didn't feel that something wasn't right with their results you would have taken them at face value and wouldn't have kept searching for the REAL speed test. Right?

Heads up... I rewrote the copy to clipboard function on the results page in v13 this morning. nJoy!

thanks CA3LE

Agreed... I've used Carbon Copy Cloner a few times and it works great, it's for Mac. In Windows there's Norton Ghost and PC Disk Clone X.

I use Carbon Copy Cloner. It's very good.

Wow, really nice result..

Nice!



Not a bad result a half world away

CA3LE.....amazing day. You get 5 gold stars.....I don't have any, but you get 'em anyway.

Alright Chris, I've got an EU server for you now.

http://eu.testmy.net -- visiting that link will change your default server to Amsterdam, Netherlands.

You can also change the server at the top of the page... (on the speed test side of the site, not the forums)



...and on the testing pages.



... If you spread the word I'll be as grateful as you are.