Download Speeds

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agentnibbles

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Hi,

I live in Austin Texas, and I have had Earthlink internet cable since March 2005. When we first got it, the downloads were about 300kb a second, which is all right for me. But since about August, all downloads have started about 120kb per second, slow down, then settle around 10-60 kb a second. This is really annoying! With files over 5mb, (any files I download are usually over 5mb) it takes forever to download them.

I've heard some people say to call their ISP and ask, but I am trying to keep that to a last resort.

Please, any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Agentnibbles o.0
 
They probably downgraded your connection, which is unfair if you still pay the same amount. I have had cable internet for over 4 years now! And my download speed were great before but now they are even greater now because my company had upgraded me to 3MB to 4MB.

I would diffinately look for spywares that could be slowing your connection down, cable faults.

Cable internet are share among your neighbors, so It's possible you may be experiencing slow downloads.

Attenuation
 
i doubt thats a downgrade, u can tell by the way he describes his downloads. The speed goes down gradually to 10-60 kbs. This is probably some spyware on your pc. There are many topics in here on how to get rid of spyware, im not gona go into details.
 
Well you could try another web browser beside IE, try FireFox. It can accelerate your downloads also, I've notice with IE my download speed starts low at like 100kb/s than gradually move up to about 500kb/s and stays there. With FireFox my downloads starts at a whooping 1900kb/s and gradually fall down to about exactly 500kb/s.

Also a great idea to use FireFox because many spywares target IE.
 
agentnibbles said:
I already use Firefox, but i havent checked for viruses or spyware in a while

There's a plug-in for FireFox called "bandwidth tester" that... well... tests your bandwidth. Try taking measurments after changing anything on your machine to see if your speed increases or decreases accordingly. I also found a program called "FasterFox" that allows you to change network settings in FireFox to increase speed, but it looks pretty complicated and I haven't gotten a chance to fool around with it yet. I'll let you know if its any good. :)

https://addons.mozilla.org/extensio...irefox&category=Miscellaneous&numpg=10&id=178
 
IMO, spywares have little affect on your internet connection and more of an affect on your computer resources. I notice this on a cousin computer which is loaded with over 100 different spywares. Computer is brandnew Sony 2.6ghz, 512mb, up to date technology and the spyware made it run like grandma, but the internet downloads were exactly the same as another computer on my network with no spyware. If scanning your computer still leaves you with the problem, then what's left to blame..really?
 
Welcome to my world! (Dialup).
Definitely sounds like a spyware problem to me, download 'spybot search and destroy', works well and its free.
Just curious, why do you want calling your ISP to be a last resort?
 
Do you have more than one file downloading at a time? Spyware could be doing it. Also, if you are downloading off a busy server or the server isn't that good, their upload speed might be causing your download speed to slow.
 
i have spybot, but it wont update - it always locks up.
does anyone know any more free spyware scanners?
 
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