Internet Playing Up

[peteyt]

Latley my internets being a bit strange.

It has often went slow which isn't uncommon. Its 8mb from o2 but we only get around 3-4 mb I think.

However latley its been going real slow - or so it appears, until eventually it just wont load any websites. The problem is that other programs e.g. SAM Broadcaster, MSN etc don't realise sometimes for over 5 miniutes that the internet has disconnected.

Could this be linked with SAM - I'm having SAM streaming 99 percent of the time as Auto DJ. The problem is we get our PPL licenses via a company that works alongside PPL but we have to use their server. They offer an auto service but it costs extra and we can't afford it yet.

Would having it on most of the time possibly cause these problems?

[Recursion]

You may be hitting your broadband's download/upload limit. What package are you on from O2?

[peteyt]

The cheapest - but i've never had any problems in the past

[HotelUser]

The first thing I would of done was to check another computer in my house and see if that machine is also slow. If it's equally as slow for all computers on the network. I would then plug directly into the modem and see if my router was to blame. If it's still slow then it's more than likely a problem with the modem itself or your ISP and I would press my ISP until they sent a technician out to check what's up.

We get the occasional hurricane where I am around this time of year and last year during power surges (with a protector even) some damage was done to our modem. It never stopped working completely but the problems it caused replicate the problems you seem to be experiencing.

[KyoraStryker]

A little check I've done in the past that seems to work for me:

When your internet is running how you think it should be:

» Go to www.whatismyip.com and click on the Speed Test link near the top left corner of the page.
» Choose the server that is closest to you (Not sure if you're in the UK or not, but I'm sure you can find the server that's closest to you geographically).
» Run the speed test on that server a couple times then find the average down/up speeds.
» Make note or write down your average.

When you think your internet is running sub-par:

» Go back to www.whatismyip.com and run the Speed Test a couple times to determine your average.
» Compare your results to the average you established when you felt the internet was good for you.

This little check will tell you one of two things:

» If the result of the "slow" internet speeds is comparable to the speeds of your normal, then it could be the RAM/CPU of your system.
» If the slow result is slower than the normal speeds, it's your internet connection, possibly due to down/up limits established by your ISP.

Hopefully this will help shed light on the situation.

[Recursion]

You say you're on the lowest O2 broadband package, which is 20GB per month download limit, my guess is you're hitting that limit. Our household hits about 60 - 70GB per month for example with three of us using computers a lot of the time.

[peteyt]

You say you're on the lowest O2 broadband package, which is 20GB per month download limit, my guess is you're hitting that limit. Our household hits about 60 - 70GB per month for example with three of us using computers a lot of the time.

The packages appear to have changed. My current package is O2 Home Broadband Standard, with unlimited downloads (fair usage policy applies) at £7.50 a month.

[HotelUser]

The packages appear to have changed. My current package is O2 Home Broadband Standard, with unlimited downloads (fair usage policy applies) at £7.50 a month.

You say you're on the lowest O2 broadband package, which is 20GB per month download limit, my guess is you're hitting that limit. Our household hits about 60 - 70GB per month for example with three of us using computers a lot of the time.

Wow! Is that the norm for maximums in the UK? I think mine's something ridiculous like 250gb. I doubt I use more than 10

[Recursion]

Wow! Is that the norm for maximums in the UK? I think mine's something ridiculous like 250gb. I doubt I use more than 10

It's usually something like, 20GB, 50GB, 70GB, Unlimited.

I know Unlimited for BT (who we are with) means 100GB though

[Chippiewill]

I usually get major slowdown if I have any kind of continuous upstream, you're probably hitting your AUP if you're streaming that much as well.