Anyone out there willing and able to advise me on a Home Networking issue?

Factual Questions
1

I’ve got a very specific problem with my home network that I can’t seem to solve. I’m pretty savvy with a computer and I know a bit about networking but it’s definitely a weak spot in my knowledge, I’m hoping you folks can help me isolate the problem and decide if it’s a hardware issue, a software issue, a configuration issue or if it’s something I need to beat up Comcast over.

Here’s the Cliff’s Notes version:

I added a second computer to my network a couple weeks ago, a new laptop that connects to my network over Wi-Fi. Ever since I added it to the network my connection through both machines screeches to a halt when I run both computers simultaneously. Initially I assumed that I was just over taxing my bottom tier bandwidth package from my ISP. After doing so digging this appears to not be the case since the slowdown happens even when the second computer is online but doing nothing. The problem disappears entirely when I take one of the computers off the network. I visited pingtest.net and speedtest.net to evaluate and was able to determine that my latency was through the roof when running 2 PCs, returning ping times well over 3000 ms. My upstream and downstream speeds are consistently solid.

So, long story short, why would adding a second PC to a network cause my ping times to increase exponentially?

Here are the main players:

Desktop PC: Vista
Laptop: Windows 7
Router: Linksys WRT160N
Modem: Motorola Surfboard SB5120

What I’ve done so far:

Tried replacing my Wireless Router. I originally had a Linksys WRT54G that I’d never had a problem with and since the issue only seemed to crop up when I was routing both computers through it I assumed it was to blame. When I bypassed the router and connected to the modem directly things were fine. However when I connect the individual computers through the router both wirelessly and wired by themselves it works fine too. When I installed the new router the problem was identical. I spent the afternoon today on the phone with Linksys phone support and they couldn’t find a problem. They are sending a warranty repair for the new router but I’m almost certain it’s not the issue since the problem is identical between two different models of router.

I’ve called Comcast and tried trouble shooting the problem with them and it’s been no help at all. They reset the modem and basically created new problems. They claim that there’s no reason that 2 computers would effect their service like this but I’m not sure if I buy that. I’m not even convinced that their techs understand what I mean when I talk about latency.

I have a service appointment scheduled for tomorrow but I’m not optimistic since the guy will most likely determine that my signal strength is fine. If there is a service issue it probably has something to do with routing or DNS farther up the line.

I’m wondering if this could be a result of my cable modem going bad, but I don’t know enough about how networking and routers work to know if my cable modem would even see a difference when 2 PCs are routed through my wireless router versus one.

That pretty much sums it up. Anyone have any ideas why my latency would go up exponentially with 2 PCs online but be excellent with one? Is there any way that this is a issue with something Comcast is doing? What is the likelihood that I’ve gotten 2 different models of routers with the same issue? What should I ask the Comcast tech about when he comes? Are there any more tests I can do?

2

I still incline to blame the router; it is allowing one port to hog the bandwidth and allow not the other any access. That’s either poor configuration or poor design; early lan network switches were like that too. That said, it would be a very dumb design or a very blatant fault in a wireless router. But check for a firmware upgrade for it.

Where do your IP address come from? Comcast DHCP, local DHCP, or static?

The pings you’ve tried, is that some external site like Google.com? What about them both pinging the router, or even each other? Any packets lost?

What does ipconfig /all show on both machines when both connected via wireless?

What happens if one is wireless and one wired? Both wired?

I’m assuming your connections are as follows:



[PC1]~~~~,
        [router]-[modem]-comcast
[PC2]~~~~'
3

I second pinging the router. Also, is there another machine you can add to the mix and remove the windows 7 one, and see what happens? (Alternatively, boot the windows 7 machine into linux using an ubuntu livecd or something like that, and see if two machines can both coexist that way). I’ve seen and heard of win 7 nic drivers doing strange things to networks, even knocking out routers in some cases.

4

Have you tried using the LinkSys router software, and alternatively removing the router software and letting Windows control things? See if there’s a difference?

Did you check to make sure your machines are getting different IPs from the router?

I third pinging the router, also pinging one machine from the other.

I’m no network expert by far. Just a person who has been in your shoes more times than I’d like!

5

I’ve been fighting with is some more and it seems that some of my earlier assumptions aren’t holding up.

For whatever reason the network falls apart whenever I connect the Windows 7 laptop to it. Both when connected wirelessly and wired it is painfully slow whether it’s connected alone or with the Vista desktop. However when it’s on the network both computers fall apart. As soon as I disconnect the Win7 laptop the Vista desktop starts screaming along.

This is baffling.

6

Both the new router and the older one had up to date firmware. It’s the first thing I did and both are very popular models. Extensive Googling didn’t turn up and common issues with either.

Comcast DHCP I think. The router has a internal firewall and the addresses are reassigned to an internal IP via DHCP as well in the usual 192.1.168.1XX range.

I’ve been using Pingtest.net. I’ve also used Speedtest.net. I’ve also run tracert from the command screen to sites like yahoo.com and google.com. They all universally turn up 3000 ms lag at every jump.

Will have to check on that later.

As noted. When the Vista box is wired everything is great. When the Win7 lappy is connected wired or wireless everything gets bogged down including the Vista box.

Correct.

7

Don’t have access to a 3rd computer. I do however have access to a second independent network that’s running an XP desktop, Linksys wireless router which I can add the Win7 laptop to.

That was going to be my next experiment. Can’t add a second operating system to the laptop though, it’s shared and that’s not something I want to do since it’s essentially brand new.

8

The original router was using no special software and was just controlled via Wondows. It had issues. When I added the new router I let the included software handle things and the issue persisted. The common element is the Sony laptop and the Comcast modem/connection.

Not yet, will do.

How do I ping the router? Just ping 192.168.1.1?

9

He mentioned an Ubuntu LiveCD – no “adding” necessary, so long as you’re able to boot from the CD drive.

That’ll work from the command line (there’s probably a GUI tool that I don’t know about). That’s probably the correct IP, but if you don’t know, you should look up the manufacturer’s default. For instance, my NetGear defaults to 192.168.1.1, but I had to reset it to .2 because the DSL modem is .1.

10

Well, I figured I’d do some pinging and tracerts and post them here.

First, these were copied from the Vista machine, initially with it connected alone to the router and the connection working well:


Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6002]
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Ben>ping 192.168.1.1

Pinging 192.168.1.1 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.1:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 1ms, Average = 0ms

C:\Users\Ben>ping 192.168.1.1

Pinging 192.168.1.1 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.1:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

C:\Users\Ben>tracert google.com

Tracing route to google.com [74.125.95.147]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.1.1
  2     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  3    29 ms     8 ms     8 ms  te-1-3-ur13.area4.il.chicago.comcast.net [xx.xx.
xx.xx]
  4    13 ms    10 ms    11 ms  68.87.230.89
  5    11 ms    19 ms    10 ms  pos-0-1-0-0-ar01.area4.il.chicago.comcast.net [6
8.87.230.237]
  6    11 ms    11 ms    13 ms  pos-1-12-0-0-cr01.chicago.il.ibone.comcast.net [
xx.xx.90.53]
  7    10 ms    10 ms    10 ms  pos-0-2-0-0-pe01.350ecermak.il.ibone.comcast.net
 [xx.xx.86.78]
  8     9 ms    12 ms    11 ms  as15169-1.350ecermak.il.ibone.comcast.net [75.14
9.230.198]
  9    11 ms    13 ms    31 ms  209.85.250.239
 10    23 ms    23 ms    20 ms  209.85.241.22
 11    23 ms    22 ms    21 ms  209.85.241.27
 12    30 ms    35 ms    35 ms  209.85.240.49
 13    24 ms    29 ms    23 ms  iw-in-f147.1e100.net [74.125.95.147]

Trace complete.

At this point I connected the Win7 laptop via cable to the router and proceeded to ping and tracert every couple minutes. As you can see the ping times get progressively worse every few minutes.


C:\Users\Ben>ping 192.168.1.1

Pinging 192.168.1.1 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.1:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 1ms, Average = 0ms

C:\Users\Ben>tracert google.com

Tracing route to google.com [209.85.225.103]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.1.1
  2     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  3     8 ms     8 ms     9 ms  te-1-3-ur13.area4.il.chicago.comcast.net [xx.xx.
xx.xx]
  4     7 ms     9 ms    12 ms  po-20-ur12.area4.il.chicago.comcast.net [68.87.2
31.25]
  5    10 ms     9 ms    11 ms  be-110-ar01.area4.il.chicago.comcast.net [68.87.
230.93]
  6   183 ms   214 ms   201 ms  pos-1-13-0-0-cr01.chicago.il.ibone.comcast.net [
xx.xx.90.49]
  7   329 ms   215 ms   325 ms  pos-0-3-0-0-pe01.350ecermak.il.ibone.comcast.net
 [xx.xx.86.158]
  8   262 ms   244 ms   230 ms  as15169-1.350ecermak.il.ibone.comcast.net [75.14
9.230.198]
  9   315 ms   195 ms    67 ms  216.239.48.154
 10   315 ms   292 ms   258 ms  72.14.232.141
 11   358 ms   374 ms   335 ms  209.85.241.37
 12   241 ms   344 ms    68 ms  209.85.248.102
 13    22 ms   294 ms   278 ms  iy-in-f103.1e100.net [209.85.225.103]

Trace complete.

C:\Users\Ben>tracert google.com

Tracing route to google.com [209.85.225.103]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.1.1
  2     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  3   332 ms   328 ms   159 ms  te-1-3-ur13.area4.il.chicago.comcast.net [xx.xx.
xx.xx]
  4   311 ms   395 ms   157 ms  po-20-ur12.area4.il.chicago.comcast.net [68.87.2
31.25]
  5   265 ms   240 ms   179 ms  be-110-ar01.area4.il.chicago.comcast.net [68.87.
230.93]
  6   624 ms   422 ms   355 ms  pos-1-13-0-0-cr01.chicago.il.ibone.comcast.net [
xx.xx.90.49]
  7   326 ms   524 ms   600 ms  pos-0-3-0-0-pe01.350ecermak.il.ibone.comcast.net
 [xx.xx.86.158]
  8   439 ms   344 ms   407 ms  as15169-1.350ecermak.il.ibone.comcast.net [75.14
9.230.198]
  9   306 ms   150 ms   145 ms  209.85.250.239
 10   375 ms   303 ms   299 ms  209.85.241.22
 11   240 ms   463 ms   283 ms  209.85.241.37
 12   102 ms   215 ms   143 ms  209.85.248.102
 13   285 ms   231 ms   349 ms  iy-in-f103.1e100.net [209.85.225.103]

Trace complete.

C:\Users\Ben>tracert google.com

Tracing route to google.com [74.125.95.105]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.1.1
  2     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  3  1253 ms  1524 ms  1100 ms  te-1-3-ur13.area4.il.chicago.comcast.net [xx.xx.
xx.xx]
  4  1215 ms   707 ms   962 ms  po-20-ur12.area4.il.chicago.comcast.net [68.87.2
31.25]
  5   866 ms   835 ms  1271 ms  be-110-ar01.area4.il.chicago.comcast.net [68.87.
230.93]
  6   720 ms   464 ms   710 ms  pos-1-13-0-0-cr01.chicago.il.ibone.comcast.net [
xx.xx.90.49]
  7  1376 ms  1230 ms  1327 ms  pos-0-2-0-0-pe01.350ecermak.il.ibone.comcast.net
 [xx.xx.86.78]
  8  1656 ms  1317 ms   734 ms  as15169-1.350ecermak.il.ibone.comcast.net [75.14
9.230.198]
  9  1178 ms  1026 ms   862 ms  216.239.48.154
 10   678 ms   835 ms   389 ms  209.85.241.22
 11   701 ms   584 ms  1010 ms  209.85.241.37
 12  1441 ms  1418 ms  1100 ms  72.14.239.193
 13  1106 ms  1107 ms   787 ms  iw-in-f105.1e100.net [74.125.95.105]

Trace complete.
11

These are the results taken from the wired Win 7 laptop after it was added to the network:


Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Ben>ping 192.168.1.1

Pinging 192.168.1.1 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.1:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

C:\Users\Ben>tracert google.com

Tracing route to google.com [209.85.225.106]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.1.1
  2     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  3     8 ms     9 ms     9 ms  te-1-3-ur13.area4.il.chicago.comcast.net [xx.xx.
xx.xx]
  4    12 ms    11 ms    12 ms  68.87.230.89
  5    12 ms    12 ms     9 ms  pos-0-1-0-0-ar01.area4.il.chicago.comcast.net [6
8.87.230.237]
  6    13 ms    10 ms    11 ms  pos-1-14-0-0-cr01.chicago.il.ibone.comcast.net [
xx.xx.90.45]
  7    11 ms     9 ms    11 ms  pos-0-3-0-0-pe01.350ecermak.il.ibone.comcast.net
 [xx.xx.86.158]
  8    10 ms    11 ms    11 ms  as15169-1.350ecermak.il.ibone.comcast.net [75.14
9.230.198]
  9    10 ms    10 ms    11 ms  209.85.250.239
 10    24 ms    21 ms    21 ms  72.14.232.141
 11    21 ms    20 ms    23 ms  209.85.241.27
 12    35 ms    40 ms    35 ms  72.14.239.18
 13    99 ms    20 ms    21 ms  iy-in-f106.1e100.net [209.85.225.106]

Trace complete.

C:\Users\Ben>tracert google.com

Tracing route to google.com [209.85.225.106]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.1.1
  2     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  3   395 ms   520 ms   128 ms  te-1-3-ur13.area4.il.chicago.comcast.net [xx.xx.
xx.xx]
  4   490 ms   569 ms   152 ms  68.87.230.89
  5   570 ms   635 ms   364 ms  pos-0-1-0-0-ar01.area4.il.chicago.comcast.net [6
8.87.230.237]
  6   621 ms   483 ms   873 ms  pos-1-14-0-0-cr01.chicago.il.ibone.comcast.net [
xx.xx.90.45]
  7   734 ms   648 ms   493 ms  pos-0-3-0-0-pe01.350ecermak.il.ibone.comcast.net
 [xx.xx.86.158]
  8   227 ms   553 ms   218 ms  as15169-1.350ecermak.il.ibone.comcast.net [75.14
9.230.198]
  9   243 ms   439 ms   628 ms  209.85.250.239
 10   484 ms   686 ms   553 ms  209.85.241.22
 11   337 ms   556 ms   491 ms  209.85.241.37
 12   514 ms   629 ms   701 ms  209.85.248.102
 13   653 ms   575 ms   713 ms  iy-in-f106.1e100.net [209.85.225.106]

Trace complete.

C:\Users\Ben>tracert google.com

Tracing route to google.com [209.85.225.106]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.1.1
  2     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  3   268 ms   187 ms   314 ms  te-1-3-ur13.area4.il.chicago.comcast.net [xx.xx.
xx.xx]
  4   593 ms   883 ms   746 ms  68.87.230.89
  5   569 ms   149 ms     9 ms  pos-0-1-0-0-ar01.area4.il.chicago.comcast.net [6
8.87.230.237]
  6    15 ms    11 ms    11 ms  pos-1-14-0-0-cr01.chicago.il.ibone.comcast.net [
xx.xx.90.45]
  7    12 ms    24 ms    11 ms  pos-0-3-0-0-pe01.350ecermak.il.ibone.comcast.net
 [xx.xx.86.158]
  8   112 ms    56 ms    25 ms  as15169-1.350ecermak.il.ibone.comcast.net [75.14
9.230.198]
  9    10 ms    12 ms    29 ms  209.85.250.239
 10    25 ms    23 ms    35 ms  72.14.232.141
 11    41 ms    25 ms    22 ms  209.85.241.27
 12   112 ms    35 ms    55 ms  209.85.248.102
 13   167 ms   101 ms    21 ms  iy-in-f106.1e100.net [209.85.225.106]

Trace complete.

C:\Users\Ben>tracert google.com

Tracing route to google.com [74.125.95.106]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.1.1
  2     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  3   883 ms  1143 ms  1507 ms  te-1-3-ur13.area4.il.chicago.comcast.net [xx.xx.
xx.xx]
  4  1631 ms  1119 ms  1389 ms  68.87.230.89
  5  1593 ms  1119 ms  1206 ms  pos-0-1-0-0-ar01.area4.il.chicago.comcast.net [6
8.87.230.237]
  6  1177 ms   922 ms   773 ms  pos-1-13-0-0-cr01.chicago.il.ibone.comcast.net [
xx.xx.90.49]
  7   916 ms  1384 ms  1579 ms  pos-0-0-0-0-pe01.350ecermak.il.ibone.comcast.net
 [xx.xx.86.34]
  8  1396 ms  1328 ms   680 ms  as15169-1.350ecermak.il.ibone.comcast.net [75.14
9.230.198]
  9   658 ms   450 ms   561 ms  209.85.250.239
 10   879 ms   958 ms  1667 ms  72.14.232.141
 11  1280 ms  1288 ms   760 ms  209.85.241.27
 12   474 ms   521 ms   647 ms  72.14.239.189
 13  1094 ms   592 ms   842 ms  iw-in-f106.1e100.net [74.125.95.106]

Trace complete.

As you can see, it too builds and got progressively worse over time. I essentially would run a trace on one PC and then start one on the other when it finished. All these span about 5 minutes.

12

That those long ping times are on hops far outside my network baffles me. Why would adding a second machine effect those?

Now I disconnected the laptop and reran a few traces to show how the speeds rebound on the Vista machine:


Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6002]
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Ben>tracert google.com

Tracing route to google.com [209.85.225.99]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.1.1
  2     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  3     9 ms     8 ms     9 ms  te-1-3-ur13.area4.il.chicago.comcast.net [xx.xx.
xx.xx]
  4    11 ms    13 ms    27 ms  68.87.230.89
  5    13 ms    11 ms    11 ms  pos-0-0-0-0-ar01.area4.il.chicago.comcast.net [6
8.87.230.233]
  6    11 ms    10 ms    11 ms  pos-1-14-0-0-cr01.chicago.il.ibone.comcast.net [
xx.xx.90.45]
  7    33 ms    18 ms    10 ms  pos-0-1-0-0-pe01.350ecermak.il.ibone.comcast.net
 [xx.xx.86.38]
  8    10 ms    20 ms    15 ms  as15169-1.350ecermak.il.ibone.comcast.net [75.14
9.230.198]
  9    11 ms    12 ms    12 ms  216.239.48.154
 10    21 ms    21 ms    54 ms  209.85.241.22
 11    26 ms    22 ms    20 ms  209.85.241.37
 12    21 ms    35 ms    21 ms  72.14.239.18
 13    22 ms    26 ms    21 ms  iy-in-f99.1e100.net [209.85.225.99]

Trace complete.

C:\Users\Ben>tracert yahoo.com

Tracing route to yahoo.com [209.131.36.159]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.1.1
  2     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  3     9 ms    11 ms    12 ms  te-1-3-ur13.area4.il.chicago.comcast.net [xx.xx.
xx.xx]
  4    10 ms    10 ms    10 ms  68.87.230.89
  5    14 ms    17 ms     9 ms  pos-0-0-0-0-ar01.area4.il.chicago.comcast.net [6
8.87.230.233]
  6    12 ms    10 ms    13 ms  pos-1-13-0-0-cr01.chicago.il.ibone.comcast.net [
xx.xx.90.49]
  7    12 ms    11 ms     9 ms  pos-0-3-0-0-pe01.350ecermak.il.ibone.comcast.net
 [xx.xx.86.158]
  8     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  9    10 ms    10 ms    11 ms  if-7-1-0-17.core1.CT8-Chicago.as6453.net [66.110
.27.49]
 10    81 ms    80 ms    81 ms  if-13-0-0-1166.core3.SQN-SanJose.as6453.net [66.
110.27.62]
 11    82 ms    79 ms    81 ms  if-9-0-0.mcore4.PDI-PaloAlto.as6453.net [216.6.3
3.6]
 12    83 ms    90 ms    83 ms  ix-11-0-3.mcore4.PDI-PaloAlto.as6453.net [207.45
.196.90]
 13    86 ms    85 ms   173 ms  UNKNOWN-216-115-107-79.yahoo.com [216.115.107.79
]
 14    80 ms    80 ms    87 ms  te-9-1.bas-a1.sp1.yahoo.com [209.131.32.21]
 15    80 ms    81 ms    78 ms  b1.www.vip.sp1.yahoo.com [209.131.36.159]

Trace complete.

C:\Users\Ben>tracert espn.com

Tracing route to espn.com [199.181.132.250]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.1.1
  2     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  3     9 ms    10 ms     8 ms  te-1-3-ur13.area4.il.chicago.comcast.net [xx.xx.
xx.xx]
  4     7 ms    10 ms     9 ms  po-20-ur12.area4.il.chicago.comcast.net [68.87.2
31.25]
  5    11 ms     7 ms     8 ms  be-110-ar01.area4.il.chicago.comcast.net [68.87.
230.93]
  6     8 ms     9 ms    11 ms  pos-1-12-0-0-cr01.chicago.il.ibone.comcast.net [
xx.xx.90.53]
  7     8 ms     9 ms    10 ms  xe-9-0-0.edge1.Chicago2.Level3.net [4.71.248.33]

  8    10 ms     9 ms    29 ms  vlan51.ebr1.Chicago2.Level3.net [4.69.138.158]
  9    40 ms    34 ms    35 ms  ae-3.ebr2.Denver1.Level3.net [4.69.132.61]
 10    71 ms    70 ms    71 ms  ae-2.ebr2.Seattle1.Level3.net [4.69.132.53]
 11    61 ms    61 ms    62 ms  ae-23-52.car3.Seattle1.Level3.net [4.68.105.36]

 12    65 ms    59 ms    61 ms  WALT-DISNEY.car3.Seattle1.Level3.net [4.71.152.2
2]
 13     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 14    61 ms    62 ms    62 ms  disneyauctions.go.com [199.181.132.250]

Trace complete.
13

Are you sure there’s no malware on the second PC?

14

I can’t say with absolute certainty, but it’s less than 3 weeks old and has been used sparingly. I’ll run a few scans to be sure.

15

Well, as Digital Stimulus noted, when I suggested booting the win 7 machine into linux, I only meant to use a Live CD of some sort, which does not put anything on the hard drive at all and makes no permanent change on the laptop at all. It boots off the CD and creates a RAM disk for temporary storage. Knoppix (probably best choice), Ubuntu, Kubuntu, all have this as far as I know. This will help you take windows 7 out of the equation while keeping the laptop in it.

16

Try turning off ipv6 in the adapter properties of the laptop. In an administrative command window run “netsh interface ipv4 show subinterfaces”, what does it say for MTU?

17

I had the Comcast tech out today and he found some packet loss and high ping times on my line. He had to escalate it to an outside line call which will be completed in about 72 hours. We’ll see if that isolates the problem.

I do intend to test the laptop on a different network with similar specs to see if there’s anything specific to it that’s causing an issue.

18

Turned off ipv6.

Here’s the MTU


Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Ben>netsh interface ipv4 show subinterfaces

   MTU  MediaSenseState   Bytes In  Bytes Out  Interface
------  ---------------  ---------  ---------  -------------
4294967295                1          0     963520  Loopback Pseudo-Interface 1
  1500                1   47946575  353347151  Wireless Network Connection 2
  1500                5          0      94464  Wireless Network Connection
  1500                5          0          0  Local Area Connection

Not sure what to make of it.

19

I’m curious what the thought process on the IPv6 is. It’s active on the Vista machine which works fine. Still waiting to see if the lag builds again with it off on the laptop.

20

Just share a story. My problem was with a 600N and 54G (both linksys) and Win7. I kept hearing that the problem was that the 54G router didn’t like Wireless-N. That wasn’t the problem. The second issue was the total lack of support for the Win7 drivers for the 600N. Soon a non-issue through RAlink. The issue was a setting in Win7 putting the adapter to sleep.

I know its not the same problem as you but the forum there is very helpful and sometimes Occam’s razor does not answer the problem.