For the past several days, my internet connection at home has been acting like it’s 1994. I have broadband through a TimeWarner cable modem which has been giving me fine service for several years.
Using two online speed-calculating sites, one on TimeWarner’s own site, I’ve been getting download speeds as low as 45 Kbps. If I unplug my cable modem and my router for a few minutes, things will go right back to normal for a while, then as soon as I try to do anything significant (say, watch a YouTube video), I’m right back to dial-up speeds.
Troubleshooting network stuff isn’t my long suit, so I’d love any pointers on what to check next.
Specifically, what I have done so far is to unplug my router (Linksys), unplug my modem, wait anywhere from 1 to 15 minutes, plug the modem back in, wait for a steady “ready” light, then plug my router back in.
I’m ready to ask TWC to replace my modem, but if there’s something obvious I’m missing short of that, please suggest away.
Did you try bypassing the router and see if you still get the same slowdowns? That’s the first thing Comcast will have you do if you call to replace the modem. If you have more than one PC are they all showing this behavior or is it just the one?
I have not tried bypassing the router; that’s a good suggestion. It’s TWC, not Comcast, but you’re probably right about that being the first thing they’ll suggest. Actually, knowing TWC, they’ll probably say it’s the router either way.
Yes, all my PCs are exhibiting the same symptoms. Well, all of them that I regularly use for Internet access. I haven’t actually tried all 5 of them. Lord, one of them probably only has IE6 and FF2 on it. But when I get home, I’ll double check. This morning my speeds were back to pretty normal (1.7 Mbps or so download), so maybe running TWC’s speed check last night tripped something on their end to be reset.
When these problems arise, the first thing I suggest is that you try rebooting ONLY the router. If everything springs back to life for a while and then you begin having problems again, but you can fix them by rebooting ONLY the router, it’s time to replace the router. IME, routers (at least Linksys routers) tend to die after a 2-4 years.
If that doesn’t work. Try rebooting ONLY the modem, if that fixes the problems (repeatedly), call TWC and let them know. Actually, bypass that. Just bring the modem in to one of the stores they’ll likely swap it out without making you sit there and go through a bunch of troubleshooting over the phone.
Thanks for all the replies. After a couple of days worth of trying various suggested troubleshooting steps (I even in desperation updated the firmware on my Linksys router), I decided that indeed it seemed like the thing I needed to do was to swap out my cable modem.
Last night, my download speed blazed along at 23 Kbps. Half what I could have gotten with a phone line.
I took your advice, Joey P, and just disconnected it and marched it down to the local TWC office, where I was in and out in under five minutes. They didn’t even ask if I had contacted tech support.
I had a similar problem. I called my cable company tech support line. Their first question after I explained the problem was if I had a cable signal amplifier in the line. I did. I had my incoming cable line feeding an amplifier and then splitting out to each of the televisions in the house. I split the line behind my desk and fed the cable modem from this.
The tech support guy told me to hook the cable modem in ahead of the amplifier and this solved my problems.
If that doesn’t do the trick it’s probably the router. You could test this by plugging your computer directly into the modem and seeing if that speeds things up. But if it works for a little while after a power cycle, it’s probably the culprit. They do tend to crap out after a few years.