Topic: slow internet

[adamdaly]

i've been suffering a slow connection for some time. i find that i sent a MB than i receive, like right now i got 1.5MB while i sent 10MB. any ideas what is causing this. i phone a helpdesk and they told me to reinstall windows, but this is a brand new comp. also when i check the windows task manager the svchost.exe is on it 4 times ans uses up a lot of ram. is this normal. i have run spybot and deleted all files that it says could cause my problem.

any ideas

adamdaly

[Simon]

Hi Adam,

I'm sure someone will be able to help you with this, but can you just confirm, is this 56K dial up, or broadband we're talking about?

[adamdaly]

its a 56k dial up.

adamdaly

[Simon]

Sorry Adam, but I'm a bit confused, especially by this part:

i find that i sent a MB than i receive, like right now i got 1.5MB while i sent 10MB.

Are you saying you tried to send something of 10Mb over 56K?  

[Adept]

i've been suffering a slow connection for some time. i find that i sent a MB than i receive, like right now i got 1.5MB while i sent 10MB. any ideas what is causing this. i phone a helpdesk and they told me to reinstall windows, but this is a brand new comp.

So what you are saying is that you can upload files quicker than you can download? Sorry I'm not clear what you mean. Telling you to re-install Windows is a standard helpdesk trick to get you off their back when they don't have a solution for you

also when i check the windows task manager the svchost.exe is on it 4 times ans uses up a lot of ram. is this normal. i have run spybot and deleted all files that it says could cause my problem.

svchost is a process which allows dll files to be executed. It is perfectly normal to have more than one svchost process at a time

[Sandra]

Is this an e mail attachmnet or just what the current modem log is showing has been transmitted/received  

[TR]

Adamdaly can you bring up a box like the picture below.

[adamdaly]

sorry, what i mean is that over the course of an internet session my computer logs that i have received 1.5MB whereas i have set 10mb. looking at the small icon on the bottom right, there seems to be a constantly out going info, but i don't know from what source.

adamdaly

[Adept]

Do you have firewall software installed Adam?

If so, perhaps you could remove everything from the list of programs allowed to connect to the Internet. You can then re-enable them one at a time as they ask for access. It may help you track down which program causes a surge in activity.

[adamdaly]

yup its firewalled but i can't find any way of changing its properties.

[Adept]

Do you know which firewall software you use? And while you are at it could you tell us a bit about your PC? Operating System, Memory, processor etc.

[adamdaly]

i'm using XP home edition, the computer has 512MB RAM and has a P4 2.8 Processor. Don't know about the firewall software. it just says that it is firewalled beside the icon in the network connections  window.

adamdaly

[Sandra]

Right click the properties and select About and that should tell you which it is  

[Adept]

it just says that it is firewalled beside the icon in the network connections  window.

Ah, I see. XP's firewall . The good news is that you are firewalled, but the bad news is it is for incoming connections only. With this type of firewall a trojan can install itself onto your PC and you wouldn't know it.

Do you have anti-virus software installed? If so make sure that it is up-to-date. If not go heer and download one of the free ones now. While you are at it, look here and get yourself a decent firewall too. The jury is out on which is best. Many people find ZoneAlarm OK and others have problems with it. Sygate is another good one.

[adamdaly]

yeah i have norman av, i've been trying to up-grade it but the connection keeps dropping with their server.

adamdaly