Comments on: How can I troubleshoot my Mac's ADSL connection?

Question: How can I troubleshoot my Mac's ADSL connection?

planetkyoto — Tue, 08 Jun 2004 17:29:26 -0800

How can I troubleshoot my Mac's ADSL connection? A few weeks ago my download speed suddenly dropped to about 4kilobits/sec after I tried to set up a firewall. I then turned off the firewall, but the speed hasn't returned. I'm running Mac OSX 10.3.4 on an eMac with 1GHz processor and 1GB RAM (confirmed intact by profiler) on a simple ADSL router (YahooBB, the leader in Japan) with an ethernet hub. Interestingly, upload is fine at 500 kbps, and my older slot-loading iMac 350MHz is zooming along fine on the same connection at 1150kbps download speed. TCP/IP settings are simple, DHCP auto-assigns the IP.

By: willnot

willnot — Tue, 08 Jun 2004 18:12:08 -0800

What firewall, and is it Hardware of Software?

By: planetkyoto

planetkyoto — Tue, 08 Jun 2004 18:34:08 -0800

The one that's built-in under the file sharing preference panel. It's off now. I should mention that I tried switching ethernet cables and hub ports, and turning off the router and waiting. Time of day is no factor, it seems.

By: willnot

willnot — Tue, 08 Jun 2004 19:20:02 -0800

Do you have the same problem if you create a new user?

By: planetkyoto

planetkyoto — Tue, 08 Jun 2004 19:39:06 -0800

Good idea, hadn't thought of logging out; however, the new user has the same slow connection. Most stuff just fails to load, even text-a-riffic Metafilter hangs for minute or times out before downloading a page. Previewing local Dreamweaver pages in any browser, they draw up just as fast as ever.

By: willnot

willnot — Tue, 08 Jun 2004 21:01:05 -0800

Hmmm.. So, I'm thinking it has to be software (since the same hardware on other systems looks good), and it must be a global setting since other users are effected. What if you trash
root>Library>Preferences>com.apple.sharing.firewall.plist and then reboot? (back it up first)

I don't know what in there could be messing with you, but it's worth a shot. You might also nose around in there to see if anything else in that directory looks like it might be suspect

Have you tried repairing disk permissions? You'd do that using the disk utility. You might also try booting into single user mode and running FSCK.

By: nathan_teske

nathan_teske — Tue, 08 Jun 2004 21:44:07 -0800

Try 'sudo ipfw flush' in the terminal (hey ya never know...)

By: skallas

skallas — Tue, 08 Jun 2004 22:18:06 -0800

How are you measuring speed?

By: planetkyoto

planetkyoto — Wed, 09 Jun 2004 09:04:31 -0800

OK, I tried trashing the firewall preferences, but that didn't work. The letters FSCK give me chills, as my iBook went down in flames with a kernel panic. This 'sudo ipfw flush' is something I've never heard of, it's not a joke is it?

Skallas, I ran the test at DSLreports.com a few times at different times of day. Many sites I try to load just hang and don't load. Diving back in...

By: planetkyoto

planetkyoto — Wed, 09 Jun 2004 09:13:55 -0800

Repaired permissions, but nothing yet. Found references for the ipfw flush, will be looking into that further, and FSCK.

By: adamrice

adamrice — Wed, 09 Jun 2004 11:55:57 -0800

Umm, perhaps create a new location with reverted settings? Locations are shared between users. This is kind of a guess.

By: planetkyoto

planetkyoto — Wed, 09 Jun 2004 19:12:32 -0800

Thanks to everyone for the help. It seems to be some problem with the ethernet hub. When I plugged the router directly into my computer, zing! I still don't understand what could be wrong with a simple ethernet hub, but at least I can find my way out. Gonna buy a new one today.