Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with connection

The case of the haunted xbox.

cirrostratus — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 09:48:39 -0800

My internet connection is haunted! I lose connectivity the second I turn on my xbox, even when the network cable is unplugged. How can that be? The situation: we have Mediacom service in my apartment that provides a connection for two computers and xbox live on two xboxes via a netgear router. This works fine most of the time until the second I turn on the second xbox and the internet goes out every time. When this happens and the mediacom modem starts blinking just the internet light until we reset it. Eventually the internet seems to come back after reseting the modem and it seems to come back faster if there are less than four things hooked up to the router.

Here's the weird part: the connection breaks even if we have the xbox's network cable unplugged.

How can an xbox that isn't even hooked up to the router effect our connection?

More importantly, how can I prevent this from happening in the future so I can get down to business and kill some zombies in Left 4 Dead?

Need help setting up AirPort on my Mac

Joseppi — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:52:14 -0800

I'm trying to set up an AirPort on my Mac and I'm having some issues. It's asking for OS X 10.4 and I'm running 10.5 but it still doesn't work. Any clue as to why this is happening? I'm trying to set up an AirPort on my Mac and I'm having some issues. When I try and install the software I get a message that says, "You cannot install AirPort on this volume. The version of Mac OS X on this volume is not supported." It's asking for volume 10.4 and I'm on 10.5. This is beyond frustrating as this is supposed to be such a simple process. Does anyone know what my issue might be?

Network monitor linux

Petrot — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:41:01 -0800

I would like to be able to monitor my own bandwidth usage/data transfer rates on my laptop, whilst using an o2 mobile broadband dongle. Difficulty: Linux. I'm using O2 USB Modem E160 to get online, but it gives a limit of 3GB a month. Usually, with Windows or a Mac the modem comes with a connection manager to show what usage you're at. I got this modem to just about work with Ubuntu 9.04, but without the connection manager. So it just comes down to educated guesswork on my part to see if I'm coming close to this quota limit.

I read this previous AskMe, which suggested using BitMeter II. This looks precisely what I want:
"Using the Alerts feature, BitMeter can notify you when you have uploaded/downloaded a certain amount, or if your speed goes above or below any limit that you specify.

Does your ISP restrict how much you can download each month? Maybe the ISP Restrictions screen would be useful, just enter details of your monthly quota, and BitMeter will warn you when you approach your limit"

This would be really, really useful. But it's only for Windows. There is an open source version in the works, but it doesn't seem to have the above.

So, is there an open source network monitor that will allow me to see if I'm hitting a quota or not. Or, would it be possible to run BitMeter under WINE?

Need. Internet. Back.

Beardman — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 10:57:33 -0800

Why can't I connect to the internet anymore? Is customer service giving me a plausible explanation? Our home internet connection has been down all weekend. We use a new and speedy 24" iMac. When we try to connect to PPPoE, it just says "Connecting...Connecting...Connecting" and finally says that it can't connect to the server. No amount of power cycles and restarts make a difference. This has happened once before, a few months ago, and changing the access password with the ISP solved the problem (until Friday).

Our apartment sucks and there is only one working phone jack, which is in an inconvenient location. Thus, we run a 15 foot phone cord from it to a normal telephone cord splitter, from which a 10 foot (filtered) telephone cord goes to the modem, and a second cord goes to our telephone.

Yesterday, my ISP's customer service guy said that the phone cord from the wall to the modem has to be 6 feet or less, or else it'll be unreliable. He correctly surmised that we often have connection issues (i.e. sometimes it says "Authenticating..." for a long time), although never before recently has it totally failed to connect, and for a couple of years we never even had the long authentication issue either.

When I told him that this issue has previously been solved by a password change, he tried that again and it didn't solve the problem. I asked him why, if the cord length is the issue, we were able to have the same setup for years without a problem. He replied that the cord can deteriorate over time.

Various forums online debate whether the length of the phone cord has anything to do with internet speed or connection reliability. Does it? Could the problem be that I'm using that splitter? Does it matter where the splitter is--i.e. should the splitter only be at the wall jack, or can I have it where it is, after the first 15 foot cord? Should I do as my ISP suggests, and either (1) replace the telephone cords that go to the modem with new ones (to solve the supposed "deterioration" problem), or (2) try to rig it up with a 6 foot cord and then a really long ethernet cable (to solve the supposed "long phone cord" problem)?

Thanks for any advice you can give me. FYI, this is in Toronto, and the ISP is Primus. (I would rather switch to Teksavvy, but when I put my number into their website it says they can't provide service to me, even though I live right downtown...?)

Can someone please explain random internet slowings which can only be fixed by unplugging router...

dan g. — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 15:56:30 -0800

What is causing my Qwest DSL internet connection to get slow several times a day. Unplugging the router fixes the problem temporarily. We have Qwest DSL hooked up to an apple time capsule/time machine thing which serves as our wireless router. We've had this problem for several years where the internet connection suddenly gets molasses slow and the only fix is to unplug the router, leave it unplugged for 30 seconds, then plug it back in and wait for the connection to come back up.
Recently though, this has been happening with more frequency, to the point where it happens 3-4 times a day now, and the connection can take as long as 5-10 minutes to come back sometimes (this time varies wildly though).
2 questions:
1: Can someone explain in layman's terms what is happening and why unplugging the router fixes the problem?
2: How best to address this problem. Is the router just wearing out? Is there something that Qwest can/should do on their end to fix things? Would a new router solve the problem?

Thanks AskMe!

Sharing a 3G connection

hungrysquirrels — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 12:05:26 -0800

Home networking: sharing 3G connection on XP... I've gone through some articles and stuff but still can't get it to work. Could use some help.

My desktop connects to the internet using a USB stick, which uses 3G as my internet connection. I want to share this access with my netbook so my roommate and I can be online at the same time.

The host:
Desktop running XP
Wireless and CAT5 capability not currently being used
USB 3G stick

The client:
Netbook running XP
Wireless and CAT5 capability not currently being used

I have a CAT5 hub with some cables, and a wireless router at my disposal. Wireless would be preferred, ad-hoc I think might be ideal.

I had them connected through the hub earlier, could ping each other, but still couldn't get the netbook to access the web.

I've setup home networks, wired and wireless, a couple of times, but that was using a typical broadband modem. I don't know the intricacies when the modem is USB.

If there's any clarification questions, and I don't reply, it's because I screwed things up again.

So, network gurus, what would you do? I may just be approaching it from the wrong angle, if it is actually doable.

To check or to not check, that is my question.

Windigo — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:27:22 -0800

American flying from Prague into London Stansted airport on Easyjet. I then have 2.5 hours to catch a flight on Ryanair to Glasgow. Will I have enough time to check my luggage, or will I have to do carry-on? I can do carry-on if needed, but I would much prefer to check my luggage if I can (no worries about weight/liquids/dimensions). Is 2.5 hours cutting it too close? I have never flown into London Stansted, nor have I needed to connect to a different carrier. So I've no idea about the time needed to gather my baggage, and then make it back through check-in and security to my gate. Anyone have any sense if this is totally doable, or totally risky? Thank you!

wirless connection slow down

tangyraspberry — Fri, 08 May 2009 09:39:50 -0800

Can anyone suggest a remedy for a slowed up wireless connection? My p.c., laptop's wireless connection has mysteriously slowed way down even though my wife's connection speed (we both work at home) remains strong. I purchased and swept my laptop multiple times with an anti-malware program which found and rid my p.c of several viruses. The program now shows my system is free of all viruses yet the problem continues.

Why does my Airport connection drop every evening at the same time?

meerkatty — Tue, 05 May 2009 17:41:43 -0800

Every night this week my Macbook has stopped connecting to my Airport. Why? How can I fix this? Original Airport base station, circa 2002. Macbook.

Never had a problem with this equipment and have been using this same Airport in this same apartment for seven years. Now this week my connection to the Airport stops working around the same time every evening but resumes working a few hours later. Not an internet problem as I can connect via cable.

What's going on? And you should talk to me like I'm complete idiot. I can work computers by plugging them in and that's about it.

Do other computers fear the Chicago Machine?

burnfirewalls — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 17:34:12 -0800

My DSL is slow...but only when connecting to servers outside Chicago. What gives? I'm located in Chicago. I have a3mbps down/512kbps up plan with my DSL provider, who rides on AT&Ts lines. When I do a speedtest on a server located in Chicago (or download files from it) I get around 2.43 downstream/0.43 up. When I connect to a server anywhere else (including Milwaukee or St. Louis) my speed drops to 1.4 downstream/0.32 up. My DSL provider claims that their line tests show that everything is okay, and so does AT&T. They want to dispatch a technician, on my dime, to diagnose the problem. The rate they quoted sounds like it will add up to a few hundred dollars.

I've removed every extraneous device - I just have my main computer hardwired into the new DSL modem that my provider sent me. Because I get full speed to servers in Chicago, it doesn't sound to me (who is admittedly a n00b at networks) like it's a problem with my local circuit. Is it possible that this is a problem on my end? Is it worth it for me to fork over a few hundred dollars for the technician to tell me that the problem is upstream?

Speed suck

zenpop — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 11:26:54 -0800

Recent Mac software update crippled my online speed/connection. The other day I allowed the Software Updater to run on my iMac. Included in the OSX update was some sort of Airport tweaking as well. Now my connection to the internet has slowed considerably. I've posted 'help' questions on Apple's website and MacFixit. No one answers. I've rebooted both the computer and the cable modem, and router. Nada.

Anyone here have any suggestions? Can I 'undo' the update that happened to Airport in that update? (No, I don't run Time Machine on my computer).

Thanks

Say, did I just lose my internet?

Ash3000 — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 19:35:11 -0800

All of the websites I don't have explicitly bookmarked have stopped loading for me. On any wireless connection. Help. So, I'm on a wireless connection, using gmail...when all of a sudden it switches suddenly to gmail offline, implying that I've lost the connection. (For what it's worth, using airport on a black macbook, mozilla firefox - happy to offer any other details as needed.) I'm still, according to Airport, connected to the local linksys.

Check a site I've got bookmarked on the bar, Wikipedia (natch). Works fine. Go to TheSneeze.com, which I don't have bookmarked. I get a "Failed to Connect - Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at thesneeze.com."

I realize, and test, that all websites that I don't have explicitly bookmarked are getting this response.

I go to a local place with wireless. This continues to happen, with an entirely different wifi connection. I restart. It continues.

I can't access gmail, or, well, just about anything online except for a few things I have bookmarked here - I can only help this goes through. Any help is urgently needed and sincerely appreciated.

(If this is relevant, I recently downloaded the .prefpane on WiFi.com, reading a decent review of its predecessor, Whisher, on a site or two. I found no real use for it, and removed it.)

Share – 1.the full or proper portion or part allotted or belonging to or contributed or owed by an individual or group.

mu~ha~ha~ha~har — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 10:49:09 -0800

One internet connection shared between three computers. One jackass who uses the entire download limit(!!) and gets our speed capped(!!). So, what software or hardware solutions might there be?? Secrecy isn't a concern. That they are too stupid to be trusted is. Is there maybe something that monitors where the data is going? And also a way to hobble their line speed, once they've reached their 'share'. (I'd prefer not to just yank their cable out completely, but whatever.) I have no idea (keywords to google??) so I'm completely open to suggestion on this :) Thanks! *Other info...?
Our ISP only records a grand total. The modem (Dlink DSL-G604T) only keeps a 24hr log. (Of whatever info it is that it does collect??)
The computer in question runs XP and connects to the modem via a standard ethernet cable. It's also the only one that really needs its data being counted, if that makes it any easier?

Help me with my internet annoyance.

zardoz — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 15:37:04 -0800

I sometimes have trouble with downloading via torrent: surfing becomes a slow crawl/not an option. I have a broadband DSL connection and I'll often download torrents via Transmission on my iMac.

The problem is with torrents: with either Transmission, or uTorrent I can go for several days, even longer than a week, but then suddenly surfing pages on a browser will slow to a crawl and then stop. Torrent downloading may or may not stop at that point, but eventually it stops too.

When this happens I unplug my DSL modem, plug it back in, wait a minute or two, and then I'm firing on all cylinders, torrent downloading and surfing are good for another week or so.

So how can I avoid this step? Settings in Transmission? Hack the modem?

My wireless lan connection is enabled, but i cant turn it on!

freddymetz — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 06:55:50 -0800

My wireless lan connection is enabled, but i cant turn it on! It seems to be in perfect working order, the only problem is that to turn wifi on, i have to press a soft button above my keyboard.
Since installing windows 7, these buttons don't work (they make a sound when i press them, but they have no function)
http://www.magicdevices.de/produkt-foto/notebook-medion-md96630.jpg
Thats a picture of my laptop (medion md9330S) and the buttons in question.

Is there any other way to turn wifi on?

Ive tried reinstalling the vista drivers and also theres no fn key combination to turn on wifi on my laptop..

Vista 64 drops Internet connection?

pghjezebel — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:29:02 -0800

What is causing my Vista 64 PC to keep dropping its Internet connection? I keep losing my internet connection on my PC, which is running Vista 64bit. I'm at loss for what is causing it. After searching online, I've tried the following solutions:

-Made sure Vista is not putting my Network adapter (Model: Realtek rtl8168c(p)/8111c(p) family pci-e GBE NIC) to sleep.
-Disabled DHCP and DNS on our router (which is a Linksys RTP300 from Vonage).
- netsh winsock reset

None of these suggestions have worked. Sometimes I stay connected for a while, and then I'm offline again. Sometimes I need to restart, other times it will reconnect itself within a matter of seconds. It also seems to kick me offline more frequently when both my husband and I are online at the same time.

My next actions were going to be to try a different network card and/or router, but any suggestions would be appreciated!

Programs can't connect in Windows 7

flatluigi — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 19:48:13 -0800

Windows 7 help: Some programs can connect to the internet and some can't. Why and how can I fix it? So I've started using Windows 7 recently. It's been going great - much better in some ways than Vista. However, I'm running into something strange: Some programs can't connect to the internet.

What works: Firefox, Chrome, Last.fm
What doesn't: Internet Explorer, Steam browser, MediaMonkey's Last.fm plugin

I've turned Windows Firewall off but the issue persists and I have no idea why. Any help?

Something is clogging up my wifi connection

gfrobe — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 08:49:09 -0800

How do I isolate and fix this WiFi problem on my home network? I have two computers, a desktop and a laptop, connected to my router wirelessly. When transferring a large file wirelessly from the desktop to the laptop (or to my Xbox via FTP), I'm unable to connect to any internet sites at all from the desktop. It's as if the wifi connection is being sucked up completely by the transfer. However, while this transfer is happening, I can surf the web fine from the laptop without any problems.

This all started happening only recently. That is, I used to be able to transfer a large file from the desktop across the network and still browse the internet from the desktop at the same time without any problem. I've also noticed that the same problem also happens with bittorent i.e. if I'm downloading or uploading from the desktop, even at slow speeds, I can't connect to any sites at all from the desktop but can surf from the laptop fine.

How do I fix this?

Erratic network behavior

Gyan — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 12:39:51 -0800

My net connection has dropped like clockwork around midnight over the past few days. What's up? For the past 4 or 5 days, around midnight, give or take 10 minutes, I lose my net connection and don't get it back till morning. It doesn't happen during the day.

At first, I thought it was my router Netgear WGR614 v7 since it has been flaky before. But I bridged my LAN/WAN cables together (my ISP has a switch in the building and I get a CAT-5 direct from there) and the issue persists.

So, I try to ping the gateway but can't, and Wireshark shows other customers trying to get the gateway's MAC via ARP. BTW, I am assigned a static private IP i.e. behind a NAT, due to "scarce IPs".

So, today morning, with my connection on, I note down my gateway's MAC. An hour ago, my connection dropped momentarily. When I checked my gateway MAC, it was different than in the morning. When I flushed ARP and checked again soon after, it was different again and was a 3rd set of numbers, this time I could resolve names but not connect anywhere; this one also happened to be listed twice i.e. for another IP as well. I noted all numbers, and tried each as a static entry. The first one (morning) worked but was erratic (dropouts), the middle one seems to work normally (so far), and the final one doesn't.

What seems to be going on? Local or remote?

My OS is XP SP2. This is in India.

This shit is BANANAS.

BobFrapples — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 07:33:58 -0800

Why does my network adapter keep disappearing in XP?? Hi all!

Your tech expertise is required here. I just recently finished building myself a new pc. Got it all set up and installed Windows XP as the OS. It's been about 4 days now, and I am having a consistant problem with the network adapter for my onboard gigabit LAN.

I installed the Realtek driver that came with my motherboard (AsRock P45ts), and it worked fine after I installed it. However, the next time I booted up, I had no internet connection. My LAN connection was missing from the Network Connections folder, and Network Adapters was also missing from my hardware profile.

Now, I selected the option to "show hidden hardware" and then the Network Adapters show up, but Windows doesn't detect any problem.

So, each time I'm forced to uninstall the driver, then reboot and reinstall. I also went and found an updated version of the Realtek driver, but that hasn't seemed to make any difference.

What the heck is going on here??

The specific driver that I'm using is "REALTEK GbE & FE Ethernet PCI-E NIC Driver".

Thanks!

Is my router (or Comcast) blocking i.dell.com?

Artw — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:29:49 -0800

Something odd is happening on my internet connection at home. I have two machines both of which connect to the intenet via a Linksys Wireless-G Broadband Router (or Comcast variant on it) and a Comcast cable connection. Both of them do not display the Dell homepage properly. After viewing source I determined that they couldn’t find the supporting files at the subdomain i.dell.com (it’s possible other subdomains are missing as well, but that is the one causing the most dramatic effect). Viewing the site from another internet connection it appears fine. Is something up with the router, or with Comcast? Looking for steps to determine what is going on and (hopefully) rectify it. Also, as a data point, I think I had something similar happen a while back where I couldn’t get to downloads from Windows Live Messenger from either machine, but could when not using that connection. That problem seemed to resolve itself somehow though.

I don't want to call India again...

wastelands — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 17:27:09 -0800

Why does my DSL connection keep dropping connections? I have a DSL connection from Qwest. The last couple weeks, I have seen the following:

* My connection with a torrent tracker drops (red arrows in uTorrent)
* My connection with an IRC server drops several times a day
* Often my browser will take a long time to start downloading web pages... I have to try the address again to "reset" it, otherwise it will just spin for a long time

No major hardware or software changes, except for minor stuff like upgrading VLC player, installing Chrome, the usual software changes. (Note: I'm on XP SP3... relatively fresh install, a few months old)

Normally I'd bug my ISP, but the last time I did that, they gave me a rated-limited modem. So instead of getting 5 Mb/s down, I was getting a third of that, and uploads were also slower. So I'm sticking with my old, but trusty, DSL modem from 2006. Is it just crapping out?

Is there anything I can do? I've tried unplugging power from the modem, waiting a minute, and plugging back in. Tried rebooting the computer. My overall speed for download/upload is the same as always, but it just keeps dropping connections.

Any help is appreciated!

I can't stop thinking about this guy from burning man

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 06:30:09 -0800

So I met this guy at burning man. We WERE on alot of drugs but I felt like I'd known him forever. Now a week later, I can't get him out of my head & it's driving me crazy. He is a friend of a friend of a friend and I met him a couple of days before I left. We spent most of the rest of the time together and at points I felt closer to him than I have to anyone since....I can't even remember. There was just so much craziness going on that I think we were both kind of overwhelmed by the moment, and didn't really talk about what was going on.

Now I wish we had, because I'm starting to feel a little bit insane. I just keep missing him & it's almost physically painful. This has never really happened to me before - I got out of a 7 year relationship a couple of years ago and everyone I've dated since has been way more into it than me. So maybe it's just my karmic desserts. But I'm not sure what to do. Should I try to pursue something? or try to stop thinking about it?

He lives about 6 hours away and we've talked on the phone once since then, but it was a pretty mundane conversation. He is kind of shy, and I have zero experience making the first move in this type of situation. I don't even know what that would entail. We are never really in each others' cities. On the phone there were times it seemed like he wanted to say more, but I do realize that wishful thinking is a powerful force. It kind of seems like, he is trying to be realistic about it, which I really wish I could do too.

I am still kind of shocked that I am feeling this way; recently I've been pretty cynical about love/relationships/soulmates. But now I feel like I'm in middle school, I can't stop thinking about him, and I just don't know what to do. I guess I need to somehow figure out what's going on with him, but if I tell him what's going on with me I'll sound like a lunatic! Do you think it WAS just the drugs? Is it crazy to be obsessing about a guy that I don't really know & doesn't live nearby? I've been trying to go on dates & keep busy & not think about it, but it's not working that well. I don't even know what I would ultimately want the outcome of the situation to be, I like where I'm at, I don't really want to get into some long-distance thing. But it's not rational thoughts that are keeping me up at night & I just wish i could get some resolution/relief!

Stay ON, will you? I want my internet.

phunniemee — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 02:52:30 -0800

I have a ThinkPad. Why does my wireless radio (in the ThinkVantage Access Connections/Wireless Connection Status menu) power itself off? How can I make it stay on? I have a Lenovo ThinkPad T61 running Vista. Occasionally, when the wireless signal is low, I'll lose internet altogether. The culprit is almost always this ThinkVantage Access Connections thing (for those of you who have the same thing, it's the thing that comes up from the signal strength icon in the taskbar). It says Wireless Connection Status, and it has a little button there with the option of powering the wireless radio on or off. For some reason, when I have a low (but not too low, and sometimes it happens even when the signal is a good strength) signal, the thing will power the wireless radio OFF, and I have to manually turn it back on again before it can connect.

Does anyone know why it does this? More importantly, is there something I can do to make it stay ON? It's really obnoxious when I have someone sitting right next to me happily using the internet while I'm clicking the power on wireless radio button and cursing at my computer.

I found this related question, but I don't have to restart (ok, maybe once or twice I did) in order for it to work. The thing just shuts itself off randomly and I have to manually turn it back on by opening the thing and clicking the button.

Thanks!

Internet Speed tests lie, my connection sucks!

toekneebullard — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 18:43:45 -0800

Why is it when I take internet speed tests my rating is great, but overall my browsing is miserably sluggish? OK, so I've called Comcast at least 10 times, and every time they go through the same crap: Unlpug modem, restart it, blah blah blah. A few times they've had me take speed tests to "prove" my connection is fine, but again, normal browsing is slow.

Here are the results from a couple tests:
http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/
Download Speed: 12963 kbps (1620.4 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 950 kbps (118.8 KB/sec transfer rate)

http://www.speedtest.net/
Download: 10223 kb/s
Upload: 710 kb/s

I'm running Firefox 3 on a pretty nice computer. My wife is running the same on an older computer, both get the sluggish net result.

So why is it the tests say I have great speed, but browsing is so slow?

Thanks for any help,
Tony