Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with dsl and connection

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?

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?

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!

Home internet networks over large distances?

zaebiz — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 18:48:45 -0800

I have a wireless router in my house. 150 metres away I have a shed where I want to be able to use the internet on my laptop. There are electricity outlets in the house and in the shed but not in between. How do I get the signal from the house to my shed? For example are there battery-powered boosters that I could lay between the two places and recharge them at night? Can I buy a more powerful router? Can I buy some sort of signal magnifier to attach to the router? Or .... is it crazy to run a telephone cable all the way from the ADSL port in my house to the router in my shed? Any other ideas?

What's the Latvian for "is this DSL and if it is can we do the whole wifi thing, and oh yes, what's in that locked box?"

mdonley — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 02:59:59 -0800

How, exactly, am I connected to the Internet? This is in Latvia, by the way. Here's what I can tell you. Today a tech from Balticom Internet (which you can examine at balticom.lv if you feel up to deciphering some Latvian and Russian) stopped by after someone at work ordered a connection for my apartment. He worked for about an hour - I'm not sure if all of that was work, or work and cigarette breaks - in a little box just outside the the front door that I can't open that looked like it contained some sort of connection to something; I didn't get a good look when he was in there, though I did see a largish gray box emblazoned with the Lattelcom symbol, which I presume is for landline phones, which we don't have.

From my computer, a standard-looking Cat-5 cable goes out a hole in the concrete wall next to my front door (things are a little homebrew in my charmingly post-Soviet apartment) and into the box. I didn't see if the Cat-5 cable went into the Lattelecom box or somewhere else. There were a variety of cables running to this box from the other apartments on our landing, I think.

The ad for the service we purchased said we'd get speeds of up to 10 MB/sec; it seems at least as speedy as my cable internet back in the States, which was advertised as 3 MB/sec.

This would all be fine, but my housemate and I both have laptops and we'd like to be able to use the connection simultaneously and via wifi. We don't have a modem or anything in the apartment - just the end of the network cable and the configured settings on my computer (which the tech wrote down - things like IP addresses and DNS servers).

So:

- Is this DSL or something else?
- What is at the other end of the cable running from my computer and into the box?
- Can we plug a wifi router into the end of the cable and both be on that network, or do we need the modem itself - which we don't have - to connect the router to?

If it matters, he's got a Dell Inspiron 8600 running XP and I've got a Macbook running OS X 10.4.10. I'll try to answer any questions you have.

Paldies!

Inconsitent wireless DSL connectivity

Scottk — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 12:30:11 -0800

Join me in trying to solve a wireless DSL modem mystery. As usual, there is I am using this Intellinet wireless DSL modem / router. I am able to maintain a strong signal to the router via my wireless XP laptop, but the DSL connection itself is very inconsistent. It seems to happen most often when I am playing online poker, if that is any help.

Also, hardwiring my laptop to the router with a CAT 5 cable seems to remedy the issue. I'd like to know why the wireless function is having such a hard time maintaining the DSL connection.

As always, any responses are greatly appreciated.

Why the cyclical disconnects?

sourwookie — Sun, 20 Nov 2005 15:10:33 -0800

Help me get this to work! My iBook/SBC DSL/Airport express will not stay online. I'm 99% sure it's just some simple setting issue. I just switched to mac so I really don't know my way around or am really familiar with the terminology... So I'm connected and surfing. I go to the little < ...> icon at the top of the screen. The "< part of it is black, the ... part of it is grey, yet i can still connect. when i click it the pull down menu shows: ppoe: connecting... (this is grey) disconnect (check mark) built-in ethernet airport open internet connection... after a minute or so of surfing, this dialoge box pops up: no pppoe server has been found for the specified service. please delete the service name option and try again. so i wait a few seconds, pull the menu from the ...> icon. It now looks like this:

PPoE: Idle (this is grey)
Connect
(check mark) Built-in Ethernet
Airport
Open internet connection...

I click "connect" and I can immediately start surfiing again---for about a minute, then that dialoge box pops up again. Rinse. Repeat.

I'm really new to the Mac world so any help in as close to layman's terms would be really loved.

I'll be online for a while so I can answer any questions almost immediately. Thanks, all!