Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with internet and ISP

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...?)

Broadband ISP in Las Vegas

Eastgate — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 07:53:55 -0800

What's the best broadband ISP to subscribe to in Las Vegas? I'm going to be living in Las Vegas, Nevada soon. Has anyone got any recommendations for a broadband ISP to connect my home with? I'm not sure where I'll be living, but most likely west or northwest (near Summerlin).

I use the internet heavily for web development, gaming, multimedia, etc. I need high bandwidth, for upload as well as download, and reliability. Several computers will be sharing the connection. If you could suggest what upload/download speed I can expect, that would be helpful! Price is flexible, but can easily spend $100/month.

Help me help my browser to go back to completing missing URL endings even though my ISP is jerky

Your Time Machine Sucks — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 07:39:57 -0800

My ISP's new "feature" of rerouting incomplete URLs to their own custom (awful) search page is hijacking my normal browser behavior of completing URLs with .com. Anything I can do to reassert normalcy? My ISP is T-Online, which like a few other ISPs has started to hijack malformed URLs and send me to an awful "did you mean...?" page, which coincidentally happens to contain advertisements.

Until this started happening a week ago, if I typed "something" into my Safari 3.2.1 (OS X 10.5.x) location field, Safari would complete the URL as "something.com" and go there, but no longer (at least, I was under the impression that this was a Safari thing and not a DNS thing, since Internet Explorer always manifested the re-route-to-a-search-page behavior).

T-Online claims that it is possible to opt out from their new "Navigationshilfe" ("Navigation Help") program, but when I followed their instructions to opt out, nothing changed. Is there a technical solution for this? My router runs dd-wrt so if there is anything I can do there or on my local machine with DNS or hosts settings, that would be ideal.

T-Online's customer support is pretty dumb, so I will consider calling them if there is no workaround, but it is improbable that they will a) know what I'm talking about, b) know if it is possible to turn it off, c) take the correct steps to turn it off, d) not somehow find a way to increase the cost of my plan in the process, so that is definitely a last resort.

Thanks for any advice!

BT Broadband Hell

nam3d — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:54:05 -0800

I'm currently with BT "Total" Broadband, who are by far the shitest ISP in Britian. We currently pay £24.46 their option 3 "unlimited" package. And it's crap, please help me pick an alternative ISP. While we do get "ulimited*" bandwidth they cap the speed so much that whilst trying to watch a 5 minute YouTube clip (not even in "HD") it stopped and started over ten times.

So what options do I have? Which ISP has the same sort of plan (between 25-50GB p/m) but doesn't make you pull your hair out because it's so bloody slow.

I would class my self as "moderate to heavy" internet user.

Any suggestions as to which alternative ISP I should use would be great.

Thanks,

William

---
For anyone interested here's what BT are currently giving me:

Down: 0.93Mb/s
Upload: 0.37Mb/s
Ping: 66ms

Croatia Online!

benzenedream — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 17:25:36 -0800

What is the best way to get unlimited net access in Croatia without per minute data charges? We're going to Croatia for a few weeks and will need reliable net access for VPNing back home. I'm fine with paying a bit extra for a temporary DSL/Cable install - we will be staying in a home so mobile access is not necessary. Something faster than 56k modem speed would be preferred.

help find a way to make me redundant

dozo — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:12:28 -0800

My boss is looking for the most efficient and cost-effective way to add redundancy to our 20MB fiber. After 4 years of near perfect service, our provider had a large (8 hour) downtime recently. In order to avoid this in the future we've decided to stop putting off getting a redundant line that does not share the same point of entry as the fiber. We're looking for at least a t-1 that will kick in as soon as the fiber fails (just to keep data flowing), hopefully used far less than an hour a year. After looking, we've not been able to find metered service or what seems to be a reasonable rate in our area.

What experience has anyone else had with this kind of thing? Does anyone know of anyone out there (we're in Daytona Beach) that will charge us a reasonable fee ($500 a month is the cheapest we've found so far for a single t-1!) just to be hooked up to their network and not use their service, plus whatever we do end up using? Are we even going about this in the best manner?

I keep thinking that if we had had a metered line for $200 a month for the last 4 years, they'd have made ten thousand dollars off of us for maybe ten hours and 20 GB total bandwidth. Why WOULDN'T a company want to do this?

Info source on bandwidth caps & download quotas?

kidbritish — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 08:40:09 -0800

Is there a website that tracks ISP's bandwidth caps and download quotas, and presents the information in an up-to-date and easy-to-read format? I'm especially interested in USA.

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?

Where in Los Angeles can pay by the hour to use a really fast (T1) internet access so I can upload 5GB of files to a coworker?

ronenosity — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 01:51:13 -0800

Are there any Kinkos, business centers, copy centers, cybercafes etc. in Los Angeles (downtown, silverlake, west side, ANYWHERE!) where I can pay by the hour to use a really fast (T1) internet access so I can upload 5GB of files to a coworker? I need to get 5GB of video footage to my out-of-country editor tomorrow morning..my DSL upload speed is so freakin slow.. it'll takes 20 hrs... I can fedex a DVD overnight but that would also take 12+ hours..

I need to get the files to him ASAP!

Eu tu, AT&T?

SpacemanStix — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:22:56 -0800

There is talk about how ISP's are going to be cooperating with the RIAA to curtail piracy (warning letters, shutting off service, etc.), in lieu of the RIAA taking people to court. If ISP's refused to be involved without a court order previously, why are they getting so involved now? It's a crazy amount of extra work, it gets into the privacy of its users, and it creates the potential for false positives and a LOT of negative press that used to go to the RIAA. I can't figure out the upside.

Are they getting a money cut somewhere? Are they being strong-armed into it? Or do they see it as a lesser evil to agree to these terms than to be forced to hand over customer information on a regular basis, due to court orders?

WiMax: yea or nay?

cyrusdogstar — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:04:30 -0800

Looking into potentially getting WiMax, specifically from a company called TowerStream, at my place of work. Has anyone here used a commercial WiMax provider (TowerStream or otherwise)? Our primary goal is getting better upstream (we currently have 768Kb); all asymetric solutions cap out around 2Mb, and symmetric solutions are typically very expensive. We can get a WiMax symmetric connection of 8Mb for almost half the $/Mb of an equivalent bonded T1 or partial T3, which is why it's pretty darn appealing.

Trying to find anecdotes and/or potential pitfalls with migrating to WiMax providers, as I don't see any obvious drawbacks just by thinking about it (weather: apparently not a problem; connectivity: multiple potential antennas are available in our area so we get decent redundancy; otherwise comparable to T1/T3 in terms of SLAs, etc).

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.

I need cable/internet. Should I go with Comcast, DirectTV, or DISH Network?

decrescendo — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 12:03:14 -0800

I need cable/internet. Should I go with Comcast, DirectTV, or DISH Network? I just moved into a new apartment in Arlington, VA and I need cable. I have a 50" Panasonic plasma and I want as much HD as possible. I'm pretty sure we'll have line-of-sight to the satellites, as well.

I despise Comcast because of its internet throttling/bandwidth and it's horrible customer service (I should have cable already but they screwed me over).

Do I go with satellite? If so, do I get DISH or DirectTV? Have you all had problems with rain fade, reception in storms, etc.?

And if I get them, should I go with Comcast shitty internet or Verizon? Or do they have satellite internet?

How do I limit/moniter net usage?

ODiV — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 19:51:15 -0800

How do I monitor and/or limit Internet usage? I'm allowed 20GB up+down per month with my ISP. I get charged extra fees for everything over and above that. My ISP gives me access to my total online, but that doesn't help me find out who has used how much. It also lags behind by a day, so if someone uses a couple GB in a day, I only find out after the fact. How can I track and/or limit how much each device is using?

Currently, I've got a Linksys WRT600N router that I would like to keep on stock firmware (it is serving files via the usb port, which DD-WRT cannot completely do yet), a D-Link 524 802.11g router, and a low powered dual core Intel Ubuntu box running MythTV which might be able to take over routing duties (if it doesn't slow down the media watching, I don't encode anything there).

I'd rather not have another computer running 24/7, so IPCop is out.

Detect bandwidth throttling?

ao4047 — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 20:59:49 -0800

We suspect our ISP is shutting down our internet connection when we use a BitTorrent client and/or throttling bandwidth. Is there any way to detect this? We have Comcast and I know about the legal stuff but wanted to be able to detect it ourselves.

Comcast or Comca$t?

awenner — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 10:51:22 -0800

What are the costs of doing business for a large ISP? All this talk about bandwidth throttling, downstream capping, and miscellaneous connection meddling among the major ISPs has made me wonder why the market isn't producing an alternative to the major internet providers. In the old days of dial-up, there were often dozens of small-scale ISPs per city, while today a few major companies - Verizon, Comcast, etc. - dominate the national market.

Here are my questions:
* What are the operating costs of a business that provides high-speed internet connections? What's the relationship between those costs and the fees charged to customers? Is the argument (made by ISPs) that rising costs will mean increased fees credible?
* What factors are preventing new competitors from entering the market? What's to stop an upstart ISP from renting Google's "dark" fiber optics?
*And finally, what are some potential solutions that a new company might employ to get around today's existing constraints?

Several ISPs enter the ring, only one leaves...

vernondalhart — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 20:48:17 -0800

What is the best ISP in Vancouver, Canada? We're moving from a house which has 'built-in' internet---i.e. we aren't dealing with the ISP---to an apartment. So who should we go to for highspeed internet? It might be worth nothing that we already have a cellular contract with Bell, so it might be easiest to go through them.

But really, I'm looking for your personal experiences. Which is cheapest? Who has good customer service? Which companies kick puppies while selling children into diamond-mining slavery?

The best ISP in Israel

Blip — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 08:01:28 -0800

Off to Israel and don't want to miss my internet fix. Anyone know the best ISP? The wife and I are heading to Tel Aviv for a year or so. We have friends and relatives out there but none have been able to recommend a good ISP.

This is extra important for me as I need the net for work (web developer), rest (TV and radio) and play (online gaming). I don't mind paying a premium for a pro service. Problem is, I can't find any.

There seems to be only a handful of ISPs, the best on paper appears to be HOT's 10meg line, but I've already had people warning me off them. Anyone know better?

I would happily pay $100 per month for a quick and reliable service. Anyone know of one?

DHCP and VLAN configuration help needed.

odinsdream — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:56:52 -0800

DHCP and switch VLAN configuration help needed. I have a DHCP server connected to one port of a managed Netgear switch. I'd like to configure VLANs on this switch for separate office areas, each with their own subnet. I know how to do this with static addresses, since I would just manually configure each computer with the appropriate subnet. How can I hand these addresses out automatically with DHCP?

I'm also not sure how to make one port of the switch (connected to the DHCP server/router) part of each VLAN. I understand how to place a port into an untagged or tagged state, and have it be a member of a VLAN with another set of ports.

Much appreciated!

High Speed Internet In Chicago?

AceRock — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 14:14:35 -0800

High speed internet in Chicago? I'm moving on the 1st, and my new apartment building is not wired up for RCN. I loathe Comcast, and so I am looking for alternatives to provide me with high speed internet access in my new place. Anybody have any recommendations? How is AT&T's DSL? How is Speakeasy nowadays? Any other options I'm not even aware of?

Computer freezes!

Jase_B — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 13:44:55 -0800

Computer semi-freezes one in every three startups. What's going on? This problem with my computer has been going on for a while not, and it's reached the point where I'm totally over it. I think it started about 6 months ago. I would turn on my computer and every so often certain programs wouldn't open, specifically internet programs such as Firefox and IE. Some programs, however, would open fine (such as Word, Notepad, Windows Explorer). After a while I worked out that If I unplug the internet cable before turning the computer on, let it load, open the desired internet programs (i.e. Firefox), THEN plug the internet cable into my computer, it would work fine.

I was able to do this until I changed internet providers. Now, no matter whether I unplug the internet cable before or after startup, one in every three or four times the computer won't let Firefox or IE load. The programs simply don't open, and then the computer totally freezes.

I've done some testing with it, such as using a new virus scanning program, but it still happens. And according to the two virus scanning programs that I've used there are no viruses.

Also, the internet cable that I used BEFORE the current ISP was a regular big blue cable that goes into the "bigger" slot (I hope that's understandable!) - and the internet would automatically start. However, the current internet connection uses a USB connection to the modem, and I actually have to log in to my internet every time I turn on my computer. I had to install special software as well and it always tries to connect to the modem, even if the cable's not plugged in.

My last resort will be to reformat the computer, but I really don't want to do that. If you can offer any suggestions it would be much appreciated.

How to donate Internets?

vraxoin — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 14:13:21 -0800

How can I donate Internet access to a family whose computer I'm going to set up? I'm going to set up a computer at the home of some Burundian refugees who've just settled here in Austin, and I'd like to get them hooked up to the Internet, but I want to be able to pay for the connection in a lump sum (say, for a year), so they don't have to deal with it. What are some suggestions on the best way to manage this?

Cheap Broadband in Albany, NY?

cahlers — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 13:47:35 -0800

Can someone suggest cheap ($15/mo) broadband in zip 12208? Verizon DSL 768kbps is unavailable there. I'm looking for DSL at 768kbps download speed in Albany, NY, comparable to what's offered by Verizon Online for $14.99 in other markets. Apparently this package is not offered in the zip code where my parents live (12208). They have never had broadband before, and now are looking to obtain it, after using dial-up for many years. However, they have a limited budget and could not pay more than around $15/mo. They do not need download speeds of higher than 768bps; however, I don't think paying $10/mo for 50 hours of Verizon dialup is worth it.

My parents do not need DSL per se, only broadband. However, they do not have cable TV, so bundling w/ cable is not an option. If a company offered cable broadband at around $15/mo, that would work for them too.

I have searched DSL Reports and Google without success.

I'd appreciate any suggestions.

Has anyone here used Earthlink's Feather WiFi service?

ootsocsid — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 20:39:27 -0800

Has anyone here used Earthlink's Feather WiFi service? Especially in Philadelphia? I'm considering signing up for Earthlink's Feather WiFi service in Philadelphia. Does anyone here have any experience using this service? Is it reliable? Do you get good connection speeds? Any other issues/comments/concerns?

Gauging Bandwidth Use

Gyan — Sat, 12 May 2007 03:50:07 -0800

I'm considering downgrading my cable broadband from 512kbps-800MB/month to 256kbps-uncapped. I'd like to estimate the real-world hit in terms of casual web browsing and more intensive applications. So, I downloaded FreeMeter, a bandwidth monitor. The baseline downstream (in absence of any web clients, even hidden ones like AV updaters) registers at 120-130kbps!! How come? When requesting a page, say metafilter.com, via Firefox, the downstream shows a few large spikes of 600-800kbps, a few small spikes of 300-400kbps and then settles down to baseline. Mostly as expected. But this does make me wonder on how exactly does an ISP throttle bandwidth. A few weeks earlier, I had downloaded a large torrent from mostly European peers, and to my surprise, the average speed amounted to ~192KB/s i.e. 1536kbps. So, if I switch to 256kbps, what's likely to be the real-world difference and how is it enforced? Three different scenarios would be regular browsing i.e. email, metafilter..etc, multimedia browsing i.e. Youtube, radio..etc and finally, large data downloads.

Note that this is in Mumbai, India, and as per government regulations (TRAI), the ISP "must" guarantee 80% of the advertised speed.