Internet Speed Garbage. Newbie Question.

[RussLile]

Hello, this is my first post here on Tom's Hardware, and on any forum so if I'm doing anything wrong, feel free to correct me. Pointers would be great!

I am currently having trouble with my internet speed. I have recently noticed that, especially on YouTube, that my loading speed on videos are extremely bad. I currently upgraded to 15 meg internet from my local plant board service provider. My computer is a brand new, gaming/video editing desktop, (Built myself), so I'm 95% sure that isn't the problem. I currently use hardwired CAT5 Ethernet cable from my router to my desktop. But I also have installed, a wireless adapter card, if that means anything (I heard somewhere that if you are connected to two different types of connection that things may act up, not sure.) I had a problem in the past with my router, I believe it was a lightning/electrical/surge problem, don't know if that might have happened again? That is really all I can think of that could be the problem, although I know nothing about network and how it operates.

**Knowing that I am new to forums, I can't find my way around very well, so if there is already a thread about this please, feel free to direct me there, thanks!

I did go to speedtest.net to check that and I got 15.3 meg download and 1.3 upload with ping at 11 ms. Not sure, really what those numbers are supposed to be but I assume 15.3 is relatively good speaking I currently have 15 meg subscription???

Thank you all for the help.
Russ

 

[RealBeast]

Yes, if you are getting 15.3Mbps from speedtest then you are getting what you are paying for. You can use multiple adapters, and with only one network the wired will have priority over the wireless unless you change that in the advanced adapter settings.

Did you install the correct wireless adapter drivers? To check out your router wireless and explore your area, download and run this free app that identifies all wireless 2.4/5GHz signals to help you avoid interference from being on the same channel as another close powerful wireless signal: inSSIDer. There is also a easy to understand brief "technical manual" you can download to understand more about what the program can do. It will work while both adapters are on and the wired is primary, as it only runs on wireless adapters.

 

[dbhosttexas]

Is it just Youtube videos you are having trouble with? If so are you running the latest browser and flash player?

I have load time issues on my Android from Youtube if I view in the default browser, but none in Firefox or the Youtube app...

Also how clean is your OS load? Are you running anti virus / anti malware and does it check clean? (I am assuming you are using Windows or Mac and not a Linux or other OS...)

 

[RussLile]

Yes, I am mainly having trouble with YouTube. Not so specific as YouTube but video streaming in general, I checked on another place like Vemo and it still seemed to srtuggle.

I currently have Google Chrome Version 24.0.1312.56. And Adobe Flash player 11 Version 11.5.502.146.

I also tried internet Explorer and nothing improved.

I have not installed any major antivirus/security type software other than Microsoft Security Essentials. Should I? What are the best free ones? But I have not downloaded or installed anything remotely potential for having malicious or bad content. I've been too scared to with new comp.!! Yes I am using Windows 7 64bit.

That was my only reason I was sure it was network related; Everything opens fine and even normal webpages open like a dream! When I surf the web and do homework everything is astonishing. But when I watch YouTube things go bad. It's just the video buffering too, not like it is slow to go to next video. Sometimes the buffer would go backwards as if it forgot waht it buffered!! Or the video would stop as if it had to buffer but it hadn't hit the end of the buffer line. I have never seen anything like it...

Also, My laptop runs YouTube fine. So I guess that the wireless isnt much of a prob.

Not sure what to guess anymore.

 

[dbhosttexas]

Hmmm.

Good throughput when not streaming videos, but when streaming it slows down...

I'd be leaning toward virus / malware infection...

This might sound like a dumb thing to try, but would it be possible for you to boot to a Live Linux DVD and try the Youtube videos again?

http://www.ubuntu.com/ubuntu

Click on the "Try it on a DVD or USB Stick" link and grab the iso image... I am trying to determine if you are having a hardware or OS problem. (Booting to a live DVD eliminates the OS issue).

 

[RussLile]

Hmmm.

Good throughput when not streaming videos, but when streaming it slows down...

I'd be leaning toward virus / malware infection...

This might sound like a dumb thing to try, but would it be possible for you to boot to a Live Linux DVD and try the Youtube videos again?

http://www.ubuntu.com/ubuntu

Click on the "Try it on a DVD or USB Stick" link and grab the iso image... I am trying to determine if you are having a hardware or OS problem. (Booting to a live DVD eliminates the OS issue).

Does an Internet issue not even cross your thohght? You seem to not even acknowledge anything toward network. Do you think this is the case? Do you think it is mostllikely OS or Hardware?

 

[dbhosttexas]

Does an Internet issue not even cross your thohght? You seem to not even acknowledge anything toward network. Do you think this is the case? Do you think it is mostllikely OS or Hardware?

Nope. I am not leaning toward network issues. Especially after you had stated in your initial post...

I did go to speedtest.net to check that and I got 15.3 meg download

And mind you I am taking into account that you eliminated the obvious... Is it just Youtube you are having slow performance with issue. I.E. did you try streaming videos from another source such as Netflix, Hulu, or, oh heck take your pick there are TONS of them out there now... It may be a bad assumption on my part, but I figured that should have been done first.

From your speed test, you obviously don't have a network speed problem. So network hardware isn't my first thought, but it's not out of the realy of possibility.

Again, if you boot to a different OS, you can test, eliminating one big piece of the puzzle. If it still happens under Ubuntu, then you know it's a problem with your hardware / network setup. If it doesn't you know it's a problem with your Windows load / network driver config...

I am not telling you to do anything drastic like overwrite your existing OS, I am telling you to run Ubuntu off of your removable storage device and browse the web / watch some Youtube videos... What will it cost you but a bit of bandwidth, a little bit of time and a blank DVD? Even if you don't want to use Linux as your desktop OS, it sure is a useful tool for troubleshooting your system and network..

Some more info might be helpful such as do you have problems with multiple computers / devices, or is it just the one machine?