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I've been experiencing a slow internet connection for the past couple of days.

Using torrents to measure the speed, it has gone from about 400 kB/s to about 50 kB/s.

I've already checked all "slow internet connection" posts I could find on this site, but none of them help me because I believe I've already discarded all posibilities described in the answers to those questions. Here's what I was able to verify:

  • It's not a wireless problem. It happens on a laptop that's connected via wire to my router, which is connected via wire to my modem, which is connected via wire to the phone line.
  • It's not a device-specific problem. It happens on multiple devices connected to the network, wire or not.
  • It's not a router problem. Transfering a file via LAN is very fast (~1 MB/s+).
  • It's not a program stealing all the bandwidth. I disable wireless on my router, connect only my laptop via wire, and verify no sketchy program is accessing the internet with GlassWire, the problem still persists.

speedtest.net says ping of 238ms, upload of 0.59 Mbps, and download of 0.35 Mbps.

All I can think of now is that my ISP is screwing with me.

What can I do to further debug or fix this problem?

Here's a pathping output:

% pathping google.com

Tracing route to google.com [200.40.0.85]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
  0  x-PC [192.168.1.101]
  1  192.168.1.1
  2     *        *        *
Computing statistics for 25 seconds...
            Source to Here   This Node/Link
Hop  RTT    Lost/Sent = Pct  Lost/Sent = Pct  Address
  0                                           x-PC [192.168.1.101]
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  1    0ms     0/ 100 =  0%     0/ 100 =  0%  192.168.1.1

Trace complete.

Honestly doesn't seem very insightful (maybe I should run with certain flag?) so here's a tracert as well:

% tracert google.com

Tracing route to google.com [200.40.0.82]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.1.1
  2     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  3    26 ms    26 ms    26 ms  cen1bras1.antel.net.uy [200.40.17.3]
  4    25 ms    26 ms    26 ms  ibb2cen4-0-4-90.antel.net.uy [200.40.17.161]
  5    28 ms    27 ms    27 ms  cbb2une1-be150.antel.net.uy [200.40.162.5]
  6    28 ms    27 ms    28 ms  ibe2uni1-be150.antel.net.uy [200.40.162.6]
  7    27 ms    26 ms    27 ms  ibb2uni1-1-2.antel.net.uy [200.40.16.217]
  8    26 ms    26 ms    27 ms  ibb2agu1-2-2-0.antel.net.uy [200.40.16.181]
  9    26 ms    26 ms    24 ms  isv2agu2-1-49.antel.net.uy [200.40.72.34]
 10    26 ms    26 ms    26 ms  cache.google.com [200.40.0.82]

Trace complete.

Another tracert:

% tracert bbc.co.uk

Tracing route to bbc.co.uk [212.58.246.104]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.1.1
  2     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  3    26 ms    26 ms    26 ms  cen1bras1.antel.net.uy [200.40.17.3]
  4    26 ms    26 ms    26 ms  ibb2cen3-0-4-90.antel.net.uy [200.40.17.33]
  5    31 ms    27 ms    28 ms  cbb2une1-be150.antel.net.uy [200.40.162.5]
  6    27 ms    27 ms    28 ms  ibe2uni1-be150.antel.net.uy [200.40.162.6]
  7   166 ms   167 ms   167 ms  ibr2nap4-0-2-1-0.antel.net.uy [200.40.16.178]
  8   178 ms   178 ms   178 ms  sl-st50-mia-.sprintlink.net [144.223.67.101]
  9   191 ms   185 ms   183 ms  sl-st50-mia-.sprintlink.net [144.232.2.237]
 10   182 ms   182 ms   182 ms  te-4-1.car4.Miami1.Level3.net [4.68.62.77]
 11   264 ms   262 ms   263 ms  ae-231-3607.edge4.London1.Level3.net [4.69.166.25]
 12   280 ms   279 ms   281 ms  BBC-TECHNOL.edge4.London1.Level3.net [212.113.14.222]
 13     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 14     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 15   279 ms   274 ms   273 ms  ae0.er02.cwwtf.bbc.co.uk [132.185.254.90]
 16   284 ms   284 ms   284 ms  132.185.255.165
 17   291 ms   291 ms   285 ms  fmt-vip133.cwwtf.bbc.co.uk [212.58.246.104]

Trace complete.
Gerardo Marset
  • 223

1 Answers1

6

Well, I called my ISP.

They had me connect the computer directly to the modem for some reason, and do a speed test with their own speed testing website. When the result was low (about 0.70 Mbps), they told me the complaint had been filed.

I was contacted about half an hour later and told that the problem wasn't the speed, but rather that the connecton was intermittent (?), which honestly seems like B.S., but I was also told that if I tested now, the speed should come out fine, which surpisingly it did.

So everything seems to be back to normal now. They also told me they would send a technician to fix the intermittent issue but I don't know if that will be needed (I doubt this "intermittent issue" exists).

Bottom line is, when you've discarded all other possibilities, just call your ISP.

Thanks everyone for your help.

Gerardo Marset
  • 223