For some reason, my computer has developed a very slow download time.... I restarted at least once, but it hasn't made any difference. As far as I can see, the internet speed is the same as it usually is- no differences there. But then again, my wireless seems to be moving in and out more for the past week (i.e. kicking me offline for no apparent reason). What do you think could be the problem? Hmm... I think I'm going to go plug in to the wall...

I have this problem, you have to turn on and off the box that the internet comes from. You turn it off count to 15 and turn it back on.

If that doesn't work then I don't know.

Couple of thoughts - worth clearing your cache of temp files and cookies. Another one is to check you don't have any anti virus or other background software trying to d/l automatic updates of something similar whichc an kill your speed. Good luck! :)

Let me preface this with I may do this for a living but that still doesn't mean I know anything!

First I would do what Benj and prpl mentioned above. Can't hurt and may be an easy fix. I'd also check the fragmentation on my hard drive and see if it needs a defrag. If there are only little chunks of space to put things it'll slow things down on everything.

If you do all of that and it is still misbehaving it's best to determine as close as possible where the problem is. Is it you (meaning you, your computer and/or your equipment) or your ISP or some other connection out there.

Best way is to go to Start\Run type in cmd, enter at the prompt type in ping (the name of the place you are trying to download from). Without the parathesis and period. Should look like this...

ping www.hotmail.com

You should get a readout something like this...

Pinging www.hotmail.aate.nsatc.net [216.74.180.189] with 32bytes of data:

Reply from 216.74.180.189: bytes=32 time=46ms TTL=55

It'll repeat that a few times then give you the final stats.

Now in the same window after the prompt type tracert xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (this being the IP address you got from above. That thing in the brackets after the name.) It should look like this...

tracert 216.74.180.189

...hit enter and it should show you every hop it hits between your box and the destination and the time it took between each hop.

for example one hop might look like this...

5 22 ms 61 ms 259 ms 0.so-3-0-0.XL1.CHI2.ALTER.NET [152.63.64.121]

that 259 ms is bad. Too long for it to hop to the next one and could be an indication of a problem "out there". And could be the reason for dropped connections and slow downloads because of slow response times. If there are alot of large times in many of the hops I'd say that's your problem and it's outside your equipment.

The first several hops will probably be elements of your service providers network, the rest are the outside world. if they are in your ISP's realm call them and see if they are having problems thell them you are and see what happens. After all, you're paying for it!

Next you may want to check out this website. It's a traffic report on the North American internet.

ITR

That will show you trouble spots. If you are going through one of the trouble spots or if a spot you normally go through is down the re-routing may be causing it to take longer especially if you have failures and heavy traffic in several of the hops.

If you know where you're going you may be able to see if there are logical places along the way that are having issue. The tracert may give you hints as to the route your taking. CJI is Chicago, ATL is Atlanta, you get the idea.

If all of the hops have very short times and there are no internet problems in areas you normally go through then the problem would seem to be your equipment.

Next I'd suspect spyware or malware. Spybot S&D is a good tool. I don't have that site URL handy but a Google search should give it to you. Be sure to run the update after it's installed and before you run a scan. Adaware is good for the adware but is still a little lite on all other protection.

Plus running a free online scan from Trendmicro.com is good, even if you have antivirus software. They catch a lot of the little things Symantec, Spybot and Adaware miss.

After that, the prime suspects, Windows or Mircosoft updates you have recently installed (I know there were a few out last week) and/or Antivirus software.

If you are using Windows XP and using their built in firewall, shut that down and see if that helps. I know we've had some issues with these last updates. Whatever is in the updates turns that XP firewall on. We don't use it here at work because it doesn't play well with our other security. When those updates turned it on it took a while to figure out that it was the problem.

Normally I don't reccommend shutting off firewalls or antivirus programs but sometimes to test things it is necessary. Try disabling your antivirus software for a few minutes and see if that helps. If it does you may want to contact your antivirus maker and see what they have to say. In the meantime turn it back on.

Any questions? I'll check around and see if I can find any info. I'll post back if I find anything.

thanks people... deleting cookies/temp files, and also deleting a bunch of programs I don't use significantly improved things. Things were gettingn a little tight....