Very very slow net

[HSK]

For some reason yday on my laptop IE has slowed to a crawl, signing in to msn doesn't happen...if i use utorrent though i get a down & upstream, my PC's Net is working fine, i can't figure out why it don't on my laptop? problem is there with firefox aswelll.

[finnrogers]

Could you elaborate on your setup a bit:

1. Are you using Wireless on the laptop? Is the the wireless router located far away? Normally runs fine?

2. Are you running uTorrent when you experience this slow down? Have you checked that you're not seeding a torrent - Uploading slows down your connection massively if you don't limit the upload speed.

3. Have you recently installed anything on the laptop that may be causing the slow down?

4. Have you tried rebooting the wireless router?

5. Have you checked for spyware/malware on the laptop? Something could be leeching your bandwidth.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head... Give us some more detail and we might be able to narrow down what's going on.

Good luck ;-)

[HSK]

hi, thanks for ur reply - weird, the problem comes and goes - if the laptops been off, turned it on and it was fine for a while then started again.

the laptops using wireless, but im pretty much the same distance (in my room above the router) that i've been using it for months without problem.

even when utorrent is off, i still get the problem - so i dont think it could be that (i think).

nothing installed lately, tried disabling, re-booting, repairing and switchin on n off via the routher switch.

i need to check for malware spyware.

one thing i did do b4 all this happened was enable media and public folder sharing with the pc downstairs to my laptop so i can access all that...but i've done that b4 n never had a problem.

[finnrogers]

Hmm can't see that causing a problem. Have you setup security on your wireless router? i.e: WPA2 encryption with a strong password? If it's not secured, you may find that a neighbour is happily leeching your files off your laptop or stealing your bandwidth causing a slow down...

As for the spyware/malware, go to the start menu > run and type "msconfig", go to the startup tab and check that there isn't anything out of the ordinary listed there, if there is: disable it, reboot and see if the problem has gone away. But I'd definately recommend doing a proper scan with someone like ad-aware to be sure.

Another good way you could test to see if it's a problem with the laptop itself or the wireless router would be to boot up from a Linux live CD - If the connection works fine in Linux then you know that there is something wrong with your Windows setup. Don't worry if you've never dealt with Linux before, it's a piece of cake and a live CD won't affect your laptop in anyway, it simply boots from a CD without touching your windows install.

[HSK]

hmm i couldn't work it out in the end, wireless was secure, i was getting a normal up and downstream on utorrent, but not on the browsers, so no idea. :-( so i resorted to a system restore of the laptop (which sorted it).

but thanks for ur replies, very helpful - i want to try a linux live CD because i've never tried linux before, is the image/iso for one free?

[finnrogers]

Yep - Ubuntu is free and is considered by many to be one of the easier distros to try.

I tried it myself last year for the first time, I have to say it was very pain free and I was so impressed that I installed it straight away (dual boot with Vista Ultimate on my laptop). While it's installing, you can even still use the OS (i.e the installer is just like installing a regular program in windows - you can just minimise it and carry on surfin' 'tinternet or whatever). Give it a go, you'll be impressed...