Can slow interent be a sign of a modem going bad?

[ron_1]

My internet has been running slow for about a week, so I called up my ISP, and after doing a few things the rep told me everything was fine on their end. So I asked her, what then could be causing my internet to be running so slow? (On downloads I used to get 1.0 - 1.2 megs/sec, but am currently only getting anywhere from 50 - 250 ks/second). She told me it most likely is my modem going bad. It is about 4 years old now, which I suppose is getting close to its end-of-life. But I've never heard before that a slow running internet could be a sign of modem going bad (I always thought it would just conk-out when it dies). Does anyone know if that's true, or does this rep not know what she's talking about? Oh, and I should mention my computer is connected to the modem via an Ethernet cable, not by wireless.

[Night Wing]

I rent a wireless cable modem router from my ISP on a monthly basis. It connects my 2 desktop tower computers and my 2 laptop computers which gets me to the internet. Both desktop tower computers have an ethernet cable going from them to the wireless router.

Over a period of a few days, I was having more and more trouble trying to get to the internet with all of my computers. Since I rent my router by the month, I went down to my ISP office (Comcast) and they said, it was probably my wireless cable modem router going bad. They just replaced my "bad" router with a new wireless router and when I plugged in the ethernet cables to my two desktop tower computers, they connected to the internet without any problems.

So, modems can go bad.

[lyceus]

That mamybe means probably that your ISP is over selling the lines like happens in my country. In theory I must have 1Mbps any time, in reality I have 128-256kbps or even 512kbps if I am awake around 11pm-4am. So maybe you need to made a series of traceroute commands to some well known and not so know websites and you may see if you line works at the same speed. Some neighbor can help you to check if you both have the same speed.

Not always trust on sales reps, they just often have a nice word for say what you want to say. If I call to my ISP they will say that I must reset my modem and all will be fine.

[Moonchild]

It can be your modem going bad, or it can be your ISP not having enough capacity, or it can be servers you are trying to download from are over capacity (although that wouldn't be a problem for ALL downloads in that case, just SOME).

I don't think a traceroute will help much, though. It will be useful to find out where the culprit is if you have a lot of packet loss, but won't tell you anything about available bandwidth. It can, however, possibly pinpoint a bad node in your ISP's network if you see a sudden loss of packets at a node and all nodes from that point forward - I'd suggest trying Pingplotter to get a decent measurement for that case.

[wildbill5891]

My internet has been running slow for about a week, so I called up my ISP, and after doing a few things the rep told me everything was fine on their end. So I asked her, what then could be causing my internet to be running so slow? (On downloads I used to get 1.0 - 1.2 megs/sec, but am currently only getting anywhere from 50 - 250 ks/second). She told me it most likely is my modem going bad. It is about 4 years old now, which I suppose is getting close to its end-of-life. But I've never heard before that a slow running internet could be a sign of modem going bad (I always thought it would just conk-out when it dies). Does anyone know if that's true, or does this rep not know what she's talking about? Oh, and I should mention my computer is connected to the modem via an Ethernet cable, not by wireless.

Helloimustbegoing : Have you tried unplugging the modem and letting it reset it self ?

[ron_1]

Thanks for the ideas everyone. One thing I didn't mention in my original post, I tested several downloads on a handful of different sites, with the same result. And it doesn't matter if I'm on Windows or Linux Mint, same slowness. I also get the same results on my backup browsers, IE in Windows and Firefox in Mint (I only use FF as my backup in Mint because it's installed by default).

lobocursor wrote:
That mamybe means probably that your ISP is over selling the lines like happens in my country.

That's not the problem. I consistently got 1 to 1.2 megs/sec on downloads, that is until about a week ago.

wildbill5891 wrote:
Have you tried unplugging the modem and letting it reset it self ?

Yes, that was the first thing we tried.

[Moonchild]

Maybe a silly and obvious thing you might have missed: have you tried replugging and/or using a different ethernet cable?

[ron_1]

Thanks everyone for the ideas/suggestions. Apparently, the problem is solved. I took a can of air and blew into all the modem's vents (I unplugged it first, of course). After plugging it back in, I got my download speed of 1.0 - 1.2 m/sec back. I can't believe some dust on the inside of the modem caused the slow down, but evidently that was the problem. Or it was just a weird coincidence.

[Moonchild]

No, it was probably the dust
If it cakes onto your chips, it will start conducting electricity and you may lose signal on the actual PCB as a result. Even something as simple as the conductivity changing the value of a resistor enough would do it. Regularly removing dust is a good practice for all electronics (I actually did the same with my workstation today -- since it was not the most efficient at cooling anymore which the hot weather made very obvious).

[Night Wing]

Every 6 months, I blow out the dust and any dust bunnies which accumulate during that time with a pancake air compressor. Keeps the electronic parts cool so no heating problems.

[ron_1]

Well, after a couple of hours the slow download speeds are back. Any ideas, anyone? Should I just break down and buy a new modem?

[Night Wing]

Just curious.

Have you tried testing your download speeds at:

http://www.speedtest.net/

And post your results in this thread.

[Moonchild]

Probably 2 scenarios left that are likely. 1) your modem is indeed going bad and the electronics fail when they get to working temperature, or 2) your speed drops because the ISP connection finds too many uncorrectable errors and retrains to a slower speed (which you should be able to see in your modem's status interface)

[ron_1]

Night Wing wrote:
Have you tried testing your download speed

Yes, at least three times. The download speed is around 10 megs, which I understand is where it is supposed to be for real download speeds of 1.0 - 1.2 meg/sec. But actual downloads still only average 250 kb/sec.

Moonchild wrote:
2) your speed drops because the ISP connection finds too many uncorrectable errors and retrains to a slower speed (which you should be able to see in your modem's status interface)

In browsing around the modem's status interface, WAN Status tab (what's WAN?), I see this, which caught my eye since it uses the same word "retrains" that you used:

Code: Select all

Retrains:	0
Retrains in Last 24 Hours:	0
Loss of Power Link Failures:	0
Loss of Signal Link Failure:	0
Loss of Margin Link Failure:	0
Link Train Errors:	0

If I'm interpreting this correctly, it seems to point to your #1 scenario, that my modem is indeed going bad.

[Moonchild]

Only one way to find out, and that is getting a new modem.

[ron_1]

Moonchild wrote:
Only one way to find out, and that is getting a new modem.

Yes. I just hope I'm not spending the $$$ for nothing.

[Moonchild]

Well, unless you can borrow a known-good modem for testing purposes from someone else... there really isn't much choice.
Even if your current modem is still good and it turns out to be something else, you can still turn around and sell either modem again (although I personally like to have a fallback solution in case something just completely breaks, so I keep a backup modem or two around )

[L Bell]

I can verify the insidious effect of dust or 'cat hair' on the modular plugs.

Often, I couldn't even get a dialtone, let alone transfers.

About ten years ago, I purchased a small air cleaner can that lets you pump up the pressure on the unit itself, without needing to use non-refillable compressed air cans.

Off-topic:
Ethernet and regular modular phone plug/jacks are not too different as far as the contact method goes, although the modular phone cable usually only needs two wires (red / green), while if you have two services running in the same cable, the black and yellow wires are also used.

Some phone installations in one-line houses used the black / yellow pair for powering the illuminated dials on those 'princess' phones that the Bell system used to sell.

Ethernet has a number of additional lines; bigger plug.

Specialized solvent to clean the jacks/plugs may be available, but it is usually pretty nasty stuff, according to the labels! Use sparingly is the general advice.

[Tharn]

I've been using ethanol to clean my electronics. Works pretty well and draws out any moisture.

[ron_1]

Well it's been almost two weeks since I last posted here in this thread. Here's what happened in that time (hope my memory isn't failing me). The first thing I did since my last post was to go to my local "big-time" retailer and buy a CenturyLink modem. I came home and set it up, and . . . no difference, still had slow downloads. So I called tech support again, and this time they sent a technician over. Of course it was during the day while I was at work. So when I came home I found out he connected a new modem, same model as the one I just bought a few days before. And I still had slow download speeds. The tech guy had left his cell number, so I called him up and told him. He said the next thing to do would be to check the phone lines leading up to the home. He said he would put the work-ticket in so I didn't have to call their tech number again. I assume he did. I waited a few days and still had slow downloads, so I called once again (by this time I really had no patience left). The lady ran some tests, ran it by her supervisor, and said that there was a bunch of errors coming from the modem. She said she was going to send another one. Of course I didn't believe this would solve the problem, I already had tried two new modems. Finally I said okay. So two working days later, I got the modem and connected it. This time, the speed returned to where it is supposed to be, and even a little bit faster than before. However, I noticed this is not the case on all sites. Before all this started, I never noticed a difference no matter what site I was downloading on. And another thing, before, the speeds would stay mostly constant; but now they seem to fluctuate more. So, it isn't quite the same as before, but I guess this problem is solved. But I don't feel like it's 100% solved. I don't know whether I should just leave it as it is now, or call their tech support again.