Glitchy Internet

[Ian D J]

As it says on the tin. When since my internet decided to become rubbish by becoming all glitchy and tempermental?
It would run fine for five or ten minutes then goes all wobbly for a minute (pages failing to load up but refreshng it brings it back up, images missing or/and it looks like something from the internet in 1997). It's been like this for a few weeks now and it's starting to annoy me, especially when I type up a post anywhere on the net and it gets lost because the page crashes. It does it on the PC and wirelessly on my iPad (the iPad seems to be worse for it) so have to remember to do this copy and paste thing, like what I'm about to do before this message is sent off.
And yes, for the technical minded amongst you, I have done the ping/MTU thing (used a DOS command to check the ping and it gave a perfect reading with no fragmentations with the MTU set at 1372 - then you have to add 28 so the MTU is 1400 so I changed it to that in the router's console - the default was 1500 and changing it to 1400 helped a little but still getting this glitch.
Or maybe the weather is that cold it's causing the internet to freeze up (or did that recent cyber war had an effect?).
I'm with Talk Talk/AOL/Carphone Warehouse or whatever it is called these days. I even bought a brand spanking new router in the hope of solving this issue! Hope a solution is found before the people of Folkestone get to see an UFR in the air (Unidentified Flying Router after it is chucked out through the window).

 

[Gr8Shot]

get inssider and run it to see if you've got clashes with other routers etc

 

[Ian D J]

get inssider and run it to see if you've got clashes with other routers etc

Cheers. But before I run that, it might be worth me mentioning that the PC is directly connected to the router via ethernet and still get the glitches on there anyway (as I use the PC a lot more than the iPad).

Actually, I have lifted the bonnet up and changed the MTU to 1406 and there is a notable improvement. I think it's a case of working my way through the numbers until I hit the sweet spot.

 

[srichards]

Talk talk is rubbish anyway.

Change the MTU back to the default as some routers in ISP infrastructure throw a wobbly with different receive window sizes.

My money would be on some kind of dns issue. If you are using talk talk's own I'd change it to google or opendns. I have both configured so that if the google one doesn't know it goes for opendns next. I had the same problem with virgin when I used theirs. Changed it and web browsing literally more than doubled in speed.

If you are already using google or opendns or a reliable dns then it will be some kind of packet loss or router overload on the ISP.

I'd also do a virus/trojan scan on the pc and make sure it's not up to something you don't know about.

If you're on adsl also check the router hasn't been disconnecting from your adsl connection every so often. If the router is quite old (3 years + ) this behaviour could be a sign it's likely to die altogether.

 

[Ian D J]

Talk talk is rubbish anyway.

Change the MTU back to the default as some routers in ISP infrastructure throw a wobbly with different receive window sizes.

My money would be on some kind of dns issue. If you are using talk talk's own I'd change it to google or opendns. I have both configured so that if the google one doesn't know it goes for opendns next. I had the same problem with virgin when I used theirs. Changed it and web browsing literally more than doubled in speed.

If you are already using google or opendns or a reliable dns then it will be some kind of packet loss or router overload on the ISP.

I'd also do a virus/trojan scan on the pc and make sure it's not up to something you don't know about.

If you're on adsl also check the router hasn't been disconnecting from your adsl connection every so often. If the router is quite old (3 years + ) this behaviour could be a sign it's likely to die altogether.

Hi Richard. I actually bought a new router only last week in the hope of solving this issue - then I have reinstalled windows 7 only the other day (didn't have a lot on the PC worth keeping and all my photos were kept on a desperate disk drive) - still got this clitchy thing.

. . . until just now, by the looks of things.

So, I am keeping the MTU at 1406 as now my internet seems to be running smoothly (best it has done so far), I've also altered the DNS server number to talk talk's rather than the auto setting.
Like I said, I've been with AOL/Talktalk/Carphone Warehouse for years (since 1999) and it's always been rock solid reliable for 99% of the time. I get free landline phone calls 24/7 which is a godsend to my elderly mother - and considering I pay £24 for the lot (unlimited data plan) I couldn't see anything better value-wise elsewhere and I'm not interested in internet TV as I have a normal telly that does the job .

 

[srichards]

You're lucky then!

My name isn't Richard btw

Probably worth checking the sync speed too and making sure it hasn't mysteriously dropped.

 

[Ian D J]

You're lucky then!

My name isn't Richard btw

Probably worth checking the sync speed too and making sure it hasn't mysteriously dropped.

Whoops! Hello Suz.

Just carefully closed the bonnet on the PC as not to dislodge anything. Whatever I've done seen to have kicked it back in touch - I've been online for half an hour and it has been running smoothly.
I do have a little knowledge of PC-related matters but this one had me stumped.

Just did the obligatory speedtest.net thing and the speed seem to be as normal as before (10 to 12 mbps depending on time of day - upload at 0.8 mbps - again, always had that).

 

[Ian D J]

Okay, which one of you had magically sent healing powers through this thread? Just that my internet has been silky smooth fine all day since I dropped off this thread.
It's a relief after a month of pages failing to load up and having to keep refreshing to get it to kick in, now it's all back to normal.