Internet Problem

[DarkHououmon]

Something's been going on with my internet and some problems started a few days ago, but the whole problem came about weeks ago, actually, not long after my aunts went home (would would have been almost one month ago).

Now with this computer, we have a cable modem, a router, and a vonage box (for the phone), each hooked up to the computer (there is no one wire, there's multiple wires), and that's how my internet is set up. And the internet was largely just fine for me up until my aunts arrived. Not that I'm blaming them or anything, but there was a considerable loss of speed in Internet Explorer (actually freezing).

Then after they left, the router stopped flashing one of the Phone lights (before, it would have one of these on). While internt was still maintained, with my Vista computer, I would need to either reboot or unplug and replug the internet adapter in it to reset the internet (something I did not need to do before that). While it was annoying, we seemed to be able to tolerate it, up until a new problem occured a few days ago.

The internet has gotten much slower. I can still surf the web, but many pages load up more slowly, and on many occasions even freeze. I am also constantly losing connection with instant messengers, sometimes getting so bad that I am not able to even change my status on MSN. This problem is present in both this and my Vista computer.

Unplugging and replugging the router does nothing. Unplugging the cable modem and replugging it does nothing. Doing both doesn't work either, and neither does rebooting. I have no idea what the problem is. It could be the ISP. It could be the router. I'm not sure. Clint is going to test it though. By unhooking the router and making this the only computer with internet, he will try to see if it's really the ISP or if it's the router.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Or any ideas on what the problem could be?

[landbeforetimelover]

Well for one I've seen your model of computer and I believe it has only 1gb of ram.  If you've got Vista, put at least 3gb into it (if your motherboard can support that much ram) otherwise life is gonna suck.  

Check the ethernet cables.  They go out every so often and just one of them being dead or dying can totally disable or reduce the functionality of your entire system.  Diagnose the problem in windows Vista.  It should give you the option to diagnose the connection by right clicking the little connection icon on the taskbar next to the clock and then clicking "diagnose".  It usually has something useful to say.  I'm betting it's an ethernet cable, but it could also be the router.  Call your ISP and have them test their internet box remotely or perhaps they can tell you what's wrong with your modem by asking you what lights are on and what lights are off.  It's called troubleshooting.  There's no "oh just do this" answer to this problem.  You just have to try everything until you get it to work.  I know that doesn't really help, but it's just what has to be done with a problem like this.

[DarkHououmon]

Dad called them and they told him what to do, which was unplugging and replugging the devices in a specific order and rebooting it. However, now the computer is not loading up now. The internet is working on this (my Vista computer) just fine. No longer slow. But the XP computer will no longer load up. Even in Safe Mode.

[DarkHououmon]

An update: After losing the internet connection last night and dad working on the computer (calling up our ISP as well), we discovered that the problem was that the IP address was not in synch with the computer, so we fixed that problem, thus getting internet on this computer. But problems still occurred on the XP computer. For one thing, the computer stopped loading up all the way; it would freeze as soon as the desktop appeared, no icons (well not freeze, but it would stop loading up stuff). It does this regardless of the limited number of problems loading up at the time.

Dad is able to get the XP computer to load up only by having it load up with the last known configuration that worked (pressing F8 to get to this). Internet now works on the XP computer (after dad uninstalled a program called Magic Port), but still shows a problem: not only does it continue to refuse to load up normally (not pressing F8 or anything), but now Panda Antivirus is screwed up. An internal error, likely the result of whatever was preventing the comp from loading up or something else. It wants us to either restart the computer to fix the problem (which does not work) or reinstall the program.

Currently, I don't know what to do. I could reinstall Panda, but I no longer have the activation code. My other options could be to install the newest version of Panda (the trial version) and wait until I can obtain an activation code, or I could buy another antivirus to replace Panda, or download a free antivirus (such as Avast). I do still have an old, free version of AVG on the external harddrive (version 7) so I have the option of reinstalling that too.

[landbeforetimelover]

That xp computer is in bad shape.  Just format the sucker.  You never did get around to that did you?  XP computers need to be formatted a minimum of once a year to run decently.  Vista computers........every 3 months or so if you have enough ram.  If you don't have enough ram it's even more often.

[DarkHououmon]

Format as in uninstalling the OS and reinstalling it?

[landbeforetimelover]

Yeah.  It's not that hard if you've got the disk.  If you don't have the disk but you have the product key you can always just download a copy of xp that hasn't been cracked or hacked and use your key to make it legal.

[DarkHououmon]

Update: The problems have all been solved. The internet is fixed and works better than it was before. The computer now reboots completely without having to press F8. And I have replaced Panda 2008 with a trial of Panda 2009 (one month free trial, and I plan on getting full version soon).

[landbeforetimelover]

What did you do to solve it?

[DarkHououmon]

For the internet, what was wrong was that the router and modem (as well as Vonage) were all out of synch. Unplugging and replugging them in the right order and rebooting solved the problem (which dad did yesterday actually).

For the rebooting issue, I think Panda was actually the culprit because once I downloaded the new version (but not installing it) and removed the Panda I currently had installed (with the internal error) the computer loaded up just fine. The only thing I can think of as to what caused it to have the internal error might have something to do wtih the reconfiguration of the internet and it might have gotten out of synch with that, if that makes any sense at all.   New version of Panda is up now and it is no longer flashing that "Low protection" warning at me.

I did not reformat the computer, obviously, because that is something I would regard as an absolute last resort. Nothing was wrong with the XP OS, I don't think. Works just fine now. However, I might consider asking dad to reformat it once I completely "move" onto my Vista computer (after we get it its own computer table; we've been using the small dining room table here to keep it on). I know we still have the disc somewhere; Clint used it to fix this computer when I accidentally deleted that.. NTLDR file thing. Something the comp needed to load up.

[Petrie.]

Antivirus suites, depending on what you have enabled, can hog your computer down.  I can't even turn on everything in the Kaspersky suite since it would slow my computer down.  You might've had something turned on in Panda that slowed it way down...any sort of thing in Panda that scans everything you do the instant you click on a program or file would really slow down the system.  This level of protection is ludicrous and not necessary.

[DarkHououmon]

Panda is pretty light on the computer from what I experienced. At least it doesn't do that random CPU Usage thing that Norton did all the time that I couldn't stop and really slowed the computer down.