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Member (Idle past 1972 days) Posts: 6165 From: Co. Wicklow, Ireland. Joined: |
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Author | Topic: Computer Help II | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
crashfrog Member (Idle past 1498 days) Posts: 19762 From: Silver Spring, MD Joined: |
Don't you think running anti-malware/spyware tools should be the first step? I think uninstalling as many malware tools as possible should be the first step. There's no reason to run more than one, and Windows Defender can't be taken out of Windows 7 (to my knowledge). There's no reason to run a "belt-and-suspenders" approach, here, especially when the performance hit per malware tool is so high. Most people's computers aren't slowed by malware, they're slowed by the half-dozen malware scanners they're running. The cure is as bad as the disease, here. Assuming Moose lives a clean lifestyle of running Chrome or Firefox and never even opening IE or downloading porn movies, I don't think malware is his problem; I think it's that Duluth, like Lincoln, is one of those places where your packets to and from a lot of sites run through a single bottleneck and when that bottleneck gets misconfigured, there's just no rhyme or reason to which sites will be affected. Used to be I could access every site on the internet except Dominos.com, because of a misconfigured router in Chicago. When Dominos moved the hosting of their online ordering site, suddenly I could order pizza the way God intended: without speaking to another human being. I think if he just puts the sites he listed into his router blacklist he should notice a speed increase.
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Minnemooseus Member Posts: 3945 From: Duluth, Minnesota, U.S. (West end of Lake Superior) Joined: Member Rating: 10.0 |
The only trouble I've had at evcforum.net is that posting to the Humor topic problem I mentioned to you elsewhere. Don't know if that was related, but everything else has worked well for EvC.
Will ponder the other advice. Thanks. Moose
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Percy Member Posts: 22508 From: New Hampshire Joined: Member Rating: 5.4 |
So if Moose's computer is accessing websites he's not actually visiting, then if it's just because he's visiting webpages that access those other sites then blocking them in some way is the best approach, but if we're going to assume Moose lives a clean lifestyle then isn't that unlikely?
I once had a problem similar to Moose's, and it happened because my son visited a website on his computer that visited lots of websites on its own and slowed it way down, so he went to my computer and visited the same website, and the same thing happened there, too. It took a day to deinstall the garbage that got installed. It was something like Zupiter - that might not be it, though, can't quite be certain of the name. I've never heard of regional Internet bottlenecks, hope I never get one. --Percy
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crashfrog Member (Idle past 1498 days) Posts: 19762 From: Silver Spring, MD Joined: |
So if Moose's computer is accessing websites he's not actually visiting, then if it's just because he's visiting webpages that access those other sites then blocking them in some way is the best approach, but if we're going to assume Moose lives a clean lifestyle then isn't that unlikely? Like I said, they're ads. Google-analytics is Google's advertising-tracking outfit; when you load a page being tracked by Google Analytics it sends a request to their servers. It's not malware; it's the banner ads and "sponsored links" that appear on everybody's blog, news sites, basically everywhere. Are you not aware how all that works? Bloggers and website managers sign up with AdSense or a similar outfit to sell advertising space, and when you load that webpage, a line of code in the HTML ("ads go here") tells your browser to head over to AdSense and grab an ad (their choice, based on who links to your website.) That's why he's waiting on requests to Google Analytics and the like - embedded ads in the webpages he's loading. But there's some kind of network routing issue, probably nowhere near his end, that means that packets from AdSense take a lot longer to receive than packets from the webpage he's visiting. That's not surprising - the ads are dynamically generated every time they're requested by browsers, based on information from your cookies, your IP, your location (derived from IP), and how you got to that website in the first place. That processing takes some overhead as I'm sure you're aware. And the network latency between Moose and Google Analytics is apparently much higher than the latency between Moose and the website itself. Blocking them at his router means his browser spends a lot less time waiting for AdSense to get packets back to him - the router returns the error message immediately. The "downside" is that he doesn't see the ad, but who gives a shit? Win-win if you ask me.
I've never heard of regional Internet bottlenecks, hope I never get one. One of the disadvantages to the internet moving from government networks (NSFnet, the university system backbones) to commercial networks (MCI, etc) is that the internet became much less redundant. It no longer "routs around damage" to the same extent. It's likely that every residential ISP in your neighborhood leases their bandwidth from a single source, who itself leases bandwidth from a major commercial backbone. That's a considerably smaller amount of redundancy that means a lot more people can be affected by a loss of a single node. There was a case several years ago where residential internet access was interrupted for the entire state of Minnesota because a homeless man lit a fire under a highway overpass and burned through an internet trunk line. The internet no longer routs around damage.
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Minnemooseus Member Posts: 3945 From: Duluth, Minnesota, U.S. (West end of Lake Superior) Joined: Member Rating: 10.0 |
I'm at a different location and a different ISP - No changes to my computer (barring some divine intervention) but all the problems seem to be gone. Late addition: McAfee did do an update at the current location - Did that help?
Both places have DSL. The problem place had a seemingly simpler LAN setup and a usually faster transfer speed (up to 6+ Meg) while the current location tops out at 2+ Meg (more remote from the hub thingies). Maybe I'll be back to the problem location tomorrow. We shall see if the problems return. Moose Edited by Minnemooseus, : Must... not... admin... ID.
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nwr Member Posts: 6412 From: Geneva, Illinois Joined: Member Rating: 5.3 |
A problem dsl line can cause packet loss and connection hangs.
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Percy Member Posts: 22508 From: New Hampshire Joined: Member Rating: 5.4 |
I was mainly curious why you felt it was an internet problem. The Minnesota internet problem was back in 1995. This is the first I've heard that the internet is experiencing declining redundancy.
--Percy
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Omnivorous Member Posts: 3992 From: Adirondackia Joined: Member Rating: 7.5
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I'm pretty sure it's Moose's motherboard.
Have you ever been to an American wedding? Where's the vodka? Where's the marinated herring?! -Gogol Bordello Real things always push back.-William James
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crashfrog Member (Idle past 1498 days) Posts: 19762 From: Silver Spring, MD Joined: |
I was mainly curious why you felt it was an internet problem. Oh, I thought I was clearer. Sorry. 1) Moose said his browser was hanging on requests from specific websites (which I recognized as ad servers.) Malware causes general, across-the-board slowdown. ISP and local network config problems are more likely to break your internet access altogether. 2) I had something similar happen to me and I traced it to packets that were being eaten by something in Chicago. Nothing I could do, really. (I mean I really went all out - flushed settings, OS re-installs, tried from multiple devices, power-cycled every link in my network, connection tests, speed tests, ping, everything.) I used to work tech support so I guess I have a sense for problems. The fact that Moose gets all his speed back on another network - I suspect he's at work or up on campus or something - makes me think it has nothing to do with his computer, and much to do with the fact that residential and academic internet access runs through separate backbones. (I guess there's still some redundancy.)
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nwr Member Posts: 6412 From: Geneva, Illinois Joined: Member Rating: 5.3 |
I am hearing reports of a rapidly spreading virus - spreads through email.
Be cautious about clicking on links in email.
'Here You Have' Virus E-Mail Spreads Online - ABC NewsMSN | Outlook, Office, Skype, Bing, Breaking News, and Latest Videos Virus ( spam ) Here you have. | Endpoint Protection Edited by nwr, : add some links
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Minnemooseus Member Posts: 3945 From: Duluth, Minnesota, U.S. (West end of Lake Superior) Joined: Member Rating: 10.0 |
Maybe I'll be back to the problem location tomorrow. We shall see if the problems return. Well, I'm back to to the "problem location" and the problem is back. The owner/operator of the local ISP is currently asleep (night person). He thinks the problem is a router/Windows 7 sort of thing and will be resolved by a router reboot, or something like that. He runs XP and hasn't had any problems. Stand by for further breaking news. Moose
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nwr Member Posts: 6412 From: Geneva, Illinois Joined: Member Rating: 5.3 |
It is possible that you might need to set your network MTU (max transmissable unit) to 1492 or smaller. I'm not a windows person, so I don't know how to do that but I think it has to do with registry settings.
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Minnemooseus Member Posts: 3945 From: Duluth, Minnesota, U.S. (West end of Lake Superior) Joined: Member Rating: 10.0 |
Router rebooted - Problem gone.
Seems the router/Windows 7 relationship requires a little discipline occasionally. Moose
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