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On Mon, 21 Oct 2013, Neil Winchurst wrote:
I have had my router, Netgear D634G, since May 2010. Recently I have experienced some odd problems. Sometimes, as tested on speedtest.net, it will show up as very slow download rates. Most of the time the speed is around 12 Mb/s, but sometimes it suddenly drops as low as 3 Mb/s. There does not seem to be much of a pattern but it is usually low in the early afternoon, but not every day.This shows up as a failure to run a Youtube video for example which will give a message that 'an error has occurred'. Sometimes, perhaps an hour later, it will all run fine. Yes, I have reset the router, that is I have switched it off for 30 minutes or so and then turned it on again. This has not made any difference.So my question is, do routers sometimes just start to wear out? There are no moving parts in it so I can't think why, but what do I know? I also have a laptop, obviously using the same router, and the symptoms are the same, so I think that I can rule out desktop computer problems.If the advice is to replace it then any recommendations would be gratefully received.
IME routers are the lest likely thing to go wrong for the scenario you describe.
However, you need to work out if it's the line sync speed thats dropping or just the fact that you're using a crap ISP with an overloaded network that's causing the slow-down.
So login to the modem and check the actual line sync speed. Forget speedtest.net, downloading youtube, the first thing you need to do is work out the line sync speed.
If it is the line sync, then you need to look at your own wiring before going further. This is the wiring between the modem and the incoming BT line. Make sure the router is connected to the BT master socket (means removing the faceplate) You can do this without a microfilter (but it means no phones for the duration) which would eliminate the microfilter.
Then if you do see sync speed drop you know it's either the modem (unlikely, but..) or some external fault - in which case you're stuffed anyway, unless your ISP is good at getting BT to start some REIN investigations. (Or you can observe something yourself - e.g. a combine harvester in the next field when the interference happens, or some kiddy outside waving a lighsaber...)
But if the sync speed stays high and you get slow throughput its probably your ISP or some other congestion in the BT network (less likely)
Do check your exchange though to make sure there isn't any capacity problems. (http://www.samknows.com/broadband/index.php and others)
It could also be someone else using your connection via Wi-Fi or wired, but I'm presuming your sensible enough to have checked that already.
Gordon -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq