Extremely slow Internet, e-mail problem, and printer problems

[CottontailBunny]

Throughout the past couple of months, we have experienced horribly slow Internet connections, e-mail issues, and printer issues. I am not sure whether the problems are related, or if they are independent, but I suspect they may be related.

We have dsl through a small local Internet service provider that uses AT&T's phone lines.

I have run various speed tests at different times throughout the day. I have gotten anywhere from 0.02 Mbps to 0.97 Mbps download speed on these tests. The score seems very random, though anything over 0.50 Mbps is rare.

The upload speed, however is pretty consistent across all speed tests at all times. I have gotten speeds ranging from 0.00 Mbps to 0.10 Mbps, though anything over 0.05 Mbps is rare.

The ping scores range anywhere from 507 ms through 806 ms or higher. I think I may have gotten some in the 900's before I started recording the results, but I can't be sure.

These Internet speed issues are present on all computers in the house.

The email problem consists of us sometimes not receiving all emails that were sent to us, and other people not receiving all of our e-mails. The problem is intermittent, and we have no idea if it happens unless someone tells us they sent us something/didn't receive it. For the sent emails, they appear in our sent folder, but the person somehow didn't receive it.

The issue with the printer is also intermittent. It is a wireless printer. Sometimes the printer just doesn't print, even though we told the computer to print. It is like the print job is deleted or something, even though we get no message on the computer saying that it was.

Other times the computer will not print right away. The computer will say that it can't find the printer, and that the printer is offline, even though it is on and awake. It either never prints, or there is a delay. The delay has been up to two hours.

We have talked to our Internet service provider, but they don't really know what the problem might be. They are unable to test our modem/router, as they were forced to move to a new location, and they claim they don't have a dsl line to test the modem/router with in their new building.

They think that the modem/router can't be the issue anyway. They think it is probably a problem with outside lines, so they put in a ticket with AT&T. AT&T apparently did look at the lines, but I have no idea what they did. Whatever they did did not resolve the issue, as it has gotten worse in the past week.

Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks.

[Philip]

I would try to login at the modem signal levels by logging into it through the web interface. It seems like you have line issues, and either your ISP or AT&T should be able to send a tech over to check your lines, these speeds sound unacceptable. I would go as far to say if they are not willing to send someone over you may want to look into a different ISP (or cable modem vs. DSL).

As to the printer issue, does the printer itself seem to be connected to the wireless network ? What provides wireless in your environment, is it the DSL gateway or a separate WiFi router ? Do other WiFi clients experience issues ?

[CottontailBunny]

I would try to login at the modem signal levels by logging into it through the web interface. It seems like you have line issues, and either your ISP or AT&T should be able to send a tech over to check your lines, these speeds sound unacceptable. I would go as far to say if they are not willing to send someone over you may want to look into a different ISP (or cable modem vs. DSL).

As to the printer issue, does the printer itself seem to be connected to the wireless network ? What provides wireless in your environment, is it the DSL gateway or a separate WiFi router ? Do other WiFi clients experience issues ?

Thanks so much for your response.

I logged into the modem using the web interface and these are the numbers it gave at the time I looked:
Incoming 1216 Kbps
Outgoing 384 Kbps

My ISP thought it was probably line issues as well. The main tech guy (they only have 3 employees right now) did come over at the end of July to check our lines at the connection point to the house. He said that there was inconsistency in the speeds, so he put in a ticket with AT&T.

AT&T apparently did come out and do something with lines in my neighborhood because I got a call from them asking me how they did. They never interacted with me to tell me, so I have no idea what they did or what problem they may have found. We talked to our ISP, and they said they would call AT&T to find out. I have not heard anything from the ISP back, so we are going there today to ask. Whatever AT&T did in July did not fix the problem at all, as it has gotten worse over time, especially since last week.

The speeds certainly are unacceptable, and I am tired of dealing with the issue. We are seriously considering switching ISP to someone else.

Yes, the printer seems to be connected to the wireless network.

Before we first started having Internet issues and printer problems (in July), wireless was done through a DSL gateway. It is a 2wire with model number 2701HG-B. It is the one that our ISP gave us when we switched from dial-up to DSL back in 2006. Our ISP decided to have us try using a router with the gateway to see if that helped. They configured our gateway to have this other router handle all our wireless. They changed something in the gateway itself to do that. It might have made things a little better for awhile. I think the printer has fewer problems with this setup. we have had this setup since July.

The router they gave us is a netis WF2412 router.

All of our devices have issues with the wi-fi at times. All of them experience slow connection speeds, and sometimes we cannot go anywhere online because it says we have no Internet connection even though it says we are connected to the Internet in the settings. However, sometimes a refresh of the page fixes this (although the connection is still slow). When that doesn't work, we unplug everything from the gateway and wait 10 minutes and then turn it back on again. This will allow us to visit web pages and sometimes helps with the printer, but the Internet is still really slow.

I have no idea whether other people who use our ISP experience problems.

[CottontailBunny]

Update: At some point as I was writing the previous post things suddenly changed. I ran all the speed tests and ping tests I had run before, and things suddenly have gotten so much better. The ping speeds are between 31ms and 55ms. The download speeds range from 0.31 Mbps to 0.75 Mbps. The upload speed ranges from 0.23 Mbps to 0.36 Mbps.

Nothing has changed on our end within the past hour or so. We did not even reset the modem. I hope these speeds stay. I did just stop by our ISP, and they said another person on our road was having issues last week, and that AT&T did some work on her lines towards the end of the week. Whatever they did did not seem to fix our issues, as that was when we were having horrible problems.

However, I did learn that our ISP is updating their system, and they started doing that this morning, so whatever they are doing to update things on their end seems to be fixing our problems...unless AT&T was out and fixed things this morning. Whatever the problem was, it seems to have been resolved. We will see if these better speeds last.

This feels so much better - since July things had been bad. I hope this is a permanent fix. I will keep you posted.

[Philip]

30-55ms is much better and the way latency should be (unless you are pinging a very distant location geographically). As to your speeds, if they do not stay consistent I would look into alternative providers.

[CottontailBunny]

30-55ms is much better and the way latency should be (unless you are pinging a very distant location geographically). As to your speeds, if they do not stay consistent I would look into alternative providers.

Speeds and latency were back to being bad in the afternoon, but resetting the gateway fixed things. (Our download speed is back up to where it used to be before July - around 1.0 Mbps). I noticed that we were given a new IP address when I reset it this time. The guy we usually interact with at our ISP told us today that it could take until Monday or later for them to finish updating their systems. I am guessing that things may be a little sparadic until then.

They must have had equipment that went bad on their end? Whatever they are doing to update their system is good.

After they are done updating their system, I will keep an eye on our speeds. If there is a lot of variation, we will consider changing ISP.

Update: Had problems all day yesterday, but that might have been because our ISP is still updating things on their end. I waited until after 5:00 PM and reset the gateway. It fixed things again.