Recommended Posts

For the past few weeks I've been getting around 1-2mb download speed. I'm paying for 6mb. Comcast has been to my house almost every other day since then, thinking that they found the problem. They never really did anything, though. The most they did was get new cables, then do speed tests over and over for about an hour. None of them new a thing about computers. "Sorry, we don't know about computers..."

Then why are they working their?

Anyway. Today they pulled out a laptop and tried it on my same connection, and they were getting around 8mbps down speed. They used the same site I did, but get better results. They're now convinced that there's something wrong with my computer. Since there's apparently only one man at Comcast who knows how to use a computer, he'll be coming up this Friday.

But I'd rather save myself the trouble of dealing with them again.

Is there any way I can determine what may be reducing my internet speed?

I've turned the firewall off. Same. Used direct modem rather than through a router. Same. Tried a different Ethernet card. Same.

To my knowledge, I don't have any strange processes running that would interfere. I just scanned the other day, the only things that were found were a few cookies. (Running NOD32, Spybot, superantispyware.) Computer's running fine.

Also, when testing on dslreports.com, when the upload speed test is running, a get a message saying "ISP compression detected, results may not be accurate." No one at comcast has any idea what "ISP compression" means. They say they're not limiting my account at all or anything.

They'd don't have the slightest clue what's wrong, since one computer gets 8mbps, while mine gets 2.

Any ideas?

I don't really know where to start...perhaps just back up everything you want on your computer and reformat? That is if you don't really care to know what is causing your problem and you're really convinced that it's your computer and not comcast throttling you.

was the person that ran the speed test doing so with or without your router connected... did he connect directly into the modem. If this is the case i have experienced this before where the router is in the process of going bad will slow down connection speed to a crawl before totally dieing.

I just reformatted about a month or two ago. It was working fine for a while, then the speed died. I tried using another account that I have on the computer that I have set to "performance" mode, with hardly anything running, and I got the same results. Already flushed the DNS a bunch of times.

Although I don't see anything in my processes that could kill my speed, there may be. I'm not the best when it comes to this kind of thing. But I don't see anything that would be using up bandwidth...

Edit: He got good results with and without the router.

Also, I wanted to try and load safemode, but for some reason my computer won't load up safemode properly... Safemode without networking sometimes works, but with networking it doesn't. My computer's somewhat stupid...Lol.

I don't really know where to start...perhaps just back up everything you want on your computer and reformat? That is if you don't really care to know what is causing your problem and you're really convinced that it's your computer and not comcast throttling you.

+1 but I don't think comcast is throttling since there isn't any problems on the laptop.

TheMelee, how are you getting around 8Mbps if your paying for 6, what site did you use? What do you get with Speedtest.net on both computers? Maybe get a livecd and test your connection under linux on the same computer.

another option if safemode does not work is to run a linux live CD and test the speed with that. just in case there is something in windows that even in safemode is wonky (such as connection configurations and such)

was the person that ran the speed test doing so with or without your router connected... did he connect directly into the modem. If this is the case i have experienced this before where the router is in the process of going bad will slow down connection speed to a crawl before totally dieing.

I just replaced a router a month or so ago because of that very same problem. Other than my connection speeds dropping I was also getting frequent disconnects.

Well, I've determined that it has to be something wrong with windows. I just ran Ubuntu and got 22mbps down. :blink:

Speeds were amazingly fast. Back to windows now, and it's down to 2mb again.

What's wrong here?

Should I screen shot my processes?

Hello,

I wonder if your computer may be infected by a form of malware using stealth or rootkit-type technologies to bypass detection by your trifecta of anti-malware software. The low bandwidth report plus the fact that you cannot start in Safe Mode implies the possibility of an infection as some malware prevents the VGA driver from initializing in Safe Mode to make their creations more difficult to remote.

You could try running an anti-rootkit program like Blacklight, GMER, RkU and so forth to see if they find anything anomalous with the system.

Another thing you might want to try is booting your computer from a Linux Live CD with anti-malware software on it in order to scan the computer from outside the normal Windows environment. One disc you can try is the Trinity Rescue Kit.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

Why hasn't anyone suggested he try taking the laptop up to his room to see if it could be a line fault? (damaged cat5 can reduce speeds)

It seems people are misunderstanding and not fully reading my first few posts. The laptop was the comcast worker's. He used the same line, modem, etc. and got better speeds than my PC. I don't have a laptop.

Also, I stated I tried Ubuntu live CD (Linux based OS) and I got 22mbps download speed.

I'll try running one of the programs that goretsky mentioned.

I scanned with GMER... I have no idea how to work this program, so I saved a log.

(I'm aware that utorrent and peerguardian are running at the moment. They aren't causing the major slowdown.)

I couldn't upload the notepad file, so I uploaded it in a wordpad document.

rootkitlogthing.rtf

I'm sorry for posting three times in a row, but I was unable to edit my last post due to time constraints.

I just did another speed test on all 3 of my browsers.

Firefox: 2mb

IE: 6-8mb

Google Chrome: 7mb

Something's up with firefox...

Even though those speeds are great, why in the world was Ubuntu pulling 17-22mbps?

I'm sorry for posting three times in a row, but I was unable to edit my last post due to time constraints.

I just did another speed test on all 3 of my browsers.

Firefox: 2mb

IE: 6-8mb

Google Chrome: 7mb

Something's up with firefox...

Even though those speeds are great, why in the world was Ubuntu pulling 17-22mbps?

because you are probably doing something wrong

I'm sorry for posting three times in a row, but I was unable to edit my last post due to time constraints.

I just did another speed test on all 3 of my browsers.

Firefox: 2mb

IE: 6-8mb

Google Chrome: 7mb

Something's up with firefox...

Even though those speeds are great, why in the world was Ubuntu pulling 17-22mbps?

I used to have speed issues with FF try disabling all add-ons and the re-enabling them one by one to see if one of them is sucking bandwidth......

By disabling my (14) add-ons i got a 2 to 3 second reduction in load time...

also thank you for giving a wee project that i want to try now.

Edited by yurithedragon
I'm sorry for posting three times in a row, but I was unable to edit my last post due to time constraints.

I just did another speed test on all 3 of my browsers.

Firefox: 2mb

IE: 6-8mb

Google Chrome: 7mb

Something's up with firefox...

Even though those speeds are great, why in the world was Ubuntu pulling 17-22mbps?

What do you get on these browsers when you actually download a big file. Try something fast like a video from Revision3.

Anyone else think it might be worth bringing your system to a friend/neighbour just to make absolutely, positively sure it only happens with your Windows setup, and the problem isn't with your line/modem/router?

OTOH, since you've already established that you're getting decent speeds when running off a Live CD, that pretty much narrows it down...

Or try a clean VM, hosted through your existing Windows setup.

What do you get on these browsers when you actually download a big file. Try something fast like a video from Revision3.

Firefox - 13 to 16 minutes for a 565mb file

IE - 11-13 minutes for 565mb file

Pretty much the same thing.

Just out of curiosity, should Firefox be using 70,000k of memory usage? Last night it was using 159,000 with just one tab open. (Neowin.)

Memory leak causing the bandwidth slowdown?

Firefox - 13 to 16 minutes for a 565mb file

IE - 11-13 minutes for 565mb file

Pretty much the same thing.

Just out of curiosity, should Firefox be using 70,000k of memory usage? Last night it was using 159,000 with just one tab open. (Neowin.)

Memory leak causing the bandwidth slowdown?

Did you try disabling all add-ons?

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • Microsoft finally admits its default Windows 11 25H2, 24H2 action broke key legacy component by Sayan Sen Microsoft last week released Windows 11 KB5094126 and KB5093998 as the latest Patch Tuesday updates. Following that the company also published the accompanying dynamic updates under KB5094149, KB5095971, and KB5094156. So far the company has acknowledged two known issues that have popped up after the release which include bugged-out Office apps as well as the Recycle Bin; though there could be more at play too. Speaking of bugs and issues, Microsoft seems to have finally acknowledged a problem that probably has been around for close to a year. That's because back in July of 2025 the company made a default change to the latest Windows 11 versions, wherein it switched to JScript9Legacy on Windows 11 24H2 and later releases. Hence following the release of version 25H2 in October 2025, JScript9Legacy also remained default-enabled. As a result there has been a compatibility issue ever since then. For those wondering, by switching to JScript9Legacy Microsoft intended to improve the security of modern Windows PCs by reducing vulnerabilities tied to legacy scripting like cross-site scripting (XSS), among others. XSS exploits can allow cyber-attackers to attach malicious code onto legitimate websites and use them to execute the code when a potential victim loads such a website. Hence the new JScript9Legacy engine enforced stricter execution policies and improved object handling, which should help mitigate such attacks. Microsoft today has published a new support article detailing the problem. Neowin spotted it while browsing. The company says that JScript global definitions and execution context may fail to persist across scripts, potentially breaking older dependent apps and web-based components that relied on this legacy behavior. In the article Microsoft has confirmed that the issue stems from its move away from the older jscript9.dll engine in favor of jscript9legacy.dll. As mentioned above, while the newer engine was designed to address vulnerabilities and strengthen security it also changes how JScript handles execution context. As a result functions and definitions loaded by one script could no longer remain available to subsequent scripts once execution ended. The company notes that some applications worked correctly on earlier Windows versions because the older JScript engine automatically retained global definitions and execution state between scripts. Under the newer model though that behavior is disabled by default causing certain legacy workloads and polyfill-dependent scripts to fail. Microsoft says it addressed the problem via the KB5077241 update though the fix had not been enabled automatically in the following updates. As such admins must explicitly turn on persistent JScript execution context using a Registry setting that the tech giant shared today. The configuration can be applied to individual processes or system-wide through the FEATURE_ENABLE_PERSISTENCE registry key. The steps have been outlined below: Run the following command to create the feature control registry key: reg add "HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl\FEATURE_ENABLE_PERSISTENCE" Under this key, create a new DWORD (32-bit) value. Configure the value as follows: To enable persistence for specific processes only: Set the value to 1 for each target process name. To enable persistence for all processes: Add * as the key name and set its value to 1. You can find the official support article here on Microsoft's website.
    • The possibility that milk gathers back into a glass implies that gravity can be 'reversed'.
    • VidCoder 12.20 by Razvan Serea  VidCoder is a DVD/Blu-ray ripping and video transcoding application for Windows. It uses HandBrake as its encoding engine. Calling directly into the HandBrake library gives it a more rich UI than the official HandBrake Windows GUI. VidCoder can rip DVDs but does not defeat the CSS encryption found in most commercial DVDs. You’ll need the NET 8 Desktop Runtime. If you don’t have it, VidCoder will prompt you to download and install it. The Portable version is self-contained and does not require any .NET Runtime to be installed. You do not need to install HandBrake for VidCoder to work. Feature list: Multi-threaded MP4, MKV containers Completely integrated encoding pipeline: everything is in one process and no huge intermediate temporary files H.264, H.265, MPEG-4, MPEG-2, VP8, Theora video Hardware-accelerated encoding with AMD VCE, Nvidia NVENC and Intel QuickSync AAC, MP3, Vorbis, AC3, FLAC audio encoding and AAC/AC3/MP3/DTS/DTS-HD passthrough Target bitrate, size or quality for video 2-pass encoding Decomb, detelecine, deinterlace, rotate, reflect, chroma smooth, colorspace filters Powerful batch encoding with simultaneous encodes Customizable Pickers to automatically pick audio and subtitle tracks, destination, titles and more Instant source previews Creates small encoded preview clips Pause, resume encoding VidCoder 12.20 changes: Updated HandBrake core to 1.11.2. Download: VidCoder 12.20 | 47.0 MB (Open Source) Download: Portable VidCoder 12.19 | 89.3 MB Link: VidCoder Home Page | Github | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • Too soon, I'm still not over this death!
  • Recent Achievements

    • Week One Done
      Jordan Smith earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Reacting Well
      BizSAR earned a badge
      Reacting Well
    • First Post
      AndreaB earned a badge
      First Post
    • Week One Done
      Huge Trailer earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Week One Done
      Classifyskilleducation earned a badge
      Week One Done
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      593
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      185
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      77
    4. 4
      Michael Scrip
      73
    5. 5
      Steven P.
      66
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!