Conncention Issue Mystery -- non sonic hardware -- tech support cant help

Internet access discussion, including Fusion, IP Broadband, and Gigabit Fiber!
10 posts Page 1 of 1
by Jmmeyer » Mon Mar 11, 2019 5:51 pm
About a week ago, I noticed websites and videos taking a tremendous amount of time to load on my WIRED desktop, through the sonic provided router (gigabit service). Upon running speedtests -- speedtest.net: PAGE ERROR every time , Sonic.net/speedtest:700 Down, >20mb Up -- speedof.me: 300down/300up so needless to say inconsistent and strange results.

The mystery -- actual upload actions remain fine (I upload large gigabyte size files for work, and its still fast, much faster than my old Comcast which was about 20mb/s) -- I can also play online games with no issues. MY laptop can connect with the wired connection and the speeds are fine.

Contacted support over the phone. Went through litany of tests, bypassing routers, checking light levels and pinging etc. they determined there was no issue on their end -- onsite tech support had the same findings. At this point I was comfortable with the idea it might be my machine/hardware/mobo -- I replaced the onboard network card with two different gigbit ethernet cards, issue remains with both. Cant load websites or videos in a timely manner, speedtests are still strange results. Tech support claims they cant help me further, and generally are confused as well. Im not convinced the low level support team knows sall that much beyond what they are taught to check for though in a line item list thats in front of them/

I cant think of anything else other than possible software conflictions/bugs -- Ive tried multiple browsers. Ive tried disabling various software on my machine such as cloud services, adobe cc, avast security etc. I cant fix the issue, im super confused and sonic will not help me. Im reaching out hoping someone has had a similar experience or some experience with hardware/software beyong my capabilities. Ive been using the service for about 6 months with no issues so far. Anyone can help?
Joe
by just a dude » Mon Mar 11, 2019 7:55 pm
Not trying to be a jerk here, but what do you expect Sonic support to do here? They can't afford to be your personal IT support staff. If you have consistent speeds with your laptop then the issue can't be your ISP's internet connection.

Something must be up with that desktop. Perhaps you have a virus or an application gone mad that is pegging your upstream bandwidth. I'd try wiping Windows and doing a clean OS install.
by mynameiismud » Mon Mar 11, 2019 8:32 pm
Well it does sound like you're intending to be a jerk, to be clear. I understand they are no longer capable of helping me, to which I stated. That's why I am reaching out on the forums to see if there were a similar issue. I have already discovered someone else with a similar issue, for example -- indicating it may not be my hardware. And I myself stated it might just be a software issue, but I have reached the end of my knowledge base -- the point is im asking for help to get the the bottom of it... so yeah, relax bud.

I am capable of monitoring the upload and download bandwidth in real time... its not that. There is no action while I am idle. There are no applications or processes using bandwidth. Its almost certainly not malware either.
by dane » Mon Mar 11, 2019 9:31 pm
Antivirus or VPN software on the PC?
Dane Jasper
Sonic
by mynameiismud » Mon Mar 11, 2019 9:43 pm
No VPN -- Yes Antivirus (Avast) -- I mentioned Ive tried disabling that though, to no avail.
by parker_day » Tue Mar 12, 2019 2:00 pm
A Windows 10 update caused odd behavior on one of my machines, not quite like what you're describing, but difficult to troubleshoot. Reinstalling Windows via "Reset this PC" and then double checking all of the drivers made the mystery issues go away. It might be worth a try once you've exhausted everything else.
by miken » Thu Mar 14, 2019 12:55 pm
Have you tried task manager (or the Mac equivalent if that's what you are using)? Something might be running that's capping your CPU or RAM and causing issues.
Mike N.
Development Trainer
Sonic
by mynameiismud » Fri Mar 15, 2019 11:38 am
Yes -- I have third party monitoring software that I use to check the CPU, RAM and GPU usage, as well as monitor temperature levels of each -- this is also how i monitor bandwidth usage as mentioned previously ( I also checked the bandwidth through the task manager monitor) .The issue persists though the CPU, RAM and GPU are idle -- though i appreciate the suggestion. This is more info than the techs over the phone were able to offer me.
by ds_sonic_asif » Fri Mar 15, 2019 12:01 pm
This suggestion may be too much work, and at best just gives you some additional diagnostic information rather than a solution. But if you are still trying to decide whether you have a hardware or software problem you could load up a different O/S from bootable/removable media (DVD, CD, or USB drive), and then run a browser / speed test from that session. For example, here are Linux / Ubuntu instructions for how to run an image without having to install it:

https://tutorials.ubuntu.com/tutorial/t ... -install#0
by mynameiismud » Fri Mar 15, 2019 12:02 pm
Update -- it seems the issue is resolved when I updated Chrome to the latest version.
I am typically a Firefox user, the latest version seems to conflict with the ISP somehow connecting to web servers, and causing upload speeds to slow. This was also the same with edge, internet explorer, and an older version of chrome (not sure which i didnt check before updating) --- Whats weird is that Firefox on my laptop had no issues -- i think it was an older version of Firefox perhaps though, unsure at this very moment. Maybe someone should pass along this feedback to the support team when others run into this issue, because they literally just told me that they cant help me, and one person even suggested that I should just switch ISPs -- pretty unreal. Thanks for those that attempted to help beyond what is the standard checks
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