Intermittent Slow Net Connection

**ryanbatc** · 10-19-09, 08:56 PM

Networking/Internet is not my strong point....

But I've been having a problem with my internet. At first I thought it may be a fluke. But this is the 4th time it's happened this year.

The problem is my connection speed/ping. For instance, normally I run a 50ms ping to the Twin Cities site I use for testing. But four times so far this year it has jumped to 150-190ms. The bad ping/slower internet browsing won't go away until I've completely reset my modem and router (by that I mean unplug everything and slowly re-connect it all).

I have Charter cable, 5mbps down, 1.5 mbps up
I run a Motorola Surfboard 5120 modem
and a Netgear WGR614 v8 wireless router

Both my PC and my wife's PC connect to the router. Our Wii and PS3 also sometimes use the wireless connectivity.

So, is something broken on my PC? But if so, why does it only happen after some time? I've searched for spyware, viruses (NOD32), and nothing comes up, and the PC is behaving normally, minus the internet issue.

Suggestions appreciated.

|Vista x64 SP1|Foxconn SLI 590 MCP|AMD 6000+|MSI 8800GT 512MB|Creative X-Fi|4 GB Corsair XMS2|36GB Raptor|250GB WD Caviar|250GB Seagate|OCZ Modstream 520W|

**WileECyte** · 10-19-09, 11:00 PM

Does your router have recent firmware on it? Have you rebooted your router recently? I've had issues with my connection like that and it usually ended up being an ISP issue, but I've also seen the router cause problems if it's up for a really long time without being rebooted, and old firmware on routers can have memory leaks that cause degraded performance over time.

**Cybs** · 10-20-09, 03:22 PM

Personally, I've never been a big fan of Netgear. That being said, Wyle is correct. Make sure you have the latest firmware.

According to Netgear's website, 1.1.24 is the latest Firmware version.

http://kb.netgear.com/app/products/model/a_id/2590

Also, I don't know if this will help or not, but I would try changing your wireless to G only if your only using it for your Wii and PS3. I've seen instances where a router will lockup or have issues if it's "listening" to multiple Wireless types.