[JeffM]

I'm on a satellite internet connection and can surf at a fairly fast pace, but my download speed is extremely slow (like 5 kb/sec. or less).

Is this a sign my machine has been compromised (TCPIP?)? I've run AVG Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware, Spybot, etc. etc. etc. and it finds nothing, so I don't think it's a spyware issue.

I also ran Microsoft's TCPView which shows all active connections and updates every second and I don't see any rogue connections to my machine.

The satellite tech. guy came out recently and recommended I raise my dish another 15 feet on my roof. He said my problem is a "line of sight" issue, due to "high" altitude trees 2-3 miles away, compromising the signal. Personally, I think his theory is BS since the trees obviously didn't grow 15 feet over night. And the satellite internet connection didn't piss out slowly, over a period of time, but crapped out one day, about two weeks ago.

Like I said, I can surf, but I can't even ping.

When I go to the command prompt and try to ping, I get the response:

"Ping is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file."

So maybe this is a Windows issue? The tech. didn't think so.

I really can't reinstall Windows XP because I have too much stuff on my hard drive (like 200GB worth of data). To back that up, prior to a fresh install, would require like 10,00,000 CD-Rs!!!!!

If you have any advice, I would be very grateful for your replies. Satellite internet sucks, but it's all I can get out where I live.

Really frustrated (for weeks now) and would very much appreciate your input.

Many thanks,

JeffM

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The speed you download at is dependent on the speed of the server you're downloading from and its location.
If you are generally able to view webpages on common servers at lightning speed, but the main issue seems to be downloading bigger files, its more likely that the servers you're downloading from are overloaded and can't cope. There's only so much bandwidth to go round. If it was a general problem with the internet, you wouldn't be able to surf at decent speeds, which it would appear you can do.

[Neil Jones]

The speed you download at is dependent on the speed of the server you're downloading from and its location.
If you are generally able to view webpages on common servers at lightning speed, but the main issue seems to be downloading bigger files, its more likely that the servers you're downloading from are overloaded and can't cope. There's only so much bandwidth to go round. If it was a general problem with the internet, you wouldn't be able to surf at decent speeds, which it would appear you can do.

[JeffM]

The speed you download at is dependent on the speed of the server you're downloading from and its location.
If you are generally able to view webpages on common servers at lightning speed, but the main issue seems to be downloading bigger files, its more likely that the servers you're downloading from are overloaded and can't cope. There's only so much bandwidth to go round. If it was a general problem with the internet, you wouldn't be able to surf at decent speeds, which it would appear you can do.

Thanks a lot for your reply. I think the reason the surfing is pretty fast is because I'm using cached pages most of the time. That would speed it up, wouldn't it? Maybe this company needs to buy more bandwidth. I know that they've picked up quite a few more customers since 2004, when I first started receiving satellite internet, but I'm not so sure that they've purchased additional bandwidth. Thanks again for your post.

[The Skeptic]

You can approach your service provider's technical support. All of them have programs and links that enable download speed testing directly on their servers. The results should be compared to the bandwith that you bought and should give an answer how close the test is to what you pay for.

[JeffM]

You can approach your service provider's technical support. All of them have programs and links that enable download speed testing directly on their servers. The results should be compared to the bandwith that you bought and should give an answer how close the test is to what you pay for.

I actually talked with some people over lunch today, who use the same satellite service as me (they even get their signal from the same tower). And none of these people are having problems. So if it was a bandwidth problem, you'd think it would be affecting them too, not just me. Back to the drawing board.

I would call the company again (I called them 12 times over a 10 day period) but honestly their only advice is to raise the dish on my roof another 15 feet, which is just not a smart idea, due to how high the winds are out here already. The pole going into the ground, with the dish at the top, would only rattle and shake even more violently on a 24/7 basis, if I were to raise it an additional 15 feet. It's probably around 25 feet off the ground as it is, right now.

Any other suggestions/ideas, most appreciated. It's almost like I have to move, just to get better internet!

Thank you all.

JeffM

[JeffM]

Back several years ago, I sold DirectPC which was satellite Internet...the download speeds were heavily regulated by the ISP because of sucking up bandwidth from other users. So, for that case, it was the ISP regulation.

I understand. But I'm getting 2-10 kb / sec. download speed. Even if the issue is regulation, would the download speed be that sluggish? I'm thinking not, since you really can't download a complete 5MB file at that rate. What happens is 1/3 to 1/2 of the 5MB file will download, then it stops, the icon to the file appears on your desktop, but instead of being 5MB it's only 1.5MB or something similar.

I'm totally stumped.

Thanks a lot for your reply.

JeffM

[The Skeptic]

Quote: "Ping is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file."

If you typed the command properly, with a space between "Ping" and the IP then it seems that there IS a problem with the operating system, otherwise you wouldn't have gotten this message. Try to download and run winsock for xp (a link in my signature) and see what happens.