[Zook]

I have gotten fed up with Charter internet before but now it has just gotten unbearable. During the day it will be all over the place, going from normal and loading pages in a flash to a dead crawl not loading a single page. Download speeds are a disaster as well. To give you some idea, a 198 MB file use to take 5 minutes to download, now it takes about 50 minutes. I am having trouble keeping a stable connection on my PS3 which is connected wirelessly not less than 5 feet away from the router. I know that the router is not the problem (it is a Linksys WRT54G) because my laptop is getting almost the exact same speed test results as my home computer which is connected directly to the modem. Both my laptop and the desktop are running Windows 7 home premium. I have tried reseting both the modem and the router and it seemed to work for a few minutes but then slowed down again. I am assuming it Charter's terrible service but I would like to know if there is anything that I could do on my end.

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Is this completely random or does it occur after large file downloads? Some ISP's only allow you to use a certain amount of bandwidth and then they throttle down your connection. I use to have hughesnet and after downloading more than 200MB they would make my connection slower than dial-up.

[Chris_027]

Is this completely random or does it occur after large file downloads? Some ISP's only allow you to use a certain amount of bandwidth and then they throttle down your connection. I use to have hughesnet and after downloading more than 200MB they would make my connection slower than dial-up.

[Zook]

Not recently. I used to months ago but I was off at college. I come now and my parents say they have been dealing with this for a couple weeks now and they hardly use the computer for anything.

[Chris_027]

You may want to check out this article. It explains some possible causes for your situation. I would also recommend that you open a thread in our malware forum and have an expert check it out. Having malware on your computer can definitely cause the issues you described. If everything checks out I would then go to speedtest.net and compare your speed with the speed your ISP claims you have and then if your not getting the speed you're paying for confront them with that.

[amw_drizz]

Also, this may or may not apply. But it seems with today's web it is very easy to achieve these limitations very easily. From charters website regarding Fair use of the HIS (High Speed Internet Service) from them

~SNIP~ (Please read bold items carefully as it may apply to you!)

13. NO EXCESSIVE USE OF BANDWIDTH
Excessive bandwidth is usage beyond a reasonable level for the service subscribed to. Residential service usage will not exceed 100GB of bandwidth per month for Customers subscribing to Services of 15 Mbps or less per month and 250GB of bandwidth per month for Customers subscribing to Service over 15 Mbps and up to 25 Mbps. Charter reserves the right to revise usage limits or to implement additional usage limits. In the event residential usage exceeds the above-described limits Customer will be notified and required to either limit Customer's bandwidth consumption to permitted levels/limits or subscribe to a Service with a higher monthly bandwidth limit if a higher limit subscription is available. In the event Customer does not limit bandwidth consumption to permitted levels/limits after notice of the same, Charter may determine, in Charter's sole discretion, that Customer is using an excessive amount of bandwidth over the Charter network infrastructure for Internet access or other functions using public network resources, during any period of time, Charter may thereafter: (a) adjust, suspend or terminate Customer's account or Service at any time and without notice; or (b) require Customer to upgrade Customer's service level and pay additional fees in accordance with Charter's then-current, applicable rates for such Service; © cap Customer's usage or limit aggregate bandwidth available to Customer; (d) implement prioritization of traffic; (e) implement protocol filtering; or (f) use any technology to be chosen by Charter at its sole discretion including, but not limited to, packet-reset and/or other packet management technology, to slow Service to Customer for purposes of conserving bandwidth. Charter may also notify Customer of excessive use and request Customer to employ corrective or self-limiting actions to comply with this provision.

To read more refer to this site http://www.charter.c...s.aspx?Policy=6

Also I know first hand it is entirely possible to hit that arbitrary limit within a short time. If you have a netflix subscription all it would take is a few videos a night and bam you are there. Also if you download files on a nightly basis (I won't go into legal or not) you can hit your limit very quickly.

But what pisses me off is the fact that they don't give you a way to monitor your usage 99% of the time, that and they don't tell you when you sign up. Those who moved from Satellite connections (HughsNet, WildBlue and such) to cable, dsl, fiber are all to familiar with these limitations. I used to be a WildBlue subscriber when I lived out in the sticks. I had a 17gb revolving cap (Meaning what you download today will clear in 30 days and not reset at the beginning of a month). And I had to forgo alot of internet activities just to stay within the limitation.

To put it in perspective, I have a 250gb monthly cap from Comcast. I haven't hit it because of being on satellite internet I still monitor it like a hawk. On an average month I consume roughly 225 - 245gb in a given month, I have yet to hit the 250 limit because I monitor it. But left unmonitored I know I would of blown past that limit and would have severely crippled speeds.

My final note, Try calling Charter and find out what your current quota is and where you stand. It may take some persuasion but they should tell you since they are enacting a limit.