Internet Service Problem or Not?
- Thread starter ZeeOSix
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Originally Posted By: ZeeOSix
I will surf most of the night using Puppy Linux and probably Firefox inside PL to see if I can see any noticeable network slowdowns like I see in Win XP. If not, then it probably is some kind of software related issue bogging it down now and then.
Sounds good, let us know what you find.
I will surf most of the night using Puppy Linux and probably Firefox inside PL to see if I can see any noticeable network slowdowns like I see in Win XP. If not, then it probably is some kind of software related issue bogging it down now and then.
Sounds good, let us know what you find.
Originally Posted By: ClutchDisc
Puppy Linux should fit on a CD as well. Puppy Linux
ClutchDisk, or anyone else.
Would it be worth trying the new Slacko Puppy release 5.7 (March 9, 2014) vs. the Puppy release 5.2.8 I used which was release way back on April 5, 2012?
http://puppylinux.org/main/Download Latest Release.htm
And if so, which .ios should I try? It says: "The PAE build is for enabling full access to installed RAM in PAE-enabled, high-memory machines." But they don't say how much RAM you need to run the PAE build - unless I didn't see it listed.
What's the definition of "PAE-enabled, high-memory machines."
Puppy Linux should fit on a CD as well. Puppy Linux
ClutchDisk, or anyone else.
Would it be worth trying the new Slacko Puppy release 5.7 (March 9, 2014) vs. the Puppy release 5.2.8 I used which was release way back on April 5, 2012?
http://puppylinux.org/main/Download Latest Release.htm
And if so, which .ios should I try? It says: "The PAE build is for enabling full access to installed RAM in PAE-enabled, high-memory machines." But they don't say how much RAM you need to run the PAE build - unless I didn't see it listed.
What's the definition of "PAE-enabled, high-memory machines."
If you are wanting to try another puppy release I would say try the one I am familiar with, you can switch between browsers on that one. Here is the link: http://puppylinux.org/main/Long-Term-Supported Puppy.htm
Download it where it says "Download the STANDARD precise-5.7.1.iso here or there, size = 156 MB, md5sum = c4999c4bd8ca3a8fc935389c2667f848."
Download it where it says "Download the STANDARD precise-5.7.1.iso here or there, size = 156 MB, md5sum = c4999c4bd8ca3a8fc935389c2667f848."
Originally Posted By: ClutchDisc
If you are wanting to try another puppy release I would say try the one I am familiar with, you can switch between browsers on that one. Here is the link: http://puppylinux.org/main/Long-Term-Supported Puppy.htm
Download it where it says "Download the STANDARD precise-5.7.1.iso here or there, size = 156 MB, md5sum = c4999c4bd8ca3a8fc935389c2667f848."
Thanks for that info ... I might try that version also since it's a bit newer than the 5.2.8 I downloaded last night.
If you are wanting to try another puppy release I would say try the one I am familiar with, you can switch between browsers on that one. Here is the link: http://puppylinux.org/main/Long-Term-Supported Puppy.htm
Download it where it says "Download the STANDARD precise-5.7.1.iso here or there, size = 156 MB, md5sum = c4999c4bd8ca3a8fc935389c2667f848."
Thanks for that info ... I might try that version also since it's a bit newer than the 5.2.8 I downloaded last night.
So this is the latest trouble-shooting I did tonight.
1) Left the modem on this morning so it was at full operating temperature all day while at work. Computer was shut off.
2) Booted up the computer in Win XP and opened Firefox. Opened 4 tabs and all seemed to be working normally. About 5~10 min into the surfing session, the network goes dead and 3 of the 4 tabs in Firefox are just churning & churning while trying to update.
3) I left the tabs churning ~20 min and they never refreshed, and the network activity status graph was still dead in Task Manager. Firefox was showing CPU use of ~40%. System Idle was showing the other ~60% of CPU use.
4) Turned the modem off for ~20 min to let it cool down. As soon as the modem was shut off, Firefox's CPU usage went to 0%.
5) Turned modem back on after 20 min. Did a refresh on the 3 Firefox tabs that were previously churning and they all refreshed quickly, and network status showed normal looking network usage in Task Manager.
6) Did 5 runs for internet speed test using www.meter.net
One run came in at about half speed on both download and upload; therest of the 4 runs looked pretty normal - around 1.20M download, 710K upload and 200 ms ping. The slow test showed 599K download, 346K upload and 1764 ms ping.
Ran a some speed tests using www.speedtest.net
Both came in lower than seen above at:
Test 1 - 700K download, 560K upload, 114 ms ping
Test 2 - 700K download, 430K upload, 103 ms ping
Test 3 - 1.03M download, 520K upload, 168 ms ping
Not sure which test is most accurate. The other day they seemed to correlate better, so maybe I caught the network being slow this time, and surfing around it does feel kind of show right now. I have also noticed that whenever the network status activity seems low in Task Manager, the CPU by Firefox increases. When the network is working near 100%, then the CPU usage by Firefox is less and shorter duration.
7) Saw two other network dead periods during the evening. I only power cycled the modem as I did above, without touching anything else (no program or computer restarts, etc), and the network came back and worked in the normal speed range again.
Based on the above, it seems that the modem is acting up. Thoughts, comments?
1) Left the modem on this morning so it was at full operating temperature all day while at work. Computer was shut off.
2) Booted up the computer in Win XP and opened Firefox. Opened 4 tabs and all seemed to be working normally. About 5~10 min into the surfing session, the network goes dead and 3 of the 4 tabs in Firefox are just churning & churning while trying to update.
3) I left the tabs churning ~20 min and they never refreshed, and the network activity status graph was still dead in Task Manager. Firefox was showing CPU use of ~40%. System Idle was showing the other ~60% of CPU use.
4) Turned the modem off for ~20 min to let it cool down. As soon as the modem was shut off, Firefox's CPU usage went to 0%.
5) Turned modem back on after 20 min. Did a refresh on the 3 Firefox tabs that were previously churning and they all refreshed quickly, and network status showed normal looking network usage in Task Manager.
6) Did 5 runs for internet speed test using www.meter.net
One run came in at about half speed on both download and upload; therest of the 4 runs looked pretty normal - around 1.20M download, 710K upload and 200 ms ping. The slow test showed 599K download, 346K upload and 1764 ms ping.
Ran a some speed tests using www.speedtest.net
Both came in lower than seen above at:
Test 1 - 700K download, 560K upload, 114 ms ping
Test 2 - 700K download, 430K upload, 103 ms ping
Test 3 - 1.03M download, 520K upload, 168 ms ping
Not sure which test is most accurate. The other day they seemed to correlate better, so maybe I caught the network being slow this time, and surfing around it does feel kind of show right now. I have also noticed that whenever the network status activity seems low in Task Manager, the CPU by Firefox increases. When the network is working near 100%, then the CPU usage by Firefox is less and shorter duration.
7) Saw two other network dead periods during the evening. I only power cycled the modem as I did above, without touching anything else (no program or computer restarts, etc), and the network came back and worked in the normal speed range again.
Based on the above, it seems that the modem is acting up. Thoughts, comments?
One more thing; I don't know if it was suggested or I missed it. What happens when you get this hanging and you try to refresh that tab?
It certainly sounds like it could be a modem, but plugin container issues can have similar symptoms. On a related note, when having this problem, have you ever closed Firefox and then tried to reopen it, and gotten an error message that Firefox already has a process running?
It certainly sounds like it could be a modem, but plugin container issues can have similar symptoms. On a related note, when having this problem, have you ever closed Firefox and then tried to reopen it, and gotten an error message that Firefox already has a process running?
Just caught a slow test also using www.meter.net, so something's going on. I think both of these speed testers are giving accurate test results.
860K download, 400K upload, 101 ms ping
Probably time to try a different modem at this point based on seeing that power cycling the modem to reboot it would bring back the network speed more than once tonight.
860K download, 400K upload, 101 ms ping
Probably time to try a different modem at this point based on seeing that power cycling the modem to reboot it would bring back the network speed more than once tonight.
Originally Posted By: Garak
One more thing; I don't know if it was suggested or I missed it. What happens when you get this hanging and you try to refresh that tab?
I have tried just refreshing the tabs in Firefox before when they are churning, but it does not make them refresh. They just continue to churn no matter how many times they are refreshed.
Originally Posted By: Garak
It certainly sounds like it could be a modem, but plugin container issues can have similar symptoms. On a related note, when having this problem, have you ever closed Firefox and then tried to reopen it, and gotten an error message that Firefox already has a process running?
I have closed and reopened Firefox during these hanging/churning periods. I have never seen any error messages at all. Recall that I've seen this hanging/churning while using Firefox, Google Chrome and IE8.
Tonight I discovered that when the network is dead and Firefox is using 40~50% of the CPU, if the modem is shut off then Firefox's CPU use goes to 0%. I think the times I saw where Firefox was using near 100% CPU is when I had 5 or 6 tabs all churning at the same time trying to update. Apparently, the browser is working hard to do a refresh, but since the network is dead no data is being downloaded to perform the refresh.
One more thing; I don't know if it was suggested or I missed it. What happens when you get this hanging and you try to refresh that tab?
I have tried just refreshing the tabs in Firefox before when they are churning, but it does not make them refresh. They just continue to churn no matter how many times they are refreshed.
Originally Posted By: Garak
It certainly sounds like it could be a modem, but plugin container issues can have similar symptoms. On a related note, when having this problem, have you ever closed Firefox and then tried to reopen it, and gotten an error message that Firefox already has a process running?
I have closed and reopened Firefox during these hanging/churning periods. I have never seen any error messages at all. Recall that I've seen this hanging/churning while using Firefox, Google Chrome and IE8.
Tonight I discovered that when the network is dead and Firefox is using 40~50% of the CPU, if the modem is shut off then Firefox's CPU use goes to 0%. I think the times I saw where Firefox was using near 100% CPU is when I had 5 or 6 tabs all churning at the same time trying to update. Apparently, the browser is working hard to do a refresh, but since the network is dead no data is being downloaded to perform the refresh.
Next time you get a hang, reboot the OS WITHOUT REBOOTING THE MODEM and see if THAT resolves it. IF you are truly having an equipment problem, this will not resolve the issue and it will still exist after OS boot.
All your troubleshooting above did is beat up on the network equipment and did nothing to eliminate a rogue piece of software.
All your troubleshooting above did is beat up on the network equipment and did nothing to eliminate a rogue piece of software.
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: ZeeOSix
I have closed and reopened Firefox during these hanging/churning periods. I have never seen any error messages at all. Recall that I've seen this hanging/churning while using Firefox, Google Chrome and IE8.
Tonight I discovered that when the network is dead and Firefox is using 40~50% of the CPU, if the modem is shut off then Firefox's CPU use goes to 0%. I think the times I saw where Firefox was using near 100% CPU is when I had 5 or 6 tabs all churning at the same time trying to update. Apparently, the browser is working hard to do a refresh, but since the network is dead no data is being downloaded to perform the refresh.
Subdued has a good suggestion to try, too, and let us know. Does shutting down just the browser and redoing whatever you were doing help? It's beginning to sound like it likely isn't a plugin container, because a plugin container issue wouldn't be fixed by cycling the modem, shouldn't happen across several browsers, and at least once in a while should give you an error message when restarting Firefox (I'm not sure about the other browsers).
I have closed and reopened Firefox during these hanging/churning periods. I have never seen any error messages at all. Recall that I've seen this hanging/churning while using Firefox, Google Chrome and IE8.
Tonight I discovered that when the network is dead and Firefox is using 40~50% of the CPU, if the modem is shut off then Firefox's CPU use goes to 0%. I think the times I saw where Firefox was using near 100% CPU is when I had 5 or 6 tabs all churning at the same time trying to update. Apparently, the browser is working hard to do a refresh, but since the network is dead no data is being downloaded to perform the refresh.
Subdued has a good suggestion to try, too, and let us know. Does shutting down just the browser and redoing whatever you were doing help? It's beginning to sound like it likely isn't a plugin container, because a plugin container issue wouldn't be fixed by cycling the modem, shouldn't happen across several browsers, and at least once in a while should give you an error message when restarting Firefox (I'm not sure about the other browsers).
The question is, has this happened at all using Puppy Linux?
Originally Posted By: Subdued
Next time you get a hang, reboot the OS WITHOUT REBOOTING THE MODEM and see if THAT resolves it. IF you are truly having an equipment problem, this will not resolve the issue and it will still exist after OS boot.
All your troubleshooting above did is beat up on the network equipment and did nothing to eliminate a rogue piece of software.
I have tried that in the past, but there's been too much trouble-shooting going on over the last 4~5 days to recall exactly what happened - I could have also power cycled the modem at the same time. Just power cycling only the modem like I did last night, it was pretty clear it all came back to normal for quite some time after that.
To me it seems if 4~5 tabs in Firefox are all hanging/churning for 20 min, and I simply reboot the modem by cycling the power off/on and the network comes back. it's a pretty strong indication that the modem was locked up.
So next trouble-shooting plan is as follows:
1) Leaving just the modem on all day to ensure full operating temperature, computer off.
2) Boot-up in Win XP, and surf in Firefox until network locks up.
3) Just shutdown and restart Firefox. If that doesn't fix the lock-up, then power cycle modem.
4) Also boot-up in Puppy Linux and surf heavily with Firefox 11 in PL to look for browser lock-ups.
Next time you get a hang, reboot the OS WITHOUT REBOOTING THE MODEM and see if THAT resolves it. IF you are truly having an equipment problem, this will not resolve the issue and it will still exist after OS boot.
All your troubleshooting above did is beat up on the network equipment and did nothing to eliminate a rogue piece of software.
I have tried that in the past, but there's been too much trouble-shooting going on over the last 4~5 days to recall exactly what happened - I could have also power cycled the modem at the same time. Just power cycling only the modem like I did last night, it was pretty clear it all came back to normal for quite some time after that.
To me it seems if 4~5 tabs in Firefox are all hanging/churning for 20 min, and I simply reboot the modem by cycling the power off/on and the network comes back. it's a pretty strong indication that the modem was locked up.
So next trouble-shooting plan is as follows:
1) Leaving just the modem on all day to ensure full operating temperature, computer off.
2) Boot-up in Win XP, and surf in Firefox until network locks up.
3) Just shutdown and restart Firefox. If that doesn't fix the lock-up, then power cycle modem.
4) Also boot-up in Puppy Linux and surf heavily with Firefox 11 in PL to look for browser lock-ups.
Did the trouble-shooting tonight as outlined in the post above.
Modem was on all day long, and the computer was off. Booted up computer in Win XP and opened Firefox and 5~6 webpages/tabs.
Surfed the internet pretty good, and about 2~3 hours later could tell things were noticeably slowing down. Did a speedtest.net test and got:
0.75M down, 0.22M up w/116 ms ping (down to about 1/2 speed)
Closed Firefox and re-opened it, and restored the previous session which brought back all the same webpages/tabs I was in before closing Firefox. Left the modem on (no power cycle done).
Did a couple more speedtest.net tests and got:
0.68M down, 0.56M up w/102 ms ping
0.81M down, 0.43M up w/151 ms ping
Both still down from where it should be. Could tell network still felt slow.
Left Firefox running and didn't change webpages/tabs. Turned off the modem and let it sit for 30 min to cool down.
Powered modem back up, and immediately went back to Firefox and did more speedtest.net tests and got:
1.05M down, 0.55M up w/86 ms ping
1.02M down, 0.52M up w/73 ms ping
1.07M down, 0.47M up w/89 ms ping
1.07M down, 0.50M up w/73 ms ping
Still down slightly, but definitely better than before letting the modem cool down. So, based on this trouble-shooting data it pretty much points to the modem going out. Guess it's time to whip by Best Buy and pick up a new one.
Modem was on all day long, and the computer was off. Booted up computer in Win XP and opened Firefox and 5~6 webpages/tabs.
Surfed the internet pretty good, and about 2~3 hours later could tell things were noticeably slowing down. Did a speedtest.net test and got:
0.75M down, 0.22M up w/116 ms ping (down to about 1/2 speed)
Closed Firefox and re-opened it, and restored the previous session which brought back all the same webpages/tabs I was in before closing Firefox. Left the modem on (no power cycle done).
Did a couple more speedtest.net tests and got:
0.68M down, 0.56M up w/102 ms ping
0.81M down, 0.43M up w/151 ms ping
Both still down from where it should be. Could tell network still felt slow.
Left Firefox running and didn't change webpages/tabs. Turned off the modem and let it sit for 30 min to cool down.
Powered modem back up, and immediately went back to Firefox and did more speedtest.net tests and got:
1.05M down, 0.55M up w/86 ms ping
1.02M down, 0.52M up w/73 ms ping
1.07M down, 0.47M up w/89 ms ping
1.07M down, 0.50M up w/73 ms ping
Still down slightly, but definitely better than before letting the modem cool down. So, based on this trouble-shooting data it pretty much points to the modem going out. Guess it's time to whip by Best Buy and pick up a new one.
Originally Posted By: ZeeOSix
Originally Posted By: ClutchDisc
If you are wanting to try another puppy release I would say try the one I am familiar with, you can switch between browsers on that one. Here is the link: http://puppylinux.org/main/Long-Term-Supported Puppy.htm
Download it where it says "Download the STANDARD precise-5.7.1.iso here or there, size = 156 MB, md5sum = c4999c4bd8ca3a8fc935389c2667f848."
Thanks for that info ... I might try that version also since it's a bit newer than the 5.2.8 I downloaded last night.
ClutchDisk - I burned the Percise Puppy 5.7.1 release you suggested above, and am typing this post in Percise Puppy using the SeaMonkey browser. This release is a lot nicer than Puppy Linux 5.2.8.
Originally Posted By: ClutchDisc
If you are wanting to try another puppy release I would say try the one I am familiar with, you can switch between browsers on that one. Here is the link: http://puppylinux.org/main/Long-Term-Supported Puppy.htm
Download it where it says "Download the STANDARD precise-5.7.1.iso here or there, size = 156 MB, md5sum = c4999c4bd8ca3a8fc935389c2667f848."
Thanks for that info ... I might try that version also since it's a bit newer than the 5.2.8 I downloaded last night.
ClutchDisk - I burned the Percise Puppy 5.7.1 release you suggested above, and am typing this post in Percise Puppy using the SeaMonkey browser. This release is a lot nicer than Puppy Linux 5.2.8.
Originally Posted By: ZeeOSix
Still down slightly, but definitely better than before letting the modem cool down. So, based on this trouble-shooting data it pretty much points to the modem going out. Guess it's time to whip by Best Buy and pick up a new one.
That's certainly a good starting point. At least with my relatively expensive ISP, they provide the modems and switch them out without much fuss - in fact, they rely too much on switching out the modem.
Still down slightly, but definitely better than before letting the modem cool down. So, based on this trouble-shooting data it pretty much points to the modem going out. Guess it's time to whip by Best Buy and pick up a new one.
That's certainly a good starting point. At least with my relatively expensive ISP, they provide the modems and switch them out without much fuss - in fact, they rely too much on switching out the modem.
Originally Posted By: ZeeOSix
ClutchDisk - I burned the Percise Puppy 5.7.1 release you suggested above, and am typing this post in Percise Puppy using the SeaMonkey browser. This release is a lot nicer than Puppy Linux 5.2.8.
You should be able to switch between SeaMonkey and Opera too. So, did you get any of the slow downs in Puppy yet?
ClutchDisk - I burned the Percise Puppy 5.7.1 release you suggested above, and am typing this post in Percise Puppy using the SeaMonkey browser. This release is a lot nicer than Puppy Linux 5.2.8.
You should be able to switch between SeaMonkey and Opera too. So, did you get any of the slow downs in Puppy yet?
Originally Posted By: ClutchDisc
Originally Posted By: ZeeOSix
ClutchDisk - I burned the Percise Puppy 5.7.1 release you suggested above, and am typing this post in Precise Puppy using the SeaMonkey browser. This release is a lot nicer than Puppy Linux 5.2.8.
You should be able to switch between SeaMonkey and Opera too. So, did you get any of the slow downs in Puppy yet?
After the slow down I had last night and posted about above, I did boot up in Precise Puppy 5.7.1, and while using SeaMonkey it did seem like it was slower than it should have been when a webpage heavy with photos was downloading them as the page refreshed.
Hard to do a good speed test in Puppy - the only speed tester I've found that will work without Adobe Flash and Java and seems pretty accurate is www.meter.net. Tonight I think I'll just boot-up into Precise Puppy right away to get some good time surfing while using it. Will take some speed tests about every 30 min to see if I can detect a measurable decrease in speed performance at time goes on.
But since I've seen two times clearly now that shutting the modem off for 20~30 min to let it cool down (and not changing any other variable) seems to bring back the performance level. This also makes senses why I always see the performance degrade later in the evening which is usually 2~4 hours after I typically boot everything up from cold conditions (computer & modem).
Originally Posted By: ZeeOSix
ClutchDisk - I burned the Percise Puppy 5.7.1 release you suggested above, and am typing this post in Precise Puppy using the SeaMonkey browser. This release is a lot nicer than Puppy Linux 5.2.8.
You should be able to switch between SeaMonkey and Opera too. So, did you get any of the slow downs in Puppy yet?
After the slow down I had last night and posted about above, I did boot up in Precise Puppy 5.7.1, and while using SeaMonkey it did seem like it was slower than it should have been when a webpage heavy with photos was downloading them as the page refreshed.
Hard to do a good speed test in Puppy - the only speed tester I've found that will work without Adobe Flash and Java and seems pretty accurate is www.meter.net. Tonight I think I'll just boot-up into Precise Puppy right away to get some good time surfing while using it. Will take some speed tests about every 30 min to see if I can detect a measurable decrease in speed performance at time goes on.
But since I've seen two times clearly now that shutting the modem off for 20~30 min to let it cool down (and not changing any other variable) seems to bring back the performance level. This also makes senses why I always see the performance degrade later in the evening which is usually 2~4 hours after I typically boot everything up from cold conditions (computer & modem).
Originally Posted By: Garak
Originally Posted By: ZeeOSix
Still down slightly, but definitely better than before letting the modem cool down. So, based on this trouble-shooting data it pretty much points to the modem going out. Guess it's time to whip by Best Buy and pick up a new one.
That's certainly a good starting point. At least with my relatively expensive ISP, they provide the modems and switch them out without much fuss - in fact, they rely too much on switching out the modem.
The modem I have right now was bought outright by me quite a few years ago. I talked to my ISP (CenturyLink, formally Qwest) and it would be cheaper for me to just go buy another new DSL modem for $70 then to rent one or buy one from my ISP.
Originally Posted By: ZeeOSix
Still down slightly, but definitely better than before letting the modem cool down. So, based on this trouble-shooting data it pretty much points to the modem going out. Guess it's time to whip by Best Buy and pick up a new one.
That's certainly a good starting point. At least with my relatively expensive ISP, they provide the modems and switch them out without much fuss - in fact, they rely too much on switching out the modem.
The modem I have right now was bought outright by me quite a few years ago. I talked to my ISP (CenturyLink, formally Qwest) and it would be cheaper for me to just go buy another new DSL modem for $70 then to rent one or buy one from my ISP.
You should be able to run speedtest.net in Opera. It ran fine for me on the CD.
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