When things seem strange, I recommend Combofix from BleepingComputer.com, it sometiimes finds things you never expected, and I have found that when a computer is infected it gets rid of whatever was wrong.

Also, sometimes the simple matter of resetting things can fix problems. Over the last couple of weeks my phone service with MagicJack went from good to absolutely shit, not even worth the $2 a month (which tells you how bad that is). A recommendation was to uninstall the MagicJack device driver, unplug the usb device, then reboot and plug the MagicJack back in. That fixed the problem, calls are clear again. No longer worse than a bad analog cellular connection.

A short blip isn't long enough for the head end to realize you went away so it doesn't reissue a new DHCP IP and whatever the docsis version of that is.

It's the cable version of muting a conference call and grabbing a coffee.

Awesome!

I've also noticed you have to leave the modem offline for more than 30 seconds. If you just turn it off and on, nothing renegotiates. It has to be offline long enough to "reset." I wish I knew technically what was going on behind the scenes.

Turning off my modem for a few minutes and turning it back on got me 1500 kb/s. Where I was previously at 500 kb/s.

[i]How the &%$* is that possible?? [/i]

The characters in certain classes in the game I am making will seem like they can perform magic. Then I look at my friends the hacker and machinist and I realize: they CAN do magic.

Thanks, Flack.

You've probably already done this, but turn your router and your cable modem off for a minute and turn them back on. Mine will get slower over time after heavy wireless use. It makes no logical sense but it does. Sometimes after Mason's been playing Call of Duty for a while everything slows to a crawl. I reset the hardware and everything's good again for a while.

A call to the cable company is a pain but they can test your speed remotely (I've had them do that before, too).

OK. Between that and what Retro suggested, I feel I am well on my way to... an angry phonecall to my ISP.

Thank you both.

Step one, go to a DOS prompt and type NETSTAT and hit enter. That will show every connection you have open at the moment. Close down your browser before doing so or you will get a bunch of false positives and you will be sure you are under attack.

You can also run TCPView which gives you essentially the same information but in a slightly easier to read format. You can get it here from Microsoft for free.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897437.aspx

That's where I would start.

[quote="RetroRomper"]If its a local problem, shouldn't the first step be to fire up yee old Malware / Adware detection tools?[/quote]

No

[quote]Malware / Adware detection programs:
http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php
http://www.safer-networking.org/mirrors/
http://www.malwarebytes.org/[/quote]

NO


[quote]Ant-virus:
http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php[/quote]

NO!

[quote]Otherwise you'll need to load up Ethereal / Wireshark on a laptop then plug it into your router to trace whatever connections are coming or going out.[/quote]

NO NO NO STOP STOP STOP STOP

REtro.

I'm not a Republic serial villain. Do you seriously think I'd explain my master-stroke while there remained the slightest chance of you affecting its outcome? [i]I installed Microsoft Security Essentials and did a complete scan thirty-five minutes ago.[/i]

If its a local problem, shouldn't the first step be to fire up yee old Malware / Adware detection tools?

Malware / Adware detection programs:
http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php
http://www.safer-networking.org/mirrors/
http://www.malwarebytes.org/

Ant-virus:
http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php

Otherwise you'll need to load up Ethereal / Wireshark on a laptop then plug it into your router to trace whatever connections are coming or going out.

So my Internet connection speed is down to 500 kilobytes a second. I can't believe it's this low. I want to check my computers to make sure that they aren't running zombie processes or something.

Flack, can you recommend a program that would give me a picture of what traffic is going where, over all the computers I have?