HELP Desk
I have an HP PC that cost me about 40,000 baht two years ago. I use it only sparingly at home. Two months ago, I subscribed to the 1Mb True Hi-Speed Internet service. The speed was disappointingly slow - I could judge the difference because I use the same True package at my office. While I use the Internet at home alone, there are as many as four users in my office. Nevertheless the speed at my office is much faster.
Start up is slow, loading pages is slow. Whatever I click, the response is slow.
I brought my computer to the office, it worked very well, so the problem appears to be something other than my PC. I thought my Internet connection at home was the problem. I called True and they asked me to check the speed using the ADSL Thailand site. The result was normal, with a download speed of more than 800Kbps.
I called HP for help many times only to be told to do different things each time. They asked me to re-install Windows, change XP Home to XP Professional and check various settings and for malware. Finally they asked me to bring the computer to them. Nothing found! They said my PC was in perfect condition. They advised me not to use IE7, but IE6 instead. They also advised me not to use SP 3 but to use SP 2 instead. You guessed it - nothing worked!
I got fed up and resorted to trial and error. I upgraded my Internet package to 2Mb 10 days ago. It was as slow as before. I called True and they sent two technicians. They checked the speed and said it was normal - 1,700Kbps+. They speculated my BenQ monitor was the culprit, so I took my monitor to the office and compared it with all other monitors - no difference. My monitor is functioning normally. So what has gone wrong? Please use your expertise and experience to advise me what could have gone wrong.
The following may be helpful: I tried my Vaio notebook, both wired and wireless connections, and that was slow too. I was in Singapore last week and my Vaio was operating at lightning speed at my mother's house (connected wirelessly to 1Mb broadband). My condo has a poor mobile phone signal, does it matter?
KM
Database replies: Tony Waltham replies: Well, you have certainly tried most options - without success, un- fortunately. I have a sneaking suspicion that there is a problem between your access point and the computer. Are you connecting wirelessly or by cable? If by cable, I would replace the cable and if it is a Wi-Fi connection then maybe there is interference from another access point slowing things down, or the wireless output from the access point is somehow impaired.
I am a little curious about the speed test the True technicians conducted. Was it on your computer, or on their own?
Of course, there are many good speed test sites that you can use, starting with ADSLThailand.com (for one inside
the country) or others, such as dslreports.com/speedtest. These are always good to check from time to time for reference purposes. Of course, if your throughput is good but your browsing experience is bad, it can indicate malware (spyware, adware or a Trojan) that is getting in the way - but, as you say, you have looked into this.
(If you want to re-explore these possibilities, there is a good commercial anti-spyware product called CounterSpy which has an introductory offer so you can try it out and use some of its features to help protect your computer. These tweaks to Windows will remain in force after the evaluation period expires).
Finally, it might be good to persuade a friend with a notebook computer to come over and be a further reference point for the speeds (in case possibly both your notebook and desktop machine are infected with the same malware).
Normally a sluggish computer shouldn't impact your browsing experience since there are relatively few processing cycles required to redraw the screen in your browser. You might also try downloading Firefox or Opera if you haven't to rule out any browser problems.
I guess that's about it for suggestions from me, but I am copying this reply to Wanda Sloan, who may have some additional input.
Finally, I don't think your poor mobile signal should impact anything, since you are not using GPRS or data over that service, from what I can gather. If you are, the quality of the signal does strongly impact throughput speed and the same applies to Wi-Fi connections - if the signal is weak, data speeds fall dramatically.
Wanda Sloan adds: I agree with Tony, that by far the most likely cause is a problem between the telephone box that services your home and the computer. Somewhere there's a faulty cable or connection of some sort - I can't think of anything else it could be.
These days, malware can be a problem but your diagnostics seems to rule that out as a cause.
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