lance_delacroix
June 15th, 2003, 03:18 PM
I *think* this is a hardware question, but maybe it's a software question. :-) I've been posting this all over the net for a couple of weeks now. If you know of a better forum for me to discuss this in, please let me know.
I'm getting strange behavior, ONLY when I'm online, and ONLY at times when there seems to be lot of gaming traffic using my ISPs' bandwidth. That's what they tell me, anyway.
This happens on TWO COMPUTERS using THREE DIFFERENT HARDWARE MODEMS. One computer is 600mHz/128mb running Windows ME; the other is 1000mHz/128mb running XPpro. All their hardware (cards, etc., everything) is different.
It happens with TWO ISPs. One is connected via cable, the other by telephone, so the problem is not caused by old telephone wires or one ISP's overloaded router.
I have no viruses (I've scanned for viruses with three different AV programs, all of them recently updated, so please don't waste your time advising me to check for a virus), no spyware, I have both OSs leaned down and tweaked for performance, my swap files and page files are all set correctly, drivers are updated, etc. I am using only programs that I really need while online and I have experimented without my firewall, without my proxy, without my AV, etc. I have NO PROBLEMS whatsoever unless I go online AT CERTAIN TIMES. The problems stop when I go offline.
Symptoms: Cursor, pointer, and keyboard input show erratically and very slowly on the display, so much so that it is very hard to control the mouse. Processor usage goes to 100% and stays right up there. Browser windows open and close much more slowly than they should. SMTP, IMAP, and NNTP take forever. Bytes in and bytes out vary wildly, from 0 to 8-9 kbps. I get very bad packet losses (20-50%) when I do a traceroute at 2k bytes, usually becoming acceptable around 500 bytes and good at 64 bytes. I am in Bulgaria, and all traffic eventually goes through the national phone company's servers on the way in or out of the country. Service is extremely bad at times.
The partial freezes happen, as I mentioned, only when I'm online and the traffic seems to be heavy, but also ONLY WHEN I AM ACTUALLY RECEIVING DATA. If the connection is completely dead, there is no problem. If the data is flooding in (say 1-4kbps CONSISTENTLY), there is no problem. But if it is trickling in and/or varying greatly, that's when I see the problem.
I suspect that my processor is tied up trying to make up for lost or bad packets and can't do much of anything else. Does this make sense?
I've been using Process Explorer for several weeks. What it tells me is that my resources are being eaten up by whatever program is trying to import data at the moment -- mail client, news reader, browser, or download manager. If the program is unable to get the data quickly (because of traffic, I assume), it kind of grinds along a few bytes at a time and its processor usage shoots way up. There are NO mysterious programs running, and no programs going out of control and using resources that they shouldn't be using except as noted.
I can live with the slow data transfer but would like to be able to use the computers to do other things while I'm waiting. Is there a way to set the process priorities so I can do this?
Will more memory help?
Thanks.
I'm getting strange behavior, ONLY when I'm online, and ONLY at times when there seems to be lot of gaming traffic using my ISPs' bandwidth. That's what they tell me, anyway.
This happens on TWO COMPUTERS using THREE DIFFERENT HARDWARE MODEMS. One computer is 600mHz/128mb running Windows ME; the other is 1000mHz/128mb running XPpro. All their hardware (cards, etc., everything) is different.
It happens with TWO ISPs. One is connected via cable, the other by telephone, so the problem is not caused by old telephone wires or one ISP's overloaded router.
I have no viruses (I've scanned for viruses with three different AV programs, all of them recently updated, so please don't waste your time advising me to check for a virus), no spyware, I have both OSs leaned down and tweaked for performance, my swap files and page files are all set correctly, drivers are updated, etc. I am using only programs that I really need while online and I have experimented without my firewall, without my proxy, without my AV, etc. I have NO PROBLEMS whatsoever unless I go online AT CERTAIN TIMES. The problems stop when I go offline.
Symptoms: Cursor, pointer, and keyboard input show erratically and very slowly on the display, so much so that it is very hard to control the mouse. Processor usage goes to 100% and stays right up there. Browser windows open and close much more slowly than they should. SMTP, IMAP, and NNTP take forever. Bytes in and bytes out vary wildly, from 0 to 8-9 kbps. I get very bad packet losses (20-50%) when I do a traceroute at 2k bytes, usually becoming acceptable around 500 bytes and good at 64 bytes. I am in Bulgaria, and all traffic eventually goes through the national phone company's servers on the way in or out of the country. Service is extremely bad at times.
The partial freezes happen, as I mentioned, only when I'm online and the traffic seems to be heavy, but also ONLY WHEN I AM ACTUALLY RECEIVING DATA. If the connection is completely dead, there is no problem. If the data is flooding in (say 1-4kbps CONSISTENTLY), there is no problem. But if it is trickling in and/or varying greatly, that's when I see the problem.
I suspect that my processor is tied up trying to make up for lost or bad packets and can't do much of anything else. Does this make sense?
I've been using Process Explorer for several weeks. What it tells me is that my resources are being eaten up by whatever program is trying to import data at the moment -- mail client, news reader, browser, or download manager. If the program is unable to get the data quickly (because of traffic, I assume), it kind of grinds along a few bytes at a time and its processor usage shoots way up. There are NO mysterious programs running, and no programs going out of control and using resources that they shouldn't be using except as noted.
I can live with the slow data transfer but would like to be able to use the computers to do other things while I'm waiting. Is there a way to set the process priorities so I can do this?
Will more memory help?
Thanks.