Network performance has slowed drastically... using DIR-655

S

soxfandoug

Weaksauce
Joined
Jan 10, 2005
Messages
92
Hey all,

Just wondering if anybody has any ideas here. I installed the D-Link DIR-655 Extreme N router on my home network approximately 2 months ago. I have 3 computers connected to it most of the time. Two desktop PC's hardwired to the gigabit ethernet ports, and one laptop (Dell 1520 with N card) connecting wirelessly. I also have a WD 1TB My Book World Edition connected to a gigabit port.

Until about a week ago, network performance was great. Since then however, it has been terrible. Ripping a movie to the World Edition used to work flawlessly. Now about 5 times per DVD it will pause for a couple of minutes, and the video preview is just a black screen. Loading simple web pages use to be almost instant, now it can take 5-10 seconds, on all 3 computers.

I have turned off the WD drive to see if it had anything to do with it, but there is no change.

Does anybody have any idea what could be causing this, or what I could do to restore my network performance to its previous glory?

Thanks!
Doug
 
Sounds like your ISP is throttleing your bandwidth. I've heard a lot of them are doing that now, though none of them admit it. They specfically watch for people downloading things like DVD's or "torrents" and sporadically throttle you to conserve bandwidth or shape traffic. Kinda like QoS on the ISP side.

It could also be configurations on your end however. Has anything changed? Any new installations? Have you run a virus scan? Spyware scan?

The virus and sypware scans would be the first, and easiest thing to check. Next, make sure speed/duplex settings on the router ports, match the NIC's they are connected to. If the router's ports are set to "Auto", the computer's NIC must also be set at Auto. If they don't match, you will drop packets.

Edit:

I just re-read your post. When you say ripping a movie, are you downloading it from the Internet? Or just moving it on your internal network? If it's just internal, then ignore my comment about the ISP throttleing your bandwidth.
 
He has issues going to his own local devices, so his ISP is probably not involved with this. However the Virus/Spyware scans are an excellent idea. I recommend you use SuperAntiSpyware (free edition) for the spyware scan.

Also clean out your system and user temp folders. Clean out your browser cache.

If that doesn't do it, I would do the following:

1. Check and see if there is a router firmware update. Install if there is.
2, Power down the Cable Modem, Router, Computers and all other devices connected to the router. Then power back up in this order:

a. Cable Modem. Make sure it fully initializes before proceeding.
b. Router. Make sure it fully initializes before proceeding.
c. Any other non-computer devices connected to the router. Let them initialize.
d. Computers. Boot them up (you can start them all at once, it doesn't matter).

Re-test the system.

Although these newer high-end DLink routers are less subceptible to it than some others, sometimes ya just gotta let them clear their brains and start over :)

If that doesn't do it, the only thing that would make sense is something on your network is causing the issue.

Remove everything plugged into the router wan ports except one computer. Just turning them off won't do. You need to fully disconnect them from the router. Test it. If the issue is resolved, re-connect other devices one at a time until you find the one causing the issue.

It is possible your router is going bad, but that's the last thing I would consider at this point.




SdeWndr said:
Sounds like your ISP is throttleing your bandwidth. I've heard a lot of them are doing that now, though none of them admit it. They specfically watch for people downloading things like DVD's or "torrents" and sporadically throttle you to conserve bandwidth or shape traffic. Kinda like QoS on the ISP side.

It could also be configurations on your end however. Has anything changed? Any new installations? Have you run a virus scan? Spyware scan?

The virus and sypware scans would be the first, and easiest thing to check. Next, make sure speed/duplex settings on the router ports, match the NIC's they are connected to. If the router's ports are set to "Auto", the computer's NIC must also be set at Auto. If they don't match, you will drop packets.

Edit:

I just re-read your post. When you say ripping a movie, are you downloading it from the Internet? Or just moving it on your internal network? If it's just internal, then ignore my comment about the ISP throttleing your bandwidth.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for the tips guys. I will try the suggestions later today.

When I said I rip movies to the network hard drive, I am ripping them from DVD directly to the external hard drive. So theoretically, my ISP should have nothing to do with it. However, I tried connecting one of the PC's directly to the cable modem, and the speed didn't seem to change at all.
 
What version of firmware are you running on your DIR-655? They released a firmware update that improves LAN performance. Could just be that whatever bug they fixed took this long to manifest itself. Give it a whirl if you haven't already.
 
Wow, I'm running 1.02, so I'm several firmware revisions behind. I'll update that right now. Is it ok to go straight from 1.02 to 1.10, or should I update incrementally?

*Edit - I went ahead and updated incrementally. I am in the process of doing a full virus scan on all computers. I will update this thread once that is complete.
 
How is the wireless computer performing network-wise? Just a thought - gigabit ethernet is very picky about cabling, CAT6 or at least CAT5e are required, and I have several cat5e cables that look fine and will totally kill a connection when connected to a gigabit port. Interference and bad cables are a big deal.

To test this, you can try forcing the connection in windows to 100Mbps duplex, and see if that improves performance.
 
The wireless performance seems lackluster as well. My wife's laptop does not have a gigabit port, but it does have Wireless N capability. When I connect her laptop wirelessely, it has a Very strong signal (it is about 7 feet from the router, hehe) and connects at 130mbps. But performance is awful. When she tries to watch one of her 23 minute Bleach episodes on Youtube, she truly has to let it buffer for about 20 minutes before she can watch it. When I connect a cable and disable her wireless, it improves, but is still very sluggish. Since her wireless is connected at 130mbps, and her wired connection is only 100mbps, I can't understand why the wired connection performs better, though still badly.

As far as the other wired computers, they all have gigabit connections, using CAT6 cable.
 
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