Ugh, problems

[eoj17]

So I'm having problems with the internet speeds. We've got this Time Warner Road Runner cable. They gave us a SB4100 cable modem. I bought a linksys wrt54gx2 wireless router so I could broadcast to my other computers. Seems like after I put in the wireless router things started to go wrong. My normal download speed is around 15kbs. I've done speed tests and they all come out really low. It's starting to frustrate me. Every time I try and talk to the cable company they just give me the same answers which never solve anything. These forums have always helped me in the past, so I thought I'd give it another shot. Any ideas as to what can be causing the garbage speeds?

 

[folken]

What are your speeds like right now when connecting the modem directly to your computer?

 

[eoj17]

Well, when I'm connected to the wireless router it's still about 15kbs, same as if I was on the wireless signal. I can't even connect directly to the cable modem, when I attempt to, it'll connect but it won't allow me to view any webpages or anything. I've done everything to try and fix that, complete power cycles, blah blah blah. So basically regardless of what I do, if it's got the wireless router involved, it's garbage.

 

[folken]

Some cable providers hold onto the mac address of the nic the modem is plugged into. The cable provider around me has a mac address reset time of about 4hrs or so. So if you leave your cable modem disconnected/off overnight it should clear the mac address in the providers servers. Then you would be able to connect it to your computer directly. Clearing the mac address may also require a phone call if there is no reset time. You would have to do that anyway if you bought a new router so you might as well try it once before it costs money
Connecting it directly to the computer will without a doubt tell you if it is the router or your service that is at fault.

Also, spyware/virus scan the heck out of your computer to rule out slowness due to network traffic.

 

[eoj17]

Yeah I should really try scanning. Who knows what spread all over the network from my brother's computer. The cable company's answer to resetting everything was to leave it unplugged for 2 minutes, plug it back in and reboot. That was their answer 3 times in a row. I'll unplug it tonight and let you know what happens tomorrow. If it IS my wireless router, what could be causing it to slow down? A firewall or something like that? It's a really nice router, was like 150 bucks =/