Router Problems

[tankaton01]

First off, I'm no expert, so if I say something stupid, sorry xD

Alright, so a couple months ago out of nowhere my internet slowed down drastically. The only thing I can think of that I've changed lately was installing Windows 7, but I don't think they were at the same time. Did a trace route and found my ms to be about 900 on average. I contacted my ISP and did everything they told me (bypassed my router, power cycled about 11 times, etc..) but nothing helps. They've told me twice that there is a problem with the modem and they were going to fix it, but it only helped the lag for around 10 minutes, in which case the lag persists. When I bypass the router and connect directly to the modem, the lag is gone, so I know it is a problem with the router. I've already tried installing the latest firmware and reset the router to its original settings, but still doesn't fix it. Can it be fixed? Or would it be easier to just get a new router altogether?

Here's some info about my configuration:
I have comcast, and I'm hardwired to a Netgear wireless router, model WGR614 v9. There's two computers running off the router, both with the same problem. (Not sure if all of the was actually needed.)

 

[scaye]

How old is the router?

Possible someone is sapping your wireless?

The other computer isn't running a torrent program is it?

Have you tried a speedtest when this problem occurs? www.speakeasy.net and look at the bottom of the page for speed test. Just select the closet city. Record the numbers that appear at the bottom once the test has completed.

 

[tankaton01]

I bought the router at the end of the summer of 2009, so not too old. However, I have had the modem since I first joined comcast, so it's probably 2 or 3 years old by now. I really don't think anyone is sapping the wireless, I had changed the password before but I reset it to original settings today, but the problem began before I reset it. The computer is running uTorrent, but once again, it was downloaded after the problem occurred. I ran the speed test and came up with a download speed of 13500kbs and an upload speed of 413 kbs.

I had a thought however. If perhaps one of the computers connected to the router had a virus, could it be slowing down the connection for other computers? When I connected my currant computer directly to the modem, I had no lag. But is that because of the router itself or a result of no longer being linked with the other computer?

 

[scaye]

if you ran this test through the router, then there is no reason you should be lagging. The speed test is good.

If you didn't run this test while you were lagging, do so again when you are.

By what you explained it sounds like the router is getting bogged down. Normally with poor design this happens every so often, but if the router is on it's last legs you may see this happen every ten mins like you explained. If you happen to have an old router, or a friend that does that you can test on your network then I would try that first and see if that doesn't clear it up.

BTW, you might try turning off the routers firewall if it's using one, perhaps that will help. Just possible as I can't think of any other reason for slow pages, but a good speed test.

 

[tankaton01]

I feel kind of dumb because of it, but I think uTorrent WAS the cause of the problem. I tried uninstalling it just to see and my latency dropped from 935ms to 17ms. Hopefully this isn't temporary.
Thanks for all your help, hopefully this ended up being the cause.

 

[Guest]

Ok what i s Utorrent?