[Gllug] internet connection

[john gennard]

I can access the internet in two ways:-

a. A dial-up connection to ClaraNet which I've used
    for some eight years and which has never given
    me any problem.

b. Via a neighbour's 2mb broadband connection which
    I get onto by way of a wireless link. This was
    offered to me about two years ago and oringinally
    used a cable connection into my hub (I have three
    boxes networked in my flat) there were no problems
    with this. About a year ago, the neighbour started
    to use wireless (not to his ISP), and he reorganised
    my setup - now I have a US Robotics 22 mbps Wireless
    Access Point in the kitchen and cabling to my hub.
    The use of his access was a kind offer to allow me
    to make very fast large downloads (mainly .iso files
    for Linux distros and ocasionally films).

In recent months, I've been getting intermittent problems
with the broadband - common experiences are:-

Today (Sunday) access was blindingly fast with instant
responses from every link.

Many weekdays, things will go along the lines of an instant
'102 messages on server', from me 'download' and no response
until a 'timed out' message. This is common, but if I launch
a browser and connect to a weather site, my email often will
download. (There's nothing wrong with ClaraNet for if I use
dialup immediately, I get no pauses, timeouts etc).
Browsing gives me many irritating failures to connect to
sites, yet sometimes repeated double clicking on links can
make the connection. (Again, switching to dialup indicates
no problem with the servers). Just when I'm ready to smash
everything in sight, the connection goes back to working
perfectly. It is as though 'something is sticking' - that's
a nonsensical thing to suggest, but I don't see how the
problem can be settings otherwise how can I achieve a perfect
connection sometimes and not at others. Also, when I manage to 
connect to a site and start a large download there's no
difficulty other than the speed being about 20% of maximum
which I assume is due to pressure on the server.

Any thoughts from experts in this field? I don't expect a
solution, but it would be nice to know if others have
encountered similar inconveniences and worked out what the
cause could be (or is).

Regards,				John.





	

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