Why is my internet running like molasses now?

[Lovesong]

OK- I'm going to try to write this as clearly as I can, as my connection speed at this point is as fast as a special olympics hurdler (no offense- just a metaphor). Basically this past month I finally decided that renting wasn't the way to go, and went on to get my own place. I moved in this past weekend, and had the local cable guy come by today to hook up my internet.
My setup is fairly straight-forward:
15" MBP C2D 2.33
D-Link DI-624 Wireless router (this is Rev. C (the one with one antena))
Standard cable broadband modem (it's the Ambit 60678EU)

For the past 8 months I have been using this setup at my old place with little or no difficulties. From time to time I'd have to reset the modem (but I think that that is typical for all cable modems), but other than that I haven't had issues. Durring my move I simply unplugged the router and modem from their respective outlets, placed them in a box, and when the cable guy dropped in the new wall plate he simply connected the modem to the wall with a coaxal cable, rebooted the modem, and all seemed well.

The problems began shortly after he left. I noticed that pages like Yahoo were taking up to 20 seconds to load, and MR's webpage took about 2 to 3 minutes. I think I tried most of the tricks in the book- rebooted the modem (both by disconnecting it from the wall, and by unplugging it for 1 minute). I rebooted the router, and tried reseting it (using the reset button, which incidentally reset my WEP settings...whatever). One of the articles on MR, that I found after only 6 minutes of loading the search page suggested I trashed the SystemConfigurations folder in the ~/Library, which would reset my airport prefs. That didn't work. I even tried creating a new account to see is I had messed up my preferences somehow.

Of note is that I can't seem to be able to connect via the ethernet cable from the modem either- maybe it's something I'm messing up on, but I've never successfully managed to hook up an Apple portable via ethernet since I've owned the modem (circa 2004, including a Ti-book, a 1.67 PB, a MB, and this MBP in question), but I've had no issues connecting via ethernet on a desktop machine (tried it on my G5 and my old G4- both unavailable to test stuff with at this moment). This hasn't been a problem until tonight, as I've simply always used the wireless router to connect to portables.

My question is how should I proceed? Should I call the cable company to have someone test the signal (I'm assuming that the fact that I am able to get online would be sufficient for them to tell me off). Should I try to flash either the router or the modem? If so, does anyone have links (I tried the "ambitmicro" site and it seemed fishy (with expired certificates))? Anything else I should try? This is one of the areas that I'm really illiterate on, so any suggestions in plain english would be more than welcome. Thanks all.

 

[iMeowbot]

First, no bad-talking molasses, it can be pretty darned quick when properly motivated.

I'd first try to free up one of those desktop machines that work directly with the cable modem, to see where the problem is. If the connection goes all zoomy fast, you can be fairly sure that your router is having the issues. If it still stinks with the direct connection, you can start leaning on the cable company to do something.

 

[scott85213]

Maybe you have the same problem i had a year ago. My internet was literally useless constantly. Turns out everyone in my neighborhood was sharing the same chunk of bandwidth. So pretty much if anyone uploaded or downloaded too quickly, 20 houses had no internet. I had to switch isps. Maybe your isp is doing the same thing?

 

[Lovesong]

Thanks for the quick replies. I'll try to get my hands on an iMac tomorrow and see how that goes- if it runs the same way, I'll have a nice conversation with the company.

scott85213- this is probably happening here as well. The place is a condo complex, and I'm sure that we share lines. The thing is that this is a new construction and there aren't that many people that have moved in yet (so I think that it's unlikely to be the cause- though I can see it being an issue in a couple of months once everyone moves in). Thanks for the thought- it made me think about future plans.

 

[Lovesong]

Alright- here is an interesting thing- I just booted into my windows partition on the MBP, rebooted the modem and the speed is up to what it should be. Hooking it up to the ethernet cable directly works like a charm. I tried the router, and while windows recognizes it, I can't seem to get any pages to come up... so I'm guessing it's the router? Maybe?

 

[iMeowbot]

Yeah, if you're using the same cables and all, the router does look like the most likely trouble spot. While running windows, are you able to get into the router's built-in web pages where the configuration stuff is? I'd expect that to at least partially work, since you did have the connection up and running from OS X.

If the router seems to be alive and well, it may be time to use the reset button, then set it up from scratch as if it were brand new. It's possible that some undesired setting got turned on at some point, and this will be more expedient than paging through settings screens, looking for anything that looks off.

 

[Lovesong]

Yeah, if you're using the same cables and all, the router does look like the most likely trouble spot. While running windows, are you able to get into the router's built-in web pages where the configuration stuff is? I'd expect that to at least partially work, since you did have the connection up and running from OS X.

If the router seems to be alive and well, it may be time to use the reset button, then set it up from scratch as if it were brand new. It's possible that some undesired setting got turned on at some point, and this will be more expedient than paging through settings screens, looking for anything that looks off.

Actually after I wrote last night I did just that- logged in to the admin page, updated the firmware, and set up a new network. I was able to connect to the router just fine, but I still couldn't get the thing to bring up a page in 'doze, and if anything, updating the firmware seemed to make it even slower in OSX. While I was in Windows, and was able to search a bit I found this. Apparently that D-Link router I have appears to stop working with some people after an airport update. The strange thing is that I did that update back in March, and the router ran fine for about two months afterwards.

 

[jburns]

Apparently that D-Link router I have appears to stop working with some people after an airport update. The strange thing is that I did that update back in March, and the router ran fine for about two months afterwards.

Could this have been the first time you powered the router down since March?