Hi, I have an odd problem, I have a clean, not as in fresh, windows xp home box that keeps giving me problems with internet connectivity. I have modest games and such and a typical box. The main programs are: -avast -adaware (free) -spybot -ccleaner -filseclab - firewall These box appears to be clean but after being on for awhile the limited internet connectivity ballon appears and internet is slow to unusable. I have not checked events in administrator settings or whatever it is called I will do that when I get back to the box. It was working great but some many things were done to it last that it would be quite hard to try to figure out exactly what caused/causing it. It is almost like a hardware problem. The firewall does not seem to be limiting anything as the internet performs well after restart for at least an hour. I thought maybe a virus like the one/ones that appear like svchost and took over the internet connection. So I did a boot time scan/ various safe mode scans and such nothing serious and what was found was put in chest to be checked as I did not have time. Also there is nothing like p2p or something running that is hidden by the task bar. Bunk drivers? failing onboard nic? failing dsl moderm? You know what sucks. Is when people answer posts with assumptions.

"...after being on for awhile the limited internet connectivity ballon appears and internet is slow to unusable." "It was working great..." If it works fine some of the time, there is nothing wrong with your hardware or the drivers for that hardware. It sounds like you have a wireless connection - you don't normally get any messages about connectivity if you have a wired network connection. If you have wireless B or G/B, your problem is common. If you are connecting to a wireless router or router/modem combo, if you have a wired network adapter on your computer, or can get and install one, and the router or router/modem is close enough to your computer, use a network cable to connect to it, and your connection will be as reliable as is possible. If you are having problems all the time, there is probably nothing wrong with the hardware or drivers for that, but you may have problems in Windows - you could try this: WinSockFix (.exe) - Windows - all versions http://www.softpedia.com/progDownlo... You could also try using a utility or program to tweak the TCP settings in Windows - the default settings are not ideal. E.g. search for: TCPOptimizer Download it, run it, make sure it is set to the network adpter you use to access the internet, load Optimized settings , reboot. It only has to be run once, until the next time you load Windows from scratch.

Not using wireless. Read about that winsock problem and will look into it. Is there something that filseclab might be doing? What is the cause of the winsock problem? Are you sure it is not the always on broadband modem? I has a speedstream modem before and it always needed rebooting. Thinking about asking my ISP for a new one anyway. Thanks for the reply. p,s could it be some of the downloaded games causing errors? You know what sucks. Is when people answer posts with assumptions.

"What is the cause of the winsock problem?" I have no idea, but some people claim to have problems with it - I never have that I know of. Personally I think most of the time it isn't the Winsock that is the problem at all. Winsockfix is also supposed to fix all sorts of Windows settings problems related to internet speed. "Are you sure it is not the always on broadband modem? I has a speedstream modem before and it always needed rebooting. Thinking about asking my ISP for a new one anyway." That sends up a reg flag. It sounds like you were having problems before as well as now. DSL or ADSL has some things that can affect reliabilty and speed of connections. Things that can give you problems: - you are located near the max distance limit from the nearest phone exchange. - you have line noise in your telephone lines between you and the telephone exchange - it may be intermittant - audible when you listen on a phone on the same line, or above your range of hearing. - you are using a long cheap flat phone cable to connect to your telephone wall connection - those cables act like an antenna and pick up extra electric and electronic noise - it may be audible or above your range of hearing. Where you rout such a cord can be important - keep it away from anything that might generate electic or electronic noise - e.g. fans, flourescent lights, heaters. The noise induced decreases with the square of the distance from the source. If you have no choice but to connect to a long flat cable, you are much better off to connect a twisted pair cable, the type normally used for the telephone wiring within your walls (twisted pairs cancel out induced noise and capacitance), connect it to a connection box that has a telephone jack near your modem or router/modem combo, then use a short flat cable between the connection box and the modem or router/modem combo, OR if the telephone wiring within your walls is questionable (e.g. looks like lamp cord), move your modem or router/modem combo and connect a phone line to it as close as you can to where the phone line enters where you live, and run a longer network cable to your computer network port. - if you do not have a dedicated DSL or ADSL telephone line, you do not have DSL or ADSL blocking filters between ALL devices other than the high speed modem or router/modem combo connected to the same telephone line and the wall connections. - you are not using something to protect your phone line and router and high speed modem, or router/modem combo, from power spikes and surges. I experienced damage to a ADSL modem because of that - it still works but very poorly. For that matter you should protect everything that connects to your computer from power surges and spikes - everything that plugs into AC including power packs, and the telephone cable, and the coax cable if applicable. "Is there something that filseclab might be doing?" If it was you would think it would affect internet speed all the time. I don't use a software firewall at all most of the time. The default firewall settings in my router work quite well and my computer passes the Norton Internet Security online test, and the Shields Up test. But most of the time I'm using 98SE, about half the time I use the Windows Firewall in XP, and I don't go anywhere dangerous or do anything dangerous, such as download movies or music or games from questionable sources. "p,s could it be some of the downloaded games causing errors?" I don't know about errors specifically, that would probably give you problems all the time, but you sure could get malware along with the download and some of it may be hard to pin down - do you check all downloads from questionable sources for malware before you use them - viruses and trojans/adware? They can hide inside *.zips or other compressed files. ........ If all of those things don't apply to you, then your problem is you need to get a different ISP if you can, e.g. one connected through coax cable.