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DSL Connection Live, why is browser s–l–o–w on all home machines?

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Hi.
I tried to help a friend yesterday to regain suddenly lost surfing capability, but to no avail.

She has a DSL connection that’s been in place and working since 2004. Suddenly, the connection became intolerably slow (pages load in 35-40 minutes, yes minutes). Mail was able to come in (download to mail client) and most times a ping of web addresses from the command prompt came back quickly and correctly. A few pings to small-time websites resulted in 25% lost packets. To me, it seemed that
— it coudn’t be a virus because it affected every computer and internet enabled device (both Windows and MAC) in the same way while each was connected to that DSL network. Once outside that network, everything was fine.
— it couldn’t be registry settings or winsock or anything that was unique to one machine.

I had my friend check for phones that might be connected without a DSL filter and she assured me there were none.

I had her disconnect all but one machine (connected via ethernet cable).
We reset the modem, unplugged and disconnected everything, restarted and connected everything again. Absolutely no difference.

The problem affected both wired and wireless connections. The access point is a combination modem/wireless router access point issued by Verizon.

We started up a portable mi-fi and all devices worked fine while connected to the temporary access point.

The ISP (Verizon) said that the modem was fine and that it might be a security problem. The rep wanted us to work with one of their charge-by-the-hour consultants. This might, indeed, be the best thing to do, but can anyone shed a little light on:
— why this would point to a security issue and what might anyone do to address that
— whether there’s anything else that’s worth trying
— what could cause this to suddenly go haywire after seven years.

Sorry for the long post, I appreciate any information that might be helpful.
Thanks.

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Clarifications

In reply to DSL Connection Live, why is browser s–l–o–w on all home machines?

Clarifications

Have you thought of disabling the WiFi

In reply to DSL Connection Live, why is browser s–l–o–w on all home machines?

And see if that makes any difference?

It’s possible that some thing/one outside your friends abode is causing the issue over her WiFi.

But if that’s not the case I would look at any Updates available for the ISP Supplied Device and then wipe the existing settings and reconfigure it then try with a computer not from that LAN.

If the Connection is still slow it rules out any kind of Infection and confines the problem to the CAT Cable between the computer and Modem, the Modem or the actual Phone Lines. Though I would try changing the ADSL Filters as one could have gone bad but more likely one been connected in wrong.

Have there been any Thunderstorms in that region recently? If so I would look at replacing all of the filters.

Col

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