Win98 Dial Up Tweaks?

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Ellen - 23 Jul 2008 21:42 GMT

My win98(se) machine has connected to RCN's dial up service for years
with no problem. During this
time, my configuration has not changed.

In the past few months, my connection has gotten slower and slower and
finally got so slow that most
web and email connections are timed out or the servers can't be found.

Because I can connect to a free ISP (metconnect) with no problem and
(compared to RCN) blazing
speed, I think that RCN upgraded their software to a non-friendly to
win98 version.

I called RCN to find out if any tweaks can remedy the situation, but, of
course, they refused to tell me
once they found out I was using an unsupported o/s. Although the rep I
spoke to agreed that recent
updates probably were causing the slow down.

It may be that win98 just can't handle whatever software RCN is using,
but if anyone knows of some
tweaks that might help, please advise.

Thanks.

Ellen

Reply to this Message

MEB - 23 Jul 2008 23:05 GMT

Seems there is actually a problem with the service...

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/rcn - Welcome to the RCN Forum
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r20809212-Connectivity-Speeds-still-very-poor-at
-times-or-drops-entirely
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r20763699-Other-RCN-DNS-Nameservers-Vulnerable-t
o-Poisoning-Techniques
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r20813178-Connectivity-LV-horrible-connectivity-
in-Macungie
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r20808501-Connectivity-Packet-Loss-in-NYC-Over-a
-month
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r20816094-Speed-MD-Varyingslowerthanrated-speeds
-Silver-Spring-209
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r20801090-Connectivity-Woodside-Queens-packet-loss
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r20798189-Connectivity-Boston-SBO-Cable-Modems-O
ffline
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r20778513-Connectivity-Boston-MA-DNS-acting-up
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r20592398-Packet-Loss-and-Disconnects-in-Easton-
PA-Lehigh-Valley

Might be a good idea to check for SpyWare, Virus, and other. These can
REALLY slow down a connection. BHOs [like search bars, and other goodies]
can also severely effect connection speed.
You should be running a firewall [regardless of the router/modem router] to
ensure that you are *only* connected to the service, and not the "lurkers"
and other hackers/crackers that exist on ALL online services.
Check the router setup and make sure your not receiving or sending router
broadcasts across the Internet.

You might also try uninstalling a re-installing whatever software RCN may
have installed.

It may be possible to diagnose some of the issue [after the above tests].
You could test and post your connection ping results and network monitoring
results here to see if they are within the service's offerings.
IF you have your installation CD you can install a few tools to check your
system
System Resource Meter - basic system resources
System Monitor - Within this program you can configure network monitoring,
memory monitoring, and other testing to provide you and us with some
information to work with.

You can also check what is running by using MSInfo32, and memload
http://www.filechamp.com/Dl-3022-Memload-download.aspx to give you some
other/alternate information.

Signature

MEB
http://peoplescounsel.orgfree.com
--
_________

| My win98(se) machine has connected to RCN's dial up service for years
| with no problem. During this
[quoted text clipped - 22 lines]
|
| Ellen

Reply to this Message

Ellen - 24 Jul 2008 01:41 GMT

(First, I apologize if an earlier version of this message appears, my
newsreader is acting a bit differently than it did when I was connecting
through RCN.)

Very interesting, MEB. Thank you!

I did search for spyware and viruses and my system is clean. I have a
software firewall with correct and working rules. A TrojanHunter scan
said I had no suspicious open ports. TCPView shows this activity as I
type this and am connected via METConnect and I think this activity is
all okay?
listening to port 0 on my computer: 135, 1027, 1239, 1240, 1241, 1592,
1025, 1026m 1591. A connection from local ports 1026 established to
remote localhost:0127, and local address 0127 established to localhost
1026. Same for 1591 and 1592 and localhost 1592 and 1591. And also
connections to metconnect, the ISP I'm using.

I have no router. I'm not running any RCN software (I stopped using
their acceleration program a while ago) unless they installed something
I don't know about, but my firewall would have stopped that.

I use a memory manager (MemTurbo) so don't believe low memory is
contributing to the problem.

Dr. Watson advises that I have 61% of my resources free, all tasks
running are from trusted programs, a few kernel drivers are not ID'd,
but when I looked a few up they were MS software, and since my
METCONNECT connection is fine, I don't think these are a problem.

NetLab told me that rcn.com's IP address is: IP 207.172.16.170. When I
pinged that address, using netlab, I got no response. When I did a
Trace, I got no response.

Thanks for telling me about the diagnostic programs. Would System
Monitor give me info that Dr. Watson doesn't? Or any of the others?

After reading the dslreports posts, and having a really good connection
with a non-RCN ISP, I'm inclined to conclude I don't even need to tweak
my settings. I welcome your thoughts. And thank you again for your help.

Ellen

> Seems there is actually a problem with the service...
>
[quoted text clipped - 34 lines]
> http://www.filechamp.com/Dl-3022-Memload-download.aspx to give you some
> other/alternate information.

Reply to this Message

MEB - 24 Jul 2008 07:05 GMT

| (First, I apologize if an earlier version of this message appears, my
| newsreader is acting a bit differently than it did when I was
| connecting through RCN.)
|
| Very interesting, MEB. Thank you!

YW. You might need to "refresh" your news and mail accounts, and a few other
local settings if you continue to experiance problems. Try [if you haven't]
cleaning out all the temporary caches and files as well.

| I did search for spyware and viruses and my system is clean. I have a
| software firewall with correct and working rules. A TrojanHunter scan
| said I had no suspicious open ports. TCPView shows this activity as I
| type this and am connected via METConnect and I think this activity is
| all okay?

Must be, this one made it through fine.

| listening to port 0 on my computer: 135, 1027, 1239, 1240, 1241, 1592,
| 1025, 1026m 1591. A connection from local ports 1026 established to
| remote localhost:0127, and local address 0127 established to localhost
| 1026. Same for 1591 and 1592 and localhost 1592 and 1591. And also
| connections to metconnect, the ISP I'm using.

Okay, looks like some of the normals. What firewall?

| I have no router. I'm not running any RCN software (I stopped using
| their acceleration program a while ago) unless they installed
| something
| I don't know about, but my firewall would have stopped that.

Good that you're running a firewall. Yep, it would have popped-up a notice
if something was amiss likely.

| I use a memory manager (MemTurbo) so don't believe low memory is
| contributing to the problem.

Oh, memload just shows ALL applications that are using any memory and the
amount. Its extremely small, and provides some good info, though don't leave
it running as it does still have a memory leak that was never fixed [it
frees up after shutting down memload]

| Dr. Watson advises that I have 61% of my resources free, all tasks
| running are from trusted programs, a few kernel drivers are not ID'd,
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
| I pinged that address, using netlab, I got no response. When I did a
| Trace, I got no response.

Sounds like the ping returns have been disallowed [likely because that's
the public web address]. Presuming that you have the firewall set to allow
outgoing and incoming pings... the test would have been to another ping-able
address to test the connection speed and hops... but that's now apparently
redundant as you've changed services.

Using NetInfo HTML it shows the page coding, but I hesitate to scan for
Services or other just to find the access points.

Registry Whois
Domain Search:

OrgName: RCN Corporation
OrgID: RCN
Address: 196 Van Buren St.
City: Herndon
StateProv: VA
PostalCode: 20170
Country: US

NetRange: 207.172.0.0 - 207.172.255.255
CIDR: 207.172.0.0/16
NetName: RCN-BLK-2
NetHandle: NET-207-172-0-0-1
Parent: NET-207-0-0-0-0
NetType: Direct Allocation
NameServer: AUTH1.DNS.RCN.NET
NameServer: AUTH2.DNS.RCN.NET
NameServer: AUTH3.DNS.RCN.NET
NameServer: AUTH4.DNS.RCN.NET
Comment: ADDRESSES WITHIN THIS BLOCK ARE NON-PORTABLE
RegDate:
Updated: 2002-11-05

| Thanks for telling me about the diagnostic programs. Would System
| Monitor give me info that Dr. Watson doesn't? Or any of the others?

System Monitor gives real time analysis. It just happens to be one of the
tools included with 98, so it makes it easier to recommend as a start test
tool.

| After reading the dslreports posts, and having a really good
| connection with a non-RCN ISP, I'm inclined to conclude I don't even
| need to tweak my settings. I welcome your thoughts. And thank you
| again for your help.
|
| Ellen

I would say you're likely correct. RCN seems to be having difficulties
including having the DNS poisoning issue recently exposed [finally] in a
recent CERT bulletin. If your connection speed seems acceptable with another
ISP, I would say RCN was your issue... enjoy the new service.

|> Seems there is actually a problem with the service...
|>
|> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/rcn - Welcome to the RCN Forum

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r20809212-Connectivity-Speeds-still-very-poor-at
-times-or-drops-entirely

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r20763699-Other-RCN-DNS-Nameservers-Vulnerable-t
o-Poisoning-Techniques

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r20813178-Connectivity-LV-horrible-connectivity-
in-Macungie

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r20808501-Connectivity-Packet-Loss-in-NYC-Over-a
-month

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r20816094-Speed-MD-Varyingslowerthanrated-speeds
-Silver-Spring-209

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r20801090-Connectivity-Woodside-Queens-packet-loss

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r20798189-Connectivity-Boston-SBO-Cable-Modems-O
ffline

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r20778513-Connectivity-Boston-MA-DNS-acting-up

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r20592398-Packet-Loss-and-Disconnects-in-Easton-
PA-Lehigh-Valley

|> Might be a good idea to check for SpyWare, Virus, and other. These
|> can REALLY slow down a connection. BHOs [like search bars, and other
[quoted text clipped - 21 lines]
|> http://www.filechamp.com/Dl-3022-Memload-download.aspx to give you
|> some other/alternate information.

Signature

MEB
http://peoplescounsel.orgfree.com
--
_________

Reply to this Message

Ellen - 25 Jul 2008 21:36 GMT

Hi MEB,

Thanks for all the information. RCN does seem to be the issue. In the
past 24 hours, its come back again, but is still slower than my new ISP.

Maybe the DNS issue was part of it, maybe not. RCN will never tell.
But I checked RCN and my new ISP on doxpara.com and both passed.

Thanks again for your help.

I'm using an ancient firewall, by the way, called Conseal, which seems
to work fine. Not many work on win98 anymore.

Ellen

> | (First, I apologize if an earlier version of this message appears, my
> | newsreader is acting a bit differently than it did when I was
[quoted text clipped - 147 lines]
> |> http://www.filechamp.com/Dl-3022-Memload-download.aspx to give you
> |> some other/alternate information.

Reply to this Message

MEB - 26 Jul 2008 09:31 GMT

Conseal was a good rules based firewall, good enough for McAfee to obtain
it. Came out there as McAfee Personal Firewall.
The creator of the original, made another one called 8Signs Firewall
http://www.consealfirewall.com/firewall/conseal.cfm .
Here's the new style firewall, which works for 98 thru XP:
http://www.consealfirewall.com/firewall/version_comparison.cfm
http://www.consealfirewall.com/firewall/features.cfm
I haven't tested the new firewall [but I may in the future], but I do
remember the old one you mention..

That issue with RCN is not unusual, many have to change ISPs several times
to find one which actually is stable enough, and supplies good service. I
went through several myself over the course of years, and cost of service
isn't always a good indication of quality..

Signature

MEB
http://peoplescounsel.orgfree.com
--
_________

| Hi MEB,
|
[quoted text clipped - 118 lines]
| > |>
| > |> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/rcn - Welcome to the RCN Forum

| > |> Might be a good idea to check for SpyWare, Virus, and other. These
| > |> can REALLY slow down a connection. BHOs [like search bars, and other
[quoted text clipped - 21 lines]
| > |> http://www.filechamp.com/Dl-3022-Memload-download.aspx to give you
| > |> some other/alternate information.

Reply to this Message

Franc Zabkar - 25 Jul 2008 06:14 GMT

>My win98(se) machine has connected to RCN's dial up service for years
>with no problem. During this
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
>finally got so slow that most
>web and email connections are timed out or the servers can't be found.

You can get a feel for whether your problem is network or hardware
related by sending an email with a large attachment to yourself.

As MEB says, System Monitor will report the actual bytes sent and
received per second (Edit --> Add Item -> Dial-Up Adapter -> ...). A
good 56kbps connection will average around 5 KB/s and 2.7 KB/s for
downloads and uploads, respectively.

If sending to yourself is OK, then your client/server modems are OK,
and the problem is with your provider's connection to external sites.
From what you've written, though, it does seem that the problem is
between you and your provider. I doubt that there is any software that
is getting in the way, instead I suspect that your ISP's service is
congested (too many users), or your modem is not playing well with
theirs.

To check for hardware problems, try the following diagnostic tests. If
you see a lot of retrains, then that would explain the timeouts and
delays. Retrains are events that typically last for 20 seconds and
cause all data transfers to pause.

Information your modem can tell you about your connection:
http://modemsite.com/56k/diag.asp

How to make HyperTerminal talk to your modem:
http://modemsite.com/56k/x2-hyperterm.asp

AT Commands and examples of test calls & diagnostics
http://modemsite.com/56k/usehyper.asp

If you can't get diagnostic data after net connections
http://modemsite.com/56k/x2-inf.asp

- Franc Zabkar

Signature

Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

Reply to this Message

Ellen - 25 Jul 2008 21:37 GMT

>> My win98(se) machine has connected to RCN's dial up service for years
>> with no problem. During this
[quoted text clipped - 38 lines]
>
> - Franc Zabkar

Thanks so much for this information, Franc. I'll run some tests in the
next few days, and when I experience problems in the future.

I appreciate your help.

Ellen

Reply to this Message

Franc Zabkar - 26 Jul 2008 01:57 GMT

>A good 56kbps connection will average around 5 KB/s and 2.7 KB/s for
>downloads and uploads, respectively.

Sorry, a good upload speed would be around 3.7 KB/s (33600 / 9), not
2.7.

- Franc Zabkar

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