Help please...wired internet suddenly extremely slow.
My parents are on 150mbps fido cable internet.
They have a sff Dell desktop wired directly to the Fido modem/router.
A few days ago, my dad called me saying that the internet on the dell stopped working, (though their tablet, phones, windows laptop and chromebook that connects to wifi are fine).
I went over with an extra ethernet cable, a spare usb ethernet adapter, and an old n300 usb wifi adapter just in case.
I get there and see the activity light on the modem/router port connected to the dell flashes orange instead of green. Network status in Windows 10 shows its connected to the internet, however speed is extremely slow and essentially unusable, like under 200 kbps.
Network troubleshooting is not a strength of mine.
I rebooted the modem/router, swapped cables. tried all ports, tried the usb ethernet adapter instead of the built in ethernet...same result - orange light, very slow internet.
Wired their windows laptop directly to the modem/ router and that worked just fine - green light, fast internet.
Obviously something specific to the dell hardwiring is messed up.
In the end, i stuck the old usb wifi stick in the back of the dell - internet speed more than adequate for their needs (mainly in the 30-40 mbps range which is fine), and left it at that.
Yesterday dad calls me again. tells me that the wifi on the dell (that I installed days prior) works most of the time but occasionally it loses connection and websites will time out or give an error, which can get annoying. I haven't used that usb in years but i recall that it can get very warm, and given its age, possibly not the most reliable for daily usage nowadays.
Then I remembered i had a very old Trendnet wired router in drawer at my folks. I thought, let me connect the Trendnet router to the fido modem/router...then connect the dell pc (wired) to the Trendnet router and see what happens...and that worked! Green flashing lights on both routers, and stable internet at 40-60 mbps (speed limitations of old router). we left it live streaming for a while over dinner to make sure it was reliable. and I left it set up that way.
Can anyone explain to me why the internet suddenly got all wonky (orange) when wired directly to the fido modem/router...but now it works fine again (albeit slower) using an old wired router as the "middleman".
And how can I fix it so it works again as set up originally with the dell pc wired directly to the fido modem/router??
Thanks for those that read all this and can offer some direction. I'm almost certain that there's a simple solution to all this, and I didn't have to type all of the above...but again, I'm no expert here...and damn, what a long post
They have a sff Dell desktop wired directly to the Fido modem/router.
A few days ago, my dad called me saying that the internet on the dell stopped working, (though their tablet, phones, windows laptop and chromebook that connects to wifi are fine).
I went over with an extra ethernet cable, a spare usb ethernet adapter, and an old n300 usb wifi adapter just in case.
I get there and see the activity light on the modem/router port connected to the dell flashes orange instead of green. Network status in Windows 10 shows its connected to the internet, however speed is extremely slow and essentially unusable, like under 200 kbps.
Network troubleshooting is not a strength of mine.
I rebooted the modem/router, swapped cables. tried all ports, tried the usb ethernet adapter instead of the built in ethernet...same result - orange light, very slow internet.
Wired their windows laptop directly to the modem/ router and that worked just fine - green light, fast internet.
Obviously something specific to the dell hardwiring is messed up.
In the end, i stuck the old usb wifi stick in the back of the dell - internet speed more than adequate for their needs (mainly in the 30-40 mbps range which is fine), and left it at that.
Yesterday dad calls me again. tells me that the wifi on the dell (that I installed days prior) works most of the time but occasionally it loses connection and websites will time out or give an error, which can get annoying. I haven't used that usb in years but i recall that it can get very warm, and given its age, possibly not the most reliable for daily usage nowadays.
Then I remembered i had a very old Trendnet wired router in drawer at my folks. I thought, let me connect the Trendnet router to the fido modem/router...then connect the dell pc (wired) to the Trendnet router and see what happens...and that worked! Green flashing lights on both routers, and stable internet at 40-60 mbps (speed limitations of old router). we left it live streaming for a while over dinner to make sure it was reliable. and I left it set up that way.
Can anyone explain to me why the internet suddenly got all wonky (orange) when wired directly to the fido modem/router...but now it works fine again (albeit slower) using an old wired router as the "middleman".
And how can I fix it so it works again as set up originally with the dell pc wired directly to the fido modem/router??
Thanks for those that read all this and can offer some direction. I'm almost certain that there's a simple solution to all this, and I didn't have to type all of the above...but again, I'm no expert here...and damn, what a long post
Last edited by Fightguard on Jan 25th, 2023 1:28 am, edited 1 time in total.