Strange computer symptoms
 

I'm on a 300mhz, and the country i.s.p. limits the 56k modem to about 28k download and about 2k upload. Slow as heck, but even slower when a single page takes more than a minute to appear.

The slow connection aside, the strange thing is that the computer shows that I'm uploading almost as much as I'm uploading/downloading: at a ratio of 1:10 to almost 1:2 sometimes.

The upload only happens during the download transmission, which is unlike some worm-like porn or ad server.

I've run updated virus and several different ad-ware scans and they all show nothing, so I'm wondering how another program could be leaching off my connection speed. Any ideas please?

Overhead, handshaking, synchronizing and such...

1:10 is not much to worry about, 1:2 sounds a bit high.

Check to see what other programs might be running in the background - maybe one of them is uploading something. Worse case scenario - reformat and start over - When you say "only happens during the download transmission" - do you mean you are downloading something or just browsing the internet it is slow - also try another phone # in your area - some #s are slower than others.

Aggressive ad blocking would help as well, and set your browser cache fairly high. Keeps you from re-downloading pages youve already seen if they haven't changed.

Uploading concurrent with downloads is usually control-related traffic. As in, the other computer's saying "Here's some data," and your machine is saying "Right, got that." Normally, on a perfect connection, the other machine will hand you huge blocks of data, and your machine will roger up, and the ratio is great (like 1:50 or 100, I've forgotten what theoretical optimum is). When the connection is bad, the other machine hands over progressively smaller and smaller bits of data, and your machine spends more time complaining about it. "Here's a little piece of data, how's that?" "Oh, that's fer sheet, mate, try again."

So I'd guess you have a problem known as "wrong end of long copper wire" syndrome. Sorry for the grade-school description, but the formal terminology for network protocol junk has long since wandered out of my mind as useless.

Dan

PS -- solution? hahaha, beats me. Good luck.