Hey Guys, I was wondering if anyone could help me with a problem I've been having. I have Windows XP completely up to date, and an Agere Systems AC'7 modem. I have done virus, malware, and spyware scans which all came back clean. My problem is that starting about three days ago my modem would only connect at about 31 Kbps (sometimes slower, rarely any faster). Before this it would connect at 53 Kbps about 99.9% of the time with no problems and remain connected for the standard 8 hours. The new connection speed makes it nearly impossible to browse the Internet. It's just too slow for pages to load and I constantly have to reload pages that just stall out. If I had the money I'd definitely purchase high-speed Internet, but I don't have the funds right now.
I brought up the diagnostic tools for the modem and it said that the modem was working properly. I tried to update the driver, and got the message that said it was up-to-date. When I ran a troubleshoot on it, it said:
"Is your COM port turned off? The troubleshooter detected that a COM port may be disabled. This may be the cause of the problem. Follow the steps below. To enable a COM port
1. Open Device Manager in Control Panel.
2. Double-click Ports (COM & LPT) to expand the list of ports.
3. Right-click the port the modem is using, and then click Enable.
If Enable is not listed, the COM port is enabled."
The modem is listed as being COM port 3, but when I follow the steps that are listed; no COM ports appear on the list, only a printer. I have no problem connecting to the Internet. It connects every time, just at the reduced speed. It does seem to take longer to connect though. When I called my ISP, they said everything was working fine on their end and that if I could connect to the Internet than it likely wasn't my computer. So the next logical conclusion is it's the phone line right? The problem with that, though, is I've tried connecting from other places in my home with the same results (maybe a little faster, in the 40s Kbps). I also have two separate lines and have tried them both with the same results. At one point yesterday I connected several times in a row at my normal 53 Kbps speed and thought maybe everything had returned to normal so I left it connected, but when I came back the download speed had reduced to a crawl. My brother, who lives with me, says that his connection is fine – no change in his speed - which must mean it is my computer right?
The only thing different I've done during that time frame is download a new version of my virus software. I use AVG and had to download version 9. Well it didn't download an actual .exe file to my HD. It used something like a download manager, like what Firefox uses to update.
Anyway, everything appeared to be working fine, maybe it slowed my browser down a little because of the "Link Scanner" it uses but I was still connecting at 53 Kbps with no problem. Well after I started losing connection speed I jumped the gun and uninstalled AVG thinking that might be the problem (it doesn't appear that it was). Now I have no virus protection because my Internet speed is too slow to re-download it and the old .exe file for version 8 is about a year out of date and won't run correctly/completely because I can't update it with speed I have.
I'm at loss right now. I have no idea what's wrong, and so have no clue how to address it. Could my modem just be fading? Should I buy a new one? Any help you guys could give would be greatly appreciated. If you have any questions, please ask them. It might take me a while to respond because of my speed issue though. Thanks a lot in advance. I apologize if this issue has already been addressed, I wasn't able to really do an effective search with the connection I have.
