Suuuuper slow internet... sometimes.

[chezikthestrong]

Hello Kubuntu forums. I'm both new to the Linux and the site, so please pardon my ignorance. I'll work hard to overcome it, I promise.

I recently installed 9.10 to my computer with the help of a friend. It was all super cool at home but I took the same computer to college and it's Internet is largely malfunctioning. My windows-running laptop runs fine with the same cable and jack but my desktop however, is stuck in the mud.

The problem is bizarre, to me at least. I plug the ethernet cord in and it recognizes it and shows some activity on some widget I've got that shows such things. But, if I attempt to load a page, it will churn for a few minutes and sloooooowly load the page. It'll get the title, after a while, and then half of the google image, and then the other half over the course of 5 or so minutes.

Here's the weirdest part: sometimes, it connects fine, provided I wait until the computer is booted up for awhile and then plug in the ethernet (this method doesn't not work 100% of the time). Then, internet runs at normal speeds and all internet related programs work, my xkcd widget updates etc. But most of the time, super-slow.

I've browsed around some fora and haven't come up with much that helps. I tried turning off IPv6 off in firefox and that doesn't work. Some other sites have mentioned changing something in my /etc/module.d/aliases file, but I don't appear to have aliases or whatever the hell thats called.

I believe I've searched the fora as well as I can without coming up with a helpful/not-too-technical answer. Hence I turn to you.

Thanks.

[Snowhog]

Re: Suuuuper slow internet... sometimes.

Have you contacted the IT department personnel at the college yet? That should be your first course of action, especially given that you say this behavior does not happen 'at home' but does at college. So the only thing different in the equation is 'where' you are connecting your PC.

By the way, Welcome to the wonderful world of Linux and the Kubuntuforums. There are a lot of good people here, with varying degrees of experience and knowledge, but all willing to provide support to a fellow Linux/Kubuntu user 'within their capabilities."

[GreyGeek]

Re: Suuuuper slow internet... sometimes.

Try replacing the DNS IP addresses loaded by your college DHCP deamon with public DNS addresses.

http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/

[chezikthestrong]

Re: Suuuuper slow internet... sometimes.

Thanks for your help so far.

I did contact the school help desk. They asked me ten times if my cable was alright and then punted it back to me and told me to check the forums. Linux isn't their problem, it would seem. So, here I am. I'm away from my computer until tonight, I but I'll fiddle with the dns ip address when I return. This may have been an option a kid on my floor tried already. Can't hurt to try it again.

[chezikthestrong]

Re: Suuuuper slow internet... sometimes.

That didn't affect my connectivity. Still couldn't get on with Google's DNS server.



Any other ideas?

[GreyGeek]

Re: Suuuuper slow internet... sometimes.

Ya.
The next thing I'd look at is how your college uses proxy servers. There is an option in FireFox for setting several kinds of proxy internet servers. You may have to ask your college IT support staff what their Internet Proxy IP address is. Or, try the auto-detect settings, etc...

[chezikthestrong]

Re: Suuuuper slow internet... sometimes.

I have to confess some ignorance here. I'm not sure what proxy servers are. I know of proxies, ala the websites I used to get around the filter they had at my high school, but I'm not sure what you mean in this instance. So, I'm not sure what I should do once get my college's Internet proxy IP address. I apologize for being a little dense.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Suuuuper slow internet... sometimes.

Most large LAN administrators do not want to allow individual workstations to access the Internet independent of the network. It makes security, ESPECIALLY for Windows boxes, a nightmare. So, they setup a server which serves as an access "gate" to the Internet. That server has a connection to an external modem, much like a home cable Internet connection, or a T1 cable, or what ever. It also has a second ETH card connected to the LAN. The server contains or is mapped to a DNS, usually the DNS of the ISP. It has IP Forwarding and Masquerading installed. The IP address assigned to the ETH card is the "proxy" address of your Internet because your box cannot access the IP address assigned to the server by the ISP. That proxy IP address is a local address, meaning that it is either in the 10.*.*.* or the 192.*.*.* range, which is not visible on the Internet. The LAN admin can set up methods for blocking access to specific domain names and/or their IP addresses. In other words, they can control and throttle traffic in both directions.

Ask you LAN admin exactly what the IP address of the proxy Internet server is, the port it uses, etc... In otherwords, the info you'd need to fill in the manual proxy settiing for the FireFox dialog I showed you in a previous message.