Internet problems :(

[Caz]

Yes - for everything from banking to consulting and whatever else I do or need - the Internet is how I do it - and without a good connection I am in serious trouble - the place I am renting has a 2mbit connection that comes with the apartment but I am now seriously thinking of setting up a couple of other accounts with other providers JUST to make sure I am covered - there are times when I *have* to get online - THEN and THERE - without problems or issues - and if I can't it will cost me money...

 

[scotttswan]

Yeah def the fastest connection I have but choppy at times and they seem to issues with DNS sever routing into the states and Europe at times. So if your work is critical internet related my suggestion is carry two providers so you always have a plan B!

try using google's dns servers 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 or OpenDns's 208.67.222.222 & 208.67.220.220

both will likely be faster than the isp's

 

[marksoc]

I think there is a problem in the rich areas of the city, everybody has fast internet there, and maybe the providers do not provide enough bandwidth for everybody. Here in the West I almost never had any problems (of course, I have only 1 Mb, but still). I use Sinectis.

 

[tomdesigns]

try using google's dns servers 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 or OpenDns's 208.67.222.222 & 208.67.220.220

both will likely be faster than the isp's

Thanks for post I will try this!

 

[Caz]

Update: Things are all pretty much working again guys - many thanks for all your input and advice and suggestions. I'm happy to say I now have Linux back on my laptop as well - although for the life of me I *cannot* figure out why my high end (supposedly) Toshiba laptop refuses to allow me to install ANY distro of linux on it without also having Windoze on there as well - so I guess I am stuck with keeping windoze on - but at least I have a real operating system again - downloads (overall) coming through without corrupting all the time and basically things are pretty good... NOW - I'll really stretch the friendship here and ask if there is anybody else out there with a fairly high end toshiba running linux (Ubuntu 11.04) who has found that everything works spot on once installed *except* for the microphone ? And, if so, have you figured away to solve the problem ? I've got all the other sound/video stuff happening - but it would be nice to be able to use the linux version of skype for talking/etc. and at this stage I know I could probably buy an external microphone or use a headset but I would much rather get the internal mic working... Thought I would throw this in here ''just in case''... Thanks in advance

 

[elhombresinnombre]

Update: Things are all pretty much working again guys - many thanks for all your input and advice and suggestions. I'm happy to say I now have Linux back on my laptop as well - although for the life of me I *cannot* figure out why my high end (supposedly) Toshiba laptop refuses to allow me to install ANY distro of linux on it without also having Windoze on there as well - so I guess I am stuck with keeping windoze on - but at least I have a real operating system again - downloads (overall) coming through without corrupting all the time and basically things are pretty good... NOW - I'll really stretch the friendship here and ask if there is anybody else out there with a fairly high end toshiba running linux (Ubuntu 11.04) who has found that everything works spot on once installed *except* for the microphone ? And, if so, have you figured away to solve the problem ? I've got all the other sound/video stuff happening - but it would be nice to be able to use the linux version of skype for talking/etc. and at this stage I know I could probably buy an external microphone or use a headset but I would much rather get the internal mic working... Thought I would throw this in here ''just in case''... Thanks in advance

I'm not really very happy with Skype for Linux. It's still in beta (well, I've not seen any upgrade - point me to it if you know different) and I can never seem to get all of it to work at the same time. I suspect the microphone problem may be the actual soundcard drivers - have a look on the linux forums for your distro and your model of computer.

You should be able to set the boot options on your computer so that it will boot from the drive or the USB socket where you have your Linux distro. Check the options on start-up - it's probably F9. If you boot direct from the distro, one of the install options should be to format the hard drive and set new partitions (you did back up your data first, didn't you?) thereby getting rid of Windows. If you simply open the distro from within Windows, your only option will be a dual boot alongside Windows. Again, linux forums are pretty good for help. The version of Firefox that was probably bundled with your distro will like as not have some shortcuts to forums already in the bookmarks.

(brought to you courtesy of openSUSE, Firefox and Dell)

 

[MacDaddy]

To take this further, check out Namebench - a DNS benchmark utility from Google that assesses the best DNS servers for you to use given your location, typical sites you visit, etc. It's a pretty fantastic project - and the DNS servers it suggested I switch to are a whopping 20% faster than the ones supplied by the ISP (which are the default for most people).
I was a big fan of OpenDNS for a long time, but they're actually pretty slow down here - probably because they don't have servers in South America. For general use (top 2,000 sites), Google's DNS servers are the fastest - but YMMV, of course.

try using google's dns servers 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 or OpenDns's 208.67.222.222 & 208.67.220.220
both will likely be faster than the isp's