Browser/Connection speed

[Stuart Brackpool]

Recently I changed my browser of choice from Explorer to Safari due to Hotmail changing and Explorer not liking it. I prefer Safari but after about a month of using it, for a few days now, my connection speed has dropped to pretty much as low as it can go. Loading webpages takes an age. Using mobile broadband I've encountered drops in signal but that usually resolves itself after a couple of hours.

My question is, are the change of browser and connection speed linked (it's also slow when using Explorer and Chrome) or are they unrelated matters? More importantly, is there any practical advice anyone can offer?

Any help would be appreciated, though it may take a while to read it!

[Jules]

I used a website called PC Pitstop a few years ago when I was having internet speed problems. It can tell you what connection speed you are actually getting, as well as other stuff. Haven't used it for a while but you could give it a go.

http://www.pcpitstop.com/default.asp

[Ean]

It could be a number of things, but it's unlikely to be browser related if it's affecting more than one.

Who is your ISP?

Do you only have a connection via mobile BB?

[Stuart Brackpool]

Only have mobile broadband, provided by T-Mobile. Never had a problem with it before.

[Ean]

As it's a dongle, I'm assuming you're using a laptop? Does it happen everywhere you take it, or just at home?

If it's just at home, I'd give them a call and find out if they're doing maintenance on the mast.

If it's everywhere, and it's been about a month since you had it, the cynic in me would suggest you've been downloading too much (dodgy stuff ) off t'interweb and have had your speed throttled because you've gone over the fair usage limit.

Depending on what plan you're on, the limits are:

Monthly/PAYG
24 hr plan - 0.5GB/Day
7 day plan - 1GB/Week
30 day plan - 2GB/Month

Mobile Plus - 3GB/Month

Mobile Extra - 5GB/Month

Mobile Pay upfront 90 & 365 days - 2GB/Month

Which frankly isn't much after you've watched a few YouTube videos and a bit of iPlayer.

[Stuart Brackpool]

It is a laptop and dongle combo. It doesn't leave home. Got the comp almost a year ago, only changed the browser about a month ago. Unbelievable as it may sound, I've haven't downloaded anything which may be considered 'dodgy' or anything synonymous with illegality. Can't speak for previous computers on that matter

I download free (legal) stuff and look at youtube a bit but I've never been anywhere near my usage allowance of 5GB a month.

A techy friend of mine suggested some things such as defragging the hard drive, clearing the internet cache and uninstalling/reinstalling the software that enables internet connection. Once I'd found out what all that actually meant I did it. It seemed to have briefly helped but now it's not quite as bad. It's now iceberg slow as opposed to monolithically slow.

Still, it's faster than the good old days of dial-up! Not much, though. Any thoughts?

[Ean]

Firstly, bung it all in the car, drive a few miles so you're definitely using a different cell tower, and try it there to see if that makes any difference.

If it does, then give them a call and ask if there's any maintenance happening on your local cell tower. It's possible there's a problem with it, or they're upgrading something, and they're throttling it so it doesn't stop working completely.

If not, it might be worth a phone call just to make sure your limit's still OK (and you're on the right one etc.).

Next stop would be the T-Mobile forums to see if anyone else had/is having the same problem.