Ah, my neighbor on Comcast ran into a similar trouble, Their online tech/troubleshooter said on the side her modem was bad. Comcast account service did a check and said her modem was okay. It was her other modem that was bad. Other modem? She only had the one modem on her TV box to go from cable to in-house wireless modem/router. She cancelled Comcast.

adit: There is also the issue of personal open applications running in the backgrounf on other browser windows, tabs, etc. Other Thread in Forum Feedback Discusses the time paid to social media running in the background that take resources unseen to load their updating adware/graphics/animations. I'd see if closing those down when you visit Fun Trivia and see if anything improves.

Hmm
I'm having a similar problem, Windrush.

Nothing running in the background, changed devices, hot-spotted from phone on bluetooth, speed good, changed my mouse. Emptied everything. Everything updated. Nothing amiss.
Just crippled running.

Telstra may be the common factor. Still ADSL2+ here. NBN monster is yet to arrive.

I just want to play. *huff*

There's a post by wwe84 over in the Feedback forum .. he's also having problems. I've looked at his ip address and he's with bigpond.net.au (a Telstra company) .. the common factor between both of you is Telstra. It might be the hops Telstra uses from here in oz across the Pacific to the U.S.

If you've got time to kill, you light get lucky with whirlpool.net.au .. there are a lot of tech savvy people in there.


fwiw, I left bigpond 11 yrs ago. I've now been with internode for 9 years without any problems or issues. I'm dreading the day the NBA comes to our street ...

What operating system are you using, Windrush and cousin Hare? And when did you last get a system update? If the timing of that coincides with the start of this problem I'd be tempted to restore my system to just before the update and see if that made a difference. If so there might be a conflict between the update and Telstar or a driver issue... which may have been resolved now so when the update 'arrives' again it could be okay.

Thanks all of you. Flopsy, my problem started last Tuesday (5 days ago), coinciding with the big outages on the east coast doe to the cyclone. I'm 1,000 km away from all that, but it seems the system routs through Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney before going offshore, and the speed is quite good in Oz. Just hits a brick wall as it leaves Sydney. I was wondering if a lot of the resources are being redirected towards restoring the broken system in the east (Telstra Bigpond is by far the biggest provider in Oz) but that was pooh-poohed by the Telstra techie.

As for updates, I think AVG had been sitting on them until today when one of the techies decided (with my approval) to delete AVG, then there was a major windows update. I'd already established that AVG wasn't the culprit when I temporarily disabled it. I've logged a complaint with Telstra, and will wait for their response. Although I might take a look at restoring to before the problem date.

When did yours slow down, MarchHare?

Thanks gtho4, I'll take a look. I am sure there isn't, but just humour me; there is no way that FT's software has suddenly decided it doesn't like bigpond's signals is there? - No, she answered herself, I saw my signal slow down straight after Sydney when the techie used the C-prompt to trace it to 2 different off-shore sites.

Your answer may be here:


That may mean Telstra is using a different route to get across the Pacific; and one or two of the hops is "struggling". Run a tracert when your next at your daughter's and compare that to what you're getting at your place.


my mobile phone is with Telstra and funtriva's been a bit slower over the weekend .. no problems at home

Well, it's possible that a power outage on that scale has caused problems with a number of webservers - storms like that can overwhelm even the strongest of surge-protectors.

Ah, it seems that you and Hare are not the only ones with a problem. I just googled "Telstra Bigpond" and there's a whole site full of issues: Aussie Outages. The problem is so widespread I can only suggest that you sit down with a strong cuppa and read the comments. There are mentions of the problem starting with a Telstra upgrade, a denial that's a problem, and all sorts of things which people have tried. You may have to sit tight and fume while it gets sorted.

iOS 10.6.8 Cousin Flopsy. Everything is definitely updated.
iPad, iPhone and HP lappie all up-to-date and all running with the same interrupts.
I've been having issues since January this year, but attributed it to needing upgrades etc, and/or a new mouse. Having dusted everything off and renewed mouse, and then saw Windrush's comment wondered if it was more.


gtho, whirlpool forums are always my go to and thanks for the thought. Lots of ideas and comments about similar problems, and all from beginning of this year, but no light bulb moments yet. I will keep checking.


I'm going to the local library this morning and Then I'm going to check via VPN sometime this week and see what happens.

My daughter's in Wagga on the doorstep of the Uni. Connection everywhere there is absolute rubbish but usable with bluetooth phone jump-off.

Telstra seems a large factor and we are doomed to caveman internet.

Upgrade?! *insert hysterical laughter*

Yes, I was having a terrible time with my ADSL2 performance (it had been, well, ok)at the end of last year, and assumed it was 'nudging' by Telstra to get us to change over to NBN. Did that early January, and found I was running out of data within a few days, even though the plan was more than double my previous use. Was forced to upgrade my plan, and still am getting unexplained data use spikes. Time to ask for a let out from the contract, I think.

Out of curiosity, do you live near an airport?

I ask because a company has started a data transmission business that doesn't send signals to satellites but uses aircraft as relay stations. I'd wonder if there's interference with ground receivers going on.

A friend in Melbourne recently had a similar problem, Windrush.
They were cautious of an eaves-dropping wifier but Telstra (eventually) admitted to a 'system error'.

My system would need to be completely removed before I'll sign for NBN, especially as the wi-fi is being pushed. Won't work so well here in semi-rural world. A real internet would be welcome and thee was actually nothing wrong with what we ran on a few years ago.

If you change contract and carrier, you would probably be still running through a piggy-backed Telstra system, but I hope it's better.

I'm always reviewing but I've stayed because we do have a great corporate deal for phones and bundle.

Guess what? After a week of abysmal service, it has just returned to its previous, just okay, speed. No names, no pack drill. I do wonder, though, whether my polite email asking them to address the situation, with the alternative of contacting the Ombudsman, might have had some bearing on it.

Funny how there is never any admission. I remember jumping up and down in frustration a few years back - bought a new modem at Telstra's insistence, finally called in a techie, who ran through 2 more modems, none of them would listen to me asking them to the exchange. Finally I overheard the techie ask them to check the connection at the exchange - he didn't realise I was listening in. Instant service. When I asked him, he said he had changed a couple of connections in my house. Got a bill for $350. Told them to whistle for it. Anyone can make errors, but the lies and the refusal to admit fault absolutely drive me insane.

Oh, and Mehaul, the nearest airport is nearly 50 km away, although the Melbourne - Adelaide flight path is nearly directly overhead - aircraft would be close to 10,000 ft at that point.

Heheheh Nothing like gentle persuasion is there, Windrush? I'm not averse to that either. Good luck for continued connection!

I know Belkin modems needed to be individually switched at an exchange. When all other avenues, and several previous attempts had failed, finally a techie (with more than the average nous) told my BIL. One phone call later and the rest of the world was connected.

Well, I'm glad that things seem to have improved, a bit, so far, touch wood, and all the other caveats that won't jinx you. I used to run a web business and oh how I long for the ability to reach through the screen to grab ISP techies by the throat and bang their heads together. I'm sure that few professions like telling their customers that they have no idea what the problem is and sorry, they probably won't be able to fix it, but in the case of ISP techies that really should be their starting point!

I'll keep everything crossed for you. Oh and by the way, your problem with Telstra probably is fixable. Emigrate!

Thanks Flopsy. Good suggestion, but like my Uncle Groucho, I'd never emigrate to a country with low enough standards that they're willing to accept me. 8^)

I have another problem; this time FB Messenger related. I like to stay in touch with a few friends via Messenger, but last year my account was hacked by someone who claimed to be me. Apparently I had 'found God' and just needed a few hundred dollars from each of my friends in order to cure the world's woes.

I cancelled my account and opened a new one (lost all my history including my photos). Now it's happening again, despite my asking for assistance from MS Messenger, and I haven't a clue what I can do, other than to cancel completely. Does anyone have any ideas?

I'd start with Google. I just did a search on "what if facebook account hacked?" and it came up with several links, including a couple to Facebook's own help system. In addition it had links to several articles with step by step instructions so you might try a couple of those - the ones I dipped into looked quite helpful.

Once you've got a list of things you need to do, the first thing is go to Facebook, click on the small arrow on the right of the top menu, click on Settings, then on Security / Where you're logged in - if you don't recognise any of the places shown as logged into your account, click on the three dots to the right of that entry and log it out.

Then work through the actions you need to take... e.g. change the password. You need to go through the whole process fairly quickly so don't just do the above log out and then leave it - if you do have an active hacker they might spot that and make things even more difficult for you so once you've done that check, do everything else asap.

Make sure you have a difficult password - upper and lower case letters mixed with numbers. At least 8 digits, preferably more.

Has anyone worked out how to stop a tablet from freezing partway through a duel? I've been spending more time away from home lately, and use my tablet. It seems that I have at least one, but usually two or three freezes (with the attendant reload penalty) each time.

Has anyone found a way to stabilise performance on Android devices? It does not appear to be an internet issue.

Help please! I am currently using 2 monitors - my laptop one in conventional (landscape) mode, and an attached one in portrait mode. As I have become less dextrous through arthritis and a slowing brain, I have found it to be helpful to have more questions displayed on one page.

A couple of days ago, my FT fonts have become ENORMOUS. I find I cannot display a full width of page even on the landscape window. Suspecting it was something to do with a Windows 10 update, I looked at those settings in my control panel - nothing had changed, but I made sure everything was on the lowest setting for good measure. I then went into my Google Chrome settings, and selected the smallest font size. I closed out, and re-booted but, while my general internet pages are reduced to the point where I can't read them, my FT pages are unchanged on a far too large setting.

Any useful ideas?

A couple of years ago I moved from Firefox to Chrome on advice from one of the FT gurus. I have just experimented by changing back to Firefox and the problem has gone away.

Try clicking on the CTRL key, hold it and use the scroll wheel on your mouse to go up and down. That will change the size of your font.

Yes, or hold down the CTRL key then click on the +/- keys to increase/decrease the font size. Whichever method suits you best.

Oh, that works. Gee, thanks guys.

Seems I'm the only klutz who constantly needs help. Just wondering if there is a simple way to be able to show my photos to my teamies without buying a subscription to another service.