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Testing internet connections

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 7:09 am
by matthijs
I'm having trouble with my internetconnection and wondered what you people do to test what is wrong. I have visited an internet speed tester and the problem is that
- ping is fine
- download is fine
- upload is not possible

So I can browse the web, email, and do everything except when I do anything related to uploading it doesn't work. I've tried resetting the modem, my computer, and the connection diagnostic on my computer says everything is fine. I didn't change anything with my firewall. And the chance of having a virus of some sort is almost zero.

Is there some way to run a diagnostic to see what's going on?

Re: Testing internet connections

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 7:33 am
by jayshields
That's about the time when I'd phone up my ISP and ask them to do a line check.

Re: Testing internet connections

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 7:38 am
by matthijs
Yeah, that's if you have an ISP company with a customer service that's actually reachable and not one which costs about half a dollar per minute to call, which you spend the first 5 minutes listening to a computer explaining a menu, before you're put on hold for 5, 10, 15+ minutes :banghead:

That's why I asked here. I know there are things like traceroute and stuff which you can do from the command line. But I'm a webdesigner, not a network admin, so I have no clue about things like that

Re: Testing internet connections

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 10:31 am
by Eric!
Have you checked your ISP speed to see what it does?
http://www.speedtest.net/

When you say upload doesn't work, what are you using? FTP, HTTP? Have you turned off the firewall just to double check it isn't blocking your packets?

Re: Testing internet connections

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 11:05 am
by matthijs
Eric! wrote:Have you checked your ISP speed to see what it does?
Yes, I used that website. Ping is ok, download as well, upload fails.

It was anything related to upload. So uploading a file to a web app did not work. FTP did not work. posting to devnet did not work.

Everything else incoming (browsing, reading mail, etc) did work fine. That was the weird thing. Normally both in and out don't work in case of a problem.

In the meantime the problem is solved. Supposedly some large servers of the ISP had problems. But I'd still like to know what I could do to figure out next time were the problem is. The thing is, even if I were able to get in touch with a help desk, the only thing they are going to say: "Have you tried unplugging the modem?", "Have you tried rebooting your PC?", "Are you sure your firewall is not blocking anything", "Please run anti-spyware this and anti virus that and call back later", etc etc even if I tell them I don't think the problem is my computer or modem

Re: Testing internet connections

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 11:17 am
by Eric!
Obviously it was an ISP problem and they are the only ones who can fix it. I doubt it will happen again, but if it does, just ask to talk to the tech support manager directly to get past the first layer of support.

Re: Testing internet connections

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 11:47 am
by jayshields
matthijs wrote:posting to devnet did not work.
Posting to devnet is not upload. It's just requesting a page as normal but sending some extra headers.

Re: Testing internet connections

Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 4:44 pm
by josh
matthijs wrote:In the meantime the problem is solved. Supposedly some large servers of the ISP had problems. But I'd still like to know what I could do to figure out next time were the problem is. The thing is, even if I were able to get in touch with a help desk, the only thing they are going to say: "Have you tried unplugging the modem?", "Have you tried rebooting your PC?", "Are you sure your firewall is not blocking anything", "Please run anti-spyware this and anti virus that and call back later", etc etc even if I tell them I don't think the problem is my computer or modem
It sounds like lag, packet loss, bad routing configuration etc...

Yes surfing the internet is uploading, uploading is just a term referring to outbound traffic ( technically ). Since HTTP is passive you were successfully having 2 way traffic, it just sounds like when you were sending a certain amount of data there was some issue.

Regarding tech support, I usually lie. When they say to reboot I just count in my head 10 Mississippi and say ok, etc.. Then I would tell them that surfing the web works but when you download a file it cuts out halfway thru ( gotta keep things simple for them I guess ). Beyond that I demand a supervisor, dont ask "can I speak to a supervisor", you pretty much have to say "transfer me to a supervisor" ( yeah theyre inventive-ized on KPIs )

To debug you would probably have to do custom tests with ethereal, they should be the ones to do that though not you