AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums Talk Belize Chat Area Internet, or lack of it

As is usual the service I am currently getting is appalling. Pages take several minutes to load, if at all. I don't know if I am particularly unlucky and if so what to do about it. I'm using Coral Cable's middle service, which is expensive enough as it is. Actual performance comes nowhere near what's stated, something I have come to expect whenever BTL is involved. About the only thing BTL seem good at is cutting people off if they're a day late in paying.

I needed to connect to several web sites this evening, but after an hour and a half of trying I have to abandon it. I also can't access my email properly.

Why do we accept this?

Are you sure it is the service and not your computer?

No I'm not - I find it impossible to discover. Once after my internet had failed completely (external wiring fault) I asked the guys from Coral Cable about performance, and one of them ran a test on my machine. Machine passed the test, but internet performance was still lamentable.

Do you know how I can find definitively where the problem lies?

I'm not the one to ask, that's for sure. What I can tell you is that I was having trouble with mine a while back and a friend told me that my memory was full of junk and I had to go in and clear some of the crap out.

Here are the instructions he gave me:

"Go to Start, Settings, Control Panel. Click on Control Panel, then double click Internet Options. This brings up the Internet Properties dialogue box. It has tabs on top, and when it opens, it should be on the first tab that says General, go down to where it says Temporary Internet Files, and click the Delete Files button. A warning box will come up that asks if you really want to do this. There is also a little box you can check to delete all offline content. Check that box and then click OK. If you have never done this before, it may take a few minutes. This is where all of your memory went. You need to do this once a week or so. These files are hidden on your hard drive, so you don't see them with Explorer."

Another way you can tell if it is your computer, is go to Desk Top and go to the icon for your Computer. Or where ever you find it. Click on that, and a dialogue box comes up with tabs at the top. Click on Properties. It will show a bunch of stuff but one of things it should show is at what capacity your computer is running or something like that. Anyway, it is expressed as a percentage. Your computer should be running at better than 73% for good performance. 80% is better.

Mine is running at 62-65% some times, and I can't get a thing done. Today it is not too bad, who knows why? But I can guarantee you, my problems are not related to my service.

Best of luck.

I do this regularly/frequently, as well as checking the registry, defraging the disk, and scanning for viruses and malware. When I'm in the US or Britain the machine flies.

I generally use Jack Daniels to clear my memory.

Pedro2 got to this site:

http://www.speednetllc.com/speedtest.htm

It will measure your upload and download speed, separate from your computer processes.

135/52 on my BTL 128 in San Pedro

Also you can click control/alt/delete at the same time.

that opens up Windows Task Manager, click on the performance tab. That shows your CPU usage. If youhave programs running that you are unaware of it will show in high CPU usage.

Just tried it - download 95, upload 111. I don't know what the numbers mean but I believe it's unusual to have download speeds lower than upload - in England my download speed is 10 times the upload speed.

I just ran the test again. This time 85/113. Upload speed roughly the same, download even slower.

And a third time - 99/64.

Am I right in thinking that these figures are abysmal? And that they are connection rates, not dependent on my machine?