Now what have I done?

Yes.

Not unless I fire up the W11 box (tedious)

er. Not known. I'm using a broadband speed checker. Curiously it says my connection is at Leicester rather than the usual 10 miles away near Luton.

Don't have a conventional phone handy. The Panasonic just gives the usual tone.

Many times.

Widows doing a massive update in the background without telling you? Maybe interfering with any attempt to measure download speed.

Tim

Win7 hasn't had any updates (even the paid ones) for nearly a year. Though for some reason, TimL's machine seems to have picked up an old update.

This is a re-furbished ex-college m/c and I wonder if they are still paying for support. Roughly once per month I get a 50+meg security update.

My mistake was to install a 205Mb roll up offered this week:-(

Rolling back has not put me back as was!

Re-starting the m/c will connect to the net although not at the usual location. Using the *connect* feature does not work and simply times out. I doubt anyone at MS is interested in any fault data and I certainly will not understand it!

Not even a smart phone with wifi?

Cant you login to the router itself and look at its diagnostics?

Panasonic what?

Hmm

How are you connecting the PC to the router? Ethernet or Wifi?

Might be worth logging into the routers management page and having a look.

If you open a command prompt, and type:

ipconfig

It will show details of any network connections you have, Chances are there will be one with an IPv4 address that starts 192.168.n.n. There will be a line below that that tells you the "default gateway". That will be the address of your router. (typically 192.168.n.1, or

Open a web browser, and tape that address into the address bar at the top (note, don't put it in the search bar)

So that will get you to the login page on the router. The required user name is probably "admin", the password may be on a sticker on the router. (or if it is an old router, the password might also be admin)

Once is there will be a link to get it to show you the actual line statistics and connection speed or "sync" speed. If the numbers there reflect what you are seeing in real life, then it is a broadband problem.

If the number look significantly better than what the PC can muster, and you are on wifi, then it might be wifi problem or a PC problem.

If on ethernet, then it might be a PC problem.

(although IME ethernet generally works or does not work - very slow performance (i.e. under 100Mbps) is unusual)

I remembered that, but even those paid updates have stopped now.

The malicious software removal tool is common across several windows versions, it isn't an update, it aims to remove any malware you have acquired.

My wife uses a smart phone. What is her wifi connection going to tell me?

I'll have a dig after lunch.

KX-TGC220E

Whether or not she also is getting rubbish download speeds. It has a browser.

OK

Well that's still an analogue phone useful for checking for crackles, or 'gently frying bacon' sounds.

I cant see how an upgrade can degrade download speeds, unless its secretly downloading other s*it in the back ground.

John. We are still on copper here. Early cable adopter village but they didn't bother with our lane:-(

Thanks for the above. Printed off for step by step work:-)

In message snipped-for-privacy@marfordfarm.demon.co.uk>, Tim Lamb snipped-for-privacy@marfordfarm.demon.co.uk> writes

John. Well that was fun.

The data listed under WAN included figures matching what I am seeing on a broadband test.

Basically I need to raise a query with Plusnet?

Thanks.

I get offered this for my WIn-10 VM. No idea what it is so I don't install it.

Try Dial 17070. When prompted, dial 2 to select a quiet line test. You should hear "Quiet Line Test" and then silence, there should not be any pops, clicks, whistles, buzzing or similar noises.

Done that. Dead quiet within the limitations of my elderly ears. Long chat with an engineer from Plusnet. Openreach engineer expected tomorrow morning!

In my opinion it is something wrong with the PC as the fault immediately followed a Windows roll up installation:-(

a 453**** patch seems to be quite old.

Last tuesdays Win 10 patches took ages to go in. The first patch was quickish and asked for the usual restart, then I noticed that the hard disk light was busy for a long time, and after about

Miraculously my missing start menu has returned, after it vanished as a result of the patch KB5031356 debacle.

If your Win7 box is running on wifi then plug it in with a proper cat5e cable and make sure the pc is using the wired connection, if it is no faster then investigate the log file in your router as above.

Copper can still be up to 80Mbps, or more in more cases...

(however from personal experience it can also be less than 1.5!)

ok, in one sense that is reassuring - it means the PC is not doing anything odd :-)

Yup sounds like it.

If you login to the portal (portal.plus.net), it will give you their predicted speed for your line... (which may be more similar to what you used to get)