Can one computer ruin the internet connection for every other computer?

Sofa King Kool

Sofa King Kool

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My brother just got back from college, and ever since he hooked up his computer, our internet service has been complete shit, and in a very strage way. only some sites will load. Like right now, for example, I can get to CAG, but not IGN. I can get to Google, but not Xbox.com. There are even some select threads on this site that I can't see, it just won't load the page. It doesn't make any sense.

There are three computers in the house. Upstairs, there's mine and my brothers, and downstairs there's another one for everybody. The router is by the downstairs computer. Theres a wire running from the router through the wall and up to my computer.

Everything has been absolutely fine for a long time now, but as soon as we ran a wire through the wall connecting my brother's computer directly to the router, our connection has been terrible.

I can't play anything on Xbox Live anymore because of unbearable lag, my PC games can rarely connect to the internet (and on the rare occasion that they do connect, the games are laggy as hell), and I can only load a few random websites a day. But for some reason, (when I run LimeWire), it says I have a "turbo-charged" connection. I have absolutely no idea what the problem is.

I really need help on this one. I don't know how much longer I can take this. I really don't want to continue paying for Xbox Live or an internet connection if this problem isn't going to go away.

Somebody, please help me solve this problem. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
 
[quote name='XboxHardcore.com']When he unplugs his computer... does your connection go back to normal?[/quote]
I'm not sure, but there's no way in hell he's going to let me unplug it to test. He's the type that leaves it on 24/7. He just will not turn it off, mainly because it's so loaded with useless shit and spyware that it takes a good 20 mintes to turn on. I won't have an answer to that question until he leaves the house for a while.

(I would have replied immediately, but my connection wasn't connecting only when I pressed the "post reply" button)
 
[quote name='Jewelz23']Is he constantly downloading or uploading something?[/quote]
Both, nonestop. He's downloading and uploading tons of files 24/7. I don't really understand how routers and stuff work, but how would that affect my computer so badly?

(I've been connecting to the iTunes store for five minutes now. This is rediculous).
 
I forgot to mention that back before he left for college, he was on a wireless connection and our connection was somwhere between 'ok' and 'very good'. Could the switch to a direct connection be whats making it so terrible?

(Jesus Christ! I can't even load a 30 second audio clip from iTunes! This is insane! :headache:)
 
When using a router, you're sharing your connection with the other computers on the network so you have to expect some slowdown on it. I used to sell DSL internet services (recently, like last month) and we had a limit of about four computers per network on our wireless routers we sold.

If he's uploading/downloading a lot then it'll eat your bandwidth hardcore. If you don't know what bandwidth is ... here's how we used to explain it on the phones. Consider a highway with a few cars on it. The highway is like your connection to and from the internet. Each car represents data transferred between you and the internet. The more transfers you have (upload/download) the more cars you have driving down that highway. More cars = higher traffic = slower speeds. Same for your internet connection. You're sharing that highway with him, but he's hogging all your bandwidth.
 
[quote name='the_gloaming']When using a router, you're sharing your connection with the other computers on the network so you have to expect some slowdown on it. I used to sell DSL internet services (recently, like last month) and we had a limit of about four computers per network on our wireless routers we sold.

If he's uploading/downloading a lot then it'll eat your bandwidth hardcore. If you don't know what bandwidth is ... here's how we used to explain it on the phones. Consider a highway with a few cars on it. The highway is like your connection to and from the internet. Each car represents data transferred between you and the internet. The more transfers you have (upload/download) the more cars you have driving down that highway. More cars = higher traffic = slower speeds. Same for your internet connection. You're sharing that highway with him, but he's hogging all your bandwidth.[/quote]
So would putting him back on a wireless connection help the problem?

(BTW, thanks for explaining all the bandwidth stuff. I knew what it was already, but it's very rare that people on the internet care enough about other people's computer problems enough to explain things like that. It's just nice to see someone actually try to help once and a while).
 
[quote name='d00k']Both, nonestop. He's downloading and uploading tons of files 24/7. I don't really understand how routers and stuff work, but how would that affect my computer so badly?

(I've been connecting to the iTunes store for five minutes now. This is rediculous).[/QUOTE]
lol, you are sharing your connection with him. No way around that.

Tell him to stop downloading, but it seems like that will not work either.
 
[quote name='Jewelz23']lol, you are sharing your connection with him. No way around that.

Tell him to stop downloading, but it seems like that will not work either.[/quote]
I might be able to get him to do that, if I can get everyone in the house to tell him to stop. I don't mind if he downloads a little bit, that's what I do. What he is doing is just way too much. Our dad is also really against downloading stuff. He'll probably make him stop, especially when he realizes what it's doing to our connection.
 
[quote name='UnderwaterMadman']Don't just let him push you around.[/quote]
It's not that. This is the first time we've experienced this problem. It's not an ongoing thing that he's refusing to resolve, he's just being stubborn. He'll stop if they make him.

(BTW, I'm lucky if this page loads now, so if I randomly stop replying it's because I've been completely disconnected).
 
well somethings I would try are to run a ping test back to your router, a website like yahoo.com, the dns servers that your router is getting from your ISP, and the gateway your router is getting from your ISP.

If you are dropping packets when pinging your router, than your router is the problem.

What kind of router do you have and who is your ISP?
 
[quote name='d00k']it's so loaded with useless shit and spyware that it takes a good 20 mintes to turn on. [/quote]There's your problem right there. He needs to back up his important stuff and format that machine. His machine's security has likely been compromised via that crap too, so if he orders anything online he might as well post a message here with his CC number for as secure as it is.

If he's using BitTorrent constantly, he needs to throttle the upload speed so you get some (likely the problem with your web browsing). The likely issue you're getting is that there's not enough upload bandwidth to make calls to the different webservers to get different pages. Usually the down pipe is big enough that other computers can squeeze website out through a massive download, but that upload pipe is generally so narrow that it gets really clogged really fast. And BitTorrent, left unchecked, will devour any internet connection.

Ask him to turn off the machine for a few hours and see what your internet connection is like.
 
[quote name='daroga']There's your problem right there. He needs to back up his important stuff and format that machine. His machine's security has likely been compromised via that crap too, so if he orders anything online he might as well post a message here with his CC number for as secure as it is.

If he's using BitTorrent constantly, he needs to throttle the upload speed so you get some (likely the problem with your web browsing). The likely issue you're getting is that there's not enough upload bandwidth to make calls to the different webservers to get different pages. Usually the down pipe is big enough that other computers can squeeze website out through a massive download, but that upload pipe is generally so narrow that it gets really clogged really fast. And BitTorrent, left unchecked, will devour any internet connection.

Ask him to turn off the machine for a few hours and see what your internet connection is like.[/quote]

He uses BitComet, Bearshare, and a few other programs (I believe). I remember looking at his downloads a while back; he was downloading and uploading hundreds of videos all at once. It's rediculous.

We'll make him stop and see what happens.
 
[quote name='d00k']He uses BitComet, Bearshare, and a few other programs (I believe). I remember looking at his downloads a while back; he was downloading and uploading hundreds of videos all at once. It's rediculous.

We'll make him stop and see what happens.[/quote]Yeah, those cannot be having full reign on your home network. At schools they can throttle those things server-side, but just a little router gets eaten alive by them.

He should only have one running at any time, and then it should only be able to use about 1/2 your upload bandwidth. For instance, I have a 368kbit/sec upload pipe, so I set my upload cap on FTP, BT, etc. to 150kbit (or around 15KByte)/sec. It allows those programs to still work but also allows the internet to fucntion.

Another issue comes into play not even with connections, but with connection attempts. Sometimes you need to just close down any program like that for a day or two just to stop people hammering your computer. This is a bigger problem with "public" trackers and other P2P software. I've had much better experience when I use things that are "private" and not just a free-for-all.
 
Oh yea, just about every client used to DL/UL takes up a large amount of bandwidth.

I have a 3-6 Mbps connection, and just using uTorrent slows me down some.

I bet when you close all those programs, the connection speed will DRASTICALLY increase. Tell him to stop DL'ing Pr0n ;)

Btw, what kind of router are you using? Brand and model?
 
does he know anything about routers? you could go into your router, usually its 192.168.1.1 the default password is almost always "admin" but your parents may have changed that. go in there and just kill his connection, then play the fool.
 
Ok, we got him to stop downloading, and now the connection is great. He was uploading about 80 videos and downloading a lot more. He said he'd stop downloading until he goes back to college.

Thank's for the help everyone. I really appreciate it. I can finally use the internet again.

[quote name='help1']How does he watch all these videos? Seems like he has a problem.[/quote]
He goes to school for animation and stuff, so he's really into cartoons. He has thousands of hours of cartoons on his computer. He actually had to buy an external harddrive just for videos. It is a bit weird.
 
If he's downloading legal stuff (obviously not) you could always give him the off-peak hours, like after midnight.

If he's legal, work with him. Setup some sort of time-share. If not legal, then he can stay disconnected.
 
Yeah, that really sucks. My sister used to do the same damn thing, constantly downloading shitty music and music videos and it slowed down the connection.

I was going to suggest what I did, sneak onto his computer and use this program that allows you to cap the download/upload speed. :D

But the problem has since been resolved from what it looks like.
 
The problem has sort of started up again because I have another brother downstairs that is now downloading. He says he's stopped, but whenever no one's watching him he starts it again. The parents have told him to stop, but he does it secretly, which means I'm randomly getting disconnected from my games all the time.

As soon as he leaves I'm just going to block LimeWire and every other downloading program on the firewall. Fortunately he's an idiot and won't know how to unblock them.
 
You know, you should check those other computers for spyware/viruses.

Through all that downloading/uploading I wouldn't be suprised if those computers are "sick"
 
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