When broadband refuses to work - [Tips]

Though the ISPs like BSNL/MTNL , Airtel, Sify etc in India offer high speed broadband connections, they still face some downtime/technical issues. Recently the servers of BSNL broadband (in North) had a breakdown because of which the sites refused to open on many computers. Airtel recently started blocking certain sites (including blogspot) due to certain privacy reasons. There are solutions to these (sometimes temporary) which can let you easily use Internet/access blocked sites even in such situations.

Apart from this, the tips are also helpful in improving the net speeds and getting a better control on what you use.

Using Open DNS

Open DNS, is a free service, which can solve loads of problems including slow speeds and DNS errors. The setup is extremely simple which can be done in less than a minute.

To use OpenDNS simply change the DNS server addresses to “208.67.222.222” and “208.67.220.220” . For complete guide click here.

Apart from this, Open DNS also allows you to block and control certain sites to prevent them from children or employees in office.

Free the 20% of the reserved browsing speed

Microsoft reserves 20% of your available bandwidth for updates. Here’s how to get it back:

Click Start »Run » type “gpedit.msc”
This opens the group policy editor. Then go to:
Local Computer Policy—>Computer Configuration—>Administrative Templates—>Network—>QOS Packet Scheduler—>Limit Reservable Bandwidth
Double click on Limit Reservable bandwidth. It will say it is not configured, but the truth is under the ‘Explain’ tab :
“By default, the Packet Scheduler limits the system to 20 percent of the bandwidth of a connection, but you can use this setting to override the default.”
So the trick is to ENABLE reservable bandwidth, then set it to ZERO. This will allow the system to reserve nothing, rather than the default 20%.

Use Windows Task Manger

Often it happens that some other software/update is sucking up all the net speed which makes it feel like the net is not working. No worry, just press “Ctrl + Shift + Esc” on keyboard to bring up the task manager and click on the “Networking” tab. If any data transfer is taking place behind the scenes, it will show up here.

Try “tracert” / “ping” command

The damaged data cable or the LAN card can be one of the culprit if sites refuses to respond. Find out the default gateway ( Start » Control Panel » Network Connections » right click on the active connection » select properties » Internet Protocol - TCP/IP » default gateway) and try to ping it ( Start » Run » “ping YOUR DEFAULT GATEWAY HERE –t” eg. “ping 192.168.1.1 –t”). If there is a reply ( eg. “Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=255” ) then there are lesser chances of a hardware error.

In such case (if the ping responds), the “tracert” command is useful. Open Run ( Start » Run, or simply “Windows Key + R” ) and enter “tracert WEBSITE URL” eg. “tracert http://www.fully-faltoo.com”. It will show how many hops the packet requires to reach the host and how long each hop takes. If you’re visiting a Web site and pages are appearing slowly, you can use trace route to figure out where the longest delays are occurring.

Also, the “tracert” command is useful to know if your data is being transferred through another computer (usually if hacked by someone).

Try calling yourself

If you have a broadband connection through a telephone line (like in case of BSNL or Airtel) then due to problem in the line (often in rains), the speeds suffer a downfall. In such cases you might like to try and call yourself from your mobile on that number. This transmission of data is often helpful in make the data flow and keep the speed up.

Do share other tricks that you like to perform when the net doesn’t seems to respond, but things seem alright.