downloading issues?

flogen

I posted this here because it seems to be my laptop rather than my connection that is having trouble, but I could be wrong.

Basically, I was using a torrent programme the other day and after a few minutes of a great connection the whole computer would freeze for a few seconds and then go back to normal, and freeze again. It would keep doing this while my connection quickly dropped off and I'd have to unplug/replug my ethernet cable in order to get my connection back (although I didn't have to reset the modem). The freezing issue would be solved once I closed the torrent programme. I thought this was caused by the connection to the site I was getting the torrent though, but just now I used a p2p and instantly got the same problem.
Does anyone know what's going on, there doesn't seem to be any issues of spyware or virus', I use AVG and microsoft antispyware, have a mcafee firewall and use firefox too.
(if the mods feel this may be a connection issue please feel free to move it to broadband, thanks).

zoro

I think it may have something to do with your router/modem

I remember having almost identical problems with the default modem/router that IOL provided me with. It was as if the router just couldn't cope with the barrage of connection requests and promptly decided that a heart-attack would be quite the normal thing to do under the circumstances.

5 mins later I'd try again and it'd have another song and dance before going belly up.

What router/modem combination are you using? And do you think that it may be something similar?

flogen

well, given what you've said that's quite possible.
I have the zyxel prestige 600 modem, in other words the default IOL modem. It's wierd though, because it's not something I've encountered before in the year and a bit of using the modem, saying that the torrent incident was different because the speed was so high (higher than I'd had before, I think), so perhaps it was as you said, an overload of connections.
So what was the remedy for you? Just a new modem/router? Is there any way to be certain it's the same problem you had, although it is very similar!

zoro

Well it was very disconcerting - but I was able to narrow it down (as you have) to bittorrent apps.
I was getting pretty annoyed with the whole box overall anyway, I've found that they tend to get very very warm sometimes and just reset themselves to try to cool down (I assume) for a few mins

Eventually I just went and got a nice wireless router (Linksys WAG54g .. I think that's it's code, but I'm not 100% sure, I can find out if you'd like) and I haven't had a single problem like it since.

Odds are that it's a problem with connections, although I've nothing to back that statement up, it's just my gut feeling.
If you do manage to sort it out without a replacement, let me know what you did!

flogen

thanks for that, was going to look into a router anyway, so wouldn't be swapping connections between my laptop and xbox, and so I could get a wireless connection for my laptop and use it around the house, but I don't know if I'm in a position to get one at the moment, might try a quick fix solution to tide me over until next month. Will let you know if I come across anything, though!