A really odd problem

[rightcoast]

I figured I would shoot this post off and then check to see if anyone needs further info when I get home.

Here is as much as I can tell you now. I sold a PC to a small business, and installed it for them. It is connecting to the net via DSL. There is a DSL modem and a Linksys wireless wrt54g attached to the PC via an ethernet cable. A seperate PC connecting wirelessly through the router. Both PC's are running XP home and are up to date.

Both computers have a problem with speed, but only on certain websites. This site loads like lightning, along with the majority of other sites. The problem is that (among others) aol.com and the yahoo mail server site load unbearably slow, if at all. It does not seem to be a problen confined to those sites, as Slashdot only loads half the time as well, and very slow if it does.

I found a couple versions of netsky, and the trojans citifraud.c and sunfraud.b on the PC that is connected wirelessly. That PC predated the install I did. The Wireless PC is also having trouble seeing the netdisk, I am not sure how related that is to the other problems. I haven't done very much at all aside from sharing the netdisk on the other (new, hardlined) PC. I have needed to focus on this webspeed issue, and removing the viruses from the wireless PC.

Any help is appreciated, as I need to go back in tomorrow morning planning on fixing this problem.

It might be a long night for me, I've got some research to do :)

[glc]

Try adjusting the MTU in the router. Depending on the DSL provider (and assuming PPPoE), anything from 1400 to 1492 should be optimum, do some research. Leaving it at the default "auto" is not always the best idea.

[rightcoast]

Thank you for the tip. The MTU settings are at default. I can change the MTU settings in the router, but don't the NIC's need the same exact setting? I was wondering if there is there a painless way to change the network adapters MTU from within XP or should I just download a program like DrTCP? It's found here along with a few other tests and tools. http://www.dslreports.com/tools

I figure those should be able to help me get it configured.

[rightcoast]

In case any in the future needs a solution to fix thier MTU settings, I was able to answer some of my own questions with a little searching.

DrTCP should not be used with Windows XP or 2000, only with versions 9x, ME and NT.

Here are the Microsoft Knowledgebase articles that deal with changing MTU settings in Windows XP.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;283165
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/howto/networking/pppoe.asp

Here is the Knowledgebase article for Windows 2000
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;120642

Here is a site that shows how to find your optimum MTU settings, and change them on a Linksys or D-Link router.
http://www.dslreports.com/faq/5793

Thanks again glc :)

[rightcoast]

Just to wrap up:

The MTU settings were the problem causing the slowdowns and page_not_found errors.
Setting them to the proper levels fixed evertything right up :)