What Affects Speed?

Like an old-time bucket brigade passing water from well to flame, every Web page you view and file you download from the Internet is handled by dozens of computers before it appears on your screen. And just as the slowest bucket handler determines how fast water hits a blaze, the speed you receive from the Internet is determined by the slowest link in the data chain leading to your computer.

Below, we've listed the factors that can affect the speed of your Time Warner Cable Modem connection, more or less in order of how likely the particular factor is to slow the speed you receive. Under ideal circumstances, you can receive download speeds approaching 7 Mbps (Megabits-per-second) when using the standard package, and 10 Mbps with the Road Runner Premium package. In practice however, one or more of these factors could limit your download speed significantly.

1. The Host Server
The most common cause of slow speed on the Internet, the computer you are receiving data from-called a server in Internet parlance-may be misconfigured or underpowered for the number of people using it at the same time. It's also common for servers to be configured to throttle the speed they'll deliver to any one person; you could be the only one using the server and still only receive 64 or 128 kbps (kilobits-per-second). Since every Web page you see, every file you download, every streaming video you watch, and every multi-player game you play on the Internet is delivered via a server of some kind, a slow server can affect anything you do on the Internet.

Diagnosis/Cure: While making a definitive diagnosis can be tricky, here's a good rule of thumb. Try out ten or so different Web sites (or FTP sites, or game servers, etc.) you haven't visited in a while and see which one works the fastest. The speed of the fastest Web site or server you find tells you that Time Warner Cable Modem is capable of delivering at least that much speed. If other Web sites or servers are slower, the problem usually lies in those Web sites or servers.

2. The Host Server's Internet Connection
The servers you receive Web pages, files, videos, or gaming data from connect to the Internet through an Internet provider, just like you do. In most cases, these servers connect using one or more relatively expensive T1 lines, each of which can deliver a guaranteed 1.5 Mbps. If a server only has a single T1 line and ten people are using it simultaneously, each person will only receive 150 kbps. The more simultaneous users, the slower the speed.

Diagnosis/Cure: The same diagnosis described above holds true here. It's also important to note that the speed delivered by a server may vary depending on the time of day you are using the server. At peak times or during special events-such as the evening of a big election-the demand on many servers can be very high and the speed they deliver can slow. It's also not unusual to see many servers-and the entire Internet- slow during certain times of year, such as the week before Christmas, when online shopping is at its peak.

3. Internet Routers
The data sent to your computer from a server typically bounces through a dozen or so routers on the Internet before even reaching Time Warner Cable Modem. Like servers, these routers are just special-purpose computers, and their special purpose is directing data from one point to another on the Internet. And like servers, these routers-or the connections between them-can become mis-configured or overloaded by high demand and slow the speed your receive from some Web sites or other servers.

Diagnosis/Cure: With the hundreds of thousands of routers that comprise the Internet, it's a sure bet that some of them won't be working properly on any given day. While a tool called a "traceroute" can be used to pinpoint problem routers, interpreting traceroutes properly requires a good deal of experience. Unfortunately, even if we identify a problem router on the public Internet, there's not much we can do: it is up to the company who owns that router to resolve the problem. Typically, though, slow speed through an Internet router is resolved in just a few days.

4. Presence of SpyWare/Adware on your computer
If your computer is infected with "ad-ware" or "spy-ware" you'll likely see reduced computer performance and a constant stream of pop-up ads. This "ad-ware" or "spy-ware" will likely cause everything on your computer work slower - including downloading files and Web pages.

Diagnosis/Cure: Several software companies provide removal software, which may assist you. These resources below may also prove useful:

• Road Runner offers Internet Security Suite software Computer Associates™. It protects your computer from dangerous viruses, worms and spyware. Plus, it helps to keep your private information private. Using your Road Runner connection, visit www.rr.com, click on "RR Benefits" download your copy of the Internet Security Suite. The Internet Security Suite provides firewall, antivirus, anti-spam, and anti-popup software.
• Ad-aware from Lavasoft available at www.lavasoftusa.com. Ad-aware scans and cleans your computer for known data mining, advertising, and tracking components.
• Spybot Search & Destroy from PepiMK Software available at www.safer-networking.org. Spybot Search & Destroy can detect and remove many types of spyware from your computer.

Please note that Time Warner Cable does not does not recommend or endorse the use of these products and/or Web sites. Please be advised that there are many other products and services available on the Internet which provide similar removal tools.

5. Your Web Browser
A corrupted or poorly configured browser is one of the most common bottlenecks for fast Web browsing, can be fairly difficult to identify, yet is often very easy to fix. If Web browsing seems slow, it's best to assume that the problem may be your browser and start your troubleshooting there.

Diagnosis/Cure: Run the "auto-repair" feature of Internet Explorer or uninstall and reinstall Netscape Navigator or other browsers. Upgrading to a newer version of your browser sometimes also does the trick.

6. Your TCP/IP Configuration
It isn't unusual for the installation software provided by dial-up Internet providers to change the default TCP/IP settings on your computer in an attempt to provide better performance. Unfortunately, these changes usually cause poorer performance with high-speed Internet services. Because these settings are stored in the registry on Windows, resetting them by hand can be tricky. Generally speaking, Macintosh users don't experience this particular problem.

Diagnosis/Cure: If you are a Windows user, you can run one of several "registry scripts" to reset your TCP/IP configuration to their default values. Typically, your ISP's broadband software will contain such a registry fix.

7. Your Computer Hardware
The speed of the processor, your hard drive, your network card, your graphics accelerator-even the amount of RAM you have installed-all impact the speed with which your computer can process data from the Internet. In general, the faster your computer is, the faster your cable modem will be. It still happens, though, that even fast computers can suffer small hardware glitches that aren't otherwise noticeable can impact high-speed Internet services. While rare, we've had cases in which online gamers have swapped out many of their computer's components in an attempt to correct a latency problem, and yet only found relief when buying a new computer.

Diagnosis/Cure: To cut prices, it isn't unusual for computers to be sold with less than RAM than they really need, and upgrading your RAM memory or is one of the easiest and least expensive ways to boost the speed of your computer. In general, though, older computers will limit the speed you receive with Time Warner Cable Modem connection, even if they meet our minimum requirements.

With powerful computers, diagnosing a speed problem boils down to a process of elimination. If you've tried everything else, there is a simple way to determine whether or not your computer is at fault: find a friend who receives good speed with Time Warner Cable Modem and borrow their computer to test your Time Warner Cable Modem connection. If the speed problem doesn't manifest itself, you've concluded that your computer is at fault, although diagnosing and correcting the specific cause is usually a job for a trained professional.

8. Your Operating System
With extensive use, any computer operating system can become corrupted, inefficient, or mis-configured. While your computer may continue to function, the speed of high-speed Internet services can be affected.

Diagnosis/Cure: The steps for diagnosing a quirky operating system are much the same as described for hardware above. In fact, before you start swapping power supplies and NICs, you'll probably want to reinstall your operating system. While never fun, this is about the only way to ensure that your computer is running at peak efficiency, and is something that many computer users do every year or two. Upgrading to a major new release of your OS can do the trick as well. If you aren't sure how to go about this, call your computer manufacturer or work with a qualified area consultant.

9. Your Home Networking Device
A home networking device, or router, routes traffic between your cable modem and your computer(s). In order to keep your connection running at top speeds, it will need to be fast enough to keep up with your computer and your modem. Home networking devices that don't use 100baseT Ethernet standards, or home networking devices with outdated software are likely to slow your connection.

Diagnosis/Cure: To see if your Home Networking Unplug the Ethernet cables from your router and connect your computer directly to the cable modem. Reboot your computer and then recheck your speeds. If your speeds have increased it is likely that your home networking device is the cause of the problem. In some cases you may just need to update the firmware/software on the device; in other cases you may need to remove or replace the home networking device. Firmware/software updates are typically available on the manufactures support Web site.

Please note that Time Warner Cable does not does not recommend, endorse, or provide support for non-Time Warner home networking devices. Road Runner Wireless is the only recommended and supported home networking method. 

10. Time Warner Cable Routers
In addition to passing through routers on the public Internet, the Web pages, files, videos, or gaming data you receive from the Internet also pass through between six and twelve routers maintained by Time Warner. While we monitor these routers closely, it is possible for them to become mis-configured or, in rare cases, overloaded. It's more common, however, for routine upgrades or maintenance to these routers to be at fault.

Diagnosis/Cure: As with routers on the public Internet, diagnosing a problematic router is very tricky. In general, our automated monitoring tools or Time Warner Cable Modem subscribers versed in network troubleshooting would report a problem with a Time Warner Cable Modem router to us before it was noticed by most subscribers.

11. Your Cable Modem's Signal
If the Time Warner Cable Modem signal delivered to your cable modem is too strong, too weak, or too noisy, it can cause Time Warner Cable Modem to slow down or stop working entirely. Adding a signal splitter to your cable line, a nick in the cable line running to your house, or changes to the cable system in your neighborhood could all modify your cable signal enough to affect Time Warner Cable Modems.

Diagnosis/Cure: Before you do anything else, remove any cable splitters you may have added to the cable line leading to your cable modem. If that doesn't help, call us at 877-WWW-FAST to see if your cable signal is out of spec, something we can do in just a few minutes over the phone. If it looks like you are experiencing a problem with your cable signal, we'll schedule a visit by one of our technicians to troubleshoot the problem.