Slow Connection Horror

[Kismet]

I have Verizon DSL. And well, when we first ever installed the modem (which was when we first got this bran dnew computer), the connection ran great! PSU ran smooth, pages loaded in half a second...

But now the connection has critically decreased over time. I play PSU with the LOWEST resolution and graphics, but I still experience lag. I've tried clearing out my net cache, cookies, I even did a disk defrag (I was desperate XD).

MY theory is that since Verizon now sports FiOS, they've neglected all attention to DSL. It MUST be our modem, since our phone lines and the computer have NOTHING wrong with them. (The computer has no spyware, no viruses, or anything like that because I swept it. We have a lot of memory, I've deleted any/all old and useless programs... It's a brand new computer with nothing conflicting on it.)

Does anyone have any ideas as to what I can do to improve the connection? My dad doesn't sound as if he wants to change internet providers anytime soon, and I've GOT to fix this before the expansion comes out. Please help!

[VioletSkye]

Have you tried power cycling the modem? Done any line speed tests, pings or traceroutes to see if there is an issue somewhere on the network? Your graphical settings aren't going to have any affect on your connection so there is no point in lowering them. Also, are you using a router also or do you just have the modem Verizon sent to you? Here is what I would suggest.

1. Power cycle the modem (and router if you use one.) To do this, physically remove the power cord from the back of the modem/router for about 10 seconds (others will tell you to leave it unplugged longer but that's not necessary) and then plug it back in and wait for it to resync. Once the lights come back up and your connection is reestablished go to step 2.

2. Run a speedtest to get an idea of what your actually connection speed is. It won't be 100% accurate and you'll want to run several tests, but it will give you an idea of what your speed is. Here are a few places you can run some speed tests.
http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest
http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest

3. Run a few ping tests to see if you have any packet loss. To do this, go to START>RUN and type in CMD. When the command prompt window opens, type in PING YAHOO.COM and hit enter. Hopefully it comes up with 0% LOSS. You can also run a line quality check here: http://www.dslreports.com/linequality In addition to that, you may want to run your own traceroute by opening the command prompt (like we did for the ping test) and type in TRACERT YAHOO.COM that will also tell you where on the network an issue may be.

If you are experiencing packet loss or really high latency anywhere on the network, then you will need to contact Verizon and have them look into it.

[Kismet]

I followed your instructions and it says my download speed is 60kpbs and my upload speed is 135kpbs. Also, I gave 0% loss and... latency 51.0ms, or something like that. (I'm not sure what that means.)

I also did the CMD tests, and those seemed to say anything was fine. I guess I just really need to call Verizon and force them to sort it out...

I appreciate all your help though.