Connection issues (and double standards).

[McLaughlin]

This started a couple of days ago, I guess. Basically, when my computer is on, my 360 gets a real shitty connection. When my 360 is on, my computer gets a real shitty connection (or sometimes, 360/PC won't connect at all).

The best part? I can't even try to fix it until after midnight when when my brother goes to bed, because GOD FUCKING FORBID HE'S WITHOUT THE INTERNET FOR TWENTY FUCKING SECONDS WHILE I UPDATE MY ROUTER'S FIRMWARE.

I'm not even sure if it's my router or if my brother's exceeded our bandwidth cap and my ISP is just screwing with my service or what.

I have to jump every time he fucks up his PC or his 360. "But my problems don't make the internet shut off!" Well no, but I waste my whole fucking day fixing your shit. Sorry if I have to interrupt your LIFE OR DEATH MSN conversations and porn downloads (he doesn't hide it well, and I find it every time I have to fix his PC) for a minute and a fucking half while I try to fix a problem of my own.

I don't even know why this irritates me so much, but holy shit am I pissed off right now.

[MetaZedlen]

Are you older? 'Cause if you are, take a stand, and if you kinda good with computers, see what you can do "security-wise" and shut him out of it after a certain amount of time, that might teach him a little bit.

I know what you are going through, and it is another reason that I moved out of my mom's house, being that my sister pretty much has no life, being that she is on MySpace and Runescape all fucking day (and she is coming over this weekend too...).

[McLaughlin]

Yeah, I'm older. I already power cycled my router and modem, and even that sent him into a rage. Then I told him it'd be out for a second while I updated the firmware and he blew up. I started yelling back and then my Mom sided with him because she never wants to deal with his fucking temper tantrums.

If I locked him out, I'd be the one with no internet access. Ever. But I'd still be expected to fix it if it broke.

On top of all of this, my mom threw out my pocket notebook. You know, THE THING I WRITE THINGS IN SO I CAN REMEMBER WHAT THE FUCK I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DOING. Important information included a whole shitload of WiFi settings, support ticket numbers, Tech Support phone numbers, and lots more. Why'd she throw it out? "Oh, it was cluttering up your desk."

I almost never lose my cool. I'm so close to snapping right now I'm twitching. That fucking book is more important than anything else I carry around." Well, you can get another one." NOT WITH ALL MY FUCKING INFORMATION I CAN'T. I actually NEED to write in that damn thing, almost hourly. It's like a progress journal in a video game (like Tales of Symphonia, or the new Pokemon games). My memory is that fucking bad, and my mom knows it.

[Blitzkommando]

Routers need reset every set amount of random time of which only they know the correct duration. I personally consider them the spawn of Satan. When they work, generally it's a painless experience. When they don't however it is often absolute hell to diagnose the problem. Luckily there is a nice cheat that tends to work, power cycling. Or just turn it off overnight if that doesn't work. Our last router decided to stop recognizing new MAC addresses even after a factory reset (or two or three...). We gave up and used it as a chance to upgrade.

Something to consider is to throttle his bandwidth. As in, put a cap on the maximum speeds he can get. One client doing heavy traffic 24/7 can cause some issues with consumer grade routers necessitating in router resets almost weekly in order to flush the cache.

[Fossil]

If I was you I would've snapped a long time ago. Who the hell tells the man in charge what to do? Let's see what your mom or your brother does when you DON'T fix their problems. So what, you going to get in trouble for not caring? HAHAHA! I'd teach them a lesson.

And speaking of your internet lagging, if you have DSL, it'll probably explain it. One person hogging all the bandwidth for downloads or heavey video watching on the internet willl easily lag anyone else on the network. I've a got a crappy 256kb/s download and I can tell right away while downloading something that my internet is slow. If you have a faster connection, it may not hinder it as much, depending on how much is being downloaded and at what speeds.

Like Zedlen mentioned, I'd cap his damn bandwidth from the router and teach his ass a lesson. Tell your mom what he does on the computer so he stops doing it or something. That's bullcrap you have to fix problems when it is their ignorance in the first place. That was usually the way I got free of many things was sitting back, refusing to do anything and then having my parents or whoever realize that they can't do anything without my help. I took control. You need to also.

[McLaughlin]

I have Cable (Rogers).

Throttling his bandwidth might be amusing. How would I go about that?

Also, I forgot to mention in the OP, my router is a DIR-655. This is the only problem I've had with it since purchase (assuming it's the router's fault and not something else).

[Fossil]

Nice router, I have a D-Link as well and personally I think they are the best for networking stuff. As far as throttling his bandwidth, I've not personall messed with that kind of stuff before, but I know something is possible like that. You can go into the routers settings via the internet by entering(usually) 192.168.0.1 into the URL address bar and hitting enter. It'll take you to a username/pass screen. I've you've never set this up before then it is usually 'admin' with no password. Then you can fuck with all sorts of settings and find out who is on the network and mess with other things like proxy settings, IP forwarding(good for downloading) and a mess of other things.

I'm not sure what exactly your settings look like, but maybe give what I said a try and take a screenshot so I can get an idea what you are working with. Maybe we can figure it out. :D

[Nitro Vordex]

When you have multiple people on the same connection, it has to be shared. You can't expect to get your full speed when people are streaming porn music and things like that on one computer, and you playing real time games on the XBox. Trust me, I know. ~_~ Two computers on at the same time SUCKS.

I assume he(your brother) isn't smart enough to clear his history, cache, cookies, AND temporary internet files is he?

[McLaughlin]

Oh, I'm well aware I've got to share my connection. This problem only reared its ugly head the last few days, so I've got to get to the bottom of it (for my own sanity).

I can assure you he knows nothing of history, cache, cookies or temp files.

I'll screw around with his bandwidth once I've fixed the problem.

[Sekani]

Bandwidth throttling is only doable with certain (more expensive) routers; on the usual forty-dollar brand the firmware won't give you that option.

If you take the time to set up static IPs on your home network though, you can take the slightly more amusing steps of blocking traffic from certain websites and IP addresses, closing the firewall ports needed for MSN messenger, or even scheduling internet outages at certain times of day. There are so many ways to fuck with this kid that your entire family will be begging for mercy when it's all said and done.

[McLaughlin]

Once I fix this then I'll have to tool around with my router.

Speaking of my connection issues, they're still there. I'm beginning to think it's my ISP and not my router. I'm thinking that I may have exceeded my bandwidth cap (gayest implementation ever. All ISPs around here have them now), and they didn't warn me like they're supposed to. Guess I'm going to call them tomorrow and see what's going on.

That is, assuming I remember to do it. My Mom still hasn't picked my up another pocket book, and there's no blank paper (not even printer paper because my brother wasted it all) to write on.

EDIT: Although, I've stayed away from Static IPs thus far because I heard that the connection deteriorates. Is that true?

[Brainwrecked]

Static IPs do not deteriorate connections. I use them emphatically on my home network. I have blocks within the 192.168.1.xxx range that tell me exactly what device is being hooked up. (Servers, game consoles, wired computers, wireless computers, unknown devices.)

Also, if you're router's supported by the likes of DD-WRT or Tomato, try those firmwares out as they most definitely support QoS (Quality of Service). The routine for getting these 3rd party firmwares on your router might be scary, but I've never had a problem with a router that was explicitly supported.

I don't know how you haven't snapped yet. Heads would have rolled a long time ago. I've never been around anyone that's so obviously addicted to the internet, and someone that's obviously been spoiled rotten. My brothers would have had teeth missing if they acted like that around me. But then again, my mother would have given any one of us a fat lip if we threw tantrums over stuff like this, so teeth-missing situation would have been avoided.

Need to show your Mom his porn stash. And if his computer wasn't built by you, he needs to start calling the OEM for computer problems or learn how to use the restore disc really quick. Porn sites can clutter a PC with all kinds of nasty shit. And I'll wager a bet your brother uses Windows/IE and couldn't spot malware if it bit his nose off.