Slow/no internet with home network
 

Hi everyone. This is an issue that has been driving me crazy for the past few weeks. I've got a Motorola cable modem connected to a D-Link DIR-300 wired and wireless router. A couple of PCs and two laptops are on this network, mainly using the wired connection but sometimes the wireless.

Every now and then the connection just drops totally for a few minutes or it goes incredibly slow (below 56k speeds), so Google for example will take three or four minutes to load if it doesn't time out.

I've asked my ISP if they are having issues but they say everything's fine. I reset the router and went through all the setup steps again but this dropped connection still happens randomly. After a few hours, or by the next morning, it seems to have corrected itself.

I know very little about routers and logs but some of the lines are:

Aug 9 21:43:58 chillirun: test_ping: no reply received for ping packet to 202.160 (etc) - half a dozen of these messages
Aug 9 21:38:27 chillirun: web ping successful
Aug 9 21:38:27 chillirun: child 'wget' exited with status: 0
Aug 9 21:36:22 chillirun: executing: killall -17 chilli
Jan 1 00:01:00 chillirun: config file '/var/run/chillirun.conf' is invalid...
Jan 1 00:01:00 chillirun: child 'wget' exited with status: 1

I rebooted the router so I assume that's why it goes back to January 1 before correcting itself to the right date but I might be wrong.

These are some lines, interspersed between other similar messages. What the hell is 'chillirun'? A search in Google returns nothing unless I try 'chili run router' in which case I get some stuff about Linux and unsecured routers.

Is my little home network being hacked? Should I call the ISP or D-Link customer service? Is it improperly set up?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Are any computers in the network running bit torrrent programs or file sharing programs? That will slow your Internet to a crawl, almost like it's not working. If someone else is using your Internet wirelessly and doing that it could happen also.

Definitely no torrents or mass downloading going on, that is certain. Nobody in this house has ever heard of torrents. The connection slowed/dropped last night at 2:00am in the same was as it has before, and I was the only person awake and on the network. The other computers aren't used very often so it's difficult to ask others if their connection is dropping at the same time mine is.

Edit: The router has always been set to only accept the MAC addresses from the computers in the house (LAN and wireless cards) and the wireless connection and there's a WEP key needed for the wireless connection, so unless I've done this wrong, I can't imagine a neighbor is stealing the wireless connection.

two things to check.. first spyware

http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/tilted-...e-changed.html

second... your router.

Go to bestbuy and buy a new router. if the result is the same, there is something wrong with your PC. Return router within 30 days.

I'm voting for spyware.

Knock your network down to the simplest of configurations and then cycle bits and pieces in / out until you've either "cleared" all your hardware or found the source of the problem. Keep it simple and Occam's Razor and all that, right?

It's like a game of Clue. You just keep trying different combinations and making checkmarks until you figure out who killed who with what where. Once you figure that out, it's easier to address the problem. Tightening the nut on a bathroom faucet isn't going to fix the leaky shower, is it? ....sorry, I'm working on the bathroom today.... :)

Definitely no spyware either. I've got the latest Windows updates, updated anti-virus, Spybot and Ad-aware, pretty much everything mentioned in the stickied thread. This laptop was also formatted and had windows re-installed two weeks ago so I can rule that out.

I guess I will have to disconnect everything and keep it simple as guthmund says. I can never tell when these problems will occur and the modem/router isn't in the most accessible part of the office but it's probably still the best option.

Nobody has heard of this 'chilli' thing in relation to routers and home networking? As I said, Google isn't helping me much and that really surprised me, hence my worries about being hacked.

Thanks guys.

Dont trust your isp when they say everything is fine. I have comcast cable for my isp and they say everything is fine even when the whole neighborhood has been down for days. Dont know what isp you have but if its anything like comcast theres a good chance they have no clue whats going on and the problem is on there end. but... it could be a crappy router too. the standards for routers seem to be pretty low. even the ones people claim are wonderful seem pretty crappy and full of problems. I have a linksys that seems to freeze up on its own for no reason totally randomly about twice a week and requires a reboot. and some websites that have streaming video seem to cause it to lock up as well. also needing a reboot. but the reboot always fixes it.