(First, I apologize if an earlier version of this message appears, my
newsreader is acting a bit differently than it did when I was connecting
through RCN.)

Very interesting, MEB. Thank you!

I did search for spyware and viruses and my system is clean. I have a
software firewall with correct and working rules. A TrojanHunter scan
said I had no suspicious open ports. TCPView shows this activity as I
type this and am connected via METConnect and I think this activity is
all okay?
listening to port 0 on my computer: 135, 1027, 1239, 1240, 1241, 1592,
1025, 1026m 1591. A connection from local ports 1026 established to
remote localhost:0127, and local address 0127 established to localhost
1026. Same for 1591 and 1592 and localhost 1592 and 1591. And also
connections to metconnect, the ISP I'm using.

I have no router. I'm not running any RCN software (I stopped using
their acceleration program a while ago) unless they installed something
I don't know about, but my firewall would have stopped that.

I use a memory manager (MemTurbo) so don't believe low memory is
contributing to the problem.

Dr. Watson advises that I have 61% of my resources free, all tasks
running are from trusted programs, a few kernel drivers are not ID'd,
but when I looked a few up they were MS software, and since my
METCONNECT connection is fine, I don't think these are a problem.

NetLab told me that rcn.com's IP address is: IP 207.172.16.170. When I
pinged that address, using netlab, I got no response. When I did a
Trace, I got no response.

Thanks for telling me about the diagnostic programs. Would System
Monitor give me info that Dr. Watson doesn't? Or any of the others?

After reading the dslreports posts, and having a really good connection
with a non-RCN ISP, I'm inclined to conclude I don't even need to tweak
my settings. I welcome your thoughts. And thank you again for your help.

Ellen


MEB wrote:
Seems there is actually a problem with the service...

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/rcn - Welcome to the RCN Forum
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r208...drops-entirely
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r207...ing-Techniques
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r208...ty-in-Macungie
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r208...C-Over-a-month
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r208...ver-Spring-209
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r208...ns-packet-loss
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r207...Modems-Offline
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r207...-DNS-acting-up
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r205...-Lehigh-Valley

Might be a good idea to check for SpyWare, Virus, and other. These can
REALLY slow down a connection. BHOs [like search bars, and other goodies]
can also severely effect connection speed.
You should be running a firewall [regardless of the router/modem router] to
ensure that you are *only* connected to the service, and not the "lurkers"
and other hackers/crackers that exist on ALL online services.
Check the router setup and make sure your not receiving or sending router
broadcasts across the Internet.

You might also try uninstalling a re-installing whatever software RCN may
have installed.

It may be possible to diagnose some of the issue [after the above tests].
You could test and post your connection ping results and network monitoring
results here to see if they are within the service's offerings.
IF you have your installation CD you can install a few tools to check your
system
System Resource Meter - basic system resources
System Monitor - Within this program you can configure network monitoring,
memory monitoring, and other testing to provide you and us with some
information to work with.

You can also check what is running by using MSInfo32, and memload
http://www.filechamp.com/Dl-3022-Memload-download.aspx to give you some
other/alternate information.