If you ever wonder how fast your Internet connection is, Cnet offers a good test. They also have a desktop widget to monitor your bandwidth.

Slow Internet connection speeds means that there is a lot of traffic going on in your network. If you’re experiencing slower-than-normal speeds, here are some things you should check.

1. Check any file-sharing programs. Some can be big bandwidth hogs without you knowing it. There is usually a setting in “Preferences” that you can set the upload and download limits. If you have no limits set, especially for uploading, then you have a problem. In some cases, you cannot change the settings (Opera’s built in torrent program) and will have to stop transfers.
2. Check for streaming music or video being played on your network. The more music and videos that are being streamed to computers on your network, the less bandwidth you will have, making for a slower connection.
3. How many programs are you running? This doesn’t directly affect bandwidth, but too many programs running- or even open- can cause your computer to operate at a seemingly slow pace.
4. Have you done a check for viruses or other malware? Some malicious programs are written to utilize your computer and network resources without you knowing. This can definitely have an affect on your Internet connection speeds. And, it’s always good to surf the Internet virus-free.

Note: This information requires you to edit your registry settings. Please take caution when doing this. Proceed at your own risk.

I spent the better part of my day fixing my sister’s computer problems. First it was a virus that disguised itself as an anti-virus solution with constant warnings of the laptop being at critical risk. Then, after successfully completing her installation of Norton Antivirus- which always came up at log in to remind her to finish it, but she didn’t- the Internet connection was killed. (Norton did it.) After disabling Norton, the Internet roads were open again.

From there, I was able to download Avira Antivir, PC Tools Spyware Doctor, and Ad-Aware to begin cleaning. Antivir did most of the cleaning, but after restarting the machine as instructed by the anti-virus program, the laptop would not let me log in. I logged in, and it would log me off. I tried again, and got the same result. Repeat a few more times and you get the picture. Microsoft has documented the problem, here.

Using another computer I searched for the problem and the solution was to get a live CD, preferably BartPE. After downloading an image and burning it to a CD, I was able to boot from the CD and go into the registry settings using ‘regedit’. Here are the instructions I used: http://windowsxp.mvps.org/peboot.htm

The link says to only change one key, but check to make sure that these two keys are correct. This will save you time if you have the annoying “Can’t find logon.exe” error message that pops up after you disinfect your computer. Navigate to the following keys and make sure that their values are as indicated below.

Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Shell
Value: Explorer.exe

Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\UserInit
Value: C:\Windows\System32\Userinit.exe

Restart your computer and log in as normal.

While researching this problem, I found a large number of forum threads and posts about it. The best post that contained the problem and solution was here. It provides an additional solution.

After that, I still had some cleaning to do. (First, I uninstalled Norton. I’ve had bad experiences with Norton.) In my experience, one anti-virus program doesn’t always find everything. The second anti-virus program I used was the Spyware Doctor. It was able to pick up some of the overlooked crumbs. To be on the safe side, I’ve installed Ad-Aware and will be running it now. When that’s done, we should be back to normal.

Or for me, on to the next computer-related problem. All of this started when I woke up this morning and was greeted outside my bedroom door with my sister saying, “Can you fix my iPhone? All my contacts are deleted. I tried hooking it up to my computer but my computer doesn’t recognize it…”

It’s never just one problem in the world of IT.

Has anyone noticed that the Google location signature sometimes returns an incorrect location? You know, the Google Labs item for Gmail that adds a short snippet indicating your current location in e-mails that you send out.

And this isn’t just the next city over… My errors have landed me in places I have never been to- but I would like to.

I guess I should thank them for the hint?

I’ve decided to start keeping track of where Google “sends me”.

November 26, 2009
Sent from Drechterland, North Holland, The Netherlands
Sent from Staten Island, New York, United States

When it first came out, I remember my friend telling me,

“It’s so fast… I had to stop using it so much because I’m afraid of running out of ‘the fast’.”

He was right. Google Chrome is fast, compared to Firefox’s memory-hogging standards. With that, I made the jump and was pleasantly please by “the fast” that I had gained in web browsing. However, when I first opened it, I noticed something-

“Hey! That’s Opera’s Speed-Dial!”

Even though it doesn’t exactly mimic Speed-Dial to the letter, it does look very similar. I guess it’s a new browser “standard”, just like Mozilla’s tabbed browsing. In honesty, it took some getting use to. The part that took time to get use to- as my sister also echoed- is the stalker-ish feeling that it emits. Yes, we had History, but this is technology in your face. Next thing you know, it’ll start making recommendations. You know it’s coming.

With all the simplicity and “fast” that was evident in Google’s Chrome browser, you knew that something was bound to pop up and bite at your ankles like an angry chinchilla. Here it is, folks; the bane of my existence.

It’s not as cute as when Ed Boon does it in Mortal Kombat.

When Ed Boon comes out in Mortal Kombat, it’s funny. When Google Chrome does it sporadically- and frequently- when you type in a valid web address, it’s irritating. The simple solution is to hit Refresh in the browser, and your website shows up.

As a result, I’ve gone back to Opera. But then I used docs.google.com to edit a spreadsheet and Google Docs was just not as friendly in that enviornment.

Now… I switch between Chrome and Opera.

There’s just no winning this.