I can ping the router's gateway address with my OSX machine and I can ping my own IP address as assigned by the router [they all have dynamic/automaticly assigned IPs]. I can't ping google properly [10/10 packets are lost] but if I go to www.google.com in a browser, it works properly and the search results page will load very quickly. Other websites barely load, it takes several tries to do it [repeatedly clicking refresh] and sometimes it simply doesn't work.
The slowness problem became progressively worse over a period of about a month and a half. It is at the point now where I can't stream a youtube video properly or consistently browse different pages on nearly any given website.
Both OSX and Windows computers are set up to get access, wirelessly, from the [Belkin] router and all of them have excellent signal reception.
My parents were convinced by one of their friends that all they need for security is a MAC address access list controlled by the router [we get the MAC address manually, then add it into the admin interface of the router].
I'm worried that other people can go onto our router and hook their own computers up to it and slow down our house's connection since they didn't password protect access to the router interface. Is this a legitimate concern?
I've checked out the list but only my family's MAC addresses were on it. Does this mean we are safe from other users or should I set up a WEP/router password?
I've also flushed the DNS [I think] and power-cycled everything. I can't update the firmware for the router from home because the internet connection is too slow to download the file, but I'll download it from work tomorrow and then update it.
I used my laptop away from home last weekend and everything was perfect internet-wise using both Safari and Firefox.
Thanks for the help. I don't really know anything about computers so it is really appreciated. I am not sure what to try next or what other information is needed to work on this problem, so please let me know! Thanks again.
The slowness problem became progressively worse over a period of about a month and a half. It is at the point now where I can't stream a youtube video properly or consistently browse different pages on nearly any given website.
Both OSX and Windows computers are set up to get access, wirelessly, from the [Belkin] router and all of them have excellent signal reception.
My parents were convinced by one of their friends that all they need for security is a MAC address access list controlled by the router [we get the MAC address manually, then add it into the admin interface of the router].
I'm worried that other people can go onto our router and hook their own computers up to it and slow down our house's connection since they didn't password protect access to the router interface. Is this a legitimate concern?
I've checked out the list but only my family's MAC addresses were on it. Does this mean we are safe from other users or should I set up a WEP/router password?
I've also flushed the DNS [I think] and power-cycled everything. I can't update the firmware for the router from home because the internet connection is too slow to download the file, but I'll download it from work tomorrow and then update it.
I used my laptop away from home last weekend and everything was perfect internet-wise using both Safari and Firefox.
Thanks for the help. I don't really know anything about computers so it is really appreciated. I am not sure what to try next or what other information is needed to work on this problem, so please let me know! Thanks again.