REALLY Slow Internet

I'm at my friends how on his Dell Inspiron 530S and his internet is slow it's not even funny. What's even worse is that he's got Comcast, and in our area they are REALLY fast. I know for a fact that his problem isn't helped by only one gigabyte of RAM for Vista and a 1.6Ghz Intel e2140 but his internet is so slow it's amazing to me. His parents have a parental control deal going on with his computer (I'm working on getting a ghost key logger for him so he can get the password, lemme know if ya'll got any good recommendations) that's so strict to run updates for Xfire and  infact to install software he needs thier permission. Before they modified the level of parental control, my friend put "super" into a Google search and the results were blocked... Anyway, any ideas as to why his internet is so slow?

I'm not really sure what the problem is, but my guess is the monitoring software is hogging alot of system resources causing the PC to be really slow. It could also be that anything to do with the internet has to be run through the software first before a result will be displayed (eg. when you search "super"). What type of monitoring software is it? It's weird that his parents have so much control over his computer  They should trust him. I hope getting a keylogger works, but as a last resort you could explain to his parents what problems their control is causing. If I am allowed to ask, how old is your friend? If he is over a certain age he should be allowed to use the computer without that much restriction.

Do a speedtest on his computer then post the results...other than that...does he or anyone in the house use bittorrent. While ISP's are not allowed to throttle bandwidth without letting you know..I've found that time warner in our area does...as soon as I open utorrent the connection instantly drops from 17 mb/s to 300 kb/s and as soon as I turn it off it goes right back up...

It's probably the security software acting as a proxy to the internet, and with the slow processor and minimal memory in the system, it's running like poop.

Iain:

His parents have a parental control deal going on with his computer (I'm working on getting a ghost key logger for him so he can get the password, lemme know if ya'll got any good recommendations)

Do you think you are doing your friend a big favor by installing a ghost keylogger, Iain? What qualifies you to circumvent the parental controls that his parents, who know him better than you, supply him with room, board & internet access, and are much older and wiser than you, have installed? As a parent myself, I cordially invite you to reconsider your decision. And I really hope that no one here recommends any keyloggers, either. 

  Super Dave I don't quite know how to answer your quesiton. I'm mentally much more mature that most people my age (I'm only 17, and I suppose you'll have to just trust me on that statement, lol.) and so I often make the mistake of assuming the same for others in my age group. Yesterday was my friends 16th Birthday, to answer another persons question. But Super Dave the control my friends parents are exerting on him (And his 18 year old step brother who is also a high school graduate and soon to be college kid) is totally unwarrented and exerted via the rudementery Windows Defender (I believe at least, if there are other parental control programs installed with Vista then please correct me) or whatever the default program for Parent Control on Windows Vista is.

  I know my friend well and having to call his Mom down to run an updateon Xfire or run a game that requires administrative permission is absolutely ridiculous. They should buy Fortiguard or something that works better than what Vista provides.

I am kinda with super dave on this one. If it's their house it's their rules and unfortunatley he has to live by them. You don't know if he did something to provoke his parents to have to treat him this way. While I won't help by providing ways around the parental controls I will try to help the speed issue. I would check other computers in the house and see if they are haveing the same issues. I know I had a time with comcast for awhile due to them updateing their systems and my internet was really slow for almost 3 weeks. I assume you have done all the necassary antivirus and malicious software scans. Ya never know, maybe his parents are treating him this way cause they caught him looking at porn and now his computer is full of infections. If none of that works I would suggest maybe talking with his parents and suggesting something that still provides the parental controls without seriously lagging his system down. And a keylogger is only sure to slow his computer down even more. I won't go tit for tat over the parents issue. I would just recomend caution. If they are as unreasonable as you say then what your suggesting could put you in a bad way with them to the point that they may not let your friend hang out with you anymore. Just a thought. Please don't take any of this offensive. Just trying to help.

Iain:

Super Dave I don't quite know how to answer your quesiton. I'm mentally much more mature that most people my age (I'm only 17, and I suppose you'll have to just trust me on that statement, lol.)

Secretly installing a keylogger on someone else's computer doesn't fit my definition of being mature, Iain.

Then our definitions of 'mature' aren't very similar. How mature is it of his parents to put that sort of unneccessary control over him? I wouldn't call using a keylogger immature though.

I'm incredibly immature, but I gotta agree with Dave:  It's *their* PC, they can lock it down as they want.

You'll understand when you're a parent - and maybe get a $12,000 lawsuit from the RIAA.

If he doesn't know how to get around the restrictions himself, there's no guarantee he knows how to stay out of trouble... and you'll be an accessory.

Iain:

I wouldn't call using a keylogger immature though.

I certainly would...keyloggers are tools for network administrators to make sure their networks remain as secure as possible within businesses. Not for kids to be able to circumvent in-place parental controls that are obviously in place for a reason

Iain:

How mature is it of his parents to put that sort of unneccessary control over him?

I would say its very mature of them; most parents don't know what kinda crap their kids can get into on the internet so I would consider them extremely smart parents. "Unnecessary control" might be debate-able however, something tells me that they are there for a reason (i.e. mom caught a glimpse of the history or they had a virus infection from P2P program, etc.).

The bottom line is: it is your FRIEND'S battle to fight, not yours. If he really wants to be able to have all the freedom in the world perhaps he should save up to purchase his own PC and perhaps a portion of the internet bill? If it was my kid that would be my offer for them....

Most likely a keylogger won't help you (not to mention bust him bad).  The mere attempt to install this will be logged and sent to his parents silently.  Hopefully he (and you) already know that every email, im session, you name it is probably echoed to his parents as well.  Most of the parental control programs offer these features and if his parents are that strict they probably have them enabled.

Check my answer here: http://hothardware.com/cs/forums/p/44330/335495.aspx#335495