ISP help

[MJ4H]

Maybe help trouble shoot first:

Came home today and my internet connection sucked. Most websites wouldn't work at all, some I could get after trying 4 or 5 times, but only like partially (like css style sheet wouldn't even get loaded or something).

I called tech support and the girl was clueless. She said they would have to send someone out. Well that won't be until Tuesday, and I'm not confident they will figure it out either, frankly. Here are the keys:

1) web browsing sucked for the most part, but I could ocassionally get a site to at least partially load.
2) I remained connected flawlessly all day long to a telnet server that I had connected to this morning via an IP address.
3) I found google.com's IP address and used it and it came up almost instantly.

I gathered from this that the DNS lookup was failing. I went into my router's settings and changed it to a public DNS. Browsing immediately improved immensely. I thought it had solved the entire problem, but it didn't. The following problems still remain:

1) a few sites still have tremendous problems. Some take forever to load at all, some won't work at all, some work only partially, like before. Most work pretty well, now. There is no question that the public DNS is working better than the ISP provided one from before.
2) I cannot upload files, apparently. I tried uploading a file via dropbox, photobucket, and imageshack, none worked.

I have tried all the standard modem cycling, etc. I have brand new equipment provided by my ISP. They have been out fairly recently and tested everything and it was fine.

This is starting to piss me off. Not the first time I've had them out by a long shot. I would also like to know how I can find out what other ISP options I have in my area. This company is over-priced and their support sucks.

Anyone able to help with this?

[Noop]

Do you have Kaspersky? I had trouble uploading because of that program.

[MJ4H]

no

[RainMaker]

Wondering if you have a virus that is sending out spam or something from your computer. Had something like that years ago and caused a similar situation. Can you run a virus scan on it?

[MJ4H]

Scans show no viruses. It is coming and going today. Still can't upload any pictures, but for now, most sites are working. Most of the day, it has been very difficult to get through. ISP says no problems in my area.

Very frustrating.

[DanGarion]

Cable Modem?

I'm thinking bad power supply.

[RainMaker]

Have you tried a different computer to see if it's happening across the board? Maybe try updating your driver on your network card? Or plugging the computer in directly to the cable modem?

[gstelmack]

In addition to switching DNS which can often help, the other big browsing issue I've had in the past was the trap put on the cable box because I didn't have TV as well going bad. That does require a tech to fix.