A query for any forum "computer wizards"

[Xenophon PCDGS]

An elderly lady member of some eighty years vintage of a charity that I am currently assisting showed me the monitor screen of her HP tower system and the icons at the right side of the foot of the screen has one, with a red cross upon it, that appears to be for "Network and Sharing Centre" which when clicked, brings up a screen that starts "Connection status unknown...Server execution failed".

Her system functions perfectly in all respects, so has anyone any idea why this icon should be stating what it says ?

 

[harry42]

Does the computer have internet access and is it private or shared?

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Does the computer have internet access and is it private or shared?

The lady in question lives in a large 18th century house in a rural location and has a wireless connected private system.

 

[sutty]

Hi.

A couple of questions to boil things down a bit.

Which operating system is the PC running?
Have any changes been made to her wifi router?

 

[asylumxl]

Has her computer been correctly added to the network? It seems she doesn't have sufficient network privileges but it may be that the network has internet sharing enabled.

Whoever administrates the network should check using the admin account this.

 

[Wyvern]

Is she in fact on a network?

If everything is working OK I should let sleeping dogs lie.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Hi.

A couple of questions to boil things down a bit.

Which operating system is the PC running?
Have any changes been made to her wifi router?

My wife and I have just called to see the lady in question, who responds to your query as follows:-

Windows Vista 32-bit (System already installed in the HP Pavilion tower system when it was purchased brand-new in 2009 from the John Lewis store at Cheadle Royal)

No changes have been made to her router (She uses a BT Home Hub 3)

 

[Crossover]

I agree with Wyvern. If she is able to browse the Internet OK and everything works, I'd leave it be. Windows does occasionally do odd things (even for me on 7) where it thinks it doesn't have a proper Internet connection, but is indeed fine. Plus, Vista is the work of the devil

As it isn't an issue I have come across directly before (and I haven't had dealings with Vista for some time either), I have done a quick read round on Google.

This may be of some help, especially the post by seanatsalty about 2/3 of the way down the page.

That said, if you're not confident with running command prompts and such like and it refuses to work, I'd seek advice from someone who may be able to assist directly

 

[sutty]

My wife and I have just called to see the lady in question, who responds to your query as follows:-

Windows Vista 32-bit (System already installed in the HP Pavilion tower system when it was purchased brand-new in 2009 from the John Lewis store at Cheadle Royal)

No changes have been made to her router (She uses a BT Home Hub 3)

Thanks for that information. The next question would be (and I neglected to ask earlier (the joys of a crying 4 week old boy)) - can she access the internet?

The error provided, I have seen in the past when trying to share media via windows media centre. If she is indeed able to access the internet, I'd ignore it.

Should she not have an connection to the internet, I would recommend

1) Reboot the home hub - any changes after that? If not
2) If you open the networking icon on your PC you should find a link that says "status", clicking on that will open a smaller window where you will find a button to diagnose and repair your connection. Should this fail
3) If you open the networking centre via the same icon, you will have a bank of text to the left of the window. Open that, right hand click on your wireless network and then "remove network". You will then be free to re-associate with the home hub.

If none of these work, I'm more than happy to try to assist further

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

The error provided, I have seen in the past when trying to share media via windows media centre. If she is indeed able to access the internet, I'd ignore it.

Many thanks to a fellow forum member. I can confirm that she does have full internet access (15.7Kbps) and because at her age, just a few standard programs suffice for her use, especially just for browsing for general information. She has the basic BT "up to 10GB monthly allowance" of which she seems to average 4.6 GB usage per month.

I have advised her to ignore the small item with the red cross on it at the foot of her desktop.

My sincere thanks to other forum members for their postings.

 

[Crossover]

Many thanks to a fellow forum member. I can confirm that she does have full internet access (15.7Kbps) and because at her age, just a few standard programs suffice for her use, especially just for browsing for general information. She has the basic BT "up to 10GB monthly allowance" of which she seems to average 4.6 GB usage per month.

I have advised her to ignore the small item with the red cross on it at the foot of her desktop.

My sincere thanks to other forum members for their postings.

My bold - Kbps? hock:

Yes, I would definitely advise to leave well alone in which case. I have often seen Windows display the red cross on Network and Sharing Center despite being connected fine.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Sorry...will clarify.

I carried out a BT Wholesale speed test on her system which shows:-

Download speed.....15.7 Kbps

Upload speed.........0.82 Kbps

Not bad for our area using the BT basic system.

 

[Bungle73]

Sorry...will clarify.

I carried out a BT Wholesale speed test on her system which shows:-

Download speed.....15.7 Kbps

Upload speed.........0.82 Kbps

Not bad for our area using the BT basic system.

That's not right at all - that's a lot slower than dial-up. Are you sure you don't mean 15.7Mbps and 0.82Mbps? That would make a lot more sense

 

[asylumxl]

That's not right at all - that's a lot slower than dial-up. Are you sure you don't mean 15.7Mbps and 0.82Mbps? That would make a lot more sense

Could well mean kilobytes per second rather than kilobits per second. In which case it would be roughly a 0.15 megabit connection.

 

[SS4]

Sorry...will clarify.

I carried out a BT Wholesale speed test on her system which shows:-

Download speed.....15.7 Kbps

Upload speed.........0.82 Kbps

Not bad for our area using the BT basic system.

Kbps is kilobits per second, this should not be confused with KBps which is kilobytes per second - there are 8kbps in 1KBps. 15.7 Kbps is roughly 2 KBps which is very slow. I'd expect it to be about 100x faster or about 2Mbps. It just seems very slow

Of course it may just be your area sucks for internet of course in which case please accept my apologies for doubting you

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

I did another BT Wholesale test and printed out the results this time.

The reading is definitely shown as Kbps on both the download and upload readings.....NOT KBps...on the printout.

 

[asylumxl]

I did another BT Wholesale test and printed out the results this time.

The reading is definitely shown as Kbps on both the download and upload readings.....NOT KBps...on the printout.

In that case, the internet must be almost unusable!

 

[michael769]

She needs to call her provider, that speed is far below the Openreach fault threshold.

I'm surprised the tester managed to run.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

She needs to call her provider, that speed is far below the Openreach fault threshold.

I'm surprised the tester managed to run.

Someone told her that her residence, situated where it is in a very rural part of the Bollington/Adlington/Pott Shrigley triangle, was too remote to have a fibre optic connection installed. Is this a normal situation in remote rural locations ?

My own knowledge of computers and their connections is minuscule, hence the reason why I set up this thread at the age of 68, knowing full-well there are forum members with up-to-date knowledge in this area.

 

[michael769]

Someone told her that her residence, situated where it is in a very rural part of the Bollington/Adlington/Pott Shrigley triangle, was too remote to have a fibre optic connection installed. Is this a normal situation in remote rural locations ?

The fibre rollout is far from done and many populated urban areas are years away from seeing fibre let alone rural areas.

Nevertheless her speed is pathetic for ADSL and is low enough to be considered as defective by Openreach. It is possible if she is very remote that she is on an exceptionally long line in which case it may be preferable to migrate her onto a fixed rate ADSL product or even ISDN to get a better speed, because her current speeds are not worth the money she will be pending.

But first steps are to engage with her ADSL service provided and get them to investigate if there is a fault.

I am assuming as you mention a BT Home Hub that her service provider is BT. The best way to get help and advice for BT internet connections is to post on http://community.bt.com/t5/BB-Speed-Connection-Issues/bd-p/BBinHome.

In the meantime she needs to ensure that the Hub is connected and switched on 24 hours a day. Modem disconnects or power offs are the biggest single causes of low connection speeds.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

But first steps are to engage with her ADSL service provided and get them to investigate if there is a fault.

I am assuming as you mention a BT Home Hub that her service provider is BT. The best way to get help and advice for BT internet connections is to post on http://community.bt.com/t5/BB-Speed-Connection-Issues/bd-p/BBinHome.

In the meantime she needs to ensure that the Hub is connected and switched on 24 hours a day. Modem disconnects or power offs are the biggest single causes of low connection speeds.

May I thank you for your extra input, which will be taken up with BT.

With regard to the BT Home Hub 3, I can confirm that the elderly lady has this unit permanently connected at all times and it is very near to the main BT socket and her tower system is in the same room as the BT Home Hub 3.

 

[Wyvern]

Are you sure that whoever wrote the webpage hasnt c***d up and mixed up bits and bytes?

There are a lot of speed testers on the net. I use the BBC iPlayer one which gives "peractical" results.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/diagnostics#results

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Are you sure that whoever wrote the webpage hasnt c***d up and mixed up bits and bytes?

There are a lot of speed testers on the net. I use the BBC iPlayer one which gives "peractical" results.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/diagnostics#results

You would have expected the BT Wholesale website to be more reliable than most.

 

[Crossover]

I was going to ask whether the router was far from the PC, as you describe the type of building in the OP, signals can degrade. But if it is in the same room it is unlikely.

I use www.speedtest.net on both PC's and mobiles to test the speed, from which, you can post a link of the result. Would it be possible to do such?

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

I use www.speedtest.net on both PC's and mobiles to test the speed, from which, you can post a link of the result. Would it be possible to do such?

My wife and I drove to her house when we saw your posting and I used the speedtest system stated in your link, which revealed a set of readings as follows:-

Download...9.97 Mbps

Upload.......0.81 Mbps

 

[michael769]

My wife and I drove to her house when we saw your posting and I used the speedtest system stated in your link, which revealed a set of readings as follows:-

Upload...9.97 Mbps

Upload...0.81 Mbps

It is not possible to upload at more than about 1.2Mbps with ADSL so I presume that the 9.97 figure is a download.

These figures are a bit more respectable for a rural line.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

It is not possible to upload at more than about 1.2Mbps with ADSL so I presume that the 9.97 figure is a download.

These figures are a bit more respectable for a rural line.

It was indeed a DOWNLOAD figure of 9,97. I was in such a rush to make the posting after driving the five miles there and back in a heavy rainstorm, that I was careless with my posting. 68 years of age and I still make childish mistakes..

My posting now reads correctly.

 

[Crossover]

My wife and I drove to her house when we saw your posting and I used the speedtest system stated in your link, which revealed a set of readings as follows:-

Download...9.97 Mbps

Upload.......0.81 Mbps

Sounds like everything is working well