This issue isn't really related to Linux, but I trust the networking knowledge of people in a Linux users forum over those in other forums. I live in the middle of nowhere and there are very few options for high speed internet here. My current ISP is a wireless provider. There is an antenna attached to my roof directed toward the nearest hill that transmits the signal. It uses power over ethernet. A few days ago, I started seeing some really strange behavior. If I would try to view a page in Firefox, sometimes it would timeout, other times, the text loads but the images don't, or it just takes a REALLY long time to load. I can ping all the sites just fine, with decent response times. I've done a bandwidth speed test, and it was plenty fast for my connection.

I know it's not just the one computer, because I have 3 computers in my house that share the connection, and they are all having the same problem. One is windows, the others are Linux. I've talked to other customers of this ISP and they haven't noticed any problems with their service. I've tried doing traceroutes, and noticed that it would start timing out at around the 15th hop. I also tried unplugging my antenna, waiting for 30 seconds, and plugging it back in. Nothing has worked so far.

I've tried talking to the owner, but he doesn't know anything. In fact, he's a moron. He had some other people working for him that did all the technical stuff, but they are all gone now and he runs it by himself.

I'm just wondering if anyone would have even the slightest clue as to what the problem could be? Any help whatsoever would be appreciated. I'm a power user, and I've run Linux for many years, I just don't know where to go with this one. Thanks.

wireless links can break down when they are under a load. meaning if you are loading a page with a lot of graphics or downloading a file the link can break if the connection isn't strong enough. i would login to your bridge, if you are able to, and check the link strength, or have the company check the link, if the signal is weak you may need to realign the antena or get an amplifier.