Is Someone Hijacking My Internet? A Frustrating Speed Mystery
Have you ever experienced a sudden and perplexing drop in your internet speeds? I recently encountered a troubling situation that left me wondering if my internet connection was being compromised. Here’s a detailed account of what happened to me, and I’m reaching out for help from anyone who might understand what’s going on.
I live in the beautiful Pacific Northwest and have been enjoying CenturyLink fiber internet service for about nine months now. Initially, everything was perfect—I was frequently achieving speeds around 950 Mbps, with respectable upload speeds to match. However, without any warning, my connection took a nosedive, reducing my download speeds to as low as 4 Mbps. To make matters worse, the speed fluctuates wildly: some tests show 20 Mbps, others 100 Mbps, and occasionally, it drops to a disheartening 1.5 Mbps. Strangely, my upload speeds remain excellent, often hitting 900 Mbps, while my download speeds linger at a trickle.
To get to the bottom of this, I contacted CenturyLink support. After running several diagnostic tests, the technician assured me that everything seemed to be functioning correctly. He sent a technician to my home who replaced the modem and the Optical Network Terminal (ONT) and even installed new Cat6 cables. We tested the internet connection via an Ethernet cable, which was supposed to provide a stable speed, but still, the results were disappointing.
Throughout our discussions, the technician kept asking if I was using a VPN, which I hardly knew anything about. The concept of a VPN was foreign to me, and I concluded that I wasn’t using one. The technician scratched his head in confusion and left, leaving me scratching mine as well. My follow-up calls to tech support yielded similar replies: everything appears fine, and once again, the recurring question about VPN use.
Adding to my concerns, I’ve noticed a strange occurrence while browsing on Google Chrome. Occasionally, I’m prompted with a CAPTCHA that states there’s been suspicious activity detected. This situation has only fueled my anxiety—is it possible that someone is using my internet connection or that I’m inadvertently sharing my bandwidth with someone else?
To those more tech-savvy than I: is there a chance that someone could have set up a VPN without my knowledge? Am I unknowingly sharing my connection? I fear this mystery may be beyond my understanding, and I’m unsure where to begin my investigation.
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