Is my internet slower because of the modem, or the connection itself?

[StatusKuo]

While my internet is not sluggishly slow, I've noticed that other places have wired and/or wireless connections that are much faster than my own. When loading a website, it often takes a while, or when downloading the file, it takes an unusually long time...youtube videos are quite sluggish too! =]

On my wired desktop connection, it runs at 100mbps, i think. lol
I do know that the modem we have (speedstream 5100) is a little old and i was wondering if my DSL connection would be faster if I asked my service provider (At&T) for a newer one. Would this be helpful? or is our connection just sucky?

thanks =]

 

[Censure455]

Hello,
I would recommend having your modem upgraded because the SpeedStream 5100 was released back in August of 2002 which means that you should be able to definitely get a much better version considering it is 2009. However it may be a problem with the computer itself that is sluggish in accepting the connection, have you tried using a different computer to test the speed?
Go to http://www.speedtest.net/ and do a speed test to see how fast your connection is, make sure your computer is up to date and clean of viruses or malware. Turn off any programs that are running in the background that might be connected to the internet as well. After getting your upload and download speed results you can compare it to the advertised AT&T speed for your specific service, you may have to call them to get the average speed. If your speed is lower you can request a technician to check out your setup, sometimes you can get them to do it for free. Other than that I can only recommend that you talk to AT&T directly to get more information about your service area and connection speed.