Is a 10 Gigabit network adapter really slow at just 2 GBps?
Is a 10 Gigabit network adapter really slow at just 2 GBps?
It probably won't just limit you based on one specific setting. There is software that restricts data rates, like making a background download use all your bandwidth. Usually, once this is set up, I think it wouldn't slow you down to 2Gbit even if you have a fast connection; instead, it might be slower when you only have a 50mbps internet line. For example, the download limit you can choose in Steam. There are all kinds of things that stop your speeds and show up only when using very fast connections. One example is how much data you can send or receive at one time; this part stops the maximum speed because it limits the size of the TCP window. That's why speedtest uses several separate download streams to make up for lost bandwidth. There are also settings in your internet connection (NIC) that move certain tasks from the CPU to the network card, sometimes helping and sometimes hurting things depending on how they work. Your biggest problem is testing against the whole internet where you have no control over the other person's side of things. You never know for sure if the server is busy or if your machine just has a hard limit set up. Since you can't test inside your own house between different computers, it will be tricky to get good results on speedtest. The amount of traffic on servers changes between your tests. Even if speedtest shows big numbers, other sites where you actually download files might have artificial limits that slow things down. Server owners only have so much bandwidth total and set caps on rates, so a few people with very fast connections don't block everyone else. I know Steam rarely lets downloads go as high as my 1gbit internet speed would suggest.
So, what should I try next to get these results right? Can I find another test that is better than the old one?
There are other speedtesting sites but many are not as good as ookla. I have seen some that only get say 200mbps. It is not so much reliable it is you need to find a way to eliminate variables. You know that the speedtest site itself can do the speeds because the router can test to it. Be sure you test to the same exact speedtest server. ATT uses one that is on their own network when it tests from the router. When you run speedtest for example you are using a browser that could have any number of different settings that could affect it. That is before you even think to look at windows settings. So IF you had another machine the normal tests I would recommend was first to run IPERF between 2 machines in your house. This is a simple line mode tool. It pretty much tests the drivers and nic only. You would then use file sharing and attempt to copy very large files between machines in your house. This is more complex and uses more of the OS but is not as complex as internet browser based download. If all this is good on the LAN/LAN side you would then suspect maybe a router setting. When the router does speedtest it runs directly on the public IP it does not go through the NAT overhead. You are almost going to have to blindly try changing stuff you have no way to actually test without having everything on the internet and your ISP in your testing path. You can be fairly certain it is a setting in the pc because of the good results on the router
I'll attempt to fix it myself too; I actually own a broken motherboard, so they might be able to help me out.
I'm still waiting on them. They're incredibly slow and don't seem to be asking the correct questions and they only reply once per day and not on the weekends. I spoke with them on the phone and they were busy asking me about the intel network adapter on my PC (my pc supports two and the AQC one supports 10g while the one they were asking me about only supports 2.5) In my other findings I did discover according to my speed tests that my upload is signifanctly faster than my download at 3.5g where my download is 2g. I also checked in my network settings on windows and it shows 5g, same with checking it in command prompt running: wmic nic where netEnabled=true get name, speed Maybe these are more accurate than the web speed tests such as speedtest.net?
All those commands mean the port is working at 5 Gbps. Technically, it is always moving data at that rate. But an ethernet cable either sends or receives full speed, not both zero and full. Those numbers aren't very useful on their own because software usually measures how much data moves over a set time and takes the average. The problem here is something is slowing things down below what the physical cable can do. For example, if you use a VPN on your router, even though your internet plan might be gigabit, all that extra encryption could make the CPU work too hard. This often caps your speed to just 30-50 Mbps instead of getting full gigabit speed on most routers. With a computer, it's probably not the CPU limiting you because it's unlikely to be too slow. It almost certainly has to be something with the settings or drivers that is forcing the connection to limit itself below what the actual cable can handle. Having another device at home with 5 Gbps ports would make testing much easier and more accurate in the future. Things like speed tests are actually very complicated because they involve lots of software, like web browsers, all working together.
I figured out why the app wasn't working. I turned off that setting on AdGuard, and now my connection shows up as 5G instead of being cut off. Thanks a lot!