We have one internet connection for both computers, but they are moving at very different rates.
We have one internet connection for both computers, but they are moving at very different rates.
I recently had my home provider update me to 1 Gb speeds, but the actual speeds I am seeing on two different computers is bafflingly huge. First, my network layout. I work primarily out of a home office. The physical medium (cable) enters the house inside that same office. The modem they provided also resides in that same office, and it has an integrated 4-port switch. I have two computers connected; one a Lenovo laptop i use primarily for work, and a large desktop (I call the “big” computer) which is for personal stuff. Both sit within three feet of the modem/switch, and are both connected via short CAT8 cables (minimal extra cable). There is nothing else between the switch and either computer - just a cable. Both are Win 10. In using Speedtest.net the Lenovo routinely exceeds 940 Mbs, so the speed is there and the provider isn’t stiffing me. The big computer however never exceeds about 40% of that speed (around 410). I tried some different speed checks that allow variable data size and the difference is even more dramatic (the Lenovo is 5-10 times faster). Since they are both so physically close and connected to the same switch this should be the easiest thing in the world to troubleshoot, and here’s what I’ve done so far: Swapped cables. Swapped ports. Tried all the ports. Bought a brand new, even shorter gold plated CAT8 cable. None of this changed anything, so I thought maybe my NIC was the issue and bought a new Gigabit NIC and put it in an unused slot. Still same thing. Maybe it’s my security SW, so I rebooted in safe mode with networking. Same thing. Made sure all drivers were up to date (they were) then pored over the NIC configs and they were identical. I always prefer auto negotiation, but for giggles tried hard settings to 1G. No change. I checked the mobo BIOS for any “missed” settings. Nothing i can see there. At this point I am running out of ideas and am wondering if there isn’t something buried in the Win 10 config that’s capping the speed on the big PC, but the burning question i have is are these tests reliable? Could there be anything in either PC that’s producing misleading numbers? If not, what else is there to even check?
Even though cat8 cables sound cool, they are mostly fake and only used in special data centers with huge amounts of gigabit speed. If you buy them for home use, the actual internet cables aren't even certified or built right, so you won't get what you pay for. You really don't need a fancy cable like cat6 or higher to run a normal gigabit connection. Just stick with standard cat5e if you have older routers or computers. Don't waste money on extra lines when your speed is already fine. The real problem is that some cheap cables lie about their specs and do not meet the official standards. One thing you can fix is by making sure IPv6 is turned off in your router settings. Also, check for extra software on your motherboard or graphics card. Some of these programs claim to speed up your network but actually slow it down because they interfere with normal traffic. If you see a name like CFOSspeed or something similar, uninstall that program immediately.
Thanks, I get it too. Fake marketing is old news, so I don't care what you say about prices when you buy 3-foot cable. The most expensive one I could find was $8, so if moving to CAT5 saved me that much money, it really doesn't matter for me. Anyway, I tried turning off IPV6 on the first test and got a speed of 415 Mbps, but since that difference isn't huge, I don't think it fixes anything important. The gaming junkies stuff is simple: I built the PC without installing any apps, even if I missed something, the safe boot would have shown a clean start with no changes there. Maybe some other setting or Windows 10 is to blame?
It could be any kind of software on that computer. Because you have two computers, I'd suggest starting with something old called IPERF. This is small and doesn't use the hard drive, so it won't slow things down much. It will mostly show if your ports and drivers are working well. If this works, we should try copying big files between both machines to see what happens. It's hard to guess how fast that would be since different file systems on each machine can make a difference. Once these steps work, you might get a clue about some web browser problems.
Can a clean boot fix the problem? I checked that website to clear out my browser stuff, but things are still worse here: on my laptop it's slow (25-27 Mb/s), and on this big PC with 512 MB files it's even slower (570-580 Kb/s). I don't know how iPerf works. Does it just test files or sites, or does it measure download speeds?
IPERF is an old command line tool. You start it on one computer with the server setting. Then on other computers, you give the same command using your server's IP address. There are lots of extra choices about how big the packets are, but just use the default ones. There are fancy graphical interfaces, but installing them takes too much work for a quick test. The main thing is that it doesn't mess with files or websites; it only tests your network connection and nothing else. You can find some websites on the internet to run IPERF against, but I have only used it to test machines in my own house so far. Hard mode might load too many Windows drivers. If you want to avoid using Windows entirely, you can get a Linux boot image from a USB stick. These usually come with a simple web browser already installed and they run completely off the USB stick. This means you have to be careful what you test because there are no real files to download and it will probably be very slow since it's running from a USB stick. Speedtest should work fine on your machine.