Why is my internet speed suddenly going down from super high to just 100, but then coming back all of a sudden?
Why is my internet speed suddenly going down from super high to just 100, but then coming back all of a sudden?
I have added a new ethernet cable to my living room, but something weird keeps happening. I put an ethernet switch in the middle that supports 1Gbps speeds for two cables. Why do my internet speeds jump back and forth between being around 100 Mbps or going up to 900 Mbps? My speed tests at home never show anything else; sometimes they are way below 100 Mbps, other times above 900 Mbps. It acts all over the place so I don't know why it happens sometimes for a few days and then works fine at 1Gbps, or other times gets stuck at 100Mbps for several days.
I tried fixing this by doing four things:
First, I checked every cable individually to make sure none of them had any problems when connected directly from my modem to the PC. My speed tests on my main PC worked great, so the internet is working fine there.
Second, I looked at my computer settings and made sure my network connection was set to 1Gbps (not 100Mbps). I tried changing 1000 Mbps duplex settings too but nothing helped.
Third, my ethernet switch works out of the box without any special setup, but it has two different lights on it. If these lights are yellow, that means the connection is at 100Mbps and if they are green, that means the connection is at 1Gbps. Whatever I set for my PC internet speed makes those lights stay green all the time.
Fourth, I cleaned up the space and moved some empty space from my hard drive.
I am giving up now. Can someone help me with this?
Your internet might feel fast, but there are too many people using it at once in your area. You get a minimum amount of speed, but if there is a big rush (like during school holidays), that speed can drop way down. Other things also affect how fast you actually go.
I guess when you say less than 100mbps, it's usually around 93 or 94 mbps? That basically means your port is working at full speed of 100mbps. If it shows as 50mbps, then something else is wrong. I don't understand why you aren't seeing the lights turn on at the high speed either. Maybe it's just checking for errors while things are busy and slows down until you restart everything. Sometimes they even change a bit because of heat, but those changes usually stop moving around quickly so you should see them stay steady. This almost always means your cable is broken. The only other chance could be that the equipment isn't good enough to connect properly, which can't really be fixed yourself. The speed checking happens inside the hardware using voltages and settings, not in a program like drivers would say. So it's probably not a software problem for you. Cables are very strange when they break; some machines might work fine with them but others won't even try. They also sometimes just change speeds on their own at random times. In most cases, one end of the wire is loose or damaged in a way that breaks the connection. That's almost never the copper wire itself though. The only real exception to this rule is if you are using fake ethernet cables sold by someone else online. There are so many bad ones out there that it's hard to tell which ones are good and which ones aren't. The most common kind of bad cable is flat or thin wires instead of the normal thick ones. Those wires are too skinny to meet the standard rules for ethernet connections; they need to be 22-24 awg wire to work properly. It could also be copper that isn't pure enough quality. Some sellers sell CCA cables which have problems too. The longer these fake cables get, the more issues you face with them. If you plug into wall jacks you can check the wires and maybe fix them by punching down a new one or patch cable when it works at 100mbps but not at gigabit speeds. It's usually the blue or brown pair of wires causing the trouble. Maybe you could buy a cheap cable tester to find out exactly what is happening. The real good meters that check if cables can actually pass data at the right speeds are way too expensive for most home users. Cheap testers will show you if a connection is broken, swapped, or partially connected when one of those leads has less power than the other ones do.
Connect two computers directly and try to move data between them. If everything works smoothly, your switch is doing its job right. To make this easiest, buy a computer that has both an ethernet port and wifi, or find something else that connects via ethernet. Then, set up the ethernet port in bridge mode so it talks to the other computer directly instead of going through your router. There are different kinds of switches, but you need a good netgear switch with at least five or ten ports and a metal box. Cables actually matter. Don't buy cheap 100-foot flat cables that say they're cat 6 because those don't work well. Real cat 6 cables are round for a reason; it's the only way to make the wires spiral around each other, which stops noise from interfering and makes your connection stronger.