Beware: Asus Network iControl can kill upload speeds

[Rataan]

At least it did for me according to web based speed tests. Now, if somebody wants to post and tell me that it really isn't a problem and that it just looks like a problem, then I won't argue it at this point, because I haven't extensively tested it with actual uploads. But if anyone sees speed test upload speeds 20x slower than they should be, this may be the reason why.

BTW, this is an Asus Sabertooth Z77.

 

[danwhitehouse]

I registered just to say thank you, because this fixed my issue instantly. I was getting 40mbps download, and then only 1mbps upload. After turning this off, I got 52mbps download, and 30+ mbps upload. So thank so very much for posting this.

Motherboard: ASUS P8Z77-V Pro/Thunderbolt
CPU: i7-3770 3.4 Ghz
RAM: 8GB

 

[Guest]

My case was extreme. I've a fiber 100/10MB connection and was getting 1-2 of download and 0.5 of upload. Planetside was unplayable. Curiously ping was fine. I removed that iNetwork cr*p and now I'm maxing my connection on speed tests.

I've just removed all AI Suite since after that experience I don't trust that suite quality level.

 

[Shooter95663]

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I disabled the Asus iControl and my upload went from .3 Mbps to 2.73 Mbps! i was pounding my head into the desk until I came across this post.

 

[rezzinate]

If you've been through everything then the problem is hardware. It's the motherboard sir. Use your 3 year warranty Asus offers on every motherboard.

 

[jeffpz]

I sure appreciate the OP for documenting this. I've had a number of problems in the past few weeks, then after thinking I had everything fixed I noticed my upload speeds were around 2Mbps instead of 10. I have 3 computers, all on the same network and the others are fine. I also noticed that if I ran a speedtest immediately after rebooting, it worked fine for about a minute and then started to slow down dramatically, so I assumed it was some kind of background process starting up. I watched what was running in Task Manager and could see several ASUS utilities starting. I uninstalled the entire suite and all is well again. I'm not sure I want to run any of the ASUS software if this is the level of quality produced. I had only installed it recently in the hopes that it would help me find other problems... which turned out to be a disk drive. In any event, don't run iControl if you want your network uploads to work. Is there any reason you need the ASUS suite at all?

 

[Guest]

It also can kill download speeds, there seems to be a conflict between iControl an anti-virus programs, with kaspersky or avast enabled download went from 28mbs to 1.7 mbs, upload when from 5.6 mbs to 1.7 mbs. When I uninstalled the above antivirus programs speeds returned to normal levels. Now this is interesting, I installed microsoft's essentials anti-virus and there was no conflict, speeds were normal with icontrol enabled. I think the big problem is that asus turns this buggy app on when the AI suite is installed. Maybe its not configured properly, but no clue how to go about it, the bottom line it should be defaulted to off when installed. I am going to call ASUS tech support to complain about this issue.

 

[jeffpz]

It also can kill download speeds, there seems to be a conflict between iControl an anti-virus programs, with kaspersky or avast enabled download went from 28mbs to 1.7 mbs, upload when from 5.6 mbs to 1.7 mbs. When I uninstalled the above antivirus programs speeds returned to normal levels. Now this is interesting, I installed microsoft's essentials anti-virus and there was no conflict, speeds were normal with icontrol enabled. I think the big problem is that asus turns this buggy app on when the AI suite is installed. Maybe its not configured properly, but no clue how to go about it, the bottom line it should be defaulted to off when installed. I am going to call ASUS tech support to complain about this issue.

I use Microsoft Essentials and still had the download problem (until I removed the ASUS suite).

 

[akaguyver]

I also was getting terrible upload and download speeds on my brand new asus p877 deluxe thunderbolt mobo. i disabled network icontrol but my download speeds made no improvement. after i disabled wifi engine and wifi go! my download speeds went from 1-3 mbps to 55 mbps. thanks asus, but no thanks.

 

[Guest]

It also can kill download speeds, there seems to be a conflict between iControl an anti-virus programs, with kaspersky or avast enabled download went from 28mbs to 1.7 mbs, upload when from 5.6 mbs to 1.7 mbs. When I uninstalled the above antivirus programs speeds returned to normal levels. Now this is interesting, I installed microsoft's essentials anti-virus and there was no conflict, speeds were normal with icontrol enabled. I think the big problem is that asus turns this buggy app on when the AI suite is installed. Maybe its not configured properly, but no clue how to go about it, the bottom line it should be defaulted to off when installed. I am going to call ASUS tech support to complain about this issue.

I use Microsoft Essentials and still had the download problem (until I removed the ASUS suite).

I also was getting terrible upload and download speeds on my brand new asus p877 deluxe thunderbolt mobo. i disabled network icontrol but my download speeds made no improvement. after i disabled wifi engine and wifi go! my download speeds went from 1-3 mbps to 55 mbps. thanks asus, but no thanks.

 

[Guest]

Looks like there are more issues effecting down load speed than just network icontrol, bottom line only install needed drivers from mother board CD, the suite stuff can and will cause you problems ,thanks ASUS for wasting the time of so many buyers with your bad software

 

[CiSCii]

I just want to say that I had the exact same problem and what I did was to kill process after process to see if there was a change in speed.
I have a Asus P8Z77-LX and had a speeds like 85Mbit down and betwwen 1-10Mbit uplink.
Most often there was 1-2Mbit upload. I have fiber 100/100.
The process that changed the speed was NETSVCHELP.EXE
When I killed that process the speed became 96Mbit down and 89 MBit Up.
A major difference. I search the web and find this thread of discussion and now I simply uninstalled the Net Help from the AI Suite II and now my computer are as fast as it could be.
Just wanted to say thanks for all the tips in this thread.

THANK YOU! THANK YOU SO MUCH! FINALLY I FOUND A THREAD WITH THE SOLUTION!<33333333333333

- 1 thing - Could you tell me step-by-step, how you removed that file from AI suite II? THANKS AGAIN!<3

 

[jasonramirez]

Want to thank you OP. This solved my upload speed problems.

 

[Sofonisba_7]

As the OP states, Network iControl WILL completely screw up your download and upload speeds! I don't even remember turning the damned iControl on, and after fighting with my ISP for the past FOUR MONTHS, trying to figure out why my 15/5 Mbps speeds weren't getting what they had been (prior to iControl activating, a median speed for my download was 20 Mbps, upload was an average of 20 Mbps, but upload had even been as high as 38-40 Mbps), I'd spoken to 18 different agents in Cox's Tier 2 tech support, and had 14 different agents visit my place. Most of them told me that my equipment was the problem, but none of them knew what in my new build was causing it. After I'd continued to insist it WASN'T my equipment, and their Maintenance department had two agents working on the lines, cables, and connections outside of my apartment for over a WEEK trying to figure out what it was, and after confirming that my router, modem, and additional TP-Link NIC card were all fine, I came across this thread, citing Network iControl as the problem. I found it, turned it off, and IMMEDIATELY my speeds surged up to no lower than 20 Mbps EACH (I had been getting as bad as 2 Mbps download, and an AVERAGE of 0.66 Mbps upload, never any better than 1.22 upload)!!! This brings me to my final conclusion: Network iControl SUCKS!!! And no, I wasn't just going by the speeds clocked by every speed checking site I knew of; the problem was further reflected in webpages taking up to 90 seconds to complete navigation to; some pages NEVER finished! My speeds and Internet functionality became ABYSMAL! Trying to upload a 2 Mb photo via Hotmail took up to two full minutes, and no less than 90 seconds, if it was even as fast as two full minutes! It was RIDICULOUS how Network iControl screwed my speeds! I'm just glad the OP created this thread in the FIRST place!!!

My mobo is an M5A99FX.

 

[Mario1011]

Thanks for your help. Not only did it increase my upload speeds, it also doubles my download speeds.

 

[odingrey]

Holy cow, Rataan, I'm officially naming my first child after you. I've been pulling my hair out for months over this issue, even formatted the OS once (or twice) because of it. Speedtest results went from a .30 Mbps upload to 20.07 Mbps simply by switching it off.

 

[blinxpro]

Dead on! Thank you everyone. My upload speeds were literally 25 times slower than my other computers. I was suspecting Network i Control and that's why I searched here. I am so glad to have my upload speed back.

 

[childofthetao]

I think it's a great program. It's done my internet wonders.

 

[Mircea G]

Kill NetSvcHelp.exe with fire. It spikes cpu usage while executing some call in gep.dll and generated DPC latency in my case (p8z68-v with aisuite 2). When you reboot there didn't seem to be any DPC latency issues, but in half a day the spikes grew to around 8k us.

 

[unangsd]

I have an Asus RT-AC66U wireless router and an Asus PCE-AC66 adapter in my desktop. When the Control Center software was installed to manage the adapter, my upload speeds (based on several speedtest.net trials) were miniscule - things like 0.30 Mbps, really hampering the usability of the computer. Transfer speeds between the desktop and other devices on the LAN (my NAS, media sharing with a tablet and smartphone, etc.) were also super slow, so it wasn't just the connection to Internet.

However, when I uninstalled the control center software, rebooted, and only installed the adapter's drivers (through Windows 7's Device Manager), the upload speeds immediately jumped to around 11.5 Mbps, which is what my ISP says I should be getting. Similarly, transfers to the NAS and other local devices became much faster. In both instances, Windows' Status of my desktop's connection on the LAN said it was 216.5 Mbps, but something with the control center software was obviously causing a problem.

I'm still not sure how to get the dual-band functionality that is supposed to make 802.11ac so much faster than previous wifi settings, though. When I look at the properties of my network in Windows, it says "Radio Type: 802.11n", though is that just because 11ac is a new technology and Windows doesn't have that as an option? Is there some way to see that in the router's browser-based management utility? Other software to download to let the adapter and router work together that way? I thought buying both components from Asus would mean they would work seamlessly together, but that has not been the case so far.

 

[mrtwisted]

Awesome to see this thread...and it's lack of reasoning. I guess I won't be installing it either be cause I'm extremely lazy and don't want to configure anything, or come here for answers anymore -_- Also won't be installing the new tires on my car, because they'll slow the car down without putting any air in them....wouldn't want to do what I need to, better off just not installing them, as this thread suggests......
And yes I know this is a "troll thread"...that's just my failed attempt at trolling.

 

[ShadowDeese]

Wow. Thank you so much for this. I cannot believe that asus would be default install software that slows my upload speeds down to a standstill. I was trying to figure out why I was having trouble streaming SCII with a new build and had tried everything from changing my router's firmware to updating my network card drivers to running a new cable (pain in the ass because I run it through my house's walls).

To everyone saying this is not iControl's fault. I have had slow upload issues since I built my computer and disabling iControl immediately fixed the problem.

I should add this is with a P8z77 pro with a 3770k

How did you disable iControl? I can't seem to find it on my computer.

 

[horseatingweeds]

At least it did for me according to web based speed tests. Now, if somebody wants to post and tell me that it really isn't a problem and that it just looks like a problem, then I won't argue it at this point, because I haven't extensively tested it with actual uploads. But if anyone sees speed test upload speeds 20x slower than they should be, this may be the reason why.

BTW, this is an Asus Sabertooth Z77.

Oh, Rataan. I had a similar problem and just figured it out. I've been pulling my hair out trying to figure why this new system with an i5-2570 with broadband high speed internet connection was loading SOME sites horribly slow. Also, on Netflix, these AJAX boxes pop up giving you details about movies. Those didn't work on this system or took forever when they did. There were other problems too, on certain site, video wouldn't load. Other sites just took forever to load, like SalesForce.com - FOR EVER, like 15 minute if ever. Same for my bank's site. Man this has been annoying. After turning off this miserable Network iControl, it's all running as well as on my Athlon II laptop.... I was about to break down and reinstall the OS. I just uninstalled all my browsers hoping a new install of them would fix things. Nope. Thankfully, I noticed Network iControl. I wasn't even sure what it was for, so I googled it, and up came this thread.

Thanks ASUS! Maybe I should turn off some more ASUS crap, like my affinity for their boards...

OOOOHHHHHHHH! Browsing the internet is SO nice now. Websites are SO FAST.

Just turn off Network iControl... What The Hell????????? I'M SUCH A LOOSER -- dealing with this for so long.It's been over a year. I'm a programmer FFS. Why couldn't I figure this out any sooner? Rataan, you're cool man. Stay that way. Us idiots need you.

On a serious note, there's a type-o on the settings page for Network iControl. It states this:

"Turn ON Network iControl for a smoother online experience!"

When it should say:

"Turn OFF--OFF--OFF--OFF--OOOOOFF Network iControl for an online experience post-1995"

*sigh* I hate you ASUS. I hate you so very much.

 

[horseatingweeds]

Wow. Thank you so much for this. I cannot believe that asus would be default install software that slows my upload speeds down to a standstill. I was trying to figure out why I was having trouble streaming SCII with a new build and had tried everything from changing my router's firmware to updating my network card drivers to running a new cable (pain in the ass because I run it through my house's walls).

To everyone saying this is not iControl's fault. I have had slow upload issues since I built my computer and disabling iControl immediately fixed the problem.

I should add this is with a P8z77 pro with a 3770k

How did you disable iControl? I can't seem to find it on my computer.

Look for AI suit. Search using the Start menu. That should bring up a GUI interface that will get you to Network iControl and let you turn it OFF.

 

[skateboss]

Ok there's nothing wrong with iControl, just because people don't know how to use it doesn't mean the utility is the problem. Do you really seriously think the software engineers would design a utility that actually works the other way around? That's a very strong and inconsiderate accusation.

Seriously, what is wrong with you people? There are many reports right here in this thread stating how icontrol is 100% for sure the reason for the huge speed drop. I will add my name to that list. Thanks for this thread, saved me from reinstalling windows!

I just built a new system, and have been playing around with some other things on it, not really noticing the internet performance. Then yesterday i tried to upload some photos, and it took for ever for 1 to load on my 50/5 connection. I was like 😱 . So, like most folks, i head over to do a speed test, and see it in black and white. Downloads were fine, upload was 0.50 mb/s. Then I do all the usual troubleshooting and find full speed during safe mode. So I start killing processes and services till I come across the bandwidth killer, Asus iControl.

Thing is, I don't even remember installing it. It installs as part of the AI suite, and I haven't yet went through all the different features. I guess it's some type of QoS app. I get what it's trying to do, just think its going about it all wrong. It should not default on install to a very extreme limit like that. It should default to a much more relaxed profile, and allow you to fine tune it as you see fit. I'm certain there are folks talking to techs at their local broadband provider right now, trying to blame their cable company for their crappy service, aggravating at how their brand new $$ system is being crippled by them.

Anyways, thanks again to those who confirmed this!

This definatley works, and yes I am one of those people who called my fibre provider to tell them that i wasnt getting 16 mbits upload speed lol.

Thanks to OP for this, saved me talking to another middle eastern (TECH SUPPORT) huggggmm person 😀

regards Skateboss

 

[Khrev]

One thing to be sure and check on this board, is the driver for LAN can sometimes be set incorrectly to negotiate at Gigabit speed, and if you're not using the proper hardware and cables it will cut your speed down. Make sure to check your TCP/IP stack in network control center (win7) and in the advanced or speed tab, make sure that it's set to Auto Negotiate, or to 100Mbps if you're using an older router and Cat5e cables.