Consistently Fast Download Speed, Unstable Upload Speed

[bluecheese1]

Today I was trying to run a livestream when I noticed people were complaining about buffering. I ran a speed test and, as it turns out, my upload speed is pretty slow, especially in comparison to my download speed. According to speedtest, my download speed appears to be between 75-80 mbps, but my upload speed is closer 1-1.3 mbps, with an occasional 6+ showing up. The 6+ always drops back down once I start actually streaming again. I am not actually testing my speed during the stream, since the test would probably be inaccurate, but I still notice buffering when I try streaming, and it's always back down to the slow speed when I try testing the speed again. This ultimately brings up 2 questions for me: How can I get a higher upload speed, and how can I maintain it?

 

[rhysiam]

What's the rated upload speed you pay for from your ISP? With the exception of certain business plans, download speeds will always be significantly higher because that's usually more important to home users. You have discovered one of the specific cases where upload speed (and consistency) is far more important.

First thing to check is that nothing else on your home network is chewing up bandwidth. Turn off or disconnect all other devices and check your upload speed again.
You also need to check there's no background process on your PC chewing up bandwidth. Filesharing (obviously) and OneDrive/Dropbox (etc) are examples of programs which can saturate your uplink in the background. Look at the network usage under the "performance" tab of your Task Manager just to check you don't have any sustained data being sent from your computer.

If you're confident it's not something on your network, then it's time to look at the options with the ISP. Are they actually providing the performance you're paying for? Can you pay for a faster plan with a higher upload speed? Look at your options there.

It's possible that the ISP's link is getting saturated at peak times, which is the problem for you. If that's the case contacting them to complain about the poor performance would be the place to start.

 

[Geekwad]

You will probably need to call your ISP and negotiate this with them.

They usually advertise the download speed, name 'packages' after it, but the upload speed is always in the fine print......that it's MUCH slower than the download speed. Depending on where you live and who your ISP is, you may be able to negotiate for this. If you're renting your modem from them, be sure it's current hardware (and that you're actually getting what you're paying for, even if it is slower than you need/want for streaming).

Be prepared for an 'package upgrade' though......