Ethernet download at full speed on start, then drops to half; other devices fine

[bastienf]

I've started having an issue with the download speed of my new PC.

My connection should be 100Mbps down and 10Mbps up. I'm connected via a powerline adapter and at first I was getting full speed and everything worked fine. But over the past 2-3 weeks, my speed on this device has dropped to roughly 50Mbps down. Upload speed is not effected at all.

What makes the problem stranger is that testing immediately after startup will give me full speed. But testing no more than two minutes later will see the down speed dropping to half as stated, and then staying there.

As far as I know, this issue is only on this PC. For instance, my phone gets full speed over wifi.

I've tried uninstalling/reinstalling network drivers, and rolling them back, but the problem persists.

The network card is a Killer E2500 gigabit card, connected to a TP Link TL-PA7010 powerline adapter kit.

Thanks for helping.

 

[bill001g]

Powerline adapters will dynamically change the speed if they detect too much errors. You can do little, maybe try another outlet.

The other thing you can try is to download the drivers from killer that remove all the killer features. The so called "gaming" accelerator causes all kinds of strange errors.

 

[bastienf]

Powerline adapters will dynamically change the speed if they detect too much errors. You can do little, maybe try another outlet.

The other thing you can try is to download the drivers from killer that remove all the killer features. The so called "gaming" accelerator causes all kinds of strange errors.

It was working fine before, and no PC or network hardware has been changed before or after the issue started.

As for the Killer drivers, I uninstalled the software and installed the standalone driver last night, but that didn't have any effect.

 

[bill001g]

Best bet then is to try a ethernet cable just to test. It will quickly tell you if it is the powerline units or some other issue

 

[bastienf]

Best bet then is to try a ethernet cable just to test. It will quickly tell you if it is the powerline units or some other issue

I've tried a direct connection to the modem, with three different cables. I get the same results. So I suppose I can assume one of two things: an issue with the network card/driver, or an issue with the modem. I'll try a test with another computer to see if I can rule out the modem.

ETA: Tested with a laptop directly connected to the modem and got the same result as the PC. So I guess it's either a modem issue or an ISP issue?

 

[bastienf]

By the way, I believe the modem is a Ubee DVW32CB

 

[bill001g]

Yup call the ISP. Got a little off path since your main post said only 1 pc was affected .

 

[bastienf]

Yup call the ISP. Got a little off path since your main post said only 1 pc was affected .

Well, it was the only one that was connected directly at the time. Everything else in the house is on wifi, which runs fine.

I just tested a third computer and it got faster speeds.

 

[bastienf]

Does anyone have any other ideas of what the problem could be?

 

[studmoose]

It almost sounds like Comcast or CableVision is your ISP 🙂

You start your download quickly, and after a set data size, you are placed in a batch download category.

This is a way slower ISPs mask their infrastructure faults by throttling large transfers--allowing smaller ones through first and prevents large downloads from monopolizing their bandwidth. So, while they might advertise a high transfer rate, it's contingent on file size.

 

[bastienf]

Spectrum (TWC), actually. It was working fine for a couple weeks, then this problem popped up.

 

[bastienf]

Something else I forgot to mention: If I test my speed with speedtest.net, it will show roughly full speed. But if I test with something more accurate, like testmy.net, it will show half speed. And in practical use, the speed is closer to what testmy says.

 

[bastienf]

I installed a new network card and disabled the onboard Killer network and I'm still having the same problem. At this point it has to be an issue with the modem or the ISP themselves.