Question Ethernet Speed Dropping Drastically When Trying To Stream To Youtube

[Dopey5]

Hi Folks,

Hope everyone is well and someone may be kind enough to assist.

I have my PC In my shed approximately 15mtrs from the router, it runs out of the house wall and then below ground to the shed. My wifi appears fine but my PC that I am attempting to use to stream, is dropping in speed dramatically after attempting to stream to youtube.

I just purchased 2 new ethernet cables and after doing a twitchtest and seeing quality of 100 whereas I haven't got above 0 this week, I had assumed it was problem solved, sadly for me this isn't the case. I have attempted to use a VPN as I had believed it may be the isp throttling but that made the issue even worse as when I attempted to stream on it, it all but went to 0 in speed.

• Legion T5 Gaming PC - AMD Ryzen 7, RTX 3070 (New)
• Sagemcom F@st 5364 (I think?, its the one from TalkTalk)
• BaseBoard Manufacturer LENOVO
  BaseBoard Product 3716
  BaseBoard Version SDK0R32862 WIN 3258221020745
• 
  
  • Make and model of power supply = Im not entirely sure, the version I have is not listed on the Lenovo website and the retailer doesn't state it.
  • Make and model of USB or PCI Wifi adapter = Product Type Realtek PCIe GbE Family Controller
  • Windows 10 Home, Im not sure which driver this relates to?
• TalkTalk Fibre 65
• Roughly 5 but the problem remains despite how many use it.
• Im not getting any error messages.

WIRED LAN CONNECTION ONLY

If you are operating on a wired connection as opposed to wireless these items will also need to be provided:

• Make and model of switches and how many ports are on each switch = Im not sure what this relates to?
• How many PCs and laptops are connected to the network = 1, mine.
• Whether or not a NAS (Network Attached Storage) or regular server is connected to the network = Im not sure what this means?
• Whether or not a Wifi router is connected to the network and/or switch = ?
• If you are using the internal LAN connection on your motherboard, a USB dongle, or external PCI card = No.

Worst case scenario for me is if it is the wire connected from house to shed as that would cost a large amount of money and time to repair although it doesn't seem right to me that the internet in the shed can be absolutely fine and top speed but will dip drastically after attempting to speed.

Thanks for reading and any help is gratefully received. If I need to provide anything else, please write to me as if I am an idiot in how to supply it.

Kind Regards

 

[bill001g]

Your best first test is to temporarily move the pc into the house and plug directly into the router. This is the fastest way to find out if it is some cable issue or if it might be some strange software issue.

It is also hard to say what the tools you are testing with are actually testing. I would try a simple constant ping to 8.8.8.8. You also want to leave it run in the background while you do other things since it might be load related.

I see you tried to follow some guide for posting but in this case a much more important question is what exact kind of ethernet cables do you have. A few years ago this might have been a strange question but now days because of the high price of copper metal there is a massive amount of fake cable on the market.

The CAT name does not matter a lot cat5e is more than good enough for 1gbit. What is key the wire must be pure copper not CCA. This is most common in bulk cable like you used to run the long run between the house and the shed. You need to look up the specs, many times it is printed on the side of the cable. You do not want it to say CCA but you might find a marking that says CU. The next common fake cable uses thinner wires. Ethernet cable must be 22-24 AWG. This too is printed on the side of the cable. The ones you see most often are those flat cables but you need to check the markings. If there are no markings it is another sign of a possible fake cable.
Vendors must pay to put EIA/TIA on cables which most times means the cable is certified.......there are outright fakes from china though.

 

[Dopey5]

Your best first test is to temporarily move the pc into the house and plug directly into the router. This is the fastest way to find out if it is some cable issue or if it might be some strange software issue.

It is also hard to say what the tools you are testing with are actually testing. I would try a simple constant ping to 8.8.8.8. You also want to leave it run in the background while you do other things since it might be load related.

I see you tried to follow some guide for posting but in this case a much more important question is what exact kind of ethernet cables do you have. A few years ago this might have been a strange question but now days because of the high price of copper metal there is a massive amount of fake cable on the market.

The CAT name does not matter a lot cat5e is more than good enough for 1gbit. What is key the wire must be pure copper not CCA. This is most common in bulk cable like you used to run the long run between the house and the shed. You need to look up the specs, many times it is printed on the side of the cable. You do not want it to say CCA but you might find a marking that says CU. The next common fake cable uses thinner wires. Ethernet cable must be 22-24 AWG. This too is printed on the side of the cable. The ones you see most often are those flat cables but you need to check the markings. If there are no markings it is another sign of a possible fake cable.
Vendors must pay to put EIA/TIA on cables which most times means the cable is certified.......there are outright fakes from china though.

Hi Bill,

Thanks for taking the time to come back to me on the issue.

I have done the test and it appears as if it is the worst-case scenario for me. Streaming within my house was without difficulty and 0 frames dropped and the speed didn't falter at any point despite me attempting to do so.

Ethernet cable wise, I replaced a CAT.5 UTP 26AWG PUC and one that just said LAN with 2 of these. But unfortunately, it appears as if it is the connection between the house and shed that is the issue?

Before I start emailing electricians, is there anything I should be instructing them upon (or anything that I need to know) in your opinion? I don't know how to phrase the connection between the house and shed or what the wire will be called?

Just hope the trench doesn't need pulling up.

Kind Regards

------------------------------------------------------------------------

On further tests, something odd has come about, we have a pair of tp links that I have tried in the shed and next to the router, the speed it provides is roughly the same as when I try to stream on the ethernet in the wall of the shed. That's a bit odd, isn't it?

 

[bill001g]

Those new cables you purchased are not valid ethernet cables. The wire size is too small and even if the wire size was correct to actually be cat7 the pairs of wires must be in a very special pattern not just laying flat next to each other. They do work at short distance sometimes but are not reliable since they are not manufactured to any standard every manufacture can be different.

I assume it is just a ethernet cable they buried between the house and the shed. There are 2 common ways to install this. You can use special ethernet cable designed to buried. You can also run a flexible conduit and then run normal indoor ethernet through it. I like the second option better even though it is more expensive because when you have a issue like yours it is trivial to pull out the old wire and run a new one. If they directly buried indoor cable the soils and water will eat the plastic very quickly.

What I would try first is to replace the ends of the cable. Crimp on ends are a little tricky for a beginner to get all 8 wires correct and not have them slip when you crimp it. I would use keystone wall jacks. You might already have these from your description. These you can easily pull the wires off cut off about 1/4 inch and put them back one at a time. Depending on the jack you might need a punch down tool. Some do not need tools. If you are very careful you can push the wires in with a small screw driver.

I would also carefully look at the ends of the wire. Hopefully you have enough slack on one end or the other to see the markings on the cable. Try to see if the cable is CCA cable. You might be able to tell by scraping some the wire with a knife. CCA cable is a thin cooper coating over a aluminum core. You can many times tell the color is different if you can scrape some of the copper off. The key reason CCA cable has issue is the aluminum and copper metal expand and contract at different rates and ends will work loose. It also has a number of other issues like carrying power for PoE.

A added though on paying someone to fix this. You could just run a new ethernet cable yourself. Buy quality direct bury outdoor cable and do it yourself. It only has to be buried a small amount just enough to avoid being cut easily. Many time you can just take a flat shovel and step it in to make a slot and push the cable in a inch or so.

 

[Dopey5]

Those new cables you purchased are not valid ethernet cables. The wire size is too small and even if the wire size was correct to actually be cat7 the pairs of wires must be in a very special pattern not just laying flat next to each other. They do work at short distance sometimes but are not reliable since they are not manufactured to any standard every manufacture can be different.

I assume it is just a ethernet cable they buried between the house and the shed. There are 2 common ways to install this. You can use special ethernet cable designed to buried. You can also run a flexible conduit and then run normal indoor ethernet through it. I like the second option better even though it is more expensive because when you have a issue like yours it is trivial to pull out the old wire and run a new one. If they directly buried indoor cable the soils and water will eat the plastic very quickly.

What I would try first is to replace the ends of the cable. Crimp on ends are a little tricky for a beginner to get all 8 wires correct and not have them slip when you crimp it. I would use keystone wall jacks. You might already have these from your description. These you can easily pull the wires off cut off about 1/4 inch and put them back one at a time. Depending on the jack you might need a punch down tool. Some do not need tools. If you are very careful you can push the wires in with a small screw driver.

I would also carefully look at the ends of the wire. Hopefully you have enough slack on one end or the other to see the markings on the cable. Try to see if the cable is CCA cable. You might be able to tell by scraping some the wire with a knife. CCA cable is a thin cooper coating over a aluminum core. You can many times tell the color is different if you can scrape some of the copper off. The key reason CCA cable has issue is the aluminum and copper metal expand and contract at different rates and ends will work loose. It also has a number of other issues like carrying power for PoE.

A added though on paying someone to fix this. You could just run a new ethernet cable yourself. Buy quality direct bury outdoor cable and do it yourself. It only has to be buried a small amount just enough to avoid being cut easily. Many time you can just take a flat shovel and step it in to make a slot and push the cable in a inch or so.

Hi Bill,

Once again thank you for your help.

I think it was a flexible conduit placed in the ground along with the power when it was done around 5 or 6 years ago.

Thank you for the instructions on how to check but I'm just not built to do those things, I'd be too worried about doing damage or blowing myself up.

Now that I have tested on the tp-link and by doing so cutting out the connection from house to shed and found the same speed issue, am I right in thinking that it does suggest the ethernet cables from the router to tp-link and from tp-link to PC? I know you mentioned my new one's aren't valid, if you think there is a decent probability of this being the issue, is it possible to link me to some valid ones purchasable in the UK?

My preference is to try every option prior to getting an electrician out, so I could try that and maybe a wifi booster first?

Regards

This is my latest speed test on the tp link pairing, its utterly bizarre how up and down it is. That as a constant would be fine but as soon as I attempt to live stream, the upload speed especially dies a death.

 

[bill001g]

Those flat cables are hit and miss. If they did not work fine for many people you would have a lot more knowledge of this issue if more people had issues. It generally is not too hard to find them on amazon. Most vendors that sell reputable cable clearly state they are pure copper wire and state the wire size. Most is AWG 23 but 22-24 is fine.
It is the ones selling the fake cable that try to hide that is is CCA and has thin wires. Amazon a couple years ago required they tell you it was CCA cable but they hide it in the text someplace.

Hopefully they did not run it in the same conduit as the electrical wires. That is a code violation in most case. If the power wires were to fail the electricity could get into the ethernet cable and hurt someone. It also can cause interference in the ethernet cable. It is hard to say how much a issue this is because you seldom have the cable installed for long runs like you do since it is against building codes. I know we had massive amounts of power cables and ethernet cables in the back of computer racks so tight you had issues closing the doors and never had a issue. This though is not that long a distance.

I would not use any form of so called "booster". Most these are just form of repeater to work effectively the likely placement would be in the middle of the yard between the 2 buildings. You now must get power and to the repeater which is more buried cables.

What you could try is point to point wifi. You would mount a outdoor bridge on both buildings. It should be trivial to install at that distance, the systems are designed to run many kilometers. Something like Ubiquiti loco are good. The newer AC versions are faster and still cost about $100 for a pair.
This will be much slower than ethernet but you still should get a couple hundred mbps.

It should not be a huge expense to have a new ethernet cable run. It not like power cables where they have to dig a trench and bury it a certain distance under ground. I watch them bury fiber to peoples houses near me. They use a steal pipe hooked to a water hose to get under the sidewalks and driveway and then just take a shovel and barely bury the fiber. They would do most house in under 30 minutes total.

 

[Dopey5]

Just thought I'd come back on this as I was able to find the issue.

Twas a piece of software from Lenovo (Vantage) that had a pre-selected Network Boost option. Once disabled, I haven't had issues.

 

[ram_nikash]

Just thought I'd come back on this as I was able to find the issue.

Twas a piece of software from Lenovo (Vantage) that had a pre-selected Network Boost option. Once disabled, I haven't had issues.

OMGGG actual life saver. I've been struggling for nearly an year. Tried everything from contacting my ISP to changing cables to contacting Google and Discord. Reset my network and router. Finally this fixed it. Thank you soooo much!