Ethernet speed issue

[RonnieL]

If you have a few minutes, can someone please read a book of an issue and possibly answer one question?
My ISP Time Warner is charging me for 200 Mbps service. Their tech came out and hooked his laptop in and speed tested at 212. I only get 30 or so. He said it was my laptop running in tablet mode. He had windows 7 on his laptop and claimed ignorance on Windows 8.1 and with that, he was out the door. I have been looking into tablet versus desktop modes and I always use the desktop, never the app based garbage (no offense if it is your preference). Also, I used your tip and now boot right to the desktop. So I'm ruling out his idea.
I have come to the determination that my Dell Inspiron 3542 only has a realtek 10/100 FE ethernet device installed. That explains why I don't get 200 but doesn't explain why I don't get close to 100. Can you understand why I might only get 30 Mbps and not close to 100 with a 10/100 NIC and the cable guy gets 212 so it's not the modem?

 

[NBSN]

can you get on internetspeedtest.net and check what it says now?

 

[USAFRet]

Connect your laptop directly to the router, via an ethernet cable.
Go to speedtest.net
Run it
See what happens

 

[RonnieL]

did it, cat 5E cable to the modem... 24.48 download and 21.49 upload, speedtest.net... the internet-speedtest is a UK address and would just be slower

 

[NBSN]

Sorry, i meant speedtest.net

 

[USAFRet]

did it, cat 5E cable to the modem... 24.48 download and 21.49 upload, speedtest.net... the internet-speedtest is a UK address and would just be slower

This is why the tech should never leave until it is demonstrated working on your hardware.

Anyway...
it is not 'tablet mode'
it is not Win 7 vs Win 8

In the unlikely event your desktop only has a 10/100 adapter....and you should be getting ~100mbps from that.

Since you are getting much less than that...
Either it is your LAN driver
or your ethernet adapter is hosed
or your cable is hosed
or the installer guy was BSing.

Given his previous statements...

 

[RonnieL]

I have one of them thar new fangly USB 3.0 to gigabit ethernet connectors coming USPS tomorrow. My laptop does at least have a USB 3 connector. But with the nowhere near 100 from my ethernet card or my 802.11b/g/n wireless device, I am only moderately confident this will fix my issue. I might want to get a new cat 5E cable, I know that the fellow I'll from hence forth refer to as "the cable guy" had a different cable and not the one I'm using when he connected.

I do appreciate all the advice and suggestions as to what to look at.

I will post again tomorrow if my new USB/Ethernet connector helps.

 

[USAFRet]

I have one of them thar new fangly USB 3.0 to gigabit ethernet connectors coming USPS tomorrow. My laptop does at least have a USB 3 connector. But with the nowhere near 100 from my ethernet card or my 802.11b/g/n wireless device, I am only moderately confident this will fix my issue. I might want to get a new cat 5E cable, I know that the fellow I'll from hence forth refer to as "the cable guy" had a different cable and not the one I'm using when he connected.

I do appreciate all the advice and suggestions as to what to look at.

I will post again tomorrow if my new USB/Ethernet connector helps.

Let us know.
I had to school my last two FiOS installers in the finer points. The last guy gave me a couple hundred dollars of free connectivity swag for helping him.

 

[RonnieL]

USAFRet,

You get the credit for the answer!!!
You said:
Either it is your LAN driver
or your ethernet adapter is hosed
or your cable is hosed
or the installer guy was BSing.

3 out of 4... LMAO

LAN driver matches my ethernet adapter but it's a 10/100 so that was part of it. My new USB 3 to Ethernet adapter is a wonderful purchase. However, it didn't fix my issue at first. My buddy had a spare cat 5E cable and I connected it to my cable modem second of four slots and bingo, 200 Mbps. I thought my cable was bad, but alas, no... It was the #1 port on the modem. It's hosed. I only get 30ish with either cat %e cable. Both cables give me ~200Mbps in any of the other 3 slots. and your #4, the cable guy is BSing goes without saying.

Thank you for the suggestions, I'm glad to now have what I'm paying for. I was about to tell Time Warner to downgrade my service so I wouldn't pay 20 bucks extra for nothing.

If anyone is looking into a gigabit ethernet card because their Network card is kaput or a 10/100 only like mine was, this StarTech USB3 to ethernet is a gem, it cost 15 bucks on Amazon and was plug and play in Windows 8.1, driver cd not needed. Just make sure you have a USB 3 with the blue inside the connector or "ss" for super speed by the USB logo next to the plug in.

Problem solved. Thanks USAFRet and TomsHardware.