Question Incredibly Slow Download Speed Isolated to one PC, and one network

Fractured_

Distinguished
Jan 18, 2014
23
1
18,515
Hey folks.

strange issue I've been having. I'm currently experiencing incredibly slow download speeds on my computer, connected to the internet through its onboard network adaptor (AX201 160Mhz). I'm talking sub 500kbps speeds, while the upload speeds are completely normal at about 8mbps.

It's not an issue of proximity with the modem, because I have used other devices in the room it is in, with speeds of around 30+mbps, and I also don't believe it to be a hardware fault, as I can connect to a nearby network with the same computer, and achieve 20+mbps speeds. My speeds are slow solely on my home network, and only on this computer.

I'm assuming it has to do with conflict on the network, but I'm entirely clueless on how to solve it.

Any help?
 
Do you use different SSID for the 2.4 and 5 network. Maybe it connected on 2.4g, even though that is really slow for that.

Maybe check for some issue of channel incompatibility between the router and the pc nic. Wifi6 is very tricky to get to run because of the 160mhz radio band and the issue of weather radar avoidance.

You could try to set the channel to say 40 or 42 and force to not use more than 80 or maybe even 40mhz. See if it runs any different then at least you would know it was something strange with the 5g channel selections.
 

Fractured_

Distinguished
Jan 18, 2014
23
1
18,515
Do you use different SSID for the 2.4 and 5 network. Maybe it connected on 2.4g, even though that is really slow for that.

Maybe check for some issue of channel incompatibility between the router and the pc nic. Wifi6 is very tricky to get to run because of the 160mhz radio band and the issue of weather radar avoidance.

You could try to set the channel to say 40 or 42 and force to not use more than 80 or maybe even 40mhz. See if it runs any different then at least you would know it was something strange with the 5g channel selections.
hey, thanks for the reply.

from what i understand, the ssid is the same for both the 2.4 and 5 network, but according to windows, im connected to the 5ghz band. its strange, because this issue started relatively recently, without me making any changes to to the modem or my pc's network settings.

currently the network channel says 44, I'm not 100% sure how to change that and force it not to use more than 40mhz. is that in my internet settings?

thanks again
 
This is why I hate wifi sometimes, well most times.

Look at the status for the wifi connection on your pc. Someplace it should show you the connection speed. That is not actually the speed it is more a number that represent the data encoding method, it only sortof relates to the speed.

There is a massive table of these connection numbers and what they mean. Some common ones would be like 866 or 433. If you are actually using channel 44 then you are on the 5g radio band. If you were on 2.4 you would see connection numbers like 150 or 300
 

JohnMGotts

Reputable
Dec 7, 2020
193
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4,615
Test speed on 2.4 + 5 bands. What do you get?
You can select the preferred band in device manager under network adapters, expand the wireless nic and properties go to the advanced tab.
(That-is if your nic supports “preferred band”
 
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