Question Internet speed tests slow but actual download speed is much higher

[SikSemper]

Here's a weird one.. When I run a speed test it seems like I'm limited to 30Mb/s on speedtest.net or any other speed test site (will not go over 30) however I can download a game on steam and reach speeds of over 40MB/s (or 320Mb/s). My internet speed is supposed to be gigabit (non-fiber) through spectrum.

I am connected with a 30ft cat6 cable from my router to my computer. Router model is a Asus RT-AX58U with the latest firmware, no QOS enabled, nothing out of the ordinary. I have tried all the tricks to make sure windows is not throttling my connection (windows auto tuning, delivery optimization, etc.). I can see 600+ Mb/s on my 5Ghz band of the same router when I run speed tests on my phone so I know that I am indeed getting over 30Mb/s into that router. I have tried different ethernet ports on the router, disabling and re-enabling the lan adapter in my computer, updating drivers, checked my lan speed and it is on 1 gigabit full duplex, nothing seems to make a difference.

If anyone has any suggestions or any ideas why it would be reporting a slow speed when my actual real world download speed is much higher, please let me know.

 

[bill001g]

That is truly strange. Speedtest is a actual file download that is not kept. The version they have run for the last few years even runs similar to torrent and/or steam where it is doing a multi thread download to get past the restrictions of a single data stream.

The only other difference is steam does not run from the web browser and speedtest does.

Maybe try a different web browser.

It would be a nice feature for the router itself be able to run speedtest, I have seen this feature on other brands but I don't think asus has added it but since your cell phone works it points to it being your pc.

One of the common things we see breaking stuff lately is "gamer" network programs. Many of these come bundled with motherboards and video cards. They cause all kinds of strangeness so I would check if you have anything like that installed. Anything that talks about QoS or giving game traffic priority is suspect.

 

[SikSemper]

That is truly strange. Speedtest is a actual file download that is not kept. The version they have run for the last few years even runs similar to torrent and/or steam where it is doing a multi thread download to get past the restrictions of a single data stream.

The only other difference is steam does not run from the web browser and speedtest does.

Maybe try a different web browser.

It would be a nice feature for the router itself be able to run speedtest, I have seen this feature on other brands but I don't think asus has added it but since your cell phone works it points to it being your pc.

One of the common things we see breaking stuff lately is "gamer" network programs. Many of these come bundled with motherboards and video cards. They cause all kinds of strangeness so I would check if you have anything like that installed. Anything that talks about QoS or giving game traffic priority is suspect.

Thanks for the response,

I am sure I don't have any software that tries to prioritize network for programs in any way, or "game mode".
I did some more digging in the router and found a speed test that just uses speedtest.net's service. I can test 850+ Mb/s from the router itself, but neither Chrome, Edge, IE, or Firefox will test anything over 30 Mb/s . At this point I am not so worried about this issue but it seems very strange and leaves me wondering why only through a browser that it would report speeds like that.