Slow download speed on one device

[turi.fiorito]

I have been looking all over this forum but I haven't found anything yet to solve my issue.

So as the title say, only my pc have very slow download speed (2 or 3 Mbps when lucky) where as the upload speed is really high (20-25 Mbps). None of the other devices in my house have this problem. They all run at least 40 mbps download speeds with uploads being similar to that on the PC.

I am on a wireless connection using an ASUS USB-AC68 on my routers 5.0 connection. In the Network and Sharing Center it shows that the connection is 1 Gbps between the desktop and the router.

The odd thing that does happen is that something the speed will stop being capped. I have observed some downloads that would be very slow almost always, only to then shoot up until the download was finished. But straight after it would go back to the above described state.

Now for the life of me and cant figure out what is capping my download speed to such a degree. I hope someone has some idea about what I should do to solve this.

My specs are
I7-4790K
GTX 970
250g SSD
2T hard drive

Many thanks in advance.

 

[Ralston18]

Possibly some interference. Unlikely if only your wireless PC is affected. However, location is a factor....

You have a variety of diagnostic options:

Be very sure that all connections are securely and snuggly in place.

Check the adapter itself: warm, hot....?

Use Task Manager, Performance Monitor, and Resource Monitor to observe what your pc is doing at any given time.

Run the tool and slide the window to the side in order to watch the parameters. Work as normal and watch for the slowdowns. Determine if some particular app, process, or service is the cause.

Who has admin rights to your network's router? Router's can have logs and those logs may or may not be enabled at start time. If the router has logs check them. Otherwise, get the logs enabled and look for error messages etc. therein after going online etc. to try some downloads.

 

[turi.fiorito]

The adapter seems to be fine as there is no heat coming off of it.The location does not seem to be a factor as when I use the other devices in the same location they still have the good speed.

I have been tracking on the resource manager and that always caps at around 3 mbps. I have disabled Plex, Steam and Chrome but the cap stayed.

As for my router, I cannot find any logs in it as it is my ISP router and that function is either disabled or locked to me. As all the other devices are working at a good speed I dont believe the problem is in the router.

Possibly some interference. Unlikely if only your wireless PC is affected. However, location is a factor....

You have a variety of diagnostic options:

Be very sure that all connections are securely and snuggly in place.

Check the adapter itself: warm, hot....?

Use Task Manager, Performance Monitor, and Resource Monitor to observe what your pc is doing at any given time.

Run the tool and slide the window to the side in order to watch the parameters. Work as normal and watch for the slowdowns. Determine if some particular app, process, or service is the cause.

Who has admin rights to your network's router? Router's can have logs and those logs may or may not be enabled at start time. If the router has logs check them. Otherwise, get the logs enabled and look for error messages etc. therein after going online etc. to try some downloads.

 

[turi.fiorito]

Oddly enough, all of a sudden now my computer is reaching about 60 mbps download speed and I dont know why this is happening now all of a sudden. I havent shut anything on or off with the exception of running a youtube video and having a video running on my downstairs TV via PLEX. But why that makes it faster I just don't. Based on passed experience I am pretty sure that it wont last thought.

Anyway, the mystery continues.

Possibly some interference. Unlikely if only your wireless PC is affected. However, location is a factor....

You have a variety of diagnostic options:

Be very sure that all connections are securely and snuggly in place.

Check the adapter itself: warm, hot....?

Use Task Manager, Performance Monitor, and Resource Monitor to observe what your pc is doing at any given time.

Run the tool and slide the window to the side in order to watch the parameters. Work as normal and watch for the slowdowns. Determine if some particular app, process, or service is the cause.

Who has admin rights to your network's router? Router's can have logs and those logs may or may not be enabled at start time. If the router has logs check them. Otherwise, get the logs enabled and look for error messages etc. therein after going online etc. to try some downloads.

 

[turi.fiorito]

As it turn out, when I am running a video through Plex on my TV downstairs my download speed skyrockets. Now the question is, why is this the case and how do I make it permanent?

Possibly some interference. Unlikely if only your wireless PC is affected. However, location is a factor....

You have a variety of diagnostic options:

Be very sure that all connections are securely and snuggly in place.

Check the adapter itself: warm, hot....?

Use Task Manager, Performance Monitor, and Resource Monitor to observe what your pc is doing at any given time.

Run the tool and slide the window to the side in order to watch the parameters. Work as normal and watch for the slowdowns. Determine if some particular app, process, or service is the cause.

Who has admin rights to your network's router? Router's can have logs and those logs may or may not be enabled at start time. If the router has logs check them. Otherwise, get the logs enabled and look for error messages etc. therein after going online etc. to try some downloads.

 

[Ralston18]

In many cases some configuration change on a computer does not take "full effect" one way or another until the system has been at least restarted or even completely turned off and on again.

Computers store network information while on the network. E.g., the DNS cache. (Easily googled for more information.)

If that stored information has been corrupted or there is some other conflict it may take some time for all of the involved devices to get everything in order again.

Do you have any static IP addresses within your network? Could be that there is some duplication occurring. If the router issues a DHCP IP address to your computer and then later on you, for example, turn on the TV that has the same static IP, then there will be problems.

If turned on TV first then the router will issue a different IP address (TV's IP being in use) to your computer. No problem.

Take a close look at all device IP addresses when the download speed is slow and again when as it should be.

You can use commands such as "arp -a" (without quotes) from the command prompt to get a list of IPs that your computer is communicating with. Try the command on other network computers as well.

There will be some extraneous (for lack of a better word) IP's starting with 224., 239., or 255 - just ignore those for the moment.

You can also use nmap via the command prompt or the more friendlier zenmap tool to look at your network. And your router may include similar functions.

But again, you may have fixed the problem and all your devices have finally sorted things out for the moment.

The good news is that you know it does work. And you can likewise experiment some to determine the applicable cause and effect relationships.

Watch carefully and continue to play close attention to the order in which you do things: i.e., turn on the TV, the computer, other devices. Look for a pattern that you can duplicate at will to slow or speed up download performance.

 

[turi.fiorito]

Sorry for getting back to this a bit late. After a few tests I think the problem lies with him my computer handles the 5.0 signal. On Wifi 5.0 I get the slow speed but on my Wifi 2.4 it goes up to 45 Mbps.

Now you might say, why dont you just only use the 2.4 and I could but I need the 5.0 to use things like my Nvidia Shield. So if there is a way to fix the 5.0 Wifi I would be very interested. Btw other devices dont have it that use the 5.0 connection.

 

[Ralston18]

Use what works. There are always trade-offs.

5.0 may have faster performance but 2.4 will have more signal penetration. Interference may slow 5.0 in some cases to less than what 2.4 will do.

So if 5.0 is being slowed down due to environmental materials and distances then the fall back is 2.4.

Here is a link with an overall explanation that should help you configure your setup:

https://www.howtogeek.com/222249/whats-the-difference-between-2.4-ghz-and-5-ghz-wi-fi-and-which-should-you-use/

And you still may have some additional options via channel selection and/or guest networks.