Question Slow LAN connection ?

[Huwbob5]

I recently upgraded my network connection from 100mbps up to 300mbps and since noticed that my PC is stuck getting a max of 100mbps, I've tried a few things outlined below in an attempt to resolve or at least narrow down the issue however I am now lost as to what is causing the problem. I am also using a mains to ethernet adapter for the connection.

Motherboard: MSI MPG X570 GAMING PLUS ATX AM4
OS: Windows 10
Troubleshoot steps attempted:
- Checked over speed/duplex settings - confirmed auto neg - tried forcing 1Gbps
- Replaced all ethernet cables used for the link with new CAT 6 cables
- Fully updated BIOS and all PC drivers
- Uninstalled dragon center and cFosSpeed
- Used a ethernet to USB adapter - still stuck at 100mbps
- Installed an instance of Linux, ran tests with this and still stuck at 100mbps
- Moved the PC to be plugged directly into router- still 100 mbps

Have also tested the connection using the same mains adapter and 2 sets of cables along with the ethernet to USB adapter on a laptop to test, the laptop got the full speed of 300mbps.

Thats all the useful information I can think of off the top of my head, if there is anymore information someone might find useful I will add it in.

Any new suggestions for troubleshooting or a potential solution would be greatly appreciated. Before I go down the route of reinstall OS or replacing any parts.

 

[Grobe]

Questions:

1. What is the device name on the other end of the cable ?
2. How long is the CAT6 cable?
3. Where did you purchased the CAT6 cables (I mean are they actually trustworthy ) ?
4. Are there wall outlets that the CAT6 cable is connected to ?

 

[bill001g]

I assume you are seeing the ethenet port status at 100mbps rather than 1000mbps.

There is a big difference in this compared to says speedtest results.

It is very strange that it does this with as many changes as you have made.

The speed is done by hardware detection, the closet you can get it to force it to 100mbps. This is almost always a hardware issue. It also is 99% of the time a cable issue.

You have already tried a different ethernet port. What I suspect is the cables you are using are fake. Massive number of cables being sold nowdays do not meet the standards and some ethernet interfaces do not work well with cable that do not meet the specs required.

The most common fake cables are those flat ones. You want pure copper wire with wire size 22-24. You need nothing better than cat5e but you need to ensure it is made from the proper type of wire.

I would always test plugged directly to the router to start. If you have in wall cables there could be defective wall plate or something.

 

[Huwbob5]

Questions:

1. What is the device name on the other end of the cable ?
2. How long is the CAT6 cable?
3. Where did you purchased the CAT6 cables (I mean are they actually trustworthy ) ?
4. Are there wall outlets that the CAT6 cable is connected to ?

Answers:

1. I am not sure off the top of my head, I'll add it to the thread when I am home later to check

2. One end is 1m, other end is 2m

3. I got the cables from work, working in a data center and we use the cables for just about everything, also used them at home on other devices

4. The wall outlet is a UK power plug adapter to ethernet

 

[Huwbob5]

I assume you are seeing the ethenet port status at 100mbps rather than 1000mbps.

There is a big difference in this compared to says speedtest results.

It is very strange that it does this with as many changes as you have made.

The speed is done by hardware detection, the closet you can get it to force it to 100mbps. This is almost always a hardware issue. It also is 99% of the time a cable issue.

You have already tried a different ethernet port. What I suspect is the cables you are using are fake. Massive number of cables being sold nowdays do not meet the standards and some ethernet interfaces do not work well with cable that do not meet the specs required.

The most common fake cables are those flat ones. You want pure copper wire with wire size 22-24. You need nothing better than cat5e but you need to ensure it is made from the proper type of wire.

I would always test plugged directly to the router to start. If you have in wall cables there could be defective wall plate or something.

Yeah the port status LED on the motherboard is green according to the manual is 100mbps, I got the cables from work, working in a data center and we use the cables for just about everything, also used them at home on other devices.

I've tried plugging directly into the router and I am still stuck at the reduced speed

 

[Grobe]

4. the wall outlet is a UK power plug adapter to ethernet

Ok, this is new info and explain the bottleneck, I assumed the cables was connected directly.

So, the cables that carries main voltages is not designed for carrying data traffic, but it is possible. You getting 100Mbps over mains is actually pretty good. If you aim for more data transfer speed, you should make the cat6 cables goes the whole way through - without using wall adapters (for main voltage).

 

[Huwbob5]

Ok, this is new info and explain the bottleneck, I assumed the cables was connected directly.

So, the cables that carries main voltages is not designed for carrying data traffic, but it is possible. You getting 100Mbps over mains is actually pretty good. If you aim for more data transfer speed, you should make the cat6 cables goes the whole way through - without using wall adapters (for main voltage).

I did say in the original post I am using a mains to ethernet adapter, I also explained I have tested the full connection with a laptop using the same mains adapter and got the full 300Mbps on the laptop. I have also plugged the PC directly into the router but this didn't help.

 

[Grobe]

I did say in the original post I am using a mains to ethernet adapter, I also explained I have tested the full connection with a laptop using the same mains adapter and got the full 300Mbps on the laptop.

Ok.

When you tried to force 1GB you only said you didn't succeed. Can you elaborate this? Maybe the lan chip on motherboard have a more strict rules under auto-negotiation.

 

[Huwbob5]

Ok.

When you tried to force 1GB you only said you didn't succeed. Can you elaborate this? Maybe the lan chip on motherboard have a more strict rules under auto-negotiation.

Under the properties/configuration of the LAN adapter within Windows, I changed the speed/duplex setting from auto negotiate to 1Gbps Full duplex, after applying the setting and running more tests I am still stuck at the reduced speed of 100mbps

 

[bill001g]

So I didn't read close enough. Most people call those adapters powerline adapters.

So which models did you get. Some of them only have 100mbps ethernet ports. This means the manufacture knows av500 or av600 units like these can never exceed 100mbps even though they lie and say they can do 600.

It is not uncommon for power line units to get very poor performance...you seldom see even 200mbps on the best units.

If we ignore this for a bit you said you have the same problem plugging into the router directly. I assume this means you have tired multiple ethernet cables and plug directly between port on your pc and one of the lan ports on router.

You want to leave the setting on auto. The router has no other option than auto and they can get confused if you set on end to a fixed value and the other to auto.

Goal here is to first get this to work plugging directly into the router. You want to see it say 1000mbps in the status screen for the ethernet adapters. Again there is not much to this. You have the ports and you have the cable. It is all done via voltage detection in hardware there is not any software that can be changed or updated. This function is built into the chips when they are manufactured.

In the longer term the only way you are going to get 300mbps or so is to run real ethernet all the way or to use MoCA if you have coax cable in both locations. Moca can actually full 1gbit and some clain it can do 2.5g

 

[Huwbob5]

So I didn't read close enough. Most people call those adapters powerline adapters.

So which models did you get. Some of them only have 100mbps ethernet ports. This means the manufacture knows av500 or av600 units like these can never exceed 100mbps even though they lie and say they can do 600.

It is not uncommon for power line units to get very poor performance...you seldom see even 200mbps on the best units.

If we ignore this for a bit you said you have the same problem plugging into the router directly. I assume this means you have tired multiple ethernet cables and plug directly between port on your pc and one of the lan ports on router.

You want to leave the setting on auto. The router has no other option than auto and they can get confused if you set on end to a fixed value and the other to auto.

Goal here is to first get this to work plugging directly into the router. You want to see it say 1000mbps in the status screen for the ethernet adapters. Again there is not much to this. You have the ports and you have the cable. It is all done via voltage detection in hardware there is not any software that can be changed or updated. This function is built into the chips when they are manufactured.

In the longer term the only way you are going to get 300mbps or so is to run real ethernet all the way or to use MoCA if you have coax cable in both locations. Moca can actually full 1gbit and some clain it can do 2.5g

Ah that's my mistake, sorry for that.

Checking the model they're TL-PA7010P AV1000 from TP-Link, I have confirmed I am able to get the full 300Mbps using these adapters on a laptop.

I've tried a couple cables still getting the same issue.

Checking the status of the ethernet through Windows it is showing 1.0 Gbps so I am a bit lost as to why tests refuse to go over 100Mbps on different sites and servers.

 

[bill001g]

That is a different problem. If the port show it is 1gbit at the ethernet level then it is something else.

What speeds do you see. The kinda magic number that says it is a ethernet cable is around 94mbps. This is the difference between the full 100mbps speed and the overhead the mac address take up in the packets.

I would also see if your router will tell your the speed of the port going to the power line unit on that end . Many routers do. You might also be able to tell by the lights if there is not something in a menu. Both ends need to be at gigabit speeds

What you might try is a test with a old program called IPERF. This will let you test transfer between machines in your house. You would want one plugged directly into the router and the other into the powerline units. You should see over 900mbps...likely around 940 for the same overhead reason.

Iperf is a really simple program and it is not affected by things like web browsers or even cpu/memory or disk. It is very good test of the ethernet ports and the drivers

 

[Huwbob5]

That is a different problem. If the port show it is 1gbit at the ethernet level then it is something else.

What speeds do you see. The kinda magic number that says it is a ethernet cable is around 94mbps. This is the difference between the full 100mbps speed and the overhead the mac address take up in the packets.

I would also see if your router will tell your the speed of the port going to the power line unit on that end . Many routers do. You might also be able to tell by the lights if there is not something in a menu. Both ends need to be at gigabit speeds

What you might try is a test with a old program called IPERF. This will let you test transfer between machines in your house. You would want one plugged directly into the router and the other into the powerline units. You should see over 900mbps...likely around 940 for the same overhead reason.

Iperf is a really simple program and it is not affected by things like web browsers or even cpu/memory or disk. It is very good test of the ethernet ports and the drivers

The speeds seem to vary between about 90 and 105Mbps.

I'll try and see if I can log into my router later today, failing that I might contact my ISP to see if they can see an issue anywhere.

I debated running iperf tests when I was first going through various troubleshooting tests but I decided it was fairly irrelevant. The fact I can simple unplug from my PC and move the connection to a laptop and get the full 300Mbps using the same cables and power line adapters threw me off thinking it was an issue with the line. Although if you think it could still be the line despite that I am happy to get the test set up.

 

[bill001g]

Hard to say where the issue is. It is strange that the power line unit would run differently depending on what you plug into it.
If the cable connects at 1gbit then it must be the software some how.

I was incorrect when I said you should get 900mbps on iperf. You would only see that if you have real ethernet all the way. I would think it would be 300 or more since it seems your laptop can hit your internet speed. Powerline units do not even come close to ethenet speeds. I am extremely surprised you get 300mbps on powerline units most pepople at best get 1/2 that.

You could try simple file copies if you don't want to use IPERF. File copy though uses more resources on the pc. I guess you could also try the brute force appoach and boot a linux usb image. That has a browser built in and you can use regular speeds test. It should in theory get the same 300 as your laptop if the problem is something in the windows install.

 

[Huwbob5]

Hard to say where the issue is. It is strange that the power line unit would run differently depending on what you plug into it.
If the cable connects at 1gbit then it must be the software some how.

I was incorrect when I said you should get 900mbps on iperf. You would only see that if you have real ethernet all the way. I would think it would be 300 or more since it seems your laptop can hit your internet speed. Powerline units do not even come close to ethenet speeds. I am extremely surprised you get 300mbps on powerline units most pepople at best get 1/2 that.

You could try simple file copies if you don't want to use IPERF. File copy though uses more resources on the pc. I guess you could also try the brute force appoach and boot a linux usb image. That has a browser built in and you can use regular speeds test. It should in theory get the same 300 as your laptop if the problem is something in the windows install.

I've attempted the brute force attempt with a Linux USB, running speed tests through the CLI but end up with the same reduced speeds which made me think a hardware issue, given the Ethernet status is showing 1Gbps I guess it must be elsewhere.

I am not sure if there's some hidden setting in the BIOS that could somehow be limiting the speed for some reason, the only setting relating to the LAN port I've been able to find is enable/disable.

Not going to be home for a few hours now so I won't be able to log into the router for a while but I'll post another update when I've had a poke around.

 

[bill001g]

This is so strange it might be worth the effort to put the pc next to router so you can plug in directly.

There is something messy going on. You have eliminated almost everything.

The cable between the router and the powerline in theory should be fine if the laptop works.
You know the ethernet hardware port on the pc is fine because it connects at gigabit.
It can't be software or drivers if you tried a unix install.

The only setting that I can think of related to the actual hardware chips is silly "green" reduce power settings. Many BIOS do not even have this. The symptom of this tends to be the cable does not come up at long distance.

The other would be you are getting excessive errors but this is very rare. You should see packet loss if you ping the router ip. This would be a hardware issue.

I guess if you get desperate internal pcie ethernet cards are pretty cheap. I would first try moving the pc or buying a very long ethernet cable just to be 100% sure it is not the powerline units.

 

[Huwbob5]

This is so strange it might be worth the effort to put the pc next to router so you can plug in directly.

There is something messy going on. You have eliminated almost everything.

The cable between the router and the powerline in theory should be fine if the laptop works.
You know the ethernet hardware port on the pc is fine because it connects at gigabit.
It can't be software or drivers if you tried a unix install.

The only setting that I can think of related to the actual hardware chips is silly "green" reduce power settings. Many BIOS do not even have this. The symptom of this tends to be the cable does not come up at long distance.

The other would be you are getting excessive errors but this is very rare. You should see packet loss if you ping the router ip. This would be a hardware issue.

I guess if you get desperate internal pcie ethernet cards are pretty cheap. I would first try moving the pc or buying a very long ethernet cable just to be 100% sure it is not the powerline units.

Finally managed to get into the router to have a look, ended up being a whole thing. For some reason the password wasn't working, got locked out and had to call my ISP, looked over the settings while on the phone with them and they're confident the issue isn't with the router or the connection they're providing. Basically told me the issue is with my computer which is annoying.

I am at a complete loss with this now, we can leave the fact I am using powerline units to one side as the issue persists when plugged in 1m away from the router. Not sure there is anything else software related that could be affecting this, given its the same result with unix. Don't see it being hardware related when a USB to ethernet adapter has the same problem.

I could run a MTR against the gateway or google DNS just to see if there is any notable packet loss and where its coming from but I don't see how that would really be affecting the speed I am getting.

Might as well try a PCIe card, despite the fact a USB adapter doesn't work, still going to be a cheaper option than replacing my motherboard.

Thanks for the help so far.