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[SOLVED] Steam is tanking our internet speed

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MaverickSenpai

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Dec 26, 2016
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So, last week our internet was fine. my roommate was able to download without causing me, or herself any issues. This week, starting last night, anytime she downloads via steam, our 1Gig/s internet download speed tanks to around 5Megabytes/s.

We called our provider (Shaw) and the guy said our internet plan and speed is not built to download games (I actually laughed when he said that). The guy asked if we just wanted to update our plan to a higher download speed, clearly he didn't realize we HAD the best plan in the area, and what they offer. We have tried, so many things to fix the issue, even resorting to replacing the modem, and it still happens.

This is our current modem: Hitron CGNM 2250 2.4GH/z

We both have cat6 cables running to our PCs. We have steam limited to download at 25MB/s each on our PC's so it won't throttle or try to pull more than it can. We both flushed our dns. We unplugged and replugged in the coax cable to see if maybe that'd help.

We are at a loss of what to do to solve this issue. So I am resorting to coming to the experts here that can maybe give us some more insight on what to do, to fix it.
 
Solution
gggplaya
That makes sense why 25 MB/s on steam for both computers would tank your internet. That's about 200mbps each computer. For now, I'd set them to about 12MB/s each for steam downloads, that should fix you up for now.

You can try calling your ISP and ask them to reset your modem, possibly with a different profile/firmware. The profile is dependant on which tier of internet you buy, you might have the wrong one loaded on your modem. They'll then reset your modem and you can speedtest it to see if it works. Remember, for gigabit, you need to do the speedtest on a PC connected with ethernet because wifi won't get you those speeds for most situations.

Other than that, get yourself a Docsis 3.1 modem, that solved the same problem for me.
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What´s the link speed between your PC´s ethernet and the modem´s LAN port? If it´s only 100Mbit/s, this might be your issue.

Also antivirus or firewall could intercept the internet speed, uninstall these for testing

Is the network set to "private" and not public in the windows firewall?
 
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This is a symptom of errors in the path. Most times it is on the connection coming to your house. As you put more and more load on the line it get more errors and will cause the speed to drop for other applications also.

It is not likely just steam. You need to find another way to put load on the link at a fixed rate. At the moment I can't think of one, most download or something like speedtest will attempt to use all the bandwidth.

Check the signal levels in your modem, the exact recommended values depend on the type of docsis. One common area is the upload levels but it could others. Also check for errors in the log it could be some other issue between you and the cable node in your neighborhood.
 
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Yeah... Status really doesn't show me much info wise .-. other than the modems basic info, such as the brand, hardware version, software version, uptime, port blocking, device filter, keyword filter and trusted PC list. None of which can be tweaked or edited.
 
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From a very quick look at the manual there should be a number of screens marked docsis on the status page. One has errors messages and the other should show you all the signal levels.

You can't change any of this stuff but if the values are out of spec you can call your cable company and ask them to fix it. Before you do that though move the modem to where the cable comes into the house and check them again. This is to avoid a the ISP blaming the cables inside your house....now if very well could be a bad cable or more likely a splitter causing the issues.

Then again everything might be ok and your problem is something else.
 
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That is very strange there should be more tabs on that screen according to the manual.
Maybe ask the ISP if they know a way to see the levels. They I am sure have a way on their end. Other cable modems I know the ISP can get in and see these numbers, even the tech troubleshooting can see them from his test equipment.

I wish I knew of another download site you can limit the speed on. If you were to say download from microsoft it can on a good day even max out a 1gbit connection. I guess you could try downloading a windows 10 image file since it is large and see what rates you actually get and how bad it affects your connection. You should be able to monitor the speed of the download in the network tab of the resource monitor. Be careful some things on that screen are in MBYTES and other in MBITS. I would think it should be rather slow if you are getting errors on the connection.

I would also try this early in the morning/night. If the ISP has oversold the network it could be competing for bandwidth from the neighbors.
 
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MaverickSenpai said:
also got my internet speed here

https://imgur.com/a/hGPqj0n
View: https://imgur.com/a/hGPqj0n

View: https://imgur.com/a/GN13prv
Click to expand...

This is not your internet speed, it's just the link speed between your PC and the Router. Not between the Router and the Internet.

Are you doing the proper speed tests to make sure you're getting actual gigabit speeds from your ISP?? Try www.speedtest.net

I know I couldn't get gigabit speeds from my Docsis 3.0 modem on comcast, even though they said I could. For some reason comcast's firmware profile was only allowing 300mbps on my TPlink modem. I was on the phone with tech support for an hour trying to get it to work and they couldn't. I had to run out and buy a Docsis 3.1 modem in order to actually get gigabit speeds, it worked immediately after plugging it in.
 
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That makes sense why 25 MB/s on steam for both computers would tank your internet. That's about 200mbps each computer. For now, I'd set them to about 12MB/s each for steam downloads, that should fix you up for now.

You can try calling your ISP and ask them to reset your modem, possibly with a different profile/firmware. The profile is dependant on which tier of internet you buy, you might have the wrong one loaded on your modem. They'll then reset your modem and you can speedtest it to see if it works. Remember, for gigabit, you need to do the speedtest on a PC connected with ethernet because wifi won't get you those speeds for most situations.

Other than that, get yourself a Docsis 3.1 modem, that solved the same problem for me.
 
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