Question Throttled Ethernet Connection

[Mikedorst]

Hey,

My Ethernet connection is being throttled by something for whatever reason. I'm only receiving around 100-120 mbps download speed while my ISP is providing 250 mbps which is also what the other computers in my house are receiving (5G on my phone also receives around 150 mbps).

Most related topic (with no answer): View: https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/comments/83db2a/intel_i219v_network_card_locked_to_100_mbps/
Other related topic:
https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/windows-is-throttling-my-ethernet-connection.3570339/

I have 2 gigabit ethernet connections:

1. I219-V
2. I211

Both are limiting me to the same speed and are refusing to give me the 250 mbps that I should have.

Things that I tried

1. Set the Speed & Duplex to 1.0 Gbps instead of Auto
2. Hook up another computer to the same internet cable (250 Mbps was achieved).
3. Install all latest drivers
4. I actually laid new cables (Cat 6a) as I never blamed my computer
5. Updated motherboard to the latest BIOS version

Motherboard
MSI Z390 Tomahawk

 

[Grobe]

Have seen this issue before, and seemingly people don't know what causes this.

A couple of questions i'd like you to answer (if possible):

• Have it being like that from it was new or is this an issue that is suddenly become present?
• Can you remember if there was a windows update prior to the fault.
• Have you tried to hook the computer on another port to the router (i.e. just try with a temporary cat5e cable on the floor) ? This is just to test if there is some problem between those specific network ports (probably not, but can't hurt to test).
• Can you test a Linux Live (Bootable CD/DVD or ISO-image on usb pen) and perform a speed test there ?

Any test should be performed on both network cards.

 

[Mikedorst]

Have seen this issue before, and seemingly people don't know what causes this.

A couple of questions i'd like you to answer (if possible):

• Have it being like that from it was new or is this an issue that is suddenly become present?
• Can you remember if there was a windows update prior to the fault.
• Have you tried to hook the computer on another port to the router (i.e. just try with a temporary cat5e cable on the floor) ? This is just to test if there is some problem between those specific network ports (probably not, but can't hurt to test).
• Can you test a Linux Live (Bootable CD/DVD or ISO-image on usb pen) and perform a speed test there ?

Any test should be performed on both network cards.

1. I think its been like this from the start, I haven't exactly been keeping taps on my internet speed. I used to have another motherboard with Socket 2066 before this one and I remember getting 250 on there, I suspect it started with the new mobo.
2. I done a clean install a few months ago when I purchased a m.2
3. I have, no change.
4. I'll see if I can do this tonight on Ubuntu else I'll let you know tomorrow after work.

I also want to mention that despite me not getting the full speed provided by my ISP, I am also seriously throttled on downloading items from the internet, like literally everything downloads no faster than 2.5 mbps, even ubuntu iso is taking 20 minutes for a 2gb file lol.

 

[SamirD]

I too want to see the results with a live cd. That will really tell us if it is a windows things or hardware/network issue.

 

[Grobe]

And while I remember it : Does this apply to any kind of network traffic (i.e. does torrent downloads being affected as well) ?

And also something to test if possible:

• What is the transfer speed on file copy between that computer and another computer on the same network ?
• If you make a network bridge from the two network adapters to another computer - would that computer be affected as well?

 

[Mikedorst]

And while I remember it : Does this apply to any kind of network traffic (i.e. does torrent downloads being affected as well) ?

And also something to test if possible:

• What is the transfer speed on file copy between that computer and another computer on the same network ?
• If you make a network bridge from the two network adapters to another computer - would that computer be affected as well?

1. Torrents download above the 2 MB threshold (I reached above 16 MBps on one) however when I try to download files through the browser they usually get limited to 2 mbps, maybe its because of the download but my friend was getting a higher mbps than I was at the same time (I used http://mirror.sov.uk.goscomb.net/ubuntu-releases/18.04.4/ubuntu-18.04.4-desktop-amd64.iso)
2. I didn't see speeds go above 105 MB/s

Funny thing is, I actually had a NIC laying around that is supporting 1 GBps (TP-Link TG-3468) and sadly enough it has the same speed as my other 2 LAN ports, could there be something wrong with my motherboard?

I'm trying Live Linux now, I wasn't able to get this working last night.

 

[Mikedorst]

@Grobe @SamirD the issue seems to be with windows? (Or something with my current installation). I've ran Ubuntu 18.04 through my USB and on my I211 and TP-Link NIC I was able to get the full 250 mpbs, the I219-V was not working for whatever reason, I suspect it actually needed proper drivers to work.

I suppose the logical thing would be to run a clean install? Figure out if its still broken then,

 

[Mikedorst]

Clean install fixed all issues, I guess something on the way got funky and didn't like my LAN controllers.