Question Upload Speed Significantly Slow Over Ethernet

[LastXdeth]

My family switched over to Spectrum cable internet over a year ago. Ever since then, I've noticed that my upload speeds, strangely, over Ethernet are significantly slower compared to upload speeds over the Wi-Fi. I am using the same desktop computer to run these speed tests, using both the built-in Ethernet and Wi-Fi adapter.

On Ethernet, here are the speed results:

Download: 546.37 Mbps ✔️
Upload: 0.1 Mbps (On Speedtest.com, the upload test fails, and it says a socket error has occurred every time it tries to test upload) ❌

On Wi-Fi (same computer, after disabling the Ethernet adapter):

Download: 478 Mbps ✔️
Upload: 22.0 Mbps (as advertised by my ISP) ✔️

I have also tried doing speed tests on portable devices (cell phones/laptops) on my home network and they receive the same pleasant results as the Wi-Fi on my desktop computer.

I never had this upload problem when I was using AT&T Fiber Optic. I've tried using different Ethernet cables and switching to different Ethernet ports on the Spectrum router, but the upload speed still comes out crap over the wire....

 

[bill001g]

I have at times seen ookla speedtest do this on my phone. It just does not do the upload test for some reason and then at other times it works fine.

I would try a couple of different speedtesting sites to see if you get similar results.

Your upload speed almost can't actually be that low or you would not get the download speed you do. When you are doing the download test you are actually always sending some small amount of data back. Even 2 packets or so your pc will send a small message telling the server it received the downloaded data. It is not a lot of traffic but it is likely much more than .1mbps.

Testing upload with real data is a lot more difficult than download files from sites. I can't think of a simple example. You would have to say upload a garbage file to say dropbox or some free online storage site to test actual upload rates.

 

[LastXdeth]

I have at times seen ookla speedtest do this on my phone. It just does not do the upload test for some reason and then at other times it works fine.

I would try a couple of different speedtesting sites to see if you get similar results.

Your upload speed almost can't actually be that low or you would not get the download speed you do. When you are doing the download test you are actually always sending some small amount of data back. Even 2 packets or so your pc will send a small message telling the server it received the downloaded data. It is not a lot of traffic but it is likely much more than .1mbps.

Testing upload with real data is a lot more difficult than download files from sites. I can't think of a simple example. You would have to say upload a garbage file to say dropbox or some free online storage site to test actual upload rates.

I have tried testing my upload test on other sites like Google and TestMy. I also tried uploading an 18 Mb video file on a couple hosting sites and it is taking over 30 minutes to finish uploading.

It is definitely something to do with my wired/ethernet connection.

 

[COLGeek]

Are you connecting directly to your router? Have you tried alternate cables/ports?

What is the make/model of your motherboard? That will tell us what ethernet adapter it has.

 

[LastXdeth]

Are you connecting directly to your router? Have you tried alternate cables/ports?

What is the make/model of your motherboard? That will tell us what ethernet adapter it has.

• Yes, I am connected to my ISP-provided router which is connected to my ISP-provided modem.
• My motherboard is Dell 0T2HR0 with a Killer E2400 Gigabit Ethernet Adapater
• Yes, I have tried running tests with two different ethernet cables across three different ethernet ports with every combination possible. They all yielded the same slow upload speeds.
• Modem = EN2251 (ISP-provided) / Router = SAX1V1S (ISP-provided)

So, I tried running more wired speed tests, but this time on another computer (specifically a laptop). Strangely, the download speed came out to be 80 Mbps (slow) while the upload speed was 22 Mbps (normal). It seems like the results are inverse of my speed test from my other computer (normal download speed / slower upload)! I have tried the same combo of switching out to different ethernet cables and ports while running more tests - no effect on the speeds.

I have no idea what is going on.... I'm lost to why WiFi speeds are flawless on both computers, but ethernet connections speeds vary on both devices. To average the speed results for both of my devices:

Ethernet:

First computer: 550 Mbps download ✔️/ 0.1 MBPs upload❌
Second computer (laptop): 80 Mbps download ❌/ 22 Mbps upload✔️

WiFi:

First Computer: 480 Mbps download ✔️/ 22 Mbps upload ✔️
Second Computer (laptop): 480 Mbps download✔️ / 22 Mbps upload ✔️[same]

 

[COLGeek]

Are you using any network optimizer apps with the Killer adapter?

 

[LastXdeth]

Are you using any network optimizer apps with the Killer adapter?

Oh, wow, you're rightit was the Killer network optimizer! I turned off "Killer Prioritization Engine" in the settings and my upload speeds are normal! Thank you so much!

It's amazing how you buy a PC from a manufacturer like Dell and they put all these useless default settings on the machine without you knowing.... Thanks again!

 

[COLGeek]

Those "apps" optimize for gaming, not for general use. I never use or recommend them as they tend to do more harm than good.

Glad we figured it out. Have fun!

 

[bill001g]

I forgot about killer after intel bought them. Killer had a very long history of buggy drivers and stupid settings.
Intel at least does not tie the idiot "gamer" network stuff into the actual drivers.

 

[Kizzado0dle 2]

Are you using any network optimizer apps with the Killer adapter?

Oh, wow, you're rightit was the Killer network optimizer! I turned off "Killer Prioritization Engine" in the settings and my upload speeds are normal! Thank you so much!

It's amazing how you buy a PC from a manufacturer like Dell and they put all these useless default settings on the machine without you knowing.... Thanks again!

Thank you both 🙂 Been having weird issues with ethernet so much that I have been disabling it in device manager, was about to post my own question and it showed me this as a similar one and turning that off also worked for me.

When I told that software to prioritise gaming I didn't mean..... refuse to let anything but gaming work 🙄

 

[bill001g]

Thank you both Been having weird issues with ethernet so much that I have been disabling it in device manager, was about to post my own question and it showed me this as a similar one and turning that off also worked for me.

When I told that software to prioritise gaming I didn't mean..... refuse to let anything but gaming work 🙄

It is actually worse than that even gaming is affected sometimes. This software causes random delays in the packets based on cpu load. This causes lag in games and the whole purpose of this silly software is avoid lag.

This type of software needs to just completely go away. We need less stupid people that buy anything that has "gamer" written on the box