Question Weird internet connection --- help ?

[DylonWasHere]

So I'm unsure if this is a common issue but for whatever reason whenever I try to stream any video or even browse the internet my internet seems to struggle (buffering, slow load times, etc.). But I recently noticed that if I download something like a game and go on my browser to watch YouTube, it's perfectly fine like it loads as it should. So I decided to look at my network usage and when my usage is at pretty much peak while downloading a game my internet works fine and I can browse and stream videos just fine, but when I try to do any of those things while not at peak the usage is super low like 1Mbps slow. I can barely get through an ad its so slow.

I've tried changing my ethernet cable and even switched motherboards (not solely for this problem that's just how long I've had this problem). I've tried using different ports on my router too. My internet speed is 300mbps and when I do an internet speed test its fine. Hopefully someone knows how to fix this issue because I'm sick of having to use wireless. For anyone wondering wireless connections are fine and this issue only happens when I use an ethernet cable.

 

[bill001g]

Doesn't make a lot of sense since the ethernet port runs at gigabit speed between your pc and the router all the time. It is either running at 1gbit or zero. That is not a real useful number so the computer will many times display it as a average over many seconds but what it is in effect doing is running say for 1 second at 1gibit and then 9 seconds at zero for a average rate of 100mbps. Now this happens even when you internet is slower. It just places the data into a buffer and then transmits at a different rate out the wan port. The 2 connection rates are completely independent at a physical transfer level.

It actually should be the reverse if you down at maximum rate and then try to watch youtube it should compete for the bandwidth and at times the youtube should have a buffer issue...unless you pause the video and let the buffer build very large.

Speedtest shows that your network connection is fine and since it also works for downloads it has to be some software setting. Hard to say windows has so much crap to dig though. I would first look for any software that claims to favor one kind of traffic over another. Many times this is so called "gamer" stuff but you want to uninstall any software that claims to do QoS or prioritize some traffic over others. Many times this comes with the bloatware on motherboards or video cards. A common ones is called CFOSspeed but it has a number of names.

Maybe it is one of the stupid green/power save settings.

Note if you have a 2.5g port check that you have the latest driver from the actual chipset maker for the ethernet. These had a history of strange issue but the later drivers seem to have fixed most of it. Window may have loaded a generic driver but you want to use the actual driver from the manufacture. 1gbit ports don't seem to have this issue, and even 2.5g stuff has been stable for getting close to a year now.

 

[DylonWasHere]

Thinking it may be a router issue because both my computer and another act up when connected via ethernet but perform fine over wifi.

 

[bill001g]

Not sure how you test something like this since the testing traffic itself might cause enough load. Have you found a some magic rate that it works well over. Can you for example set something like steam to download at some lower restricted rate and then change that rate and see if there is some value you set it to.

Ethernet is pretty simple it tends to have much less issues than wifi. Have you tried it with just 1 pc plugged into the router at a time, maybe they interfere with each other for some reason. Are there any other devices like say a switch or something else between the pc and the router or do you plug directly into the router.

It is unlikely the router because the wifi connects to the same router but I guess someone might have configured some strange QoS or firewall rules on it. Most routers have no ability to restrict based on wifi or ethernet even if you wanted to.

I guess you could do the standard factory reset the router and check for any firmware upgrades.