Question Why is my download speed fine but super low upload speed/packet loss?

vELITEv

Reputable
Oct 10, 2014
56
0
4,530
So I've always had super slow upload/download speeds. Recently however, I upgraded to a 400Mbps internet plan, so it is definitely faster (before at like 70mbps at best.) However, recently I've experienced decent packet loss (around 23% average) and way slower upload speeds compared to download. My ISP is Spectrum and my Wi-Fi adapter is a Realtek 8812BU Wireless LAN 802.11ac USB NIC. Any ideas?

 
Feb 6, 2019
19
1
15
Just WiFi. Trust me, if I could get ethernet to my PC I would.
I would definitly try moving your PC temporarily to a location you can get a cable to it to have a test. If it turns out everything seems better with a cable try to buy a new WIFI card. How much did you pay for your Internet card?
 

vELITEv

Reputable
Oct 10, 2014
56
0
4,530
I would definitly try moving your PC temporarily to a location you can get a cable to it to have a test. If it turns out everything seems better with a cable try to buy a new WIFI card. How much did you pay for your Internet card?
Not a lot, but even on a PC directly wired to the router the upload speed is only around 3Mbps vs the 420Mbps download.
 
It depends on what the ISP put in the contract as to what your upload speed should be. 3mbits seems very slow but you need to see what number you are suppose to get.

You always need to do your testing on a ethernet connected machine. If you have a separate modem and router you are best plugging into the modem (you likely have to power cycle the modem). You are doing all this to prevent the ISP from blaming your equipment for the problem. It is extremely common for wifi to have all kinds of issues.

It really doesn't matter if you are the only one using 5g in your house. You may have 20 neighbors also using 5g wifi on their router interfering. In general the poor upload speed means the router is having issues hearing your PC. This tends to be common since routers put out maximum legal power but many end device have tiny antenna and low power radio transmitters. You should get better speed by placing your pc next to the router. You can do it when you are doing your first test with the ethernet connection. If you still have issues next to the router I would first see if there is a driver for your nic card but after that you start to suspect a defective nic card.
 

vELITEv

Reputable
Oct 10, 2014
56
0
4,530
It depends on what the ISP put in the contract as to what your upload speed should be. 3mbits seems very slow but you need to see what number you are suppose to get.

You always need to do your testing on a ethernet connected machine. If you have a separate modem and router you are best plugging into the modem (you likely have to power cycle the modem). You are doing all this to prevent the ISP from blaming your equipment for the problem. It is extremely common for wifi to have all kinds of issues.

It really doesn't matter if you are the only one using 5g in your house. You may have 20 neighbors also using 5g wifi on their router interfering. In general the poor upload speed means the router is having issues hearing your PC. This tends to be common since routers put out maximum legal power but many end device have tiny antenna and low power radio transmitters. You should get better speed by placing your pc next to the router. You can do it when you are doing your first test with the ethernet connection. If you still have issues next to the router I would first see if there is a driver for your nic card but after that you start to suspect a defective nic card.
Doing the speed test today on the PC wired directly into the router from the modem gave me a 382mbps download with around 0.43mbps upload. I have no idea what the issue with it is.
 
That sounds like a issue with the connection. Since this appears to be a cable modem connection you should be able to log into the modem. You need to look at the signal levels and see if they are within the recommended value. The actual value varies abit depending on things like what docsis you isp is using. There should also be log that shows errors.

I suspect your ISP needs to look at the connection to your house. Try to plug directly into the modem and test to be really sure it is not router router. You likely will have to reboot the modem when you switch what is plugged into it.