[SOLVED] Why is one of my computers internet so slow?

[MOSTROPOLIS]

I pay for 400mbps download and 20 upload. On my main computer I only get 40mbps download wired and wifi. On my other computer I get about 450mbps wired and about half that on wifi. I do not know why. Any feedback would be appreciated. I already did the basic troubleshooting things like restarting my router/modem.

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

Mind sharing the specs of Both computers? You should ideally share your specs like so:
CPU:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:

^ so with that we should be seeing two sets of specs for both. Be sure to also include both platforms BIOS versions and the OS version, if they're both on Windows 10. if they're on another OS, the OS itself will do.

Make and model of your router? Might want to also see if the router is pending any firmware updates.

 

[MOSTROPOLIS]

Router: Netgear Nighthawk c7000v2

Main PC specs(slow internet speeds):
CPU: 8th gen intel core i7 8700k
Motherboard: Asus ROG z370-H
Ram: 32Gb Corsair vengeance
HDD/SSD: 2x Toshiba 8tb HDD, 500gb WD blue SSD
GPU: Asus Geforce RTX 2080 Ti
PSU: Corsair RM1000
OS: Windows 10 x64

Secondary Computer specs (gets normal internet speeds):
CPU: Intel core i7 7700k
Motherboard: Asus ROG Maximus IX hero
Ram: 16Gb Corsair Vengeance rgb
HDD/SSD: 1tb HDD, 1tb WD blue SSD
GPU: Asus ROG strix 2080
PSU: Corsair hx 850
OS: Windows 10 x64

I am not sure where to find the BIOS versions. I logged into the netgear settings and did not see an option to update the firmware I only saw the current firmware version, but I am not savvy in routers.

 

[bill001g]

If you install that garbage "gamerfirst" stuff asus bundles with the motherboard try to uninstall it. It provides no real benefit since it can't affect traffic outside your machine. It causes all kinds of strange errors for some people.

There are 2 fairly easy things you can try. You can get a USB linux boot image and boot that. It will not affect your machine since it runs from the USB stick. The generally have something like chrome preinstalled so you can just run the same speedtest you do under windows.
The other is you can load a old line mode program called IPERF on 2 of your machines. It tests very basic network transfers between machines. You should get 900+mbps in both directions since it is not affected by your internet speed.

If the linux works you know it is not a hardware issue. If you use IPERF instead you are testing the network drivers in windows along with hardware nic. After this it likely is what stupid setting in windows got messed up. At some point you get desperate and try windows reinstall when you have tired everything else.

 

[MOSTROPOLIS]

After an hour of iperf telling me I was using it wrong I got it to work haha. I do not really know how to interpret what I got from it though, what should I be looking at? I would rather not mess with linux since I don't know what I am doing. What possible windows setting would make that drastic of a change in internet speed?

 

[bill001g]

As long as you got good transfer rates there is not much to it. Most people get just over 900mbps. All it really means is the device drivers are good and so are the ports and the ethernet cables.

Your could try to copy large files between the machines. That would also use the disk system and more of the microsoft software.

I really wish it was that simple to give you a list. Microsoft loves to mess things up when they force patches.

I know a common one that caused issues was a setting called "autotuning". I forget what the recommended setting is, microsoft in theory patched that one years ago.

 

[MOSTROPOLIS]

The test wasn't very long but I only got max of 115mbps when testing the speed from the computer with no trouble to the one with trouble. When I tested the one with trouble I got 65mbps top, but speeds between computers doesn't really matter to me just download speed from the internet is what is really troubling me. I will look into the autotuning setting. I guess if it comes to it I can just download what I need on one computer and transfer it to the other one, even though that is kinda time consuming. Thank you for your help so far!

 

[bill001g]

If I remember right you just use IPERF with the server option on one and on the other you use the client option and put in the ip of the server machine.

Check the ethernet port status and see if it is running at gigabit or 100mbps. It could be a bad cable. You should see huge numbers with IPERF it is extremely tiny program so it does not get bottle necked by something cpu or memory.

 

[MOSTROPOLIS]

It is running at a gigabit. I just ran iperf again and now it is 497mbps.

 

[bill001g]

That is still kinda low but it could be something with the testing. I would check if there are any newer drivers. Maybe try a different ethernet cables if you have them. Almost everytime I have run IPERF it either runs a some huge number or it gets lots of errors during the testing.

 

[Old Molases]

Are you using a VPN on one of the computers where you have slow internet?

 

[MOSTROPOLIS]

No VPN. Last night I was downloading some stuff and the speed was better about 1 MB/s but still no where near the speed I get on my other pc. Right now I am downloading something and it is at about an average of 70 KB/s. I used the ethernet cable that was plugged into the problem pc and plugged it into the other pc and got normal speeds. Currently checking for updated drivers.