Slow computer connection

[Deleted member 143938]

I'm having quite a bit of trouble figuring this out:

My parents laptop is doing ~2.3mb (wireless) according to www.speedtest.org, but my PC (which is wired) only does about 1.8-2.0 and fluctuates pretty hard on the same test (meaning it will start showing, say, 1.8, then drop down to 900kb, then up to 2.0, down to 750, etc).

A few weeks back it did about 2.4-2.6 constantly (I'm on a 3mb advertised DSL connection).

I have the latest NIC drivers (I also tried uninstalling it and using the Windows drivers, which gave me the same result, installed new drivers again, no change), no QoS or something to lower my speed, and also tried my second motherboards port, which is the same NIC (Marvell Yukon), also no change.

I'm clueless on what could be the cause, I have no spyware or anything of that sort.

 

[TJohnny]

It is a configuration problem, you can stop messing with hardware and drivers. The symptoms you report are all compatible with a bandwith-delay product bigger then your TCP window size. Also speedtest.org has only four servers and chances are you are not very close to any of them, aggravating issues with the bw-delay product.

Increase TCP window size, activate the large TCP window size support (RWIN), connect to speedtest.net, choose two o three among the closest servers and test your connection again. Please let us know how it ended up!

TJ

 

[Deleted member 143938]

It is a configuration problem, you can stop messing with hardware and drivers. The symptoms you report are all compatible with a bandwith-delay product bigger then your TCP window size. Also speedtest.org has only four servers and chances are you are not very close to any of them, aggravating issues with the bw-delay product.

Increase TCP window size, activate the large TCP window size support (RWIN), connect to speedtest.net, choose two o three among the closest servers and test your connection again. Please let us know how it ended up!

TJ

Ughhh nevermind we recently upgraded the connection to 6mb last weekend and it just now activated at 2:30 or so, I retested and it seems absoloutly fine now, no fluctuations of any kind, but still only 5.1mb, I'll have to retest on the laptop tomorrow but I don't expect anything more than this.

I also live in Chicago, which is one of the locations in .org. I also used .net and it gave me slightly lower results, but still more or less the same.

So it's weird that may parents laptop had steady results but mine fluctuated and actually lowered by almost 2x over the past couple of weeks and now it's mysteriously fixed with a speed upgrade, but oh well, at least it's OK Thanks for the help!

 

[xphil3]

It is a configuration problem, you can stop messing with hardware and drivers. The symptoms you report are all compatible with a bandwith-delay product bigger then your TCP window size. Also speedtest.org has only four servers and chances are you are not very close to any of them, aggravating issues with the bw-delay product.

Increase TCP window size, activate the large TCP window size support (RWIN), connect to speedtest.net, choose two o three among the closest servers and test your connection again. Please let us know how it ended up!

TJ

Bwhahaha, I love how you speak in absolutes. What a character you are! Read some of his post and you will see that its most likely not the size of his "SLIDING" window. Window sizing is rarely an issue, and a tweak that is extremely trivial. Any performance gains from changing your max size(which also needs to be supported on the other end) will probably go unnoticed.

Also, he says that the problem just started recently which would make your solution moot.

Leave the window size be, let the OS slide it as it sees fit.

Tyler,

Have you tried any other sites for the testing, speedtest.org routinely gets pounded all the time. Also, you may want to download something like a service pack from microsoft for a more accurate "real world" test.

To humor TJ, have you made any changes to your TCP/IP stack on laptop that you haven't on the windows machine?

 

[Deleted member 143938]

Bwhahaha, I love how you speak in absolutes. What a character you are! Read some of his post and you will see that its most likely not the size of his "SLIDING" window. Window sizing is rarely an issue, and a tweak that is extremely trivial. Any performance gains from changing your max size(which also needs to be supported on the other end) will probably go unnoticed.

Also, he says that the problem just started recently which would make your solution moot.

Leave the window size be, let the OS slide it as it sees fit.

Tyler,

Have you tried any other sites for the testing, speedtest.org routinely gets pounded all the time. Also, you may want to download something like a service pack from microsoft for a more accurate "real world" test.

To humor TJ, have you made any changes to your TCP/IP stack on laptop that you haven't on the windows machine?

Come on, that's not needed. Don't need to get hostile here, he was just trying to help, you don't need to be a certified network admin to try and help others here.

 

[TJohnny]

Bwhahaha

You said I am hilarious and you called me a hoot. I am sorry I cannot say the same for you. You are boring.

TJ

 

[xphil3]

Come on, that's not needed. Don't need to get hostile here, he was just trying to help, you don't need to be a certified network admin to try and help others here.

I wasn't trying to say that, hes just an immense tool dude.