Slow download speeds using Vista, HELP please

[roc567]

I just received my new budget build from AVADirect yesterday with Vista Home Premium installed on it and as soon as I tried to download anything from game demos to torrent files i noticed a significantly slower download speed than my old XP Pro system. The fastest it could download a 1Gb file was just under 100KB/sec. A friend said to go to the run menu and disable the Autotuning in Vista and that had no effect on the download speed. Im using a Netgear router that I never once had problems with on the old system. Any help would be much appreciated, I'm not as computer savvy as most the users on these forums but I think I could handle minor fixes.
New Vista Computer: AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+
Asus M2V, VIA K8T890
2GB Crucial PC2-5300 DDR2-667
XFX Geforce 8600GT 620Mhz
250GB Western Digital Caviar SE16 SATA II
Windows Vista Home Premium

 

[Maxx]

I'd suggest starting by disabling IPv6 for your network connection.

Full path of doing it:

Control Panel -> Network and Sharing Center -> Manage network connections (left pane) -> right-click LAN connection -> Properties -> Uncheck IPv6 (you may optionally also uncheck QoS if desired) -> OK

 

[roc567]

I unchecked the first one u suggested and nothing happened then i unchecked the QoS and still nothing, seems like the QoS would help speed things up if left checked, I dont know though, im sure your right. Ill keep on checking around to see if i can see any other problems im not seeing.

 

[SippieCup]

did you check your port forwards, when you reformat some routers see it as a completely different computer and assign a different IP address.

also, make sure you are using the same ports.

other than that, read up on some registry fixes that increase the amount of halfopen ports you can have, and then look up some speed tutorials for utorrent or whatever you use

 

[ap3rtis]

maybe download drivers for you motherboards ethernet port?
I didn't notice any change in download speeds from xp to vista.

 

[Finn]

Do you have older os'es in the same network? Vista will mess up your lan if you mix it with the older os'es. It has a rewritten network code.

Exactly same thing happened with XP on lan with w98/w95/Me

 

[roc567]

How would i go about checking my port forwards? I never reformated, its a completely new computer with Vista, my old XP system is a separate computer. I would hate to mess something up in my registry, never really messed with that stuff.

 

[Finn]

How would i go about checking my port forwards? I never reformated, its a completely new computer with Vista, my old XP system is a separate computer. I would hate to mess something up in my registry, never really messed with that stuff.

So you do have a mixed network? That may be the cause for slowdown. Vista and XP conflicting eachothers can slow the network down to a crawl. Have you tried moving files from computer to computer? If that is stupendously slow now, your problem is the OS conflict.

 

[Maxx]

I unchecked the first one u suggested and nothing happened then i unchecked the QoS and still nothing, seems like the QoS would help speed things up if left checked, I dont know though, im sure your right. Ill keep on checking around to see if i can see any other problems im not seeing.

QoS doesn't really do much of anything, it's just a troubleshooting step. As for the IPv6, really old routers may not support it plus it can cause some general problems on certain networks/routers, so it's usually worth disabling (until we actually need it).

As for the mention of port forwarding, that's mostly relevant for torrents. Since your speed issues are universal, it's probably something else, although it depends how your old system was set up (and whether you're wireless or not). Certainly Vista & XP on the same network isn't ideal, but it shouldn't cause too many issues with download speeds. My next guess would be network adapter driver, especially since you just got a new machine with Vista.

I believe these are the ones you want:
http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?PageID=420&OSID=36&CatID=3030&SubCatID=124

Or for the whole system:
http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?PageID=420&OSID=36&CatID=3170

 

[MattyC]

Certainly Vista & XP on the same network isn't ideal, but it shouldn't cause too many issues with download speeds.

Just curious, but why is this? I haven't had any issues, but my home network contains 2 Vista machines, 3 XP machines, a Ubuntu machine, and a Slackware machine that is basically just a place to dump files to share between them so it obviously impacts me

 

[Maxx]

Just curious, but why is this? I haven't had any issues, but my home network contains 2 Vista machines, 3 XP machines, a Ubuntu machine, and a Slackware machine that is basically just a place to dump files to share between them so it obviously impacts me

I haven't had any issues, either. It shouldn't affect download speeds whatsoever, unless internet connection sharing is involved. There are some things to be aware of when having Vista on the network, though.

Firstly, you should have the Link Layer Topology Discovery Responder update for the XP machines for optimal operation:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...1D-EE46-481E-BA11-37F485FA34EA&displaylang=en

Secondly, you should disable the DFS Replication Windows feature on the Vista machines to improve file transfer performance, unless you are utilizing that feature.

Lastly, your network configuration is important. I won't get into the full details here as there are many things to consider. This covers everything from performance to security, although I will mention one: be aware of Vista's hidden administrative shares.

I personally have Vista, XP, 2000, and Kubuntu on my network, so I've had fun playing around with things for best security and performance.

 

[djnes]

I'd suggest starting by disabling IPv6 for your network connection.

That fixed quite a few minor network issues I had with Vista

Do you have older os'es in the same network? Vista will mess up your lan if you mix it with the older os'es. It has a rewritten network code.

Yikes. I'm running three Vista boxes on a LAN with 20 other XP boxes, with no problem. In fact, I still have an old NT 4.0 box on the same network, and we have no issues.

 

[Finn]

That fixed quite a few minor network issues I had with Vista

Yikes. I'm running three Vista boxes on a LAN with 20 other XP boxes, with no problem. In fact, I still have an old NT 4.0 box on the same network, and we have no issues.

It doesn't happen always and to everyone. But it's clearly detectable when lan transfers slow down to a crawl.