Slow wired connection -- driver/network card issue?

R

rhouck

2[H]4U
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Apr 15, 2002
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The issue: very slow upload speed on my desktop.

Speedtest results:
iPad (wireless): ~20 down, 2 up
Desktop: ~20 down, 0.3 up :eek:

I then took my laptop, unplugged the ethernet cable from my desktop and plugged it into it, and ran speedtest from my laptop: ~21 down, 2 up.

This seems to confirm that the issue is specific to my desktop, and is not the cable, router, modem, etc.

I am running on the onboard NIC. It's listed as a Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller. I have downloaded and installed the most recent drivers from the Realtek website without any effect.

The motherboard is an Asus P8Z77-V LX (http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P8Z77V_LX/#specifications)


This is very frustrating and I'm a bit at a loss at what to try next. Any help is appreciated.
 
Do you have multiple PCs that you can test together? Check the throughput between them. You can't (easily) diagnose a PC issue using the internet like that. You can never rule out your internet connection as the problem. For example I myself appear to be battling random slowdowns in my internet connection that are hard to track from my end. LAN is much more consistent and better for testing PC issues.
 
Yes, The desktop has horrible throughput to other computers on the network. BUT these computers are connected together through Powerline (the desktop is wired directly to the router/modem, however) which introduces another variable.

Every other device in the house (laptops, phones, tablets, server, htpc) all work perfectly fine -- the issue is specific to this desktop computer.
 
Wouldn't happen to be an XP machine would it? They need the TCP stack tweak on fast net connections.
 
Nope, Windows 7 x64.

And trying to load this page, loads very very slowly.... individual page elements come very piecemeal. takes well over a minute to fully load this page.
 
You could always try something like a Linux LiveCD on the machine and see if it behaves well. Though Realtek isn't the best in Linux (not that it's very good in Windows either).
 
It could be a driver issue. Try updating the driver first. It also could be an issue with the switch. You may do better with an additional switch between that system and the router.

If all else fails, you can get and Intel nic (http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Gigabit...&qid=1374859996&sr=8-1&keywords=intel+1gb+nic) or a Broadcom nic (http://www.amazon.com/Dell-Ethernet...&qid=1374860028&sr=1-1&keywords=broadcom+5722) (The 5722 doesn't support jumbo frames, so it's not one of the best. Be aware of that.)

Intel and Broadcom nics have issues talking to each other at times, so if you go with a new nic, make sure and check out the nics of anything locally it might talk to to make sure you're not getting something that will conflict. I had an Intel embedded nic in my motherboard and a Broadcom on my server, and it made file transfer a real pain. I got a Broadcom addon nic for my main system, and the problem went away.
 
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Yeah, had tried doing the absolute newest drivers with no luck.

I actually just ended up buying one of these: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003MTTJOY since it was cheap.

I prefer a wired setup, but realistically I do almost zero gaming anymore (occasional iRacing, but that's it, and certainly no FPS) so the occasional hiccups of wi-fi are pretty meaningless to me.

Throwing that in it is a night-and-day difference -- all the hiccups where certain webpages around the internet would take FOREVER to load seem to be gone.

I have almost always done add-on NICs but that seemed so antiquated when I built my newer desktop... I'll certainly keep doing so in the future.

Oh well, $10 and I can move on. Thanks for the help (and the recommendations on NICs -- I'll store those away for my next build).
 
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