Speed oddities

Fizzy · Aug 16, 2013, 02:58:19

Hi,

I've been using my FTTC connection for some time and recently started seeing some odd behaviour.

Up until a recent router restart my speedtest results were at a constant 72Mb download rate, on my 80Mb line. Now tests seems to always be around the 50Mb mark. It only did this after a router restart, so assumed on a "dodgy" connection/route somewhere or something on reconnect so tried restarting a few times but issue persists.

My actual connection speed is still 79990kb, with potential of almost 100Mb.

My brother is on BT (supposedly fraught with contention?) and has been having good downloads speeds on downloading from FTP sites, yet I've been getting a constant 2.5MB/s from the same sites. The odd thing is that if I transfer multiple files I get 2.5MB/s for each one until I start maxing out my line.... sounds like some form of packet shaping along the line? However since IDNet don't do packet shaping/prioritisation then must be somewhere else - yet my brother isn't affected?

I ran a speed test on think broadband, and noticed that their "TBB" test is always around the 30MB limit, whereas the max http is a lot greater. No idea why there is this difference but may explain the unusual behaviour I've noticed...?

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results.html?id=137662104952530288202

If checked to ensure there are no QOS options enabled on the router etc as well.

Anybody any suggestions as to why I had the speed drop on reconnect and the odd ftp behaviour? It's almost as if single streams are suffering but overall total speed is still reasonably high.....

Steve · Aug 16, 2013, 06:22:23

I think it's peculiar to your connection, there's a throttle or increased latency somewhere between your machine and IDNet. Certainly your well down from sync in terms of throughput. Just done a TBB speedtest and for my connection it looks ok, I sync around 50mbps. I'm not seeing any packet loss either on the TBB quality meter over the last 24hours

Fizzy · Aug 16, 2013, 07:24:36

Quote from: Steve on Aug 16, 2013, 06:22:23
I think it's peculiar to your connection, there's a throttle or increased latency somewhere between your machine and IDNet. Certainly your well down from sync in terms of throughput. Just done a TBB speedtest and for my connection it looks ok, I sync around 50mbps. I'm not seeing any packet loss either on the TBB quality meter over the last 24hours

Thanks for the reply - just wanted to check it wasn't just me/something I was doing. I may dig out my BT modem thingy later and give it a try again using that. If it stays the same I know it's not my router, and will raise a call with idnet to see if they can investigate it.

Steve · Aug 16, 2013, 07:45:54

I think it's almost certainly worthwhile using the 'official' modem then you can compare throughput via the router and also via direct PPPoE using one of your 'machines' .

Fizzy · Aug 16, 2013, 08:09:03

Quote from: Steve on Aug 16, 2013, 07:45:54
I think it's almost certainly worthwhile using the 'official' modem then you can compare throughput via the router and also via direct PPPoE using one of your 'machines' .

Well, the "official" modem is one of those BT white boxes with a single rj45 lan port - so requires a PPPoE connection setup in windows anyway.

Just done this, and ran another speed test :-

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results.html?id=137663985530425325679

Nice to see that my max http speed is back up to what I have seen previously - 76MB burst.

Unfortunately the TBB speed is still 'bad' - at only 28MB. That's 2.5 times slower than http speed....? :S

I'll try another pc just to be sure but looks like something on the line/route to the internet... :S

Fizzy · Aug 16, 2013, 08:19:42

Hmm... this is wierd.

Tried the same test on a laptop (also running windows 7) using the BT box and I get full speed on both tests.

So - something on my normal pc is effecting traffic speeds, but leaving HTTP connections alone.....? I've already done virus scans and check for trojans etc and nothing came up.

Hope I don't have to resort to a rebuild....

Steve · Aug 16, 2013, 08:27:08

Sadly it's never straightforward, but I suppose the good news is that your connection is possibly ok.

Glenn · Aug 16, 2013, 08:48:23

Try disabling any browsers add-in's you may have.

Fizzy · Aug 16, 2013, 09:00:34

Quote from: Glenn on Aug 16, 2013, 08:48:23
Try disabling any browsers add-in's you may have.

Done that ages ago. Also I tend to use Opera anyway - but in IE it's the same. Hardly any add-ons running.

Noticed that the latest version of Avast! AV has introduced a whole suite of various protocol specific options/tools for web, mail etc - so first tried disabling, which made no difference. Completely removed and it's still the same.

I also had logmein installed which I have previously uninstalled - or at least I went through the uninstaller. It's left loads of rubbish in devices and registry though. Cleared out and no better.

Had virtualbox installed which adds in a hook for networking side. Uninstalled it all and still no effect.

Running out of likely candidates for network interference/interception - so looking like a windows rebuild is in order.

Taking a backup first of course.

Fizzy · Aug 16, 2013, 09:03:43

Quote from: Steve on Aug 16, 2013, 08:27:08
Sadly it's never straightforward, but I suppose the good news is that your connection is possibly ok.

Yeah - Pc's eh?

As you say though - at least it sounds like my connection may be ok (even though Draytek router is showing a drop in max speed, BT box seems ok in that regard...

).

Will see if things improve after a windows rebuild.

Fizzy · Aug 16, 2013, 15:41:46

Well, that seems to have done the trick. After a fresh install of windows :-

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results.html?id=13766669615890101818

..and that's through the draytek as well. I've no idea what was causing the weird speed issue, but will do periodic checks after installs to see if anything in particular causes the issue to return.

Simon · Aug 16, 2013, 16:47:51

I wonder if one of the Windows Updates that came down the other day messed something up?

psp83 · Aug 16, 2013, 17:15:31

Quote from: Fizzy on Aug 16, 2013, 15:41:46
Well, that seems to have done the trick. After a fresh install of windows :-

Next time, before you reformat etc..

Try resetting the tcp/ip stack in windows.

Right click on "command prompt" run as admin.. type the following..

Code Select

netsh int ip reset c:\resetlog.log

If that doesn't work, you could try..

Code Select

netsh winsock reset

Fizzy · Aug 19, 2013, 03:19:24

Thanks - was probably due for a rebuild anyway.

I've downloaded shed loads of updates and think it's all up to date now - so unless there was a suspect update that has been corrected/reissued before I downloaded it again after the rebuild, I doubt if an update caused it.

andrue · Aug 19, 2013, 06:59:40

Quote from: Fizzy on Aug 19, 2013, 03:19:24
Thanks - was probably due for a rebuild anyway.

I've downloaded shed loads of updates and think it's all up to date now - so unless there was a suspect update that has been corrected/reissued before I downloaded it again after the rebuild, I doubt if an update caused it.

It's not impossible. If I install the latest NIC driver for my machine at work network throughput drops and the mouse becomes jerky. For some reason any of the drivers released by Intel in the last two years increase RPC latency.