What specs should my devices have to reach 100Mbps download speed?

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kekehuang

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#242176 14-Oct-2018 21:37

I just upgraded my fiber internet from 50Mbps to 100Mbps for download. But then found out that most of my devices are not able to reach the full speed. I used CAT 6 Ethernet cable to connect a desktop pc to my router but it only can reach 80Mbps for download. The specs for this desktop pc is:

Processor: Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 1017U @ 1.60GHz

RAM: 4.00GB

Hardrive: 224GB in C drive and 224GB in D drive

And then I connect my laptop using CAT 6 Ethernet cable, it can only reach 65Mbps for download. The specs for this laptop is:

CPU: AMD E1-2100 APU with Radeon(TM) HD Graphics 1.00 GHz

RAM 4.00GB

C drive: 445GB D drive: 18.5GB

My iPhone 6 is not able to connect using Ethernet, but with 5G wifi it always reached 100Mbps for download.

Looks like the specs of different devices affect it's ability to reach the full download speed?

I use my laptop to download movies a lot. I really hope it can reach the full download speed of 100Mbps. What kind of specs are good enough for reaching 100Mbps?

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#2107827 14-Oct-2018 23:01

The network ports on the devices must be capable of 1gbps.

Your router (and ethernet switch hub if you have one) must also be capable of 1gbps.

You can expect a maximum realistic throughput of ~95mbits on a 100mbit plan once you take tcp protocol overhead into account. It also depends where you are downloading from.

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Jase2985

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#2107834 14-Oct-2018 23:11

given the device is nearing 4 years old and used an entry level processor I would suspect that the network card in it may not even be gigabit capable or if it is it may be hamstrung a little by the number of PCIE lanes available to it so may never reach full speed

check what speeds windows is reporting the laptop network is connecting at. make sure drivers are up to date, make sure windows is up to date

richms

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#2107856 14-Oct-2018 23:37

My junky atom machine with a USB connected 100 megabit lan adapter will always get 85-90 on speedtests on gig fiber. Chances are you have some "security" software on the computer messing it up, or are using the browser based speedtest rather than the windows app to see that sort of low speed problem.

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kekehuang

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#2107902 15-Oct-2018 07:35

raytaylor:
The network ports on the devices must be capable of 1gbps.

Your router (and ethernet switch hub if you have one) must also be capable of 1gbps.

Why are you saying “1gbps”? My max speed is only 100Mbps.

And my router is a fast one, is able to reach high speed. As I said, the iPhone 6 is always reaching full speed of 100Mbps using 5G WiFi.

kekehuang

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#2107903 15-Oct-2018 07:40

richms:
My junky atom machine with a USB connected 100 megabit lan adapter will always get 85-90 on speedtests on gig fiber. Chances are you have some "security" software on the computer messing it up, or are using the browser based speedtest rather than the windows app to see that sort of low speed problem.

Yes I do have a security software 360 installed. Would that affect the Internet speed?

What windows app should I use to test the speed instead?

So you don’t think the low spec of the laptop is the reason why it can’t reach full speed?

timmmay

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#2107905 15-Oct-2018 08:01

A 100Mbps router has a theoretical maximum performance of 100Mbps, but won't ever quite reach that. To get a full 100Mbps you should have a 1Gbps router, switch, and PC.

In practice 65Mbps is as good as 100Mbps in 99% of circumstances. You'll almost never get 100Mbps downloads of a single file unless the server is local or you're using something like BitTorrent. You can still get near 100Mbps throughput of the connection if multiple devices are using it at the same time.

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Coil

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#2107907 15-Oct-2018 08:04

kekehuang:
raytaylor:

The network ports on the devices must be capable of 1gbps.

Your router (and ethernet switch hub if you have one) must also be capable of 1gbps.

Why are you saying “1gbps”? My max speed is only 100Mbps.

And my router is a fast one, is able to reach high speed. As I said, the iPhone 6 is always reaching full speed of 100Mbps using 5G WiFi.

It is because of the overheads involved. If your maximum is 100Mb/s then you need to account for that minus the overhead and you end up with the speeds you are seeing.

So your theoretical maximum speed if connecting at 100Mb/s with zero degradation is 94Mb/s. Now throw is a very weak CPU, a slow HDD and take another 10Mb/s off of that, also that your connection is not 100% free of degradation between you and the link then you will be seeing the speeds you are.
Sure if you go get a decent PC to test on and make sure your router support 1Gb/s and the PC does too then you may see closer to that 100Mb/s mark but from what you use a PC for I would suggest your money is better spent betting on a 3 legged grey hound than buying a new PC. Because you wont even notice the difference unless you are me or @hio77 flexin on those Beta's with VDSL.

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#2107910 15-Oct-2018 08:07

It could be your hard drive. Is it SATA 2 or SATA 3? Spinning or solid state?

The iphone has a solid state drive.

But if it isn't then you might want a new computer, but I won't worry about it if it's only to get from 60/80 to 100 Mbps

kekehuang

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#2107970 15-Oct-2018 09:54

It is because of the overheads involved. If your maximum is 100Mb/s then you need to account for that minus the overhead and you end up with the speeds you are seeing.

I'm not quite understanding what "overhead" is. Is it something to do with the router or the computer? My iPhone 6 always reaches 103Mbps, so no overhead problem for it?

nitro

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#2108010 15-Oct-2018 10:51

kekehuang:

It is because of the overheads involved. If your maximum is 100Mb/s then you need to account for that minus the overhead and you end up with the speeds you are seeing.

I'm not quite understanding what "overhead" is. Is it something to do with the router or the computer? My iPhone 6 always reaches 103Mbps, so no overhead problem for it?

are you using the same method to "measure" throughput on your iphone and your other devices?

there is overhead. that is how data packets move in the netherworld. at the very least, they need to know their destination, and at the same time provide their location.

surfisup1000

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#2108012 15-Oct-2018 10:57

kekehuang:

It is because of the overheads involved. If your maximum is 100Mb/s then you need to account for that minus the overhead and you end up with the speeds you are seeing.

I'm not quite understanding what "overhead" is. Is it something to do with the router or the computer? My iPhone 6 always reaches 103Mbps, so no overhead problem for it?

When one device sends a file to another device, the data in the file is split into small 'packets' of data. Each packet includes some control 'data', plus there are things added like vlan tagging , maybe encryption data, and ethernet tagging.

So, you might send a 100MB file, but in fact 104MB of data is actually sent to reliably get your file from A to B.

Your iphone 6 has wifi AC, which can exceed 100mbps. This is why your iphone can connect at full speed. It simply has a faster connection to the network than your other devices. Your other devices may only be connecting at 100mbps connections, or they have internal data limits.

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Coil

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#2108014 15-Oct-2018 11:00

kekehuang:

It is because of the overheads involved. If your maximum is 100Mb/s then you need to account for that minus the overhead and you end up with the speeds you are seeing.

I'm not quite understanding what "overhead" is. Is it something to do with the router or the computer? My iPhone 6 always reaches 103Mbps, so no overhead problem for it?

Imagine 2 little gremlins talking to each other on each side of your line and the source of content. They discussing over the top of the data flow checking with each other to make sure it is ok. So it takes maybe 5-10% of that speed to do that. So it like checks for errors and other things.

I hope that clears it up.

Coil

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#2108016 15-Oct-2018 11:04

Anyway, I'll say this.

What you are seeing is 100% normal and expected from the situation you have explained.
It is simple to us but we will just confuse you if we keep throwing analogies out there and all these terms. If you'd like to learn more you can do a course like this: https://certification.comptia.org/certifications/network
Watch these videos from Tech Quickie, you can learn A LOT from Linus, I watched all his videos from the NCIX days as a teen learning:

vulcannz

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#2108327 15-Oct-2018 17:17

Both PCs have only 4Gb of RAM, that won't help.

kekehuang

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#2108328 15-Oct-2018 17:20

vulcannz:

Both PCs have only 4Gb of RAM, that won't help.

How does RAM capacity affect the internet speed? Does CPU speed matter as well?

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