slow downloads

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bobsyx

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#67817 8-Sep-2010 18:52

hi there i have a linksys wirless .my brotherinlaw can receive up to 250 kBs wireless
i on the other hand wired to same router can get speeds up to 600kBs but only for a minute or so and then it drops off to about 10kBs.
could there be a problem with my network adapter
i have noticed this for the last 6 months but just put it down to telecom putting the brakes on me
never heard of this happening b4
any ideas out there
b gone for a couple hours
appreciate if anyone could figure this out for me

raytaylor

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#377996 8-Sep-2010 20:30

When you do your speed test, how are you testing?
Can you do an http download test such as
http://www.xnet.co.nz/speedtest/speedtest/random4000x4000.jpg

See if your speed drops down after a while when downloading that file. (right click > Save target as)

It may be that p2p or torrent software could be overloading your router. By doing an http download such as the one above, we can try to rule this out.

Ray Taylor

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Ragnor

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#377997 8-Sep-2010 20:31

What's the speed of a file copy between a computer connected to the linksys via wireless and another connected via network cable?

raytaylor

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#378012 8-Sep-2010 20:55

A wired to wired transfer will go at 100mbit. Less overhead, it will go around 8.75 megabytes per second.

A wired to wireless transfer with perfect signal running at 54mbit, less overhead will go around 3.2 megabytes per second.

With wireless, around half the traffic is overhead and error correction so a 54mbit connection really only runs at 25mbits. They dont tell you that on the box.

To convert megabits to megabytes, divide by 8.

Ray Taylor

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Ragnor

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#378020 8-Sep-2010 21:27

Yep he needs to run a wireless to wired test to help figure out whether it's a local issue or ISP related.

bobsyx

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#378032 8-Sep-2010 21:46

thanks for the replies
now how do i do a wireless to wired test

bobsyx

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#378039 8-Sep-2010 21:53

why would 2 laptops on the same wireless network from the same router have a huge difference in speed downloading the same torrent at the same time???

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Oldhat

180 posts

Master Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#378074 8-Sep-2010 23:50

The problem with torrent programs is that they open a large number of ports/connections for upstream and downstream data transfer. Your router needs to keep all of these connections in the NAT table and this can cause the limited amount of memory to be swamped.

Torrent applications (if set up incorrectly) can also easily saturate the upstream speed leaving very little availability for normal ack responses, therefore it slows normal TCP traffic down.

webwat

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#378136 9-Sep-2010 09:44

You said you speed drops to 10k even when wired to the router instead of wireless? How are you measuring the speed? If you are talking about web downloads instead of bittorrent (ie using a web speedtest), then try testing it early morning and see how it compares with normal speeds at peak times.

If you are mainly talking about bittorrent, its probably low priority traffic for your ISP to prevent torrents from slowing down other users.

Time to find a new industry!

bobsyx

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#378174 9-Sep-2010 11:49

i'm with slingshot and it may be low priority traffic but why would one laptop get continuous high speed and another laptop get really slow speeds.

even when i stop the high speed laptop the slow one is still slow

could it be a hardware problem is there any explanation as to why one laptop 0n the same wireless router is heaps faster than another

raytaylor

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#378313 9-Sep-2010 17:22

Slingshot also cache certain torrents - so if your torrent is being downloaded by another slingshot user, you get a copy as they do - which is really fast.

An uncached or torrent that isnt very popular will usually run between 10 and 20kBps in the evenings at the moment as slingshot have international bandwidth issues at the moment.

Ray Taylor

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PANiCnz

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#378335 9-Sep-2010 18:18

bobsyx: i'm with slingshot and it may be low priority traffic but why would one laptop get continuous high speed and another laptop get really slow speeds.

even when i stop the high speed laptop the slow one is still slow

could it be a hardware problem is there any explanation as to why one laptop 0n the same wireless router is heaps faster than another

Are you both downloading the same torrent?

If the torrent your brother is downloading has more seeds of course it will download faster. Do an apple to apples test and not apples to oranges.