# Download speed has gotten slow!



## Irish_PXzyan (Aug 26, 2013)

Well lads.

I will put it simply, for example.. on speedtest I would get 95meg line average as I have a 100meg line, and only get 25/35mbps average now...
Now the past few days I have noticed that when I download on steam, it never reaches any higher than 3.5mbps compared to 10mbps average that I usually get.

I have no idea why this is?
My brother has pretty much the exact same PC and wireless adapter as me! and he gets the usual 10mbps on steam and is currently getting 80/85mbps on speed test?!?!

He is even further away from the router than me!!

What is going on??? Why on earth has my PC gotten slower download rate than him?
How can I fix this and get my full bandwidth once more??


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## Fourstaff (Aug 26, 2013)

Are you on wired or wireless? If you are on wireless check your wireless router settings, otherwise check cables.


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## Irish_PXzyan (Aug 26, 2013)

Wireless. I have checked settings and they are as they should be, I see nothing out of the ordinary so it must be something to do with the OS??
Currently using Windows 8 64-bit


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## redeye (Aug 26, 2013)

SMH...:shadedshu wireless... 

great for iPad, not so great for a rock-solid connection
time to debug...

run a long ethernet cable to your router and compare speeds.


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## Irish_PXzyan (Aug 26, 2013)

I don't have a cable that long sadly!
I know the router is fine so I guess it's my flipping dongle? I will take his dongle and see if that changes anything!

Edit: Nah! his didn't change anything either :/

Edit again!: Figured it out! I got a male usb to female usb cable that's 2m and just plugged it into that and attached it to my desk. Now getting 80/85mbps! 
So I guess it's important to raise the dongle up off the floor? Oh well!
Happy days! Cheers lads!


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## newtekie1 (Aug 27, 2013)

Yes, the position of the adapter can have a huge affect on your connection performance.  Sometimes simply moving it about a foot can make it go from super slow to working fine.


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## Dent1 (Aug 27, 2013)

Irish_PXzyan said:


> Well lads.
> 
> I will put it simply, for example.. on speedtest I would get 95meg line average as I have a 100meg line, and only get 25/35mbps average now...
> Now the past few days I have noticed that when I download on steam, it never reaches any higher than 3.5mbps compared to 10mbps average that I usually get.
> ...




I had this issue just recently and solved it.

Got a 60Mb/s connection, but it suddenly dropped to 8Mb/sec. At first I thought it was spyware/adware. Done the usual scans and nothing malicious was found. Downloaded tools like TCP optimiser to help "fix" the connection. I literally tried everything.

I rebooted my router to default manufacturer configuration, did tweaks within windows, nothing worked.

I was adamant it was my ISP. Called up Virgin Media and they sent me a new router. Router came and no luck. They sent an engineer round and he disconnected the wireless card and used the physical cable and I got a full 60Mb/s.  So I knew the problem was on my end.

So this left the issue to be either my computer (OS level) or the wireless card. I'm cheap and hate buying stuff so didn't want to spend money on a wireless card. Eventually I reinstalled Windows 7 and now I'm getting my full 60Mb/s again.


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## Seany1212 (Aug 27, 2013)

EDIT: Only just saw that you got it working, I've had that issue before putting my router in a corner on the floor meant that i had really bad range. Put it higher up on a window and gained enough range to cover my house!


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## Irish_PXzyan (Aug 27, 2013)

Yeah it's quite staggering the difference it can make by adjusting the height of the router and adapters! I will remember this that's for sure :L

@Dent1 That's quite the story! So it turned out to be the OS?? How long was it before you reformatted the system? I hope I never run into that issue!

@Seany1212 I have my router put on top of a supercer! Gives it an almighty boost in range :L


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## Aquinus (Aug 27, 2013)

newtekie1 said:


> Yes, the position of the adapter can have a huge affect on your connection performance.  Sometimes simply moving it about a foot can make it go from super slow to working fine.



This. Put your adapter closest to the access point. My friend made the mistake of putting the adapter on the back of his tower where the AP was in front (and downstairs) from the PC. The signal and speed were terrible until I put the adapter in one of the front USB ports instead so the wi-fi signal didn't have to travel through the PC chassis. Positioning can have a big impact on performance depending on the ambient conditions.


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## Irish_PXzyan (Aug 27, 2013)

Yeah I tried it at the back of the case and it only got 4mbps! It actually wouldn't load a webpage?! seems a bit drastic!

Edit: My brother has raised his dongle even higher which is right under his window.. he is getting 102/105mbps constant now! Quite impressive!


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## Dent1 (Aug 28, 2013)

Irish_PXzyan said:


> Yeah it's quite staggering the difference it can make by adjusting the height of the router and adapters! I will remember this that's for sure :L
> 
> @Dent1 That's quite the story! So it turned out to be the OS?? How long was it before you reformatted the system? I hope I never run into that issue!
> 
> @Seany1212 I have my router put on top of a supercer! Gives it an almighty boost in range :L



It was almost 2 years ago since I last formatted my HDD. But my connection issue lasted about 4 months before I formatted it again


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## claylomax (Aug 28, 2013)

redeye said:


> SMH...:shadedshu wireless...
> 
> great for iPad, not so great for a rock-solid connection
> time to debug...
> ...



This. I always use ethernet cable. Wireless is for smartphones and tablets.


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## Dent1 (Aug 28, 2013)

redeye said:


> SMH...:shadedshu wireless...
> 
> great for iPad, not so great for a rock-solid connection
> time to debug...
> ...






claylomax said:


> This. I always use ethernet cable. Wireless is for smartphones and tablets.



Says who? Been using wireless for like 7 years with very few issues.

Gaming, torrents, music, not a problem. Its 2013.


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## claylomax (Aug 28, 2013)

Dent1 said:


> Gaming, torrents, music, not a problem. Its 2013.



Slightly off topic, which option do you use in your torrent program preferences? Enabled or forced; I'm saying because Virgin Media is known to throttle the speeds.


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## Aquinus (Aug 28, 2013)

redeye said:


> SMH...:shadedshu wireless...
> 
> great for iPad, not so great for a rock-solid connection
> time to debug...
> ...





claylomax said:


> This. I always use ethernet cable. Wireless is for smartphones and tablets.



That's why I get this at work on a SpeedTest over wireless, right?


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## Dent1 (Aug 29, 2013)

claylomax said:


> Slightly off topic, which option do you use in your torrent program preferences? Enabled or forced; I'm saying because Virgin Media is known to throttle the speeds.



Virgin Media do not throttle their speeds unless you reach their daily bandwidth quota between 4:00PM-11:00PM weekdays, or 11:00AM-11:00PM Weekends of 3.6GB. The throttle is only lasts 60mins, then the temporary throttle is lifted. 

On a 60Mbit connection, the throttle is only 30%, so you still are getting 42Mbit/sec which is still insanely fast and still better value for money than anything BT offer including Infinity.

To answer your question I use "forced" in Utorrent. Only because I'm paranoid that some motion picture company will track me and sue me.


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## Aquinus (Aug 29, 2013)

Dent1 said:


> To answer your question I use "forced" in Utorrent. Only because I'm paranoid that some motion picture company will track me and sue me.



That doesn't change anything. That just encrypts the traffic. The RIAA/MPAA get people by connecting to the torrent and actually establishing a connection with people who are connected to the tracker. Something like PeerGuardian2 PeerBlock (I guess it changed names?) is a better option if you're really concerned about being hunted down.


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## Dent1 (Aug 29, 2013)

Aquinus said:


> That doesn't change anything. That just encrypts the traffic. The RIAA/MPAA get people by connecting to the torrent and actually establishing a connection with people who are connected to the tracker. Something like PeerGuardian2 PeerBlock (I guess it changed names?) is a better option if you're really concerned about being hunted down.




The way I see it is there is no disadvantages to having encryption disabled, so I leave it on anyways.

My downloading habits have changed drastically over the last few years I tend to only download free mixtapes rather than retail music and with YouTube, Iplayer, 4OD and On Demand streaming in general I find myself downloading movies and TV shows less frequently. I'm not a big fan of seeding so I cut the torrent off as soon as I finish downloading. At one point in time I bought a proxy IP. Integrated really well into IE and utorrent and didn't really affect my latency much but my paranoia has since dissipated slightly.

I just ran a speed test. I'm on wireless for anyone that thinks Ethernet Is the only way.


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## redeye (Aug 29, 2013)

try the speedtest on an ethernet cable and your ping will decrease.

and their is nothing that you can you to stop being tracked on a torrent, because you do not have control over the "internet"... 
have you not been reading about the NSA Debacle, and how Eric Snowden "let the sunshine in" 

but the NSA tracking the bittorrents is NOT what the NSA does... it is just "noise" to them.
it is the Sophisticated filters that the ISP use to manage  the traffic that is tracking you.

using a VPN is a way to hide your location or use TOR, but that use in frowned upon because their are more inportant things that need to be Anonymized than bittorrent traffic.

in anycase an ip address is not you.  but you are being "tracked" if only to sent the packets to the right address.  so perhaps the best method (if you are paraniod about being tracked) is to delete or get rid of the file after you have watched it...)

personally i do not like bittorrent, but that is just me, and i have not had a reason to use bittorrent over the 'donkey'... i guess i prefer to search for the porn in emule.


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## brandonwh64 (Aug 29, 2013)

redeye said:


> try the speedtest on an ethernet cable and your ping will decrease.



This is not necessarily true. With the proper hardware and reduced interference you can get within 1 MS of that of a wired connection. There is a lot of factors when it comes to wireless but if you know what you are doing buying and setting up the LAN network you will be good.


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## Dent1 (Aug 29, 2013)

redeye said:


> try the speedtest on an ethernet cable and your ping will decrease.





On wired I get almost the same ping.

My ping is actually lower than my friends whom are on wired because they have crap ISPs.

I think with my ping not being even lower is more of a ISP and exchange distance bottleneck than wireless interface.




redeye said:


> and their is nothing that you can you to stop being tracked on a torrent, because you do not have control over the "internet"...
> have you not been reading about the NSA Debacle, and how Eric Snowden "let the sunshine in"
> 
> but the NSA tracking the bittorrents is NOT what the NSA does... it is just "noise" to them.
> ...



Interesting.

I'm not a fan of emule or other non torrent P2P. I always end up with fake files. 

With torrents I can read the comments or just search under release groups I trust so I know its authentic before I download.

I've been reading up on Newsgroups, but still haven't figured out how to use it. Apparently there is a fee?


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