Connection slow

[Dwayne]

Odd problem here, maybe someone has seen it before.

I have Shaw Broadband 50. My network is configured as follows:

Shaw provided Cisco modem/router configured to provide to a Netgear WNDR3700 Router.

I have an HTPC connected, my main box connected and my My Book Live all connected with Ethernet Cat 5e cables. The ports show Green lights on the front of the router so I should be getting Gigabit speed.

When I do a speed test through Shaw's website I get 30 Mbps on my HTPC and on the wife's laptop, through 802.11g. But when I do the speed test from my main box I get around 3.2 Mbps.

I have changed the Ethernet cable, I have changed ports on the router, I have checked the BIOS to ensure the Gigabit is on (no setting, just Auto, Enable, Disable... set it to Auto and Enable, no diff) I have blown away the drivers for the adapter, downloaded the latest from EVGA's web site, no change. I have powered down and up again, no change.

So, I am perplexed. I did a LAN speed test using Totusoft ver. 1.7 free software. Between the machine and the NAS reading and writing a 100 MB file I get 341 Mbps transfers (roughly) writing and 220 Mbps reading.

So, anyone have an idea what I missed? My download rate through Steam is sucking :) 100 K/Bps if I am lucky. It was never this bad before, but the other devices seem to be getting half decent speeds, just not my main box... and it isn't even running at 10/100 speed it seems.

[3.0charlie]

Dead NIC on your main rig? Have you tried testing the speeds with a PCI (or PCIe) NIC?

[Dwayne]

Originally Posted by 3.0charlie

Dead NIC on your main rig? Have you tried testing the speeds with a PCI (or PCIe) NIC?

Don't have a card anymore, so I can't test that way. But, I am getting transfers. In fact, the LAN test seems like I am getting good speeds, only my internet speed seems affected? I'll try and hunt up an old/new Ethernet card in the next few days and see what I can see.

[rfglass]

not sure if this would work but have you tried uninstalling the nic drivers and reinstall them?Make sure you have the driver b4 u do it . this has worked for me with other types of nic issues.

[Dwayne]

Originally Posted by rfglass

not sure if this would work but have you tried uninstalling the nic drivers and reinstall them?Make sure you have the driver b4 u do it . this has worked for me with other types of nic issues.

Thanks for the words. Yes, I went to my MB support and d/l'ed the latest drivers. Had a look and ensured they were the same as installed already. I uninstalled the adapter and then browsed to where I downloaded them and installed again. Maybe I'll try the driver cleaner and reboot in between.

I am d/l'ing spybot S&D to make sure I have nothing in that way, but I was running MS Essentials, which has been good to me. Just in case I have d/l'ed Free AVG and doing a full scan with that too. Trying to cross off all the possible problems. It has to be software on my side, unless my NIC is just running at 10 Mbps... but my Router light shows a Gigabit connection when I connect the cable and the computer.

Go figure... still hacking away though.

[enaberif]

have you taken the cisco out and plugged directly into the shaw modem?

[Dwayne]

No enaberif I have not. The Cisco is the modem/router. They set it to bridge and I have it providing the IP to my Netgear. Funny thing is that all of the other devices in the house are running fine through the Netgear Router. I even plugged my netbook into the same port on the router that my main computer was plugged into, using the same cable, just to prove out the cable and the port.

Every device gets well over 15 Mbps. The lowest was my Asus tablet, running the speedtest.shaw.ca over 802.11g and it got 18 Mbps. The best was my netbook on the Netgear wired, got 45 Mpbs. My wife's laptop got 42 Mbps over 802.11g or n (not sure how she is hooked up as it is a dual transmitter router, and I think her lappy does g and n) also have my HTPC hooked up via ethernet and it was getting around 38 Mbps.

All devices are fine, except my main computer. I have scanned it with AVG, MS Security Essentials, Spybot S&D and Advanced CC. Nothing out of the ordinary at all. I have tried rolling back drivers to 2009, 2010 and 2011 versions, all nada. I can't get above 4 Mbps on this box.

To me, it defies explanation. My Netgear port light shows green, which is supposed to mean a Gigabit connection. I do a simple transfer test between my computer and my NAS and I get 330+ Mbps write and 220+ Mbps read on 100 MB file. I'm stumped. I am almost to the point of doing a clean install... but I'll buy a bunch of new components before I put myself through that pain!

Anyway, I am open to any, and all, suggestions that I have not tried yet.

As for hooking up to the Cisco, I'll have to do some reading as I am not sure I can do that with it in bridge mode. (I think that is what they did, I wasn't home when they showed to install, so I couldn't talk to the installer and see what they did)

[enaberif]

I would take it out of bridge and remove the netgear and see what happens.

[sswilson]

The modem/router in bridge mode should act like a stand-alone modem. If you plug your PC directly into the same port your router currently uses and do a power cycle on the modem it should pick up an IP no problem.

Something I suggested in the other thread was to find a way to do a downstream bandwidth monitor on the affected PC... if your router can't do it, you can set your laptop/netbook to bridge the wireless connection to the nic and plug your PC into that.... that way you can install bandwidth monitor software onto the laptop to measure whether or not you've got something using upload bandwidth on the PC.

Does your ISP have a daily monitor for bandwidth you can access online? Might be a good idea to check the last few days to see if your upload has peaked higher than normal.

[Dwayne]

sswilson, I logged into the modem and nosed around, it looks like they really didn't do more than turn off the wireless. I plugged my main box into the modem/router and it served it an address no problem. But, I still only was able to get around 3.8 Mbps. The wife just ran her speed test on the laptop and it is cranking away at 28.63 Mbps, a fall off from early but not biggie, much better than my shoddy 3 Mbps.

The properties on my NIC tell me I have a Gigabit connection too.

I can get my usage from Shaw. Nothing too out of the ordinary. I get 400 GB down per month. I used 69.6 Down and 4.58 Up Mar 20 - May 3. 23.29 Down, 1.64 Up Feb 20 - Mar 19 and 29.49 Dn, 3.62 Up the month before that.

Funny think, I just downloaded the Witcher 2 Enhanced last week, no problem at all, was getting over 10 Mbps from Steam during the download. I downloaded today and I was lucky to see 100 Kbps.

Stumped!