Computer Question About Internet Speed

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PolarBlues

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I was having some issue with my broadband today. When I finally managed to get back online, I ran my Internet provider's diagnostic tool and something I can't quite figure out came up.

On the speed test, it says that the:

Speed to my router is 78Mb (which is what I would expect)
Speed from router to device 38Mb (this is using Ethernet cable, wifi disabled, nothing else plugged in).

Is this normal? Any ideas of why this might be the case? Quality of the Ethernet cable? Network card?

Practice, I'm not sure I'd notice the difference, but from 78Mb to 38Mb seems like a pretty big jump.
 
The network card and cable are very unlikely to be the issue but you could try a different cable.
It's possible that something funky is happening on your PC. You could try rebooting the PC and see if it changes the speed test. Most home routers run either Linux or NetBSD. Both have robust TCP stacks, so it's unlikely to be something playing up at that end.
What rate does your plan guarantee? It's possible that the router is throttling your traffic for some reason?

That's all that comes to mind off the top of my head.
 
It's most likely one of two things... Either your cable, or your Router,
Do a speed test plugged in before your router if you have a router modem combo. If you have one that is combined, then you may have a bad router.
Your cable can make a difference, but not usually. Cables, like everything else are rated.
How is your wifi rates? If our wifi is also 38, then your problem is with the router.
You could also have a failing ethernet card too, but that is less likely still.
If I was servicing your residence, I would first confirm the 78 to the modem and then replace your modem/router/cables before anything else.
If you can, do a service call. :smile:
 
After trying a few things, (swapping cables, rebooting router, testing wifi, testing the connection from my old laptop) and get consistent results, I had a look through the providers forum. Found a post of a user who had a similiar issue. The solution was to turn off the router for a full 30 minutes (I'd only given it about 5 minutes). Now the speeds from router to device are about twice as fast, not that I actually notice the difference.

Thanks for everyone for your help, at the very least it help identify the issue was genuine and isolate the source.
 
After trying a few things, (swapping cables, rebooting router, testing wifi, testing the connection from my old laptop) and get consistent results, I had a look through the providers forum. Found a post of a user who had a similiar issue. The solution was to turn off the router for a full 30 minutes (I'd only given it about 5 minutes). Now the speeds from router to device are about twice as fast, not that I actually notice the difference.

Thanks for everyone for your help, at the very least it help identify the issue was genuine and isolate the source.

I have my router set to reboot at 4am every night. After turning it off temporarily for a couple of weeks for some reason, I noticed a drop in performance until I reset it.
 
You know looking at those numbers I wonder if the connection negotiated 100Mbs half duplex.
 
If you are on windows you could open up the command console and type
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
And see if that helps.
 
If you are on windows you could open up the command console and type
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
And see if that helps.

I will keep this in mind if this happens again. By shutting down the router and waiting 30 minutes before restarting it I seem to have resolved the issue.
 
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