Gigabit Speeds inconsistent across hardware
barddzen
Newbie

Hello,

Myself and a friend of mine both upgraded to FIOS gigabit internet and in both households we are getting different results and I can’t nail down why.  All mentioned below are wired.

MY HOUSE

i have a new network from top to bottom, all Cat6, X10 Netgear router, server rack, 2x24 port switches and a lot of hardware running over my network.  This thing smokes for speed on my Dell Latitude E6440 and MacbookPro.  I get 900/900 or better all the time.

However,  on older laptops with “supposed” gigabit cards (Lenovo x200 and Macbook4,1) I get wildly inconsistent results.

Lenovo x200: 180/297

Macbook: 197/898

The DL on both is terrible and the UL is oddly low and high.

It seems to me that either the cards in the older laptops just can’t handle the speeds they advertise or there is some setting I’m missing.

Macbook is running CloudReady and Lenovo is running Linux Mint MATE.

My E6440 is also running MATE and MacBook Pro is running Mojave.

FRIENDS HOUSE:

My E6440 Dell I get 900/800 on his network but his Dell tower (9 years old) he gets 125/215. His tower supposedly has a gigabit card, but never gets even close to gigabit speeds.

Yea we’ve checked all the cables and they are 5e or better in his house, mostly 6.

He’s running Windows 10.

QUESTIONS

- why would I get wildly different speeds on supposed gigabit hardware? Is there some setting I am missing?  Or is it just not possible on older “gigabit” hardware?

- why would DL be so consistently low and UL considerably higher?  This makes no sense.

Any thoughts here on what we might check is appreciated.

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Re: Gigabit Speeds inconsistent across hardware
Edg1
Community Leader
Community Leader

I don’t think you are missing anything. The gig network card is not the only factor. Your computer processor, RAM, virus protection, and programs running in the background all contribute.

Re: Gigabit Speeds inconsistent across hardware
barddzen
Newbie

Appreciate the info but any idea why the up would be so much more than the down?  Would CPU, RAM impact the through out so much? I would think if the hardware could handle 800+ up that it could handle the same down?

i can see a virus scanner killing the download and not up, that kind of makes sense.

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Re: Gigabit Speeds inconsistent across hardware
Edg1
Community Leader
Community Leader

One thing with speed test is that the server that is auto selected isn’t equipped to accurately test a gig. That’s why it is always best to test with multiple servers on different sites. 

The upload being higher is usually because the server isn’t equipped to handle higher speeds. So traffic going to the server will be lower. Traffic coming back to you with a gig connection will be higher because your connection can handle the speed. 

Does either of your laptops have an AC card. Try connecting to the 5GHz band and see what speed you get. 

Re: Gigabit Speeds inconsistent across hardware
barddzen
Newbie

On the wireless side, I get about 300/300 consistently depending on where I am in the house (I have a couple of Ethernet backhaul wireless extenders).  So yeah, I do get better speeds wirelessly than wired, again, was kind of odd. 

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Re: Gigabit Speeds inconsistent across hardware
barddzen
Newbie

I think there is something on the VZN end going on.  I've run a few more tests and contacted support and they keep saying it's my "third party router".

- I plugged a laptop (same as I tested before to confirm GB speeds) directly into the ONT and speeds (today) are down to 93/90.  Days ago this same machine through my network was getting 920/870.

- I had them reboot the ONT and I've rebooted my router multiple times with no change in speeds.

I've run these same tests everytday for about a week and the speeds vary widely for hundreds of Mbps U/D to sub-100 U/D.  It's like I'm on Comcast.

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Re: Gigabit Speeds inconsistent across hardware
smith6612
Community Leader
Community Leader

On the Lenovo x200 and the MacBook4,1 (Core2Duo), run a speed test and watch not only your CPU usage, but your disk utilization. Chrome for example likes to write to your disk with many speed tests, which will wreck your download speed test results if you're not running an SSD or a very good mechanical drive. Upload is entirely processor bound and won't hit your storage. Most Core2Duos should be able to test Gigabit to some extent, with older processors like Core Duo and Pentium D/Pentium 4 choking down. That may be the problem the Mac is seeing. In which case, you may want to try booting a Live CD on the machine or creating a RAMDisk for Chrome's cache, and seeing if you get different behavior. If you can pull the Ookla speed test app out of the Chrome Web Store or Play Store, that should run better than testing within the web browser.

On the PC, try checking the Mint repositories to see if there is newer firmware available for your card. I assume the x200 has an Intel based NIC in it?

As for the ONT speed test results, some of the ONTs may be a little flaky with certain cable/NIC combinations. I see the same issue with my Cable modem. I can't get more than 100Mbps autonegotiate between my laptop's USB Gigabit NIC and my Cable modem. But, the Cable modem has no problem getting Gigabit directly into my Gateway, and the USB NIC has no problem getting Gigabit going directly to a switch.

Virus scanners are also bidirectional. They tend to scan both inbound and outbound traffic to a machine. Try disabling anything that does network or web scanning if the suite allows, and try again. Windows Defender/Windows Firewall should have no impact. Although, you may want to try giving TCP Optimizer a try. Load it up, check the "Optimal" radio button, and move the slider to 100+Mbps. That tool does implement some nice tweaks which do help on certain types of Gigabit connections.