W7 + slow network

Hi guys,

I've been troubleshooting my network problems with Windows 7 for a very long time, and I have yet not figured out what is wrong. You guys are my last chance and I'm hoping for help!

My problem is that lately I have been getting higher pings and slowed connection speeds than I used to have. I tried installing XP on another partition and it gave me a much better ping and connection speed. Worth mentioning is that when testing the connection speed, XP reached it's maxlimit in just moments, while W7 took 10 seconds. I can also note that on XP, my browser loads websites faster than on Windows 7.

I am suspecting that my network drivers are somehow not working well with Windows 7, but since they have worked just fine until a few weeks ago, it should not be a problem.

My network card is: Atheros AR8121/AR8113/AR8114 PCI-E Ethernet Controller

I have tried both upgrading and downgrading the drivers with no success, and this whole situation bothers me so much, especially because I have put so much time on trying to fix it.

If you have any suggestions whatsoever, please do not hesitate to write them down.

Worth mentioning is that I have tried software like Netlimiter to see if something was eating up my bandwidth, but nothing did.

Thank you very much in advance,

Teemu

Thanks for the suggestions, I will test them as soon as I get home. I've already disabled IPv6 though because it conflicted with some programs.

Out of curiousity, how will changing from homegroup to workgroup help me?

PS: My modem is very bad and I do not have a router, will getting a good router improve my connection?

PS: My modem is very bad and I do not have a router, will getting a good router improve my connection?

more than likely, yes. what is your existing modem like? how old? and make/model?

I have sort of fixed my ping issues and I am getting much better pings, but it still not stable, and same goes for the connection speeds. I fixed this by actually stopping the netlimiter service along with other network services.

I am still not getting as good ping as I used to, but I guess that's because my modem sucks. I have ordered a Netgear Wireless-N WNR3500 router, and I'll hope that fixes the last issues :)

manhunter2826 said:

PS: My modem is very bad and I do not have a router, will getting a good router improve my connection?

more than likely, yes. what is your existing modem like? how old? and make/model?

I've got a Xavi X5258-P2 modem, and it's configuration is very limited even for being a modem, and to be able to access any kind of settings I must manually set a custom IP and connect to it through my browser. I'm not very familiar with Xavi models as I used to have Thomson and it broke, but judging from the graphical interface on the browser settings they do not seem very serious.

haxcid: This command did not make much difference, if any difference at all, unfortunately

Same goes for your suggestions Fred

Have to say, never heard of the modem mentioned; me thinks the new netgear will resolve your speed issues. Let us know :)

Hey guys, a little update:

I got my router today and it did give me a more stable ping and a higher connection speed. However, my ping cannot be reduced to the low values as I expected because the routing of my ISP is very bad. IE it routes through a node in a different country before trying to reach the destination IP. I have a good 30-90 ping within Europe now though :)