Solved Broadband Download Speed Question?.

[bluesjunior]

My ISP here in the UK is Virgin Media. I had the 100GB broadband as part of a bundle, ie TV-Phone-Broadband. As we rarely watch tv much anymore last week I dropped the TV and took just the Broadband and phone option but doubled the broadband from 100GB to their maximum option of 200GB. They did the changeover remotely and I could see that now we just had the freeview TV channels.

I tested the broadband on speedtest .net and found that I was only getting the same as before ie 95Mbps on download and 7.2Mbps on upload. I phoned them and after talking to one of their broadband team he said that the problem was with my Virgin Superhub 1 router. Apparently it cannot support more than a 100GB connection speed. He arranged to send me the newest router, the Superhub 2 which was the correct one for my package. The router arrived yesterday, I installed and activated it only to find that although my upload speed had doubled to 12.3Mbps my download speed remained at the same speed of approx 95Mbps. I went back on the phone and the very helpful technician did some tests but nonetheless it remained on approx 95Mbps download and 12Mbps upload. He arranged for one of their engineers to give me a home visit this morning.

The engineer arrived at 08.30am this morning and we went through the problem. He did a number of tests showing me that there was in fact nothing wrong with the Superhub 2 router as it was getting between 185 & 204Mbps download speed on his testing equipment. He said that the problem must be somewhere in the Windows7 setup. I thought perhaps it was my Realtek Ethernet Controller that was the problem and updated it to the latest drivers from 16th of October 2015, but it didn't help. Can anyone here offer any insight into what could be causing this "bottleneck" for want of a better word?.

 

[copiman]

I checked my network card on one of my PCs and its max is 100MB. What network card do you have in your PC?

 

[bluesjunior]

My network card is a Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller and it is updated with the latest drivers. How do you tell whether a card is 10/100/1000 capable?.

 

[copiman]

On my PC I typed "Device Manager" in the search box. Click start> type "device manager" in the search box> Click Device manager at the top> Allow if UAC shows> click the + box nest to "network adapters" and it will show you any and all network adapters. Mine said "Navidia nForce 10/100 Mbps Ehthernet. What is the model number of your PC or is it a laptop?

 

[torchwood]

Hi Blues,
Your card is 10/100/1000 compatible, although its quite old. (8111d/e version)

Go to device manager > properties > advanced.

On the left side there are a number of fields, one of them could be titled Gigabyte click on it and on the left side, you will see what the current setting is.

Roy

 

[bluesjunior]

On my PC I typed "Device Manager" in the search box. Click start> type "device manager" in the search box> Click Device manager at the top> Allow if UAC shows> click the + box nest to "network adapters" and it will show you any and all network adapters. Mine said "Navidia nForce 10/100 Mbps Ehthernet. What is the model number of your PC or is it a laptop?

When I did this Device Manager just states that it is a Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller. I came across an article while googling this and it said that under properties>advanced then scroll down the list to Speed & Duplex, the setting I have which is the default is Auto Negotiation but on the options under this header I have 10Mbps Full and half Duplex, 100Mbps Full and Half Duplex and 1.0Gbps Full Duplex. Apparently if the 1.0Gbps is there then the NIC card is gigabit compatible. I tried setting it to that setting but it had no effect on my download speed so I set it back to Auto Negotiation which is the recommended setting.

 

[copiman]

Your issue has sparked my interest. I did some searching and a couple of items I found was to turn of the power management. It should be the last tab in the properties of the network adapter. Another was someone had the same issue and by using a Cat6 cable solved their issue. I assume you are hard wired versus wireless. Any way to look at your card and see what numbers are on it? Do you by chance have another PC that you can test and see if it will do what you want? One of the articles I read it stated that it was a NIC issue. Also try disabling flow control in the properties as well. Keep up with what you change so if need be it can be changed back.

 

[bluesjunior]

Your issue has sparked my interest. I did some searching and a couple of items I found was to turn of the power management. It should be the last tab in the properties of the network adapter. Another was someone had the same issue and by using a Cat6 cable solved their issue. I assume you are hard wired versus wireless. Any way to look at your card and see what numbers are on it? Do you by chance have another PC that you can test and see if it will do what you want? One of the articles I read it stated that it was a NIC issue. Also try disabling flow control in the properties as well. Keep up with what you change so if need be it can be changed back.

I have already turned off power management. Your point on Cat cables is well taken though. I have a feeling that perhaps that is at the heart of this. The cable on the Superhub to PC is stamped Cat5e and should be capable enough but it is quite possible that an end has been twisted or something and is not as sealed as it needs to be. Anyway I was on Ebay earlier this afternoon and ordered a couple of really good Cat6a cables which should arrive in a day or two.

 

[bluesjunior]

Hi Blues,
Your card is 10/100/1000 compatible, although its quite old. (8111d/e version)

Go to device manager > properties > advanced.

On the left side there are a number of fields, one of them could be titled Gigabyte click on it and on the left side, you will see what the current setting is.

Roy

I checked that Roy and although it doesn't mention Gigabyte the top most one says Auto Disable Gigabit on the left and is set on Disabled on the right the other options being Re-Link, Battery and Re-Link, Battery or AC

 

[copiman]

Your issue has sparked my interest. I did some searching and a couple of items I found was to turn of the power management. It should be the last tab in the properties of the network adapter. Another was someone had the same issue and by using a Cat6 cable solved their issue. I assume you are hard wired versus wireless. Any way to look at your card and see what numbers are on it? Do you by chance have another PC that you can test and see if it will do what you want? One of the articles I read it stated that it was a NIC issue. Also try disabling flow control in the properties as well. Keep up with what you change so if need be it can be changed back.

I have already turned off power management. Your point on Cat cables is well taken though. I have a feeling that perhaps that is at the heart of this. The cable on the Superhub to PC is stamped Cat5e and should be capable enough but it is quite possible that an end has been twisted or something and is not as sealed as it needs to be. Anyway I was on Ebay earlier this afternoon and ordered a couple of really good Cat6a cables which should arrive in a day or two.

Don't forget about flow control in the properties.

 

[bluesjunior]

Sorry I forgot to mention I had already done that. The fact of the matter is that I am getting a pretty consistent reading of between 91&94Mbps download and 10.9&12.4Mbps upload which seems to be saying that I am getting the 100Mbps but something is blocking me from getting over that to the 200Mbps I am paying for. None of the changes I have made so far have made any difference to that although I think it may have streamlined my NIC. As the Superhub and Realtek PCIe Family Controller are both capable of Gigabit speed then it has a good chance of being the Cat cable. I will wait now and try the new Cat6a cable when it arrives and see how that affects things. Thanks for all the help and ideas and I will get back in a couple of days or so.

 

[torchwood]

gigabyte

Hi Blues,
In post 9 you said it shows.. >auto dissable< Gigabyte,
I would have thought that this would limit your speeds?, try the AC one.
.
Roy

 

[bluesjunior]

Sorry guys, I marked it as solved before clicking on Post and ended up having to rewrite it. The problem is solved though. My Buffalo router was the problem along with the Cat5e cable and Windows arrogance in thinking it knows best which drivers to use. Every time I tried to install the latest Realtek drivers Windows rejected them and installed some from years ago saying that they were the best drivers for this device. Anyway after I figured out how to stop that happening and installed the latest Realtek ones the NIC showed Gigabit instead of 100Mbps in the LAC status screen. I still wasn't getting more than 110Mbps though, then I found that the router was only capable of 10/100 and the old cable although it was Cat5e, I think it must have had some sort of loose connection. Anyway I disconnected the router and put the Virgin Superhub 2 back on Router mode and I was getting around 170Mbps. The new cable arrived and as soon as I plugged it in and reset the box, I was immediately getting 208Mbps download and 12.3Mbps upload straight away. So I have marked this as solved and thanks again for all the help/advice offered.

 

[copiman]

Glad to hear you have resolved the issue. Thank you for following up and posting your solution. it will help others down the road.