Windows 10 (Home) Very Slow Internet Speeds (WiFi + Ethernet)

Caledon Ken · 02 Oct 2018

I would use the MCT on another device and create a USB. Then basically you follow this process to apply to all devices. Saves your data.

Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade

as I posted earlier. I agree 2.4 is the only way with distance.

If you click Start > Settings > Network and Internet > on right hand side click Network and Sharing > In the upper right beside the word "Connections" click on your Network name. In the window that opens, what speed is it reporting.

Even your 2.4 band is only reporting 59% Signal.

Is you computer in the open, no mobile phone bases near antennas or near router.

I saw that Nighthawk router, didn't notice does it have external antennas? (or can they be had)

Anyway to relocate router to a more central position.

McWillies · 02 Oct 2018

Caledon Ken said:

I would use the MCT on another device and create a USB. Then basically you follow this process to apply to all devices. Saves your data.

Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade

as I posted earlier. I agree 2.4 is the only way with distance.

If you click Start > Settings > Network and Internet > on right hand side click Network and Sharing > In the upper right beside the word "Connections" click on your Network name. In the window that opens, what speed is it reporting.

Even your 2.4 band is only reporting 59% Signal.

Is you computer in the open, no mobile phone bases near antennas or near router.

I saw that Nighthawk router, didn't notice does it have external antennas? (or can they be had)

Anyway to relocate router to a more central position.

I looked earlier at the connection speed, it was 120mbps. I don't mean to be rude, but I stated in my original post that I'm not technologically illiterate. By that I mean that I consider myself well-versed and am capable of completing tasks without the directions explicitly given to me. I only say this to save you time typing out directions for me to follow as if I were a grandma sitting at her 2005 Windows XP desktop. Once again, not trying to be rude. Previously my computer was tucked under a desk and I thought that may have been the culprit for my speed issues. Alas, I have since moved the PC to the top of the desk and nothing has changed.

As for the Nighthawk M1, I currently have it set up with a router (Linksys EA6500) via IP passthrough with wireless disabled on the M1 itself. External antennas aren't necessary on the M1 for that reason. Also, the router is as central as it can possibly get... by that I mean it's smack dab in the middle of the house. I've set up a signal repeater before to give the desktop a better connection but the issue persisted.

Just some more "proof" that settings or hardware within the PC are the issue and not signal strength: I have tried connecting the desktop to my phone's mobile hotspot (which utilizes my phone's LTE connection) and get the same slow speeds as on WiFi, while my other devices connected to the hotspot on the same phone, on the same LTE network, and at the same time get much faster speeds.

As for downloading the Windows updates on a different PC and using the media tool: Version 1803 is currently 90% downloaded (using the desktop) and slowly rising, so I'll let that finish out, install it, and see if there are any changes in terms of internet speed.

Edit: I'm watching this Windows update like a wolf watches a calf. I'm excited so I figured I'd update y'all on the current situation. It's been a little over 3 hours since I initiated the Windows 10 Version 1803 update install. The download and pre-installation are finally complete, now my PC is doing the infamous "Working on updates" portion of the install. I did some fun math too because I wanted to know what my average speed was during the download.
If you're interested:
3.2GB (quick search yielded that figure, not sure if it's accurate, I read somewhere that if your computer wasn't up to date before downloading Version 1803 then the size of the download may have been bigger, nonetheless the logic still applies) of data was downloaded in 3 hours.
1024MB in a GB.
3.2 GB * 1024 = 3,277 MB (megabytes).
3 hours = 180 minutes.
3,277/180 = 18MB per minute.
18/60 = 0.3 MB per second (or 307 KB per second).
1 MB = 8 bits.
0.3 * 8 = 2.4mbps (megabits per second).

McWillies · 02 Oct 2018

Unfortunate results after installing Version 1803: No improvement.

One thing that caught my attention while downloading the update though: I saw my network utilization peak around 9mbps, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything because I still can't get above ~2mbps in speed tests or on a YouTube video (right click on a video and hit "Stats for nerds" to see how much bandwidth is being used). I made sure no other programs, tasks, processes, or devices were hogging bandwidth during these tests.

As a comparison to how slow the speeds are on my desktop to other devices: It took me 3 hours to download 1803 on the desktop. I just downloaded 1809 ("October update") on my laptop in 20 minutes with speeds hovering around 25mbps and peaking at 37mbps.

I understand most of you are inclined to make me update to 1809 because you think it will magically solve all of my internet speed issues, but I can say confidently I am very doubtful doing so will solve my issues. As for right now, it's 11:30pm and I'm tired of dealing with this for the night. I'll work on it again tomorrow (I don't have classes so I can spend most of the day torturing myself with troubleshooting).

12:15am: Couldn't help myself. Went on a troubleshooting rampage. Compared wireless card settings with my laptop and they seem to be identical (besides some settings being different due to my laptop having a Qualcomm wireless card and the desktop having a Realtek card). I uninstalled the device (kept the drivers, just removed the device). Then scanned for hardware changes to automatically detect the NIC and install the newest driver on my PC (mid-2017 driver from Realtek website that I just found a few minutes ago). I am now getting normal pings like usual, the same slow download speeds (~2mbps), but my uploads have significantly improved from basically nothing to ~7mbps+ (which I get on other devices). I made sure no programs or anything were hogging the bandwidth when I ran the speed tests (I also always make sure I'm connected to the same server every time I run a speed test). The only thing I can think of is that there is something on my PC, that can't be seen by the Task Manager or Resource Monitor, using up (or capping) my bandwidth. I'm not sure what it would be or why, but it's the only logical answer I can think of.

McWillies · 03 Oct 2018

It's now just past 1:15 am: I seem to have made at least some headway. I did a few things and was able to get ~10mbps DL on a speed test... But only once. I am now consistently getting ~6mbps down/~7mbps up. Disabling my Ethernet ports in device manager actually boosted my download speeds oddly enough. It's way too late and I need to sleep, so I'll pick this back up tomorrow.

Caledon Ken · 03 Oct 2018

Agree as to 1809 fixing things but it removes clouds about what windows is doing in the background.
I don't think you mentioned model of wireless card, maker was Aukey.

Interesting that speed went up with Ethernet removed, wondering what that is telling you.

I wonder if TCPview (Part of Sysyinternals) would shed any light on something actually using network secretively.

Not saying to do this but was wondering are you on most recent BIOS for board. You may have mentioned, I don't remember.

Would you be game to trying again with AVG uninstalled.

McWillies · 03 Oct 2018

Caledon Ken said:

Agree as to 1809 fixing things but it removes clouds about what windows is doing in the background.
I don't think you mentioned model of wireless card, maker was Aukey.

Interesting that speed went up with Ethernet removed, wondering what that is telling you.

I wonder if TCPview (Part of Sysyinternals) would shed any light on something actually using network secretively.

Not saying to do this but was wondering are you on most recent BIOS for board. You may have mentioned, I don't remember.

Would you be game to trying again with AVG uninstalled.

I'm not sure Aukey has a model number for the card, or at least one that is relevant. The box is absent of any sort of model number. It simply says "802.11ac Wireless card" or something like that. The actual "modem" inside is a Realtek 8812AE.

I don't see anything in TCPview using the network harshly. SearchUI was using a lot of data, but I disabled Cortana through the registry (had already done this before but the updates reversed it) and now that doesn't seem to be an issue.

One thing I can say: Since updating the wireless card driver I now show 65% signal and 300mbps connection speed (before it was showing 150mbps).

This morning when I woke I almost immediately started up the PC to do more troubleshooting (I only slept for 6 hours because I couldn't stop thinking about this). First thing I did was ran a speed test, no change. Then I was going to try and use my 50ft ethernet cable to connect the desktop to my router, but I can't seem to find the cable anywhere (bummer, I liked having a 50ft ethernet cable for if I ever needed it). I did completely clean out my closet while looking for the cable though, so that's a plus. Before leaving to look for the cable, I uninstalled Avast (I thought I had AVG for anti virus, I forgot that I switched over to Avast because AVG was turning into a giant advertisement). During all this time of looking for the cable, a Windows Defender scan was running for some time and the rest of the time the desktop was just sitting, turned on, with WD and task manager open. I came to the desktop and decided to try another speed test... Got pretty good speeds actually... 20mbps down/ 5mbps up (best speeds so far on this desktop). While that is very good and I was shocked to see it, it still isn't up to par with the speeds my other devices are getting right now (tested on my Galaxy S8 - 28mbps down/8mbps up). I had the phone sitting right next to the PC when I ran the test, so distance from the router wouldn't have been an issue.
The bad: After restarting the PC multiple times for Windows updates, registry change, etc. I'm at 5mbps down/2mbps up.

Throughout the few hours I have been testing, the speeds seem to fluctuate. I may do a speed test and get 8mbps down/5mbps up, then turn around and do another speed and get 5mbps down/2mbps up. I'm not totally sure what's going on, but I will keep troubleshooting.

Forgot to answer your question about the MOBO: Yes, I'm on the latest firmware. That was one of the first things I checked.

Caledon Ken · 03 Oct 2018

Interesting. While I can find a card if I google there does not seem to be a card listed.

One I found was WF-R15. At bottom of page is driver for said card. I would try it over generic MS.

https://www.aukey.com/products/ac120...i-wifi-adapter

I'm only assuming this is your card. Has dual bands.

Would likely be stamp / embossed on card.

Samuria · 03 Oct 2018

Are you sure the test use the same server? If I run it on one server I get 15 down but on another I get 70 I know my speed is 70 as my network is monitored by Sam knows box

McWillies · 03 Oct 2018

Caledon Ken said:

Interesting. While I can find a card if I google there does not seem to be a card listed.

One I found was WF-R15. At bottom of page is driver for said card. I would try it over generic MS.

https://www.aukey.com/products/ac120...i-wifi-adapter

I'm only assuming this is your card. Has dual bands.

Would likely be stamp / embossed on card.

I feel pretty stupid for not thinking of just looking on Aukey's website. I was focused on Realtek because that was the only model number I had. Either way, that looks exactly like my NIC and the box is also the same.
Just tried with the new driver: No luck.
Edit: Upon further inspection, it seems the driver given from Aukey's website is the same one I obtained from Realtek's site.

Samuria: Positive I'm testing it on the same server each time.

McWillies · 03 Oct 2018

I just discovered something very very interesting...

While using my laptop (on the 2.4GHz network, didn't realize I wasn't connected to the 5GHz) I was trying to watch a 1080p60 YouTube video and it kept buffering, so I looked at the bandwidth usage and it wouldn't go above ~5mbps... When this happened, I wasn't looking for the issue or anything, I was just sitting here trying to enjoy a few minutes of peace and watch a video. Well, naturally, I went to speedtest.net and ran a test, came back ~5mbps down/0.5mbps up... I then switched over to the 5GHz network and ran two speed tests, both of those came back ~25mbps down/0.5mbps up... Switched back over to the 2.4GHz network and ran two more speed tests, ~5mbps down/0.5mbps up. I then decided to try some speed tests on my phone. Two speed tests on the 2.4GHz network came back: ~15mbps down/3mbps up and ~14mbps down/3mbps up... Switched over to the 5GHz network and ran two tests: ~16mbps down/5mbps up and ~16mbps down/4mbps up.

Data in a neater format:

2.4GHz Network:
Laptop, Test 1 = ~5mbps down/0.5mbps up.
Laptop, Test 2 = ~5mbps down/0.5mbps up.
Phone, Test 1 = ~15mbps down/3mbps up.
Phone, Test 2 = ~14mbps down/3mbps up.

5GHz Network:
Laptop, Test 1 = ~25mbps down/0.5mbps up.
Laptop, Test 2 = ~25mbps down/0.5mbps up.
Phone, Test 1 = ~16mbps down/5mbps up.
Phone, Test 2 = ~16mbps down/4mbps up.

As you can see, these tests are all over the place. On one device I get high download speeds and slow uploads and on another device I get medium download speeds and high upload speeds... The 2.4GHz network being slow on both the desktop and laptop I have absolutely no explanation for (maybe they're trying to communicate with one another over the network for some reason?). I'm gonna go try a few things and update this after.