Differing speeds across the same connection?

hots

* Apologies if this is in the wrong section *

Hi guys,

A bit of a puzzle that I need solving.

We have a desktop at home (~5yrs old, had very light usage and a few minor problems in the past) and a couple of laptops (both ~1yr, again light usage and good as gold). Both laptops regularly hit similar download and upload speeds, nothing great but fine, however the desktop is unbearably slow.

We have recently given it 4g of RAM hoping it would give it a new lease of life, and this has definitely made the opening of programmes quicker but the internet speeds are still abysmal. I would give you the exact speeds but it's so slow that the flash download needed to run the speedtest has an estimated download time of 7hours...

The parents have run all of the Norton programmes on it, all the temp files are clear and I've tried everything I can think of (a very limited knowledge admittedly).

This morning I had a go again and decided to install Chrome just to see if there was any difference (I used chrome portable off a memory stick because the dl time was too unbearable). Running this off the memory stick the browsing definitely seems quicker - not sure if this is just Chrome Vs IE - but downloads are still unbearable.

Currently an hour through downloading the AVG setup file hoping in vain that it might find something new...

If there is any boards inspiration out there any help would be much appreciated!! Thanks guys!

FSL

Make sure you only have ONE anti virus programme installed, otherwise they conflict with each other and slow everything down dramatically.

From a personal viewpoint I wouldn't run Norton, also to remove it completely you used to have to use the online uninstall programme on the Norton website.

Additionally I would delete all temporary internet file, cookies, browsing history and set the browser to automatically do it on exit.

That way you are not clogging up your computer with junk.

hots

FSL wrote: »

Make sure you only have ONE anti virus programme installed, otherwise they conflict with each other and slow everything down dramatically.

From a personal viewpoint I wouldn't run Norton, also to remove it completely you used to have to use the online uninstall programme on the Norton website.

Additionally I would delete all temporary internet file, cookies, browsing history and set the browser to automatically do it on exit.

That way you are not clogging up your computer with junk.

Cheers FSL, Yeah have got rid of all of those, and I will remove Norton once AVG is finished downloading, at the moment there is only one so no conflict...

PogMoThoin

Get rid of Norton and AVG, both are bloated. Get Microsoft Security Essentials instead. Get ccleaner and use the startup tab to stop all the crapware starting at boot. Uninstall all toolars in the uninstall tab.

stevenmu

I'd also consider wiping it and reinstalling Windows if you can, there's various network settings that could get screwed up and if you're in a position to wipe and reinstall that'd be the quickest way to fix them.

Before that though, I'd be included to look for a more physical problem with the connection. Is it wired or wireless (and it is the same as the laptops?). If you can change from wired to wireless, or vice versa, try that. If wireless, try moving it really close to the router and turning off any other wireless devices. If wired try a different cable if you can get one, and check the connections are seated properly etc.