Fast speed test but all downloads are much slower

StephenS147 · 18-05-2021 1:36pm #1

We have the 1Gbps service from EIR. Which is 1Gbps down and .1Gbps up.

Here are the speed test results and the download time for a 106MB file which says it's going to take 15mins.

We have the stock router that came with the package. But I doubt this is the issue seeing as the speed test is within spec for the package we have.

THINGS I'VE TRIED:
- Reset the router to the default settings.
- Different cables. The ones I'm using are CAT6A and can saturate my 10Gbps connection to my NAS achieving speeds of 9.6Gbps.
- My phone and it's the same speeds.
- A different browser in case some extension on chrome was borking it.
- Clearing the cache of the chrome browser.
- Disabling the Firewall.
- Downloading the VSCode app here which I know should have a high downloading speed. I've tested many other sources too and they're all the same.

After this, I'm out of ideas. So any help from a good citizen would be greatly appreciated.

SPEED TEST:

DOWNLOADING A 106MB FILE

alan4cult · 18-05-2021 1:56pm

The server you are downloading from is load balancing you most likely. Just because you can download, it will limit you. This is to stop people with fast connections from thrashing servers.

Also, speed tests are sometime in parallel. You can do a serial speed test using speed test command line on Linux.

Also if your disk is slow you can be limited by the disk speed. Have you an SSD or spin drive?

CoBo55 · 18-05-2021 1:59pm

Are other downloads from other sites slow as well?

theguzman · 18-05-2021 2:09pm

Try downloading ubuntu and see what speed you are getting they have good fast servers.
https://ubuntu.com/#download

Pirate sites are notoriously slow and I have only downloaded off a gigabit connection a few times but when I did the speed was generally extremely fast. I would give my left testicle for the sort of speed you are getting tbh.

A downloadmanager like JDownloader works wonders too instead of downloading within the browser and you need a good zippy computer and be connected by gigabit lan.

StephenS147 · 18-05-2021 3:46pm

I remember downloading VSCode from the Microsoft website a few weeks back with the 1Gb connection and it literally took seconds. It has now increased to 15-20mins. Which is even slower than our 7Mb connection we had a few months back.

You can let me know the kind of speeds you're getting if you could, please.
https://code.visualstudio.com/sha/download?build=stable&os=win32-x64-archive

Answers to your Qs':
All sites are the same.
I have an SSD.

I have ubuntu LTS on my windows machine here. I might give that a go and see.

FileNotFound · 18-05-2021 3:52pm

Most download speeds once your line is 100+ is due to the speed the server your pulling from can facilitate.

Internet speeds have outstripped the max download ability, difference is you can no run mutliple dl's on multiple devices and see no real loss on any.

Maybe your ISP is throttling but unlikely - download manager as mentioned may help.

I have a 100mb line for example v neighbour on 1gb and the xbox updates are pretty much same speed

CoBo55 · 18-05-2021 3:58pm

FileNotFound wrote: »

Most download speeds once your line is 100+ is due to the speed the server your pulling from can facilitate.

Internet speeds have outstripped the max download ability, difference is you can no run mutliple dl's on multiple devices and see no real loss on any.

Maybe your ISP is throttling but unlikely - download manager as mentioned may help.

I have a 100mb line for example v neighbour on 1gb and the xbox updates are pretty much same speed

Not helped by a wireless card from the Flintstones and a 100/10 wired card...

dam099 · 18-05-2021 4:05pm

StephenS147 wrote: »

You can let me know the kind of speeds you're getting if you could, please.
https://code.visualstudio.com/sha/download?build=stable&os=win32-x64-archive

Couple of seconds, hit 35.3MB/s so about 1/4-1/3 of my 1Gb.

Routing or peering issue with Eir maybe? (I am VF SIRO).

theguzman · 18-05-2021 4:08pm

It maxes out my current ADSL2+ Eir here at 16mb using JDownloader.

StephenS147 · 18-05-2021 4:22pm

25mins for 100Mb file on a 1Gbps connection from Microsoft servers @ 65.9KB/s?

I hardly think these are normal speeds.

If any of you could try that link I posted so I can check.

Tried ringing EIR there. 10mins on the phone to a bloke who was overly nice, left on hold for 20mins and hung up on (Usual Story).

Here are the results of:

wget "https://code.visualstudio.com/sha/download?build=stable&os=win32-x64-archive"

user@DESKTOP-DK:/mnt/c/Users/user/Desktop$ wget "https://code.visualstudio.com/sha/download?build=stable&os=win32-x64-archive"
--2021-05-18 17:16:44--  https://code.visualstudio.com/sha/download?build=stable&os=win32-x64-archive
Resolving code.visualstudio.com (code.visualstudio.com)... xx.xx.xx.xx
Connecting to code.visualstudio.com (code.visualstudio.com)|xx.xx.xx.xx|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 Found
Location: https://az764295.vo.msecnd.net/stable/054a9295330880ed74ceaedda236253b4f39a335/VSCode-win32-x64-1.56.2.zip [following]
--2021-05-18 17:16:44--  https://az764295.vo.msecnd.net/stable/054a9295330880ed74ceaedda236253b4f39a335/VSCode-win32-x64-1.56.2.zip
Resolving az764295.vo.msecnd.net (az764295.vo.msecnd.net)... xxx.xxx.xx.xxx
Connecting to az764295.vo.msecnd.net (az764295.vo.msecnd.net)|xxx.xxx.xx.xxx|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 111110463 (106M) [application/zip]
Saving to: &#8216;download?build=stable&os=win32-x64-archive.1&#8217;

x64-archive.1                          1%[>                                                                     ]   1.73M  65.9KB/s    eta 25m 2s w

EDIT:

Thanks for testing that link @theguzman and @dam099.

I'm pretty sure that's the speed I was getting before @dam099.

jester77 · 18-05-2021 4:26pm

This was with my home connection

HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 111110463 (106M) [application/zip]
Saving to: &#8216;download?build=stable&os=win32-x64-archive.1&#8217;

download?build=stable&os=win32-x64-archive.1                   100%[==================================================================================================================================================>] 105.96M  10.1MB/s    in 11s

2021-05-18 18:24:50 (10.1 MB/s) - &#8216;download?build=stable&os=win32-x64-archive.1&#8217; saved [111110463/111110463]

frozenfrozen · 18-05-2021 4:29pm

PS J:\beepboop> curl https://az764295.vo.msecnd.net/stable/054a9295330880ed74ceaedda236253b4f39a335/VSCode-win32-x64-1.56.2.zip --output testdownload.txt
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100  105M  100  105M    0     0  52.9M      0  0:00:02  0:00:02 --:--:-- 40.8M
PS J:\beepboop>

not long enough to ramp up to full speed

OPNsense on an old i3 with 4gb of ram with Eir 1gb connection

mickuhaha · 18-05-2021 4:33pm

https://xirvik.com/speed
Try test it with the German or France server.

StephenS147 · 18-05-2021 4:37pm

frozenfrozen wrote: »

not long enough to ramp up to full speed

It's still going:

download?build=stable&os=win32  78%[==========>     ]  82.85M   106KB/s    eta 5m 5s

Hasn't really went past 100KB/s.

frozenfrozen · 18-05-2021 4:39pm

sorry i mean not long enough to ramp up for me. I get above 100MB very frequently

StephenS147 · 18-05-2021 4:43pm

mickuhaha wrote: »

https://xirvik.com/speed
Try test it with the German or France server.

Not sure what's supposed to happen but I'm getting this:

This site can&#8217;t be reachedspeedtest.as5577.net took too long to respond.

mickuhaha · 18-05-2021 5:01pm

StephenS147 wrote: »
Not sure what's supposed to happen but I'm getting this:
This site can&#8217;t be reachedspeedtest.as5577.net took too long to respond.

Use internet explorer or edge.

CoBo55 · 18-05-2021 5:05pm

StephenS147 wrote: »

I remember downloading VSCode from the Microsoft website a few weeks back with the 1Gb connection and it literally took seconds. It has now increased to 15-20mins. Which is even slower than our 7Mb connection we had a few months back.

You can let me know the kind of speeds you're getting if you could, please.
https://code.visualstudio.com/sha/download?build=stable&os=win32-x64-archive

Answers to your Qs':
All sites are the same.
I have an SSD.

I have ubuntu LTS on my windows machine here. I might give that a go and see.

A few secs for me too on VM 360.

mickuhaha · 18-05-2021 5:06pm

I get a speed test of around 80mbs but provider gives me around 9mbs.

CoBo55 · 18-05-2021 5:07pm

mickuhaha wrote: »

I get a speed test of around 80mbs but provider gives me around 9mbs.

Mb v MB sorted....

mickuhaha · 18-05-2021 5:11pm

CoBo55 wrote: »

Mb v MB sorted....

Thanks. I was to lazy to fix. On my phone.

StephenS147 · 18-05-2021 5:49pm

mickuhaha wrote: »

Use internet explorer or edge.

What does this mean I wonder? Speed here is 50'ish MB/s.

I've tested on Edge and Firefox.

Does that site go via a VPN or something?

In firefox and MS Edge, the VSCode download is again taking 20-25mins at around 75KB/s.

StephenS147 · 19-05-2021 10:54am

Is it possible for EIR to throttle the download speeds but not hinder the speed test that I've tried/shown in the first post?

I'm downloading 7 times slower than our old 7Mb connection on a 1Gb fibre connection.

I thought I'd give JDownloader a go. Yeah, it still sucks. 30mins for a 106Mb file!!

niallb · 19-05-2021 11:08am

StephenS147 wrote: »

...

I have ubuntu LTS on my windows machine here. I might give that a go and see.

Is that dual boot or a VM/WSL?

If it's real, reboot and check your speeds. If it's a VM make a live usb and reboot.
Running your test on the same hardware with a different OS will give you useful information.

StephenS147 · 19-05-2021 11:11am

I've set up a trial for a VPN and set it to the UK. The VPN is https://zenmate.com/.

After this.

2 SECOND DOWNLOAD!!!

EIR are some bunch of scumbags.

This is weird though. After installing the VPN in chrome and disabling it I get the same download speeds both on my PC and phone whereas before they were taking 20mins for that VSCode zip file.

frozenfrozen · 19-05-2021 11:24am

StephenS147 wrote: »

I've set up a trial for a VPN and set it to the UK. The VPN is https://zenmate.com/.

After this.

2 SECOND DOWNLOAD!!!

EIR are some bunch of scumbags.

They're definitely not doing that to you on purpose considering I'm on the same connection and getting that download speed without any vpn

StephenS147 · 19-05-2021 11:30am

frozenfrozen wrote: »

They're definitely not doing that to you on purpose considering I'm on the same connection and getting that download speed without any vpn

Sorry about that. We've been through 6 months of torture with them previously. Spent 6 hours on the phone one day alone. Yesterday when I rang about this issue I was put on hold for 20mins and the line went dead. Their CS is the worst I've ever encountered.

RangeR · 19-05-2021 11:30am

Try this speed test and report back the results in a screenshot url]https://speed.cloudflare.com/[/url

Have you tried a download manager? DM's make multiple connections to a server to download the file. If eir are throttling you [highly unlikely] then a DM won't make any difference.
I've used this one in the past, but not in the last 5 years. https://www.freedownloadmanager.org/

Download a big file, 500MB+, ideally 1GB+.

Don't ring eir about this until you KNOW it's not a problem with your internal network.
Are you wired or wireless?
Don't bother with a VPN.

RangeR · 19-05-2021 11:40am

Download this. It's the Noobs image for the raspberry pi @ 2+ GB.

https://downloads.raspberrypi.org/NOOBS/images/NOOBS-2021-03-25/NOOBS_v3_6_0.zip

StephenS147 · 19-05-2021 11:42am

RangeR wrote: »

Try this speed test and report back the results in a screenshot url]https://speed.cloudflare.com/[/url

Have you tried a download manager? DM's make multiple connections to a server to download the file. If eir are throttling you [highly unlikely] then a DM won't make any difference.
I've used this one in the past, but not in the last 5 years. https://www.freedownloadmanager.org/

Download a big file, 500MB+, ideally 1GB+.

Don't ring eir about this until you KNOW it's not a problem with your internal network.
Are you wired or wireless?
Don't bother with a VPN.

That returns similar speeds as the google one although it's a lot more verbose. It was the download speeds directly that were downloading at 75KB/s on average.

I've tried wget on Ubuntu LTS on windows, Jdownloader, different browsers etc and all were 20mins + for 106MB.

I've tried both wired (CAT 6A) and wireless (5G) separately and both were the same.

---

It's just really weird that after installing the VPN, trying that and then disabling it I get back to normal speeds for our service when minutes before I tried the VPN it was slow as Christmas.

StephenS147 · 19-05-2021 11:45am

RangeR wrote: »

Download this. It's the Noobs image for the raspberry pi @ 2+ GB.

https://downloads.raspberrypi.org/NOOBS/images/NOOBS-2021-03-25/NOOBS_v3_6_0.zip

35 Seconds. Honestly, I don't know what has changed here. I did nothing apart from install this VPN (ZenMate) in chrome.

frozenfrozen · 19-05-2021 11:57am

when was your FTTH installed / activated?

RangeR · 19-05-2021 11:59am

StephenS147 wrote: »

35 Seconds. Honestly, I don't know what has changed here. I did nothing apart from install this VPN (ZenMate) in chrome.

Keep it simple. Remove your VPN until such a time as when we know the problem is not on your local network.

Perform the Noobs download a few times today, maybe an hour apart. See if you still get similar speeds. But just on that one noobs download alone, the problem is not your connection but the source of the download.

StephenS147 · 19-05-2021 12:07pm

frozenfrozen wrote: »

when was your FTTH installed / activated?

In November last year. Downloads have been slow the last week until half an hour ago.

RangeR wrote: »

Keep it simple. Remove your VPN until such a time as when we know the problem is not on your local network.

Perform the Noobs download a few times today, maybe an hour apart. See if you still get similar speeds. But just on that one noobs download alone, the problem is not your connection but the source of the download.

I've removed the VPN extension just to test as that was one of the things I didn't try.

Not sure if installing a chrome extension can modify network settings or not but the problem seems to have gone (for now).

Back in action:

RangeR · 19-05-2021 12:40pm

StephenS147 wrote: »

I've removed the VPN extension just to test as that was one of the things I didn't try.

Not sure if installing a chrome extension can modify network settings or not but the problem seems to have gone (for now).

Well done. Yes, the extension you installed alters your network settings. It's tunneling your network through it's VPN, at least what you do in Chrome, not system wide. I doubt it had any effect on downloading VCode.

StephenS147 · 19-05-2021 12:45pm

RangeR wrote: »

Well done. Yes, the extension you installed alters your network settings. It's tunneling your network through it's VPN, at least what you do in Chrome, not system wide. I doubt it had any effect on downloading VCode.

I thought it would only affect Chrome. This is strange because I checked my phone and the download speeds basically match the wired connection of my PC again. Phones connected to the 5G band.

I'd love to know the root cause of this, but I'm just glad to have our service back to normal.

RangeR · 19-05-2021 1:03pm

StephenS147 wrote: »

I thought it would only affect Chrome

It does. That's what I said

frozenfrozen · 19-05-2021 1:12pm

you should look into running OPNsense or something for a router and getting rid of the eir provided one. Would give you more to look at when trying to diagnose any issue

StephenS147 · 19-05-2021 1:33pm

frozenfrozen wrote: »

you should look into running OPNsense or something for a router and getting rid of the eir provided one. Would give you more to look at when trying to diagnose any issue

Funnily enough, the router provided seems to do just as well as the ASUS DSL-AC68U one I had previously.

This issue didn't seem like a router one as it's back working after I didn't change anything on it in the meantime.

Fast speed test but all downloads are much slower

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