Slow Download Speed On Sites

[Audley]

Hello fellow STEP members! 

 

I come to everyone with a plea for help. I have posted this on numerous tech support forums (Toms Hardware and the like) but I got zero responses after a number of days. The problem is that I am getting incredibly slow download speeds on nearly every website. I have premium Nexus and on every premium (and the free server too) server my speeds are around 20 - 50 Kb/s. Absolutely impossible to download anything. Even when download SKSE or NVSE it takes up to a minute. My internet is not very fast to begin with (5 down and 1 up) but I was used to downloading things at about 500 Kb/s. 

 

I am posting this here hoping someone might be able to help me narrow down what is blocking my speeds. About three months ago I started having issues and it's been this way ever since. The thing that is weird though: I can stream Netflix and Youtube at full speed. As well as download from external things like Steam and Origin. But if I download through my browser my speeds drop to almost nothing. My modem says I am getting full speed and even my SpeedTests say I am getting full speed. Here is an example of what is happening. As you can see my downloads are painfully slow. That is with me only using the internet and I am not downloading anything else. Now, if you look at my SpeedTest it shows I am getting completely full speeds. 

 

I have tried nearly everything I can think of. Even re-installed my operating system. I had a technician come out to my house and everything is fine. I just cannot for the life of me figure out what is throttling my download speed through my browser. 

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks everyone! 

Cheers, Audley

 

 

[MonoAccipiter]

Heya, Audley. I'm no expert, but have you tried downloading from incognito mode (it disables any addons)? Also, does this change at all if you reset your router and try to download immediately afterwards? That last part is just making a guess from issues I've been experiencing myself.

 

Do you have any QoS (quality of service) settings on your router?

[GrantSP]

I'd examine what your browser, and possibly Windows, is doing in the background on those downloads. MS has a habit of providing "helpful" background tasks that examine things to see if they are malicious or not, perhaps each download is being scanned or passed to another page for verifiaction before being handled. I know I've disabled all those "helpful" things they provide because of issues like this.

[Kelmych]

If you use it, the Microsoft anti-virus processing watches over every file being downloaded and can slow the downloads.

 

There are some tools that allow monitoring of download speeds and ones that can look at a packet level at what is happening, but the ones that that help determine the cause are usually difficult to setup.

[Rebel47]

If your downloading at certain times, like evening after work then your likely being throttled by your isp, here is an exerpt from CenturyLink

 

 

Currently, based on our experience, CenturyLink customers may encounter congestion, if at all, during the hours of peak usage – between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. local time. During peak hours, the majority of residential customers are attempting to use the Internet simultaneously, giving rise to a greater potential for congestion.

 

Other than that it could be a windows based issue as others have mentioned, have you tested for packet loss to see if any is being lost ?

Also you should consider that given your running on a copper cable (I assume it's a similar thing to the UK) then your speeds will likely fluctuate a bit, but as to why they have started now and not before, beyond me, unless that is Century Link have decided to change how they operate as a company (a lot of isp's are doing this now) and they are changing the packages, I couldn't find a package that lists your given speeds, the lowest was 20mbps at $34.95 a month, this is my best guess right now though, I may be able to provide more information later though

 

Afterthought:

 

Did you or the company update your router recently ?

If so that could be the issue as certain companies (My isp included) like to upgrade the router/modem silently (scoundrels) and in doing so they end up activating things that are detrimental to your daily routine.

 

Hopefully this was of some help to you

Edited February 26, 2016 by Rebel47