I can download a torrent @ 200 KB/sec + on my connection but regular downloads are 20 KB/sec or less

[Fumesucker]

I've tried Chrome, Firefox and now Opera and have had miserable success in downloading with all three but torrents with Microtorrent come in like gangbusters so I don't think it's an actual bandwidth restriction.

Every now and then a regular download will speed up to 100KB/sec or more but only very temporarily and then it's right back down to dialup speeds or even worse again.

Any ideas what the problem might be or what I should look at?

[steve2470]

1. have you called your ISP ? nt

[Fumesucker]

2. Not my account, I'm (with permission) leeching wifi off someone else's account

They never download anything so it's not an issue for them, as long as Yahoo, Netflix and Facebook come in they couldn't care less about anything else.

Just getting the ISP to respond to a complete outage is a bit of a chore, dealing with something like this I suspect will be beyond the pay grade of their rather whimsically named "help desk".

[steve2470]

3. ok, are you sure nothing else is downloading ? Which OS are you using ? nt

[Fumesucker]

4. Win 7 Ultimate and this has been going on for some time

Normally I just deal with the slowness but recently it became annoying because I've been downloading several Linux distros that are in the gigabyte range.

[steve2470]

5. ok, done a malware scan with two different programs lately ? nt

[Fumesucker]

6. Microsoft Security Essentials is active and says the system is clean but I'm doing a full scan now

That will take some time to finish.

Haven't used anything else in a while, do you have a recommendation?

Thanks for your replies, btw..

[steve2470]

7. you're very welcome...also try Spybot and Malwarebytes, links in post....

http://www.safer-networking.org/mirrors/

http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/malwarebytes_free/

If your pc comes back clean..hmmm......are you on a router ? Is it configured correctly ? It sounds like something is blocking downloads a bit.

BTW, you might try FTP (file transfer protocol) if you can. It's a very old internet protocol and specifically designed for downloading. Free program here: https://filezilla-project.org/download.php

[Fumesucker]

8. Well, I clicked on the "FTP download" link a few times and had the same result

That was at this site and I was on Firefox at the time.

http://www.knopper.net/knoppix-mirrors/index-en.html

I'm on the far side of a Netgear wireless N router/access point that I flashed with DD WRT, there are enough configuration options that I'm by no means certain I got everything right but it's been up and working for about a year now with no major issues beyond this one.

I had to throttle down Microtorrent to 170 KB/sec because the torrent download was sucking almost all of my bandwidth and it's still coming in like gangbusters, an hour after I started the download and I have 900 megabytes already.

[steve2470]

9. ok try this after you pause your downloads:

go here: http://www.speedtest.net and test your connection

also here: http://www.pingtest.net

Report back with results, please.

[Fumesucker]

10. First one comes back Ping 42 ms and 1.83 Mbps

The second with Ping 62 ms and 65 ms jitter. I don't have Java enabled on either browser I tried it with so no packet loss reading.

[steve2470]

11. is 1.83 mbps "normal" for your connection ? you said it's wireless nt

[Fumesucker]

12. I don't have any idea, haven't checked that in a while

It's a bottom end DSL connection ultimately so I suspect that's fairly close to "normal".

I have a high gain directional antenna on my end of the wifi so my signal is pretty good, I'd be mildly surprised if the wifi was the problem since it's usually connected at at least 40 Mbps and will hold that even if it's raining.

[steve2470]

13. ok pause your downloads and try this for a real test of your connection

https://us.battle.net/account/download/

Download World of Warcraft to test your download speeds. On my connection it comes down at 5 megaBYTES per second......which is 40 mbps. First you get a setup file, then double click that to do the actual 23 gb download.

eta1: You have to do a few other things too, but I think this is worth trying.

eta2: My download of WoW is now at 4.27 megaBYTES per second, which is 34.16 megabits per second.

I'm not asking you to install it, despite having to click the Install button. Feel free to delete it after you download all 23 gb. Just test your connection using that link. Report back please

[Fumesucker]

14. That one is coming in at a little over 200 KBytes/sec

Maybe 220 KB/sec average..

Does that mean that the speed problem I'm seeing is mostly/entirely on the server end? I was getting 20 KB/sec and dropped connections after some megabytes.

Mostly I download technical stuff not necessarily directly related to computers and I'm seeing painfully slow downloads a lot.

[steve2470]

15. I think something is off with your connection, it should come in faster than that....

hmm...let me think.....

[steve2470]

16. go here and click Advanced troubleshooting please, and report back, please

https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/world-of-warcraft-installation-troubleshooting

also this one: https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/optimizing-your-wireless-or-lowspeed-internet-connection

[Fumesucker]

17. Bear in mind that this is all coming a fair distance over a copper wire pair

There is cable maybe a half mile away with much higher speeds but getting those speeds here is very costly if done in a completely legitimate manner.

There is a reason the AT&T logo so strongly resembles the Death Star.

[steve2470]

18. yes I understand, part of the problem to be honest is you have a wireless connection

Wireless at this stage of the game is always inferior to wired, just the way it is. Yes, I do understand that wired ethernet many times is just not possible. I'm lucky that for me, it is possible.

That said, the WoW download should almost saturate your connection. It's very fast on my connection.

[Fumesucker]

20. It pretty much did

250 KBytes/sec is about all I see straight out of the copper tube on a good day.

I can get ten times that or more in a straight file transfer over the wifi.

I'll go and see if I can get on the direct connection, no one was up over there a while ago and like I said if Netflix and Facebook work it's hard to get them excited about a lack of bandwidth.

That's why I do my downloads early in the morning, no one else is using the connection, I have control over the router from here so I can look at the bandwidth usage before I start a download. Having non techie neighbors can be a blessing and headache at the same time.

[steve2470]

21. ok if you need more help , come back please :) have a good day nt

[steve2470]

19. refresh this post please, more info here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10958734#post16

[steve2470]

22. just out of sheer curiosity, copper wire pair is ? I'm confused, thanks nt

[Fumesucker]

23. Been away from the computer all day

Copper wire pair is telephone subscriber line the DSL piggybacks on.

I'm going to try a few more of your suggestions in the morning.. Thanks again.

[steve2470]

25. what was the final diagnosis, Dr. Fumesucker ? :) nt

[Fumesucker]

26. Haven't had time to thoroughly pursue it yet

Every time I get one thing fixed two other things require my attention and today was spent on vehicle and tool maintenance and upgrades.

I have live Linux DVD, I'll boot from that and see if it improves the situation.

The Windows protection found a Trojan and a couple of viruses, haven't gotten to a different program yet.

[steve2470]

27. ok that's good you found malware

My geeky nerd side wants to hear the final complete diagnosis now LOL Good luck !

[Fumesucker]

28. Well, I finally had a chance to boot up with Linux, Knoppix to be specific

And now the same download from the same place I was having trouble with is coming in at an average speed of about 1.3 or 1.4 megabits per second with bursts up to about 2 mbps or so. That's my input to the wifi client from the wifi network I'm connected to.

I'll run some of those other tests you put up links for when I get some more free time, I have that same nerdy itch you do to figure out what's going on.

Thanks again.

[MannyGoldstein]

24. Bottleneck is possibly at the server side?

The servers are probably limiting the "standard" transfers to 20kBps or less. With a torrent, you're downloading from multiple servers at once, so the rates add together.

I've seen similar things happen on my connection.