Slow Download Speed, But Fast Upload Speed (Not Solved)

InterwebsMC · Jul 6, 2014

Recently, my download speed has been very low compared to before. I usually get around 25Mb/s download speed, but I just tested my internet speed and this is my result:

Sometimes it will get as low as 0.4 Mb/s
and even at 13 Mb/s, the internet is really hard to use. Youtube videos spend a longer time loading than playing, I can't really play any online games because I lag everywhere. This started after my mom unplugged my router for a day and then plugged it back in. Before she unplugged it, it worked fine. After she plugged it back in, My download speed went down. The weird thing is, my upload speed and ping are the same as always. I was looking around for a fix and everyone said to disable WMM support, but it was disabled already.

Earlier today, I downloaded a folder and in the downloads section of Google Chrome it said that the folder was being downloaded at 35 KB/s.

This is getting really annoying and if anyone could help, it would be greatly appreciated.

Someone Somewhere · Jul 6, 2014

What speeds do you get if you go via Ethernet?

35KB/s is way less than 13Mb/s; it's about 400kb/s. That means it's likely either your ISP or the server you're downloading from.

HEXiT · Jul 6, 2014

sounds like your being throttled. its 1 thing to get a drop in speed at a busy time. but to go from 25 down to 13 then into kilobytes, thats something broken or done deliberately to reduce your usage. maybe you have gone over a cap.
best contact your isp and ask them to check the line.

InterwebsMC · Jul 6, 2014

Someone Somewhere :

Currently, we have our router/modem on top of a cabinet type thing in our living room that is probably 7 feet high, and my computer is all the way in my room so I don't really feel like bringing my computer, monitor, and all of the cables out there and moving around the router and modem.

Someone Somewhere · Jul 6, 2014

Sounds like the difference between 13Mb/s and 25Mb/s is probably WiFi, then.

Try testing where you're downloading from with a couple of different sites - there are sites that simply don't want to pay for faster hosting so you get atrocious speeds.

InterwebsMC · Jul 6, 2014

Someone Somewhere :

I don't think it has anything to do with server hosting. My download speed was fine until my router was disconnected for 2 days. And besides, I tried another download, this time from mediafire, and the download started at the usual speed, and then a second later it went down to ~300 KB/s. Then, the next second it went down to ~250. An so on, until it was back to 35KB/s.

There was also something really weird that happened earlier on my iPod. I have an app that can download music/videos from websites, and I wanted to download a youtube video. I started the download and it started at 500KB/s, and went down just like the download from mediafire. The weird thing is this: I realized the video would take WAY too long to download, so I downloaded the lower quality version of the video. I forgot to stop the previous download and when I looked at the download progress, they were both downloading at 130KB/s. I also realized that if I would pause and then start the download again, it would go up to ~500KB/s and go back down again.

Someone Somewhere · Jul 6, 2014

Your ISP is throttling you, by the sounds of it.

InterwebsMC · Jul 6, 2014

HEXiT :

Would the "cap" reset monthly? Because, if so, then I don't see how I could have already gone through it.

InterwebsMC · Jul 6, 2014

Someone Somewhere :

How would I get past this?

Someone Somewhere · Jul 6, 2014

The cap usually resets at the same time each month, though not necessarily on the 1st.

Does your ISP have anywhere to view how much data you've used? See if you've used more data this month than normal.

InterwebsMC · Jul 6, 2014

I feel silly now

I looked around online and I think you are absolutley right. Someone said that watching Netflix 4.17 hours a day for a month would be enough to reach a 250GB data limit. My family watches more than enough Netflix to reach that cap. Usually it totals to about 8 hours a day. I will check this when my mom wakes up, as she is the one who pays for the Internet. Apparently Charter has this thing where you can track your data usage, and my mom made the account so when she wakes up ill check the data usage. Before 30 minutes ago, I thought data limits were only for phones! That still doesn't explain why my upload speed is the same. And if this is the problem, do you think there is any way we can ask Charter to specifically increase the data cap?

Someone Somewhere · Jul 6, 2014

People generally use far more downstream than upstream, so there's not much point in capping upsteam. Generally ISPs get a roughly equal amount of each once it goes past the DSLAM/cable transmitter.

Do charter specifically say it's a 250GB plan, or do they just say that there's a 'fair usage policy'. If the latter, calling up and complaining should be enough to get it lifted. If the former, you may need to pay for a larger plan.

InterwebsMC · Jul 15, 2014

I'm officially going to re-open this thread because the problem is back, and is now a lot worse. http://www.speedtest.net/result/3625877821.png

HEXiT · Jul 15, 2014

run a tracert

open the cmd prompt with admin privs and type tracert www.youfavwebsite.com
look for ** timout if its your isp thats timing out phone them, if its another ip further down the list theres little you can do other than hope they fix it.
paste the results here if your unsure.

Someone Somewhere · Jul 15, 2014

Timeouts aren't a problem; plenty of servers refuse to reply to ICMP requests.

InterwebsMC · Jul 15, 2014

HEXiT :

How can I post the results? Is there a way to copy/paste, or do I have to re-type it all?

Someone Somewhere · Jul 15, 2014

Usually you can right-click and go copy. Ctrl-C won't usually work at command prompts; it's often reserved for sending a terminate command.

InterwebsMC · Jul 15, 2014

Tracing route to www.google.com [173.194.46.81]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 6 ms 7 ms 6 ms 192.168.1.1
3 7 ms 8 ms 8 ms dtr04trcymi-tge-0-6-0-1.trcy.mi.charter.com [96.
34.34.94]
4 13 ms 11 ms 11 ms crr02trcymi-tge-0-7-0-5.trcy.mi.charter.com [96.
34.33.14]
5 20 ms 11 ms * crr02aldlmi-bue-4.aldl.mi.charter.com [96.34.36.
20]
6 17 ms 15 ms 17 ms bbr01aldlmi-bue-2.aldl.mi.charter.com [96.34.2.1
0]
7 16 ms 15 ms 16 ms bbr01chcgil-bue-4.chcg.il.charter.com [96.34.0.9
9]
8 * 19 ms 16 ms prr01chcgil-bue-2.chcg.il.charter.com [96.34.3.9
]
9 * 17 ms 15 ms 96-34-152-30.static.unas.mo.charter.com [96.34.1
52.30]
10 17 ms 17 ms 22 ms 209.85.244.3
11 * * * Request timed out.
12 * 16 ms 19 ms ord08s11-in-f17.1e100.net [173.194.46.81]

Trace complete.

Someone Somewhere · Jul 15, 2014

Looks perfectly fine there.

InterwebsMC · Jul 15, 2014

Someone Somewhere :

Well that helps a lot (sarcasm). I don't mean to be rude.

InterwebsMC · Jul 15, 2014

I decided to ping www.google.com
Pinging www.google.com [173.194.46.84] with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 173.194.46.84: bytes=32 time=56ms TTL=53
Reply from 173.194.46.84: bytes=32 time=86ms TTL=53

Ping statistics for 173.194.46.84:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 2, Lost = 2 (50% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 56ms, Maximum = 86ms, Average = 71ms

InterwebsMC · Jul 15, 2014

I ran a pingtest
http://www.pingtest.net/result/101927409.png

Someone Somewhere · Jul 15, 2014

It looks a lot like your upload is saturated...

Do you have any games that use a peer-to-peer system for updating?

InterwebsMC · Jul 15, 2014

Someone Somewhere :

What do you mean by "peer-to-peer"?

Someone Somewhere · Jul 15, 2014

Instead of traffic going from a server to lots of PCs, it goes from one PC to another. This means you don't need as much server infrastructure to distribute updates.

Looks like WoW uses it to reduce server load when patches arrive.

Slow Download Speed, But Fast Upload Speed (Not Solved)

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