Download of all content inexplicably slow

Mister Lemons

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Mar 30, 2014
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Alright, i'm not a whiz at this stuff, but I know the basics. Plugins, add ons, connection speeds, caches, all the small simple stuff.

Now, the problem I am experiencing is that my download/loading speed of all content (including pictures on webpages) is unbearably slow. I browse Imgur every day and what happens is the pictures will sometimes load instantly, others will slowly pan down the page loading bit by bit, some will load halfway and stop, and after stopping halfway through loading every image after that won't load at all (including advertisements). GIF shorts take unbearably long to load, every one of em. Some of them even stop loading completely halfway through. Obviously after the first loop of loading it will run at normal speed. Refreshing the page generally solves the image/GIF loading halt, but not the speed.

This wasn't always a problem. I don't recall when it started but I can firmly say I have not altered any settings to bring this personal hell upon myself.

The problem isn't just limited to images, it's downloads of every sort. Torrents such as the one for EVE online take forever, downloads on chrome will start off fine and slow to a complete halt, AMD's 'CCC' will start off fine downloading a driver and stop suddenly after reaching a certain point. If I stop the download and start it up again it gets a little further and then stops in the same way. The verizon modem we have allows for a 54mb/s download speed, a mere 5 of which I can ever see despite the mere two devices utilizing wireless/wired connections. I've been all over the place trying to resolve this myself but have had no success with the following.

-DNS Flush
-IP Refresh
-Disk cleanup
-Disk Defragment
-Browser cleanup
-Disabling plugins
-Disabling QoS (Helped download speeds, not loading)
-Disabling my one 'adblock' add on
-Wired connection
-Virus scan (Booted and Boot time)

Any knowledge on the subject?
 
Make sure you troubleshoot in a logical way. The first thing to do is connect a computer to your router with an ethernet cable and then do a speed test to see what speeds you are getting. If you have 2 wired devices to test on, even better. If the wired downloads test correctly then we can start looking to wireless as the problem. If the wired links do not test correctly it is either your computer (but you can rule that out if you test with two wired devices), your wiring, your modem/router, or your ISP.
NOTE: Make sure other wired and wireless devices are not using the internet when you test.
 

Mister Lemons

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Mar 30, 2014
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I have tried several wireless and wired setups and here are the results.

Wired
Problem PC ~7mb/s
Other PC ~71mb/s (That's right, seventy one megabits)

Wireless
Problem PC ~4mb/s (Tends to fluctuate, 1mb/s - 8mb/s)
Laptop ~20mb/s
Phone ~12mb/s
Tablet ~ 4mb/s (Old, junky tablet)

I ran two tests on speedtest.net per platform and they came out within a few megabits of each test, though over time the tests vary over time on this computer. Though I do not see what the relevance is between connection speed and this (and ONLY this) platform's ability to so much as finish downloading content.
 

Mister Lemons

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Mar 30, 2014
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Windows 7 Home Premium. The hardware, while still all routed to a micro ATX MoBo, is nothing to wave a stick at.

Could it be RAM? I have 6GB of DDR3 but it's mixed with another brand/size (Gskill 2GB 1.5V / Topower 4GB 1.35V) together only because I was informed that the DRAM frequencies weren't far enough apart to cause any problems.