How to get around throttled speeds on a network.

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inters3ctgaming

May 16, 2018
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So I recently have moved from home to student accommodation and given that my speed back home is like 8Mbps I was pretty excited to see that I was getting speeds of around 150-180Mbps here.

That's where the issue is though, for the first couple of days or so everything was all good, installed some games and the like that I couldn't do before on my slow net. But in the last 3-4 days my download speed seems to have throttled by around 10x down to 15-20Mbps from the previous 170 ish.

What makes me think it's throttling other than the obvious speed drop is that my upload speed is entirely unaffected. It was about 20Mbps previously and is still 18-20Mbps now. So methinks the accommodation has seen that I was downloading a lot and have throttled the speed of that but obviously haven't done the same to my upload cause I haven't been uploading large files at all.

So, my question is: Is there a way to get around this throttling issue without needing to find someone who knows about the accommodation's networking? Cause the speed I'm getting now makes it really hard to download anything at a reasonable speed compared to before.

I've tried a VPN (TunnelBear) but that hasn't helped, also tried unplugging ethernet cable, using different ports on my PC, etc. and none of that has worked. I suspect they've got me throttled by the ethernet port on the wall and not by my device ID. Though I haven't tried changing my MAC address or anything yet, would that help?

Thanks for reading this essay lul, any responses are greatly appreciated.
 
Solution
B
Maybe the most obvious is to ask who ever is providing the internet service if there are restrictions. It would be highly unlikely a actual ISP would limit you unless for example they made a mistake and provisioned your connection higher than you pay for. If it is something included with your rent then the landlord would know.

You are paying for the internet either directly or indirectly so you have a right to know what you are paying for and what you should expect.
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bill001g

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Aug 9, 2012
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It is a lot of effort to throttle machines so you would think there would be a policy that states they do it.

Try checking the speed in the middle of night and see if it is any different. It is likely just overload

Still if the put a rate limit on a physical port there is nothing you can do to bypass that.
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Mar 16, 2013
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No, you need to find out why this is happening.

Is it too many people on the same connection?
Is it the ISP?
Is it your hardware?
 
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inters3ctgaming

May 16, 2018
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I haven't properly tested speeds late at night, but I'm almost certain the time of day isn't affecting my speed. Will test again later tonight, see if anything improves. Could it really drop to 1/10th of the speed over 1 day just from overload? Seems like a deliberate action to me.

Yeah I was fearing there's no way to bypass a port limit, I have 2 ethernet ports in my room but one doesn't even work lol, so I have nothing to compare to.
 
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inters3ctgaming

May 16, 2018
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Seems unlikely to be heavy usage on the same connection. It's a large place but the first few days of me being here was absolutely fine. Then like day 3 or 4 (not entirely sure when this started) it just cut by 10x and hasn't recovered, seems like someone at the accommodation limiting my speeds to me.

If it was the ISP wouldn't a VPN or changing my MAC address bypass that limit? That's what I've read online.

Highly doubt it's my hardware, it's been fine for years back home and WAS fine for a few days here and only recently it's dropped massively.
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Changing your MAC address or a VPN does not change what is coming out of the wall.
Does this happen to anyone else on that same connection?
 
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inters3ctgaming

May 16, 2018
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No one else in my flat would notice a speed drop, they just use it for social media and youtube and stuff. I'd probably have to get them to run a speed test on their phone or something. Don't think anyone else is using ethernet is our flat.
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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You need to verify if it is simply your system, or a house wide issue, or limited to one wall port in the house.

Troubleshooting is what is needed.
 
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photonboy

photonboy

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Jun 20, 2006
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Hey,
There's likely NOTHING you can do about this throttling.

Either you are being intentionally throttled down due to prior usage, or more likely the BANDWIDTH is split between the other people there and as more people use the network the available bandwidth drops.

UPLOADING is not as common as downloading so there may be no need to throttle you.

*Throttling is NOT happening in your room. It's either at a remote ISP or through the local network management. There might not even be local management as the ISP might handle the bandwidth allocation itself but that's outside my knowledge.

Long story short though is I highly doubt there's anything you can do.

10Mbps (1.3MBps) is enough for Netflix anyway so aside from large files taking longer I wouldn't worry too much about it.
 
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bill001g

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Aug 9, 2012
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Maybe the most obvious is to ask who ever is providing the internet service if there are restrictions. It would be highly unlikely a actual ISP would limit you unless for example they made a mistake and provisioned your connection higher than you pay for. If it is something included with your rent then the landlord would know.

You are paying for the internet either directly or indirectly so you have a right to know what you are paying for and what you should expect.
 
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Solution
photonboy

photonboy

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Jun 20, 2006
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He's in "student accommodation" thus he certainly has a SHARED bandwidth situation. Whatever throttling he's getting is likely automated.

He may simply drop based on OTHER student usage or there may be some temporary drop based on download AMOUNT that goes back up again.

There may also be a monthly CAP but you'd think someone would tell you some of the basic restrictions. Either way you can ASK but the only thing I'd concern myself with is if you could lose network access by downloading too much. Probably not.
 
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