Strange results of download speed test

[AndrewMac]

My machine has Win7 SP1 Pro system on it and uses IE11 browser.

When my cable Internet provider sends a technician to me to check the download speed, he connects his laptop directly to my cable modem with an Ethernet cable and tests the download speed using the test on www.speedtest.net. His results are identical with the provider's claims
.
Immediately after that he tests the download speed on my desktop (connected in the same way). The result is worse than his but twice as good as the one I obtain daily with the same test.

A few minutes after technician leaves, I repeat the test and the download speed is half of the last measurement, i.e., my usual speed.
Such a situation happened to me several times before on occasion of the visits of other technicians, which I don't understand at all.

I wonder if technician's laptop with Win 7 Pro installed on it opens extra ports or has Internet connection-specific registry optimized for the highest possible download speed, e.g. by allowing more simultaneous connections and I inherit them for a very short period of time.
What's your suggestion?

 

[Elixer]

You could have malware, or any number of things causing slowdowns on your machine.
You aren't telling us what speed tech was getting, and what speed you are getting.

 

[AndrewMac]

My machine is malware free. In addition, malware has nothing to do with this. You apparently missed the point
The speed (500 Mbps) as such isn't essential for solving this problem either.
The essence of the question is drop of speed between tests no. 2 and 3, as their values should be about the same

 

[RLGL]

I can get different results just by switching browsers.

 

[Fardringle]

I rarely get the same results on two consecutive speed tests even in the same browser on the same machine within seconds of each test. The nature of the Internet is that speeds are not always exactly the same, and relying on someone else's (freely provided) server for testing is unreliable as well.

edit: And yes, the speed of the connection does matter since many online speed tests really aren't accurate above a few mbps, and malware also could be playing a part as some malware creates a large amount of Internet bandwidth that could be slowing down the tests.

 

[JackMDS]

If the system is far away (Internet Distance) form the measuring Server.

Each test (even within few seconds) might be Routed differently. hence the changes.

It is much better to measure Speed by downloading a few thundered MB from credible servers (Like Microsoft, Google,etc.) and measure the time the Download takes.

 

[AndrewMac]

To RLGL
I believe you, but I bet you don't know why this happens!

 

[AndrewMac]

To Fardringle:

In order to talk on the same topic you have to read text more carefully.
1. Nobody claims that you have to get exactly the same speed all the time. You should agree, however, that factor of 4 is very strange.
2. In principle, no cable provider offers download speed lower than 30 Mbps today. In such a case 3 Mbps accuracy plays no role in assessment of the connection. As I said, In my case this margin is meaningless because of 500 Mbps
3. Your comment about malware is correct but it's meaningless in my case, which was clearly stated

 

[AndrewMac]

Each test (even within few seconds) might be Routed differently. hence the changes

In principle you're right but in this specific case your comment isn't applicable because of speed of my connection and very small geographic area I tested in

My provider wouldn't send technician to check the connection, if he didn't have results of many required tests performed by me, and yes, they had also tests based on download of 5-10 GB files.

I'm surprised that you all somehow miss the point, and don't address my question i.e. the real reason of drop of download speed from 500 Mbps to 120 Mbps within a few minutes between Test 2 and Test 3 on the same computer and the same environment.

 

[fralexandr]

People don't know what you don't tell them

some information that might help:
what ISP and what modem are you using. Is the modem a combined router/modem provided by the ISP? Is your line a dedicated 500MBps?
what type of ethernet cable are you using (length, cat5/6)
what OS, motherboard, networking adapter, and drivers are you using
Do you have wifi, and can anyone else be using your internet? Have you tried the tests with wifi disabled from the router?

How do you know you don't have a virus/malware? What antivirus/malwares have you scanned with?

Suggestions: if your networking adapter drivers aren't up to date, update them. If they are, perhaps try a different network card
is your modem or router running hot? try pointing a fan at it.
Have you tried turning it off and on again?

 

[JackMDS]

My provider wouldn't send technician to check the connection, if he didn't have results of many required tests performed by me, and yes, they had also tests based on download of 5-10 GB files.

When you use "Easy Speed "you are using a reference server somewhere in the US (that is very far away from your neck in the woods).

The point is that if it is a local system problem then all the "Drama Queening" over the Internet would Not solve it (or even find what it is to begin with).

We can not come to where ever you are, and replace your provider Technician combing the area systems.

 

[franc2d]

I'm surprised that you all somehow miss the point, and don't address my question i.e. the real reason of drop of download speed from 500 Mbps to 120 Mbps within a few minutes between Test 2 and Test 3 on the same computer and the same environment.

Do you suspect the cable Internet provider simply increase the bandwidth while their technician test the broadband speed at your place and once he went, they cut down the speed?

Personally I don't think any company will do that. While testing download speed, we must close all other applications and processes which used Internet. Then only we get the right speed while testing. As Fardringle said, malware (network worms) can consume a large portion of bandwidth. Also try to use Chrome instead of IE, which is faster.

 

[Fardringle]

To Fardringle:

In order to talk on the same topic you have to read text more carefully.
1. Nobody claims that you have to get exactly the same speed all the time. You should agree, however, that factor of 4 is very strange.

Nope. Not at all. It's perfectly normal for Internet speeds to vary by a WIDE margin depending on the time of day, the route used, the server at the other end, the weather, the sign of the zodiac, and whether a butterfly flapped its wings in Australia.

2. In principle, no cable provider offers download speed lower than 30 Mbps today. In such a case 3 Mbps accuracy plays no role in assessment of the connection. As I said, In my case this margin is meaningless because of 500 Mbps

In principle, you're wrong. Many ISPs have far lower speed offerings, again for a wide variety of reasons, including available infrastructure and customer demand in the area.

3. Your comment about malware is correct but it's meaningless in my case, which was clearly stated

You dismissed it as impossible, when it is not only possible but entirely likely. I've lost count of the times I have found malware on systems where the owner 'knows for certain' that it's clean..

You asked for advice, and people who work on problems like this for a living (including myself) have answered you. If you don't like our answers, that's fine. But don't tell us that we're wrong when we know what we're talking about.


As another option, your ISP might have your computer's or your router's MAC address assigned to a certain route/gateway on their system and that route is slower than the one that the ISP tech uses when they connect their own system to your modem. It's not a common problem, but possible and easy to test. If you have a router, try cloning the MAC address from a different computer onto the router and then cycle power on the modem and then the router to see if you get any different results. If not, then the previous answers still apply.

 

[QuietDad]

As a former Comcast tech and 35 years in networking, I always had my laptop to perform speed tests knowing what my laptop had on it so I could trust the results. While you may not have malware/viruses, who knows what extensions and addons have been added to your IE. If you really want to pin it to the IPS, download another browser like Chrome, (Firefox these days is bloated) and test it with a fresh install. Testing it in Safemode with Networking further eliminates bloatware.
I'm not saying it isn't an ISP problem. It can be numerous things from a loose splitter, bad connecton on a cable to your next door neighbor doing massive torrents on a loaded node. And if I get satisfactory results plugged into the customer's lan cable ond moving to his/her computer gives problem's, then we know where the problem lies.
I cant tell you how often this happens. It's almost NEVER the ISP's fault.

 

[JackMDS]

While most of your Post above is QFT.

This is ISP Responsibility that there should be enough Bandwidth on a Node.

bad connection on a cable to your next door neighbor doing massive torrents on a loaded node.

Where I am one node provides to more than 100 Apartments and there is No choice of ISPs beside TWC.

The swings during day and night period are within a margin of 40% - 60% of contract Bandwidth.

In addition TWC was trying to be sold to Comcast (Gov. said No), and now to Charter, thus TWC seems not take real care of the Network cause it is considered a waste money when you are trying to sell your business.

Internet service issues is always a complicated issue.

In addition the current state of mind of most "[FONT=&quot]homosapien" is [/FONT]to form an Uneducated reasoning and possible solution before they post.

When they are posting they look for conformation of their Semi Ignorant preconceived formulation rather than an Objective solution. Many time the basic info that they provide is intentionally, or sub concisely, already skewed toward their wishful thinking solution.

 

[AndrewMac]

Guys,

I'm really surprised with your reactions. You're just trying to tell me all what you know about cause of much lower download speed than declared by ISP. I assure you, I'm familiar with all that. The point is that my question is about something very different. You have to read it with understanding in the first place. If it's too hard or you can't answer it, just say it.

Let me tell you that:
1. I don't suspect my ISP of foul playing
2. In view of what I said, the details you are asking me are immaterial to the case.
What would be benefit of telling you that:

a. the Ethernet cable I use is 1 m long CAT6 gold plated with internal double isolation? The most important is that I used the same cable during Test2 and Test3.

b. I scanned malware with 2 different programs, although I have malware protection on my machine, and nothing was detected.

c. How many times I should tell you that I don't have any router, just a cable modem?

You just have to rely on what I declare and not assume that I'm a moron because that sort of help isn't very useful.

Now I'll describe my problem/question: Drop of speed by half during two tests, some 5 min. apart, under the same conditions, and in the same environment, using my high speed connection can't be reasonably justified. This should be obvious to everybody.

Therefore I'm wondering whether or not technician test could temporarily open extra ports for communication or pass optimal networking settings on his laptop to my cable modem.
What's your opinion on that?

If this is possible, then Test 2 performed on my desktop, immediately after Test 1, could possibly take advantage of such changed situation (his settings). Further, these changed settings could return to normal 5 min. later, i.e. during Test 3 producing lower download speed.
Correct or not?

Please answer this question/ supposition only.

 

[QuietDad]

Once again, as a former technician, the problem lies in the following places:
1: The signal strength at the street. 25% of the actual ports at the street we could hook up to were not at the proper signal strength, either too weak or too strong OR a congested node. You actually share bandwidth on the street with up to 255 of your neighbors and THEY CAN AFFECT YOUR PERFORMANCE
2: The quality of the lines and connections to the modem. Bad jacks, too many splitters or too long a cable
3: The connection between the modem and the PC. This includes poorly made/bad internet cables and poorly configured routers.
4: The PC itself, either because of viruses, Malware or extensions to the browser or even bad drivers/outdated NIC can cause problems.

Testing with MY laptop eliminates 3 of 4 of the problems if it works or sets me on the path of checking, in order, the signal strength at the street, at the ground block of the house, and at the modem to isolate where signal loss is present.

If the signal strength is good at the modem and speed tests are too slow, there is NOTHING ELSE I can do as a tech except call it in and let the help desk look at traffic in the node. There is NOTHING I can change on the network from the house.

If it is a congested node problem, the only way to fix it is to become one of THOSE customers and become annoying enough to get it fixed.

On the other side of the coin, if it's all fine and it works on my laptop, then the problem is on your PC and I'm not allowed to touch it, Read your TOS. The Cable companies responsibility ends at the ethernet port of the modem (in some case, not all, at the router).

Crowded nodes create the problem that I test it at 2 in the afternoon and it's fine and I leave. At 2:15 school lets out and the torrenting/streaming on the node begins and your service drops. There is no way for a technician to catch this. Period. And I'm not hanging around all day to catch it.

The only way your going to get this fixed is to call the ISP repeatedly until they get tired of you and you may get a response that your on one of those nodes and there is nothing they can do.

Im sorry I can't give you a magic answer to fix this but there is no magic answer. 90% of the internet "problems" I faced were PC related. 9.9% in the wiring to the street and .1% in the node/network. It's just the way it is. We never listened to customer speed test results because 90% didn't know how to do it right.

Your yelling at us that we're not dealing with it right. If you know how to do it right, get off the forum and fix it yourself, since you obviously know more.

 

[Gryz]

Therefore I'm wondering whether or not technician test could temporarily open extra ports for communication

What are these "temporarily open extra ports" you are speaking of ?

or pass optimal networking settings on his laptop to my cable modem.

And what protocol would he be using for that ?

What's your opinion on that?

You are just making wild guesses.

So do most others here. Lots of those guesses are based on real life examples that have happened some time in the past, somewhere on a network. But there is no way to figure out which of those guesses are applicable to your situation.

As an ex-support engineer, all I know is: when troubleshooting you can make zero conclusions without measuring stuff. And you can only make conclusions when you know exactly what you are measuring. Usually that includes having an exact overview of what devices are involved. And having their exact configurations. If you don't have any of that (a map, the configs, and measurements), you are blind.

It could be anything.

What I would do:
1) do more diverse tests. e.g. see if torrents can saturate your link.
2) do tests that involve more than just your laptop.
3) do tests that last longer than 1 minute.
4) do those tests on different hours of the day/night
5) see if your modem/router has a webinterface. see if you can get stats from it.

 

[Fardringle]

Guys,

I'm really surprised with your reactions. You're just trying to tell me all what you know about cause of much lower download speed than declared by ISP. I assure you, I'm familiar with all that. The point is that my question is about something very different. You have to read it with understanding in the first place. If it's too hard or you can't answer it, just say it.

We have answered EXACTLY what you asked. We aren't talking about getting lower than declared bandwidth, although network congestion is one possible cause of the situation. We have given you several possible reasons how and why you would get very different test results even with just a few seconds between tests. That you refuse to accept the answers is up to you.

Let me tell you that:
1. I don't suspect my ISP of foul playing
2. In view of what I said, the details you are asking me are immaterial to the case.

1. I haven't seen anything that says any of us suspect it either.
2. They are only immaterial if what you have told us is immaterial since our answers and follow up questions are fit to your questions and the information you have given.

a. the Ethernet cable I use is 1 m long CAT6 gold plated with internal double isolation? The most important is that I used the same cable during Test2 and Test3.

The type of cable really doesn't matter a lot as long as it is a good cable. Did the cable tech use the same cable or a different one? And have you tried a different one?

b. I scanned malware with 2 different programs, although I have malware protection on my machine, and nothing was detected.

If you used good programs to scan, then you can probably be somewhat sure that the system is clean, but it's still very possible that you have something you don't know about. That you keep focusing on this point when we've given you plenty of other possibilities makes me wonder if you actually suspect an infection but are trying to deny it. If not, then go with your assumption that the system is clean and look at the other possibilities we have given you.

c. How many times I should tell you that I don't have any router, just a cable modem?

One time is good. Since this is the first time you've said that, we now have that extra bit of information that you didn't provide previously. It really doesn't have any effect on the situation, though, except to verify that the problem isn't being caused by a malfunctioning or inadequate router.

You just have to rely on what I declare and not assume that I'm a moron because that sort of help isn't very useful.

If us answering your questions using the information you have provided and our experiences working on situations like this makes you think that we assume you are a moron, that's unfortunate. I don't think anyone here has said anything to give that impression.

Now I'll describe my problem/question: Drop of speed by half during two tests, some 5 min. apart, under the same conditions, and in the same environment, using my high speed connection can't be reasonably justified. This should be obvious to everybody.

Yes, that is the situation we have answered. It's perfectly normal. It happens all the time even in a controlled test environment. That's simply how the Internet works since you have absolutely ZERO control over what happens to your data or what route it takes once it leaves your own personal network.

Therefore I'm wondering whether or not technician test could temporarily open extra ports for communication or pass optimal networking settings on his laptop to my cable modem.
What's your opinion on that?

COULD they? Possibly.
DO they? No.

If this is possible, then Test 2 performed on my desktop, immediately after Test 1, could possibly take advantage of such changed situation (his settings). Further, these changed settings could return to normal 5 min. later, i.e. during Test 3 producing lower download speed.
Correct or not?

Incorrect. Even if the ISP tech did do something on their test computer that gives them higher test results, those settings would not carry over to your computer.

The simple fact that many of us have said many times is that if the problem is not actually being caused by malware or other problems on your computer, then you are just seeing absolutely normal Internet activity.

 

[RLGL]

To RLGL
I believe you, but I bet you don't know why this happens!

I don't want to spend the time figuring it out

 

[JackMDS]

Therefore I'm wondering whether or not technician test could temporarily open extra ports for communication or pass optimal networking settings on his laptop to my cable modem.
What's your opinion on that?
.

I have a strange feeling that we are wasting our time.

It seems that the goal of this thread is (for whatever unknown reason) is the above quote.

I do not think that any of us can help in this unless someone here works in the OP's ISP center and has the authority to do so.

 

[QuietDad]

Once again, I am a subcontractor Cable Tech that works in the Cablevision and ComCast systems. The ONLY tools we have at a site is a signal meter and our own laptops that gives us access to the modem BIOS for stats there. There is NOTHING a tech can do to reconfigure the network while on site. If we find the signal too weak at the street, we call it in for another crew to come out and check the wiring of the tap. In situations where the 4-8 ports at the house's tap are all bad, we check the next taps on each side up and down the street and if the cable length isn't too long, stretch the cable down the street. In some cases, the stretched cable becomes RG11 instead of RG6 because of distance, which at some point gets cut and reconnected if they fix the tap in question, and the customer benefits in the long run with a better connection. There is no tech conspiracy here. There is really nothing we can do. Again, the IDEAL connection is a two way splitter where the cable comes in the house. One lead goes to the modem and one lead to all the TVs. Most of the issues we have with cable is homeowners that go to Radio Shack and buy cheap splitters and cable ad twist on connections and the modem ends up daisy chained behind 3 or 4 splitters.

 

[AndrewMac]

You are just making wild guesses.

I'm not making wild guesses, I'm just asking questions, even if they seem to be simple, naive or unreasonable. It's surprising that you can't understand the difference and are unable to answer my question in a civilized manner.

 

[AndrewMac]

It seems that the goal of this thread is (for whatever unknown reason) is the above quote.

Naturally, everybody has right to own feelings. However, delusional feelings described by you can be disastrous to deal with in longer term. Therefore, I strongly advice you to consult a specialist, before it's too late.

 

[AndrewMac]

Congratulations on your impressive 35 years in networking business. I want to tell you that I appreciate your efforts to help me, I really do. Although some 90% of info and hints offered on this forum are known to me, I'm really glad to learn remaining 10% anyway, especially those very technical described by you.

There is one problem, however. In my original post I asked one simple, maybe even naive or unreasonable question about possible inheritance of transfer parameters from the technician test to my test, as we both were connected to the same cable modem during Test 1 and Test 2. I just expected you to answer this question with one or two sentences.
I must add here that I would feel uncomfortable to ask you how to raise my download speed to the value declared by my ISP because of plethora of options. I also knew that except for some simple tests, which I've already done, the rest was in hands of my ISP anyway.

Taking these factors into account, I was really disappointed that all of you were loosing time trying to explain me something obvious what I've already done before entering this forum. At the same time, I assumed that reading with understanding shouldn't be a problem to anyone in this business.

In this context your comment:

Your yelling at us that we're not dealing with it right. If you know how to do it right, get off the forum and fix it yourself, since you obviously know more.

is completely unjustified, needless to say not very friendly, and is not proper for QuietDad, sorry.