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    Wildly varying download spped

    Discussion in 'Networking and Wireless' started by The Morningstar, Oct 24, 2008.

  1. The Morningstar

    The Morningstar Notebook Guru

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    Hi all,
    I'm using Vista Home Premium (64-bit), a tp-link TL-WN951N wireless-N PCI adapter and an Open Networks Iconnect 624W wireless router. I find that when dowloading files the download speed (as shown in firefox's download window) will start from as low as 40 Kbps and ramp up to as high as 250 Kbps and then down again. It fluctuates wildly during the download, speeding up and slowing down again. My drivers and firmware are up to date.

    Any suggestions how to deal with this?
     
  2. Shyster1

    Shyster1 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Does it vary at all depending on where you're downloading from?
     
  3. The Morningstar

    The Morningstar Notebook Guru

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    Not that I've noticed, no.
     
  4. blue68f100

    blue68f100 Notebook Virtuoso

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    May be a cache problem, How much ram is installed in the pc?
     
  5. The Morningstar

    The Morningstar Notebook Guru

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    See sig! (4GB)
     
  6. blue68f100

    blue68f100 Notebook Virtuoso

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    No amount of ram can or can not clear up a poorly managed cache. MS Bloatware is nortorious of having poor memory management, and 64bit is no exception.

    If you are getting errors and the packets are being resent can knock your speeds down to.

    What you are seeing may be accouring on the other end, too.

    I do not know it netstat has a 64 bit version to monitor your network. It has the capability to monitor total bandwidth and cpu usage. I do not recall if netstat monitors packets, I think it can.

    I have run many test on my desktop when I setup my gige network. What I found was the original released network driver delivered 40% increase over all other revisions (4). So New is not always better.

    I learned long ago when things are not working correctly, do not ignore anything. You have to check and confirmed all items that can impact the problem and some items that you think are not the problem.
     
  7. The Morningstar

    The Morningstar Notebook Guru

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    Fairy nuff. It's not just one site, i've been keeping an eye out and it seems to be across the board.