Hi all,

TL;DR version: My download speed has decreased to about 1/40th of its previous speed, while my upload speed remains the same. Speedtest shows that my connection is equally strong as it was prior to the slowdown, even though I can't even get anything close to my original speed.

Fully detailed version: About a week ago, my download speed decreased from 2 megabytes/s to about 50 kb/s. Prior to the speed decrease, I did not install or update any programs, so it's probably not an interference from some wayward program. I've likewise not encountered any suspicious activity on the computer, nor have I visited suspicious sites, so it probably isn't a virus either.

There are several odd things, however. While my download speed has dropped so dramatically, my upload speed is exactly the same. According to a Speedtest.net check from August, my download speed was 8.5 mb/s and my upload speed was 4.14 mb/s. Currently, it is practically the same, at 4.09 mb/s. What is really strange, however, is that according to the Speedtest from today, my download speed is 9 mb/s, even though I can still not exceed 50 kb/s.

I tested IDM (download accelerator) on some of my skydrive files, since download accelerators allow for multiple streams of data simultaneously. I was able to download around 500 kb/s, which is still not even close to what I used to be able to reach from skydrive with IDM before (~2000 kb/s), but still much higher than if I only used one download stream (~50 kb/s).

Additional info: Browsing speed and video streaming is also much slower than usual.

Thus, I'm really confused. Does this seem like a problem of the ISP, or is it on my end? It seems as though even though my connection itself is strong as ever, my computer seemingly can't utilize the potential of that connection anymore.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Recommended Answers

All 12 Replies

Do a flushdns in command prompt and check connection again.

Does web browsing also have problem with this apart from downloading?

Thanks for the reply! Web browsing is slower, that's for sure. Images take a lot longer to load, for example, as do videos.

Flushing the DNS didn't work either, unfortunately.

Do a ping test and try using other web browsers. Post the results of your ping test. Try pinging to google.com and facebook.com

Edit:

Does using cable have the same problem?

Ok which Windows are you using now?

If it's windows XP. Right-click on the network icon and select properties. Then under 'Internet Protocol (TCP/ip)', select properties. Check the DNS setting and set to auto.

Copy the DNS IP on your Notepad if available so we can backtrack if this solution failed.

For manual dns configuration, you can use Google DNS or Open DNS IP address and just copy to the DNS configuration. Apply after done. Check if the connection is fine or not

Alright, here's a ping test. [IMG]http://www.pingtest.net/result/47493553.png[/IMG]

Also used the cmd prompt test, which resulted in: [IMG]http://i55.tinypic.com/2886upy.jpg[/IMG]

I'm using Windows 7, and when I checked Internet Protocol, it was already set at auto. It, however, did not offer a DNS IP for me to copy.

I then went ahead to try Google DNS; it did not affect the speed at all.

Thanks for both of your replies, by the way! :)

Edit: After changing to Google DNS, videos stream much faster. However the download speed is still the same. Also, I noticed that if I had enough files downloading simultaneously, my download speed would continue to increase past 500 kb/s (e.g. if I had 2 files with multiple streams, I would be able to get ~400 kb/s on both).

Does other computers on the same network have the same problem. I know that browsers won't affect the download speed but have you try using other browsers?

Browsing speed is equal for Firefox and Chrome. Do note, however, that the decrease in browsing speed isn't dramatic, slower loading of images is particularly noticeable, though, but text comes up just a wee bit slower than before.

How about other computers or laptop? Connect them to the same network and see whether the download speed is faster. If yes that means your computer is having a problem sometimes virus could cause that.

1st delete temp files in your system. then go to DNS configuration.update the browser.

Laptop in the house is also slow. Funny enough, the internet seemed to get slow for the laptop before the desktop did (though the laptop's wireless and the desktop's using Ethernet).

I also usually keep the temp folders clean, and I doubt the browser's the problem, since both Chrome and Firefox are messed up, and my download accelerator. Either way, I updated them and they're still messed up.

Just meant to drop by and say that the internet fixed itself, heh, Guess it was an ISP problem.

Cheers:) Good to know that your internet is back to normal. Bye and see you again. Please consider marking this thread as solved too;)

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