Poor Ethernet Performance

[2pies]

I've just started using the new EE Smart Pro Hub and Wi-Fi 7 service. Wi-Fi is working fine in most of the house but I have an office on the other side of the property that has always been a blackspot. Previously I've used an ethernet cable around the house to connect to my old router. I've done the same with the new equipment as wired is always better than wireless, especially for latency sensitive applications.

While the latency is good, the download speed isn't what I'd expect. I'm supposed to have a 1.6Gb/s connection but speed check app (I'm using the SpeedTest app installed from the Microsoft Store which is supposed to be better than a web version) I'm only getting 300Mb/s.

I thought this might be because of the long cable, but it's only 20m and is CAT 6 so very cable of 1Gb/s speed. I then sat down next to the Hub with a laptop and wired that in using another cable to a different port on the Hub and got exactly the same results. 

When standing next to the Hub with my iPhone, I can get 750Mb/s speed and thats the limit of the WiFi in that old device (iPhone 12). My son will get back from a school trip tomorrow and he has an iPhone 16 that supports Wi-Fi 7 so may be able to get over 1Gb/s.

What's going on here? Why would a wired connection using a modern ethernet cable and a gigabit PCIe network adapter not push more data through it?

BTW, I saw someone else query the same but he seemed to be told it must be the cable or the PC that is at fault, but didn't have any alternative system to test. I'm getting the same results on two systems. Has anyone else been able to get close to 1Gb/s download speed in this configuration?

[JimM11]

@2pies How good is your PC ethernet connected, that determines what your speed is like, not the fact that you have a 1Gb/s pcie Ethernet port on it... 

If it is good then you should be able to max out the Ethernet port speed and get up around the 920mb/s speed, but if it is old, doing something else at the same time you need to have a look see, if windows you can have a look at performance monitor or the task bar monitor and click on Network to see what is going on.

[2pies]

My PC has a Realtek PCIe GbE Family Controller and my laptop has an Intel® Ethernet Connection I219-LM. They are both several years old, but were included in a premium gaming PC and a professional laptop, so not the cheapest on the market. Both are idle when running the test, the CPU or RAM aren't maxed out. 

[JimM11]

@2pies you are plugged into the mains with the laptop and not using a low cpu mode off operation? Your laptop should scream at that spec.

Just posted a picture up to to the forum ethernet connected fast.com speed test you should be able to see it, FF500 for me, max speed no issue. 

[JimM11]

@2pies If you also have a spare Ethernet cable you could also try connecting both and do a file transfer between PC/Laptop to see the network is good also, just find a big file or big folder to copy, if you need a test file there is one available on thinkbroadband.com that can be downloaded for testing with.

[2pies]

Ah, with the laptop plugged in, rather than runningh off battery, it did jump up to 900Mb/s. Didn't think that the CPU would slow everything down to conserve energy. 

I guess the PC must have a bottleneck somewhere, perhaps the cable doesn't have enough shielding. I'll replace that when I have the time and energy, as its a bit of work to pin it to the wall tidyly. 

Thanks for solving the mystery.

[JimM11]

@2pies There is always the curve ball, just glad we can help, least you know that you are capable now with the speeds.👍

[2pies · Accepted solution]

You're not going to beleive this, but I've completely resolved the issue. I plugged in my laptop to the same cable that runs outside and was getting a good speed too, over 750Mb/s so narrowed it down to the PC's network card, the Realtek PCIe GbE.

I googled "realtek pcie gbe family controller very slow" and found a Reddit post that advised running this one command:

netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=normal

After simply running that, the difference is night and day. I guess we can thank Windows for slowing down my internet connection for the last 3 years!

[JimM11]

@2pies My your on a roll now, not unusual for a command to change something, possible it is even one of the nic parameters, there can be a few that help, most of the time it's change leave a couple off days see what happens etc etc. Thank EE for getting you up on the higher speeds and soon to be 2.5Gb/s nic cards then you will be pushing the limits onwards.