Tracking Down Slow Ethernet

[IceWolf]

I've been running W8.1 - 64 bit on an Asus m3a78 motherboard for about 10 years with no problems. AMD processor. Up until now, my ISP provided me with "up to" 100 Mb - no problems there. I now have an "up to" 500 Mb fiber service. The wired speed tests all read around 80-90 Mb up and down, day or night. I can take my Apple laptop, remove the connection from my desktop and wire directly to the laptop. Speed test 450 Mb or above. Stumped! Everything works fine, no hangups or unexplained quirks, just tests slow.
Pertinent Information: I have tried to lock down the telemetry settings by turning off unneeded services, updates, user experiences...anything that phones home.
Some of the tests I have done:

-try a dedicated gigabit Network card - no change
-flush dns - no change
-reset Winsock - no change
-tweak "properties" on the network card - nothing
-check Process Express for suspicious programs - nothing obvious
-check for virus and spyware - haven't found anything
-check for hard disk constantly operating - nope
-I use the firewall in my router, not Windows Firewall
-no antivirus
-use Proton VPN normally (but turn it off for the speed tests)

It was my impression that doing a 1 Gb ethernet connection is pretty basic for any computer and does not require a super high speed chipset. There is always the person who thinks new drivers will fix anything, but this motherboard hasn't had an updated driver or bios for years. But, I haven't installed any new equipment or made setup changes to the motherboard. And it was supposed to do 1Gig when it was new. Like I said, everything works fine, but I can't get a 500 Mb connection to speed up past 80 Mb. Maybe the aging of components is showing up. If I get a new motherboard, I will have to get W10 and start from scratch.
Ideas?
Thank you!
IW

 

[TechnoMage]

What can I say? Just what we think of as a simple process, 'Getting on the Internet' , is a real bucket of worms, electronically speaking. There are millions of bytes of code, flying around in thousands of circuits, and regardless of how much RAM we have, or how big and how fast the HD is, we still have only ONE CPU. It's unfortunate, but alas, that's the way that IBM designed the PC. And the first CPU's were only 16 bit. Thank Goodness, today we have either 32 or 64 bit CPU's.
And no matter how fast and powerful your CPU is, it's shackled to the system clock.

AMD came up the idea once used on the Commodore 64 cpu, to use both sides of the clock cycle to do work, and not just the Rise of Clock, which was common in computers of all sizes.

Having said all that.... there are still so many things involved in getting what you might want to consider Good Internet Speed, there is no one Quick Fix.

I live out in the country, and my best available internet connection is Hughes Net, satellite internet.
If I intend to download a movie, or a new OS, I will turn off my Satellite Modem for a few minutes, and when I turn it back on, I'll have the fastest connection to the internet that I'll have all day.
The longer that the modem is ON, the slower the internet connection.

AVG put out a program called "PC Tune Up". One of its features was to optimize 77 points in the registry, concerning the Internet Connection. I'm sure there has to be another program, out there somewhere, that can do the same thing, but, I've never found it.
Then there is a Speedup program for Firefox, called "Speedy Fox". That optimizes connection parameters for Firefox. I use both of the above mentioned programs.

I'm sorry, that I don't have a Quick Fix for you, but, I'm not sure there really is one.
Good Luck, Mate!

TM

 

[TechnoMage]

I've been fighting with download speeds on this very computer. I tried a lot of things, with very little success, until a few days ago when I decided to Tweak Firefox.
In Firefox there are a B'zillion parameters that tell Firefox how to run. Several of those parameters can be changed, to greatly increase things like Download Speed.
Just a few days ago now, I was able to download Windows 11, ISO, in less than an hour, totally unheard of before I tweaked Firefox.
I also use the "Internet Download Manager" (IDM) to handle all my downloads. It really helps!

Cheers Mates,
TM

 

[SCANNERMAN]

If your Apple laptop is giving you 450 Mb speeds and your lovable old ASUS motherboard isn't you might want to check what the limitations are on your ethernet card. This is an old DDR2 system board you have and if your chipset hasn't had an upgrade by now I can assure you that you need one. I love restoring old PCs and making them run well past their E.O.L. but there comes a point at which you simply can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. I have an old DELL PC that still use DDR2 memory and the older ethernet. I can only get them to handle around 150 Mb on 1Gb net speed. I think it really depends on the ethernet card and the chipset, but everything can only run as fast as the weakest link in the chain so TechnoMage has a point about it being any number of things. If your unit is over 12 years old and you still want more speed then yes, by all means get a new system board. Treat yourself and build a new PC.

 

[TechnoMage]

For over 40 years, I built IBM Compatible PC's in my own shop, including one very fast PC for myself, which I still use today.
But most of the places where I could walk in the door and buy PC parts no longer exist! They're GONE, just GONE!
And, my best source for great motherboards and AMD cpu's, (Computer Warehouse) no longer sells AMD products at all. Just Intel. Arggg!

I used to buy a new motherboard, cpu, & ram, and the store I went to would put everything together for me, and test it too.
That made assembling a new computer a snap! And with Windows 8.1, I don't even have to go through the lengthy process of installing the OS.
I just CLONE the SSD in my Main PC to a new SSD/HDD and put it in a new computer, and in just a few minutes I have a running clone of my main PC, with all the appropriate drivers installed, and all the programs that I like too.

I've done the same thing on old PC's that were given to me. So sweet!
The little SFF (Slimline) desktop PC that I'm on right now is a Clone of my main PC, with all the programs and even all my docs, pic, email, etc.
That reduces the tedious and time consuming process of setting up a 'new' PC down to just a few minutes.

I use the old DOS version of "Ghost" to do all my backups and cloning. Since I started using it in 1997, it's never failed me once.

Cheers Mates,
TM

 

[SCANNERMAN]

I do very similar things. I find it reassuring that others are also doing their part in helping to eliminate e-waste. Too many PCs are being prematurely tossed in the scrap heap these days. They can be used for any number of things: data storage, home server, NAS, backup, etc. I also rebuild desk tops and give them to children (with parental permission, of course) who have no PC but are in need. And yes, that is the beauty and versatility of Win 8.1. It can be cloned and popped into another device and it can still work (in most cases). I used to have Ghost on floppy but no idea where it went since I relocated. I'm happy with my Drive Image/Mini Tool Partition Wizard/Kaspersky combo now. Anything I value is also cloned to my RAID 10 array so I really never lose data.