Internet faster on laptop than desktop?

BenST

BenST

BenST

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Hi,

I'm having a very weird problem. My internet connection on my PC maxes out at 310KB/sec, however my laptop maxes out at 500KB/sec, as it should on an NTL 4MB link.

What on earth could the problem be? Both run XP, running through a WRT54G router.

Thanks!
 
splitz said:
Hi,

I'm having a very weird problem. My internet connection on my PC maxes out at 310KB/sec, however my laptop maxes out at 500KB/sec, as it should on an NTL 4MB link.

What on earth could the problem be? Both run XP, running through a WRT54G router.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Do you have antivirus/spyware software installed? Or any other software running on the PC that could be using bandwidth that is not running on the laptop?
 
Nope, DU meter shows the true bandwidth so I know nothing else is using bandwidth. I have also tested the laptop on the LAN port and it gets the full speed. I have even updated the motherboard LAN drivers.

This is a very weird problem.
 
I have just tried a different network card and also connecting the ethernet cable direct to the modem bypassing the router all with the same results :(

So it must be a windows problem, but what?
 
I've tried ending a load of processes thinking that something rogue is restricting bandwidth but to no avail.

Can anyone think what it could be? It's doing my swede in!
 
It could be something to do with the driver sets. Do some tests. Are you using wireless on the laptop or wifi? ..
 
Carter, thanks, I tried your tool but it didn't help. Thanks anyway.

zen62619, already tried different drivers and LAN cards, no difference.
 
I've just installed XP on a seperate partition and I'm getting the full 4mb transfer. So what the hell in windows is slowing down my download speed :(
 
Have you checked the QoS Packet Scheduler?

start>run> gpedit.msc

In Computer Config expand Admin Templates>Network and click QoS Packet Scheduler

You should see a 'Limit reservable bandwidth' in the right hand pane.

Double click it, enable and set to zero.

I think windows sets this to 20% of your bandwidth for updates.

"By default, the Packet Scheduler limits the system to 20 percent of the bandwidth of a connection, but you can use this setting to override the default." << in explaination.
 
Tried that but it didn't help, thanks anyway :)

I have uninstalled most things that I think would affect the internet connection but nothing works. I even downloaded a file from my xbox and it ran at around 5MB/sec so the throughput is there.

This is very confusing, I really don't want to have to reinstall windows for this :(
 
Well I reinstalled and uninstalled Zonealarm from the laptop and it downloaded at 500KB/sec as it should, tried to do the same on my desktop PC and everytime I start the computer 'svchost.exe' would use 100% processor power and upon me ending the process my network card wouldn't work properly.

Reinstalling WindowsXP without ZA has done the trick and I'm now at full download speed :)

Just for kicks I installed ZA again and it immediately throttled the download to 310KB/sec max, uninstalled it and all was fine.

In summary, ZA sucks.
 
Give Sygate a go. It's the only firewall I use and trust.

Until a firewall which is similar and lightweight as Sygate comes along, I'm sticking with it.
 
ditch the annoying softeare firewalls alltogether imo. No need behind a NAT router anyway, unless you want to limit outgoing connections but i'm not sure why you would want to do that.
 
Clarkey said:
unless you want to limit outgoing connections but i'm not sure why you would want to do that.
Click to expand...
To stop processes that you have no idea what they are doing from phoning home. Or is that too much paranoia?
 
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