New Laptop = bandwidth hog

scet27

scet27

scet27

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17 Feb 2011
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I'm at a loss to whats happening here, hopefully somebody can help.

Only thread I could find on these forums is still unsolved
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18132623&highlight=laptop+hogging+internet

My home network setup is as follows =
networksetup.jpg



So both Laptops connect to the wireless router via wifi and my desktop rig is cat5e wired from the O2 box to the switch.

Laptop 2, a brand new machine, when being used by the wife for nothing more than facebook games completely takes over the internet,
all other machines then have their internet connection reduced in speed.

I notice it particularly when online gaming.

The laptop the wife used previously did not do this.

No other devices ( wifi printer, ipad 2 more pc's and Laptop 1) have this effect.

I have reduced the Max Tx rate to 1Mbps, to no effect.

We barely get 3meg broadband speed at the best of times so any help with this would be much appreciated.

I have thoroughly scanned Laptop 2 for viruses ect, its all clean

thanks,
Steve.
 
TCPView is another great tool for one click 'look what's happening here' wonderfulness. Has a byte counter for each program too as I recall.
 
Sooooo, after a night of running both the tools suggested, reviewing the data, there doesn't seem to be any virus/malware hijacking the connection.

Upon opening Chrome and visiting facebook, lots of connections are established, also using Internet Explorer shows the same connections.

These same connections are present on my machine but not as a great in number as on Laptop 2.

ssdp is receiving lots of bytes also, 347,985 Rcvd Bytes in ten minutes.

What I dont understand, is that I have set the MAx Tx rate to 1Mb on the wireless channel.

Speedtest shows a 1Mb connection as does Microsoft Network Monitor..... so how could this laptop be hogging

All my connection speed if it is only capable of 1Mb connection through the wireless router?
 
Could potentially be the Upload bandwidth that is being hogged? That would massively effect your pings when gaming..
 
Established facts so far:
1. Everything is fine with Laptop2 off
2. Laptop2 has normal network activity

Next:
3. Try to eliminate "Wireless Router" - can Laptop2 be connected wired directly to "O2 wireless box 5"?
 
Thanks for all the input guys.

After taking your advice, I have installed NetLimiter Pro on laptop2 and set upload and download limits for all the facebook connections I could find.

I will monitor this and report back later.

cheers.
Steve.
 
Use Task Manger on the Network screen and click, 'View' Select columns; you can add bytes/s uploaded and bytes/s downloaded.

This will tell you if you're uploading/downloading constantly
 
Thanks bled, using Task Manger on the Network screen, I could see that laptop2 was receiving up to 3x as many bytes that were being sent, both when wired and wireless, even in safemode with networking.

I also came across another thread, elsewhere, that suggested other machines on the network could be the issue. So I tested this and found a significant amount of traffic was coming from my media machine.

So I have, on laptop2,

1) disabled remote desktop connections

2) scanned again for mal/spyware and viruses = nothing

3) turned off network file and media sharing on the laptop

4) What has seemed to make a big difference so far ( credits to Rabtech :cool:) was to update the drivers for the laptops wireless device instead of using the windows updated drivers...................why the heck didnt I think of that?

I just have to wait now until the wife starts a facebook gaming session to see if this has been solved or not.

thanks again everyone.

will report back results a.s.a.p.
 
update for anyone interested:

No closer to solving this mystery
Since last post I have:

Removed wireless router from network = Problem still remains

Hard wired Laptop to modem = Problem still remains

Flashed dd-wrt onto router & enabled
Qos = Problem still remains

Re-installed Windows and Atheros web drivers = Problem still remains

Scanned for rootkits, viruses, malware & spyware, nothing = Problem still remains


could this be an issue that has nothing to do with the O2 wireless box and the router?......... if Qos has no effect, and neither does bandwidth throttling, what could possibly be the cause?

This has me completely baffled and google is full of old threads about similar issues that have never seen a reply.

The network can happily cope with:- 2 active (wifi) desktops 1 htpc (wired) 1 (wired) desktop, 2 blackberry's, 2 android phones and an Ipad, but as soon as this laptop is connected to facebook games ( through Chrome ) every other devices connection has to suffer.

And to top it all off fiber broadband is nowhere near my area so 2.2-2Mb is as much speed as I'm going to get for a long time...........
 
If you only get 2Mb down, I'm guessing barely 400k up? What did you cap the upstream on the laptop to? Try giving it 5KB/s absolute max. Perhaps consider doing it on all the other boxes too. What are your misc wireless devices? Kids got tablets/phones? Android market downloads? Make sure windows update is not randomly popping off to grab stuff too. Same for all the other junk that likes to update itself constantly.

You just need to hawk each device and watch what each one is doing when it goes **** :)
 
TYPO correction: "near my area so 2.2-2Mb is as much" should read: 2.2-3Mb

I think I've been through most of what you suggested, s0ck. I have been through each device to make sure no random downloads or internet usage occurs, the wife and kids and are well aware that youtube etc etc is a luxury (lol) when we are all on the internet. So I am confident that my efforts to limit rogue downloading is working. And it has done, until this new laptop joined our network.


I think I will go back to dd-wrt and try Qos once again

cheers
 
Have you tried a linux live CD? That will tell you if it's definitely a hardware or software issue.

When you did the windows reinstall do you do a 'factory recovery' or fresh install from a vanilla Windows DVD?
 
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