Sudden Sporadic D/L Speeds

[coltraz]

Hello everyone.

I am hoping you all can help me with a quest I am on to sort out why my download speeds have suddenly become a fluctuating mess. My setup... I have a desktop PC running Windows 7 with ESET Smart Security 4. I use an Apple Extreme Base Station router and have a wireless Macbook which has SAB installed on it and which I use to download from Usenet. I am using Astraweb (11$ a month unlimited deal). SSL server.

Up until perhaps 3 weeks ago I had Windows XP with ESET (though I think an earlier version) but aside from that, same set up. I'm inclined to believe that something about my new Win7 setup is thwarting network traffic and Usenet traffic.

My download speeds on SABNZB have always been steadily around 1.50MB/s. I begin the download, they max out right away and they stay maxed out until the file is finished downloading.

I've only noticed this starting last week, but now when I download something it fluctuates anywhere from 1.70MB/s to 200KB/s up and down sporadically. Look at this progress graph that I snapped a screen cap of this morning.

It's a mess! I've been getting average speeds, at times, of 700KB/s or 800KB/s when before I pretty much always had at LEAST an average speed of 1.20MB/s but usually more.

The problem is I have no idea where to even start looking for solutions. I've tried contacting Astraweb but they are not helpful. They just say the same thing, try a different port, disable firewall, even if I tell them I've already done that. Yes, I've shut off the ESET firewall on my PC but my download speed on my Macbook was still all over the place. I've switched up ports and servers through Astraweb. Did not help. I've upgraded SabNZB. Did not help.

I don't have (as far as I know) anything running in the background that is taking up network resources. I play a MMORPG (think World of Warcraft but different) which I usually keep running on my PC. I always had it on in the past and my D/L speeds on my Macbook were totally unaffected by it.

It may be related, however, that ever since I upgraded to Windows 7 my game has been laggier than it was on XP. Which really just makes me wonder if there is some Win7 feature that is screwing up my connection.

I've also contacted my ISP about the issue via email and am waiting to hear back.

So can anyone please point me in the right direction, at least? Or give me some ideas? I am lost.

[shypike]

You're downloading over the wireless connection?
That's usually not a recipe for steady performance.
Have your neighbours started to use the same Wifi channel(s)?
Have you tried switching off wireless on the MacBook and using wired, just as a test?

[coltraz]

Hi. Thanks for the reply.

How would I know if my neighbours started using the same wifi channel? Is there some way to tell? What do you mean?

I haven't tried using a wired connection as opposed to wifi, but as a test I will give it a whirl and post my results. But I used this setup (wifi) for a year and never had any issues downloading at maximum speed so I'm not sure why it would become a recipe for unsteady performance suddenly. 

[fenlander]

Are you by any chance with Virgin Media? This is typical of the experiences VM customers report following that ISP's recent adoption of traffic shaping. There is a lot of discussion of this on the Cable Forum and on the VM Community forum. Traffic shaping applies from 5pm to midnight on weekdays and midday to midnight at weekends and apparently aims to restrict network bandwith usage to 25% of total for P2P and Usenet. VM currently appear to be making a first-class mess of implementing it - to everyone's annoyance and nobody's great surprise.

If this does apply, one solution which works for me (so far!) is to use port 443 (not 563) and SSL, but not all VM users report the same success. The other is to do your bulk dowloads outside the traffic-shaped period - I use an RSS feed and WakeOnStandby to bring my PC out of hibernation at 6am each morning to grab the US shows that broadcast overnight. This also avoids all potential problems with STM and AUP.

[shypike]

How would I know if my neighbours started using the same wifi channel? Is there some way to tell? What do you mean?

Wifi users compete for bandwidth.
The theoretical 54 MB is shared between all parties including the systems of nearby neighbors.
If I remember correctly even DECT telefhone hadsets compete for the same frequencies.

You can use the (Windows-only) NetStumbler program to find out.
http://www.netstumbler.com/downloads/

[ErikBrown]

Netstumbler does not work on Windows 7 but Inssider does:

http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider

[coltraz]

Thank you for the links. I'll check it out.

No, I'm not with Virgin I'm with Eastlink. I asked them if they are doing anything to interfere but they aren't. My speed tests seem to be fine. I am getting extremely frustrated though, with no clue as to the source of my problems. Could be Astraweb, SabNZB, ISP, modem, router, macbook, Pc, virus scanner, firewall(s)...seriously, I don't have the time to spend a week investigating every possible angle of this problem and it's really bothering me that I can't fix it from what I've tried. Should not be this complicated.

[shypike]

A simple test is to try another newsreader.

[inpheaux]

Could be Astraweb

I'm voting Astraweb. They've been having some speed issues recently. Last night I was only getting an unstable 1M/s, and switching over to Giganews bumped it back up to my max linespeed of 3M/s.