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Ok, this is going to be long. I have a desktop running windows 7 and currently have Time Warner as my provider. I am supposed to have 20mbps down and I'm currently only pulling 9.4mbps. I have a Motorola SBG6580 modem directly connected to the desktop though ethernet.

I've tested my speed through time warner's speed test and speedtest.net and I get the same result; 9.4mbps. I've also tested the speed on my laptop which runs Windows Vista through wifi and I get close to 20mbps. I've also connected the laptop through ethernet directly to the modem and also get 20mbps. I've done speed test on my Iphone and Android tablet using wifi and get 20mbps as well.

I've called a technician from Time warner to check it out and said it was a problem with my desktop.

At this point I'm sure it's a problem with only my desktop and not the internet provider. I have done a virus check using Microsoft Security Essentials and also Malwarebytes and have not found any viruses yet.

I've also tried changing my DNS server to google's and then openDNS and the speed stayed the same both times.

I have done a "tune-up" on the computer which cleared all temp files and other unnecessary junk and still have the same speed of 9.4mbps.

I tried logging in to the guest account to see if it was a problem with my profile or the whole computer and the speed test was the same in both profiles.

I've also eliminated all processes one by one in the task manager and tested the speed after each one and got the same result in speed.

At this point I've read every single forum i could find and tried various other things that were suggested like killing all programs that run automatically at start up or trying to figure out if any programs are connecting to the internet without my knowledge and have not been successful at getting my speed up to 20mbps.

Please, any other suggestions on what could be wrong with my desktop is appreciated. Thanks.

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  • First of all, congratulations on your exhaustive efforts to diagnose it. You’ve definitely narrowed it down to an issue with just that one system. Now, you said you tried to check if other programs are accessing the Internet, but didn’t say what the results were. Have you tried a bandwidth monitor to see if there is any network activity when there shouldn’t be? (What does SmartSniff show?) Have you checked the NIC’s settings in the Device Manager? Also, are you able to (at least temporarily) test the system with a freshly installed copy of Windows?
    – Synetech
    Aug 22, 2013 at 0:17
  • I just tried SmartSniff but I have no idea how to read the data that it provides. I checked the NIC settings and everything says is working fine. I am not able to test my system with a copy of windows.
    – Luchador
    Aug 28, 2013 at 2:56
  • You don’t want to jump to a packet sniffer right away. If you determine that there is network activity that should be, then you can use Smart Sniff to find out what, but first you have to find out if there is. Try a bandwidth monitoring program to visually see the network activity; you can use the Task Manager’s Network tab. Make sure to check when you have no programs doing any network operations like downloading files or checking email, etc.
    – Synetech
    Aug 28, 2013 at 3:05
  • My network tab is showing around 15% memory usage when I only have my browser running and a totals of 58 processes. Is that normal?
    – Luchador
    Aug 28, 2013 at 3:37
  • Memory usage? Do you mean bandwidth usage? If so, then either your browser is downloading something (I said to check when you have no Internet programs running), or you have something else sucking up your bandwidth. It does sound like something is using up a large chunk of your bandwidth, so you should find out what. Try CurrPorts or TCPView to see what program(s) have open ports.
    – Synetech
    Aug 29, 2013 at 14:51

1 Answer 1

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How old is your computer?

Your hard drive might have a really bad write time, or more plausibly: your motherboard a really bad internal network card.

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  • They’re running Windows 7, so I doubt that’s the problem.
    – Synetech
    Aug 22, 2013 at 0:14
  • I bought it in 2010 and was only used for 1 year then stored in a safe place for about 1 year and now been used for the past year and have never had any issues. Even the internet is not necessarily too slow but is just not what I'm supposed to have and paying for at 20mbps.
    – Luchador
    Aug 22, 2013 at 0:15

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