What is suddenly slowing my downloads?

Question

I have a feeling it may be my "unlimited" broadband provider, throttling me for being naughty and downloading too much. I had very similar symptoms before and called my provider, telling them I'm a special effects artist working for a major studio and must use bittorrent to send and receive files. The guy in the Indian call center said he'd removed the restriction, and, sure enough, it returned to normal.
This time, however, the phone jockey told me they do not shape traffic in any way. (Cough) And to wait for the engineer she'd dispatched, who would be here yesterday. (I've worked in a call-center so I know all their games)
Anyway, I'm paying for 8Meg broadband in an area that can only get about 2Meg. (My provider DOES offer a 2Meg package, but not in my area, where people might actually use it. Makes about as much sense as anything else they've said, I guess)
I usually get a little under 2 Meg. Bits or Bytes, I dunno. My uTorrent maxes out at about 320kB/s. Recently it dropped to exactly 70kB/s which makes me suspect traffic shaping, since the upload speed is untouched. Today it dropped to exactly 30kB/s. Last time it happened, it was exactly 99kB/s, then went right back to normal at the stroke of midnight every day. Anyway, I used that m-lab thingy. Here's what it says. Anyone know what all that means?
Your system: Windows 7 version 6.1
Java version: 1.7.0_25 (x86)

TCP receive window: 66816 current, 66816 maximum
1.0E-6 packets lost during test
Round trip time: 145 msec (minimum), 1985 msec (maximum), 1490.95 msec (average)
Jitter: 1840 msec
0 seconds spend waiting following a timeout
TCP time-out counter: 2612
0 selective acknowledgement packets received

No duplex mismatch condition was detected.
The test did not detect a cable fault.
No network congestion was detected.
No network address translation appliance was detected.

0.3346% of the time was not spent in a receiver limited or sender limited state.
64.07000000000001% of the time the connection is limited by the client machine's receive buffer.
Optimal receive buffer: 68419584 bytes
0 duplicate ACKs set

---------------------------------

WEB100 Kernel Variables: Client: localhost/127.0.0.1 CurMSS: 1392 X_Rcvbuf: 87380 X_Sndbuf: 193856 AckPktsIn: 133 AckPktsOut: 0 BytesRetrans: 0 CongAvoid: 0 CongestionOverCount: 0 CongestionSignals: 0 CountRTT: 133 CurCwnd: 72384 CurRTO: 2612 CurRwinRcvd: 66816 CurRwinSent: 5888 CurSsthresh: 2147483647 DSACKDups: 0 DataBytesIn: 0 DataBytesOut: 441928 DataPktsIn: 0 DataPktsOut: 314 DupAcksIn: 0 ECNEnabled: 0 FastRetran: 0 MaxCwnd: 72384 MaxMSS: 1392 MaxRTO: 2940 MaxRTT: 1985 MaxRwinRcvd: 66816 MaxRwinSent: 5888 MaxSsthresh: 0 MinMSS: 1392 MinRTO: 435 MinRTT: 145 MinRwinRcvd: 66816 MinRwinSent: 5840 NagleEnabled: 1 OtherReductions: 0 PktsIn: 133 PktsOut: 314 PktsRetrans: 0 RcvWinScale: 7 SACKEnabled: 3 SACKsRcvd: 0 SendStall: 0 SlowStart: 49 SampleRTT: 1974 SmoothedRTT: 1977 SndWinScale: 2 SndLimTimeRwin: 7134159 SndLimTimeCwnd: 3726193 SndLimTimeSender: 274845 SndLimTransRwin: 1 SndLimTransCwnd: 8 SndLimTransSender: 8 SndLimBytesRwin: 248512 SndLimBytesCwnd: 152496 SndLimBytesSender: 40920 SubsequentTimeouts: 0 SumRTT: 198296 Timeouts: 0 TimestampsEnabled: 0 WinScaleRcvd: 2 WinScaleSent: 7 DupAcksOut: 0 StartTimeUsec: 432804 Duration: 11137611 c2sData: 2 c2sAck: 2 s2cData: 2 s2cAck: 2 half_duplex: 0 link: 100 congestion: 0 bad_cable: 0 mismatch: 0 spd: 0.32 bw: 7.12 loss: 0.000001000 avgrtt: 1490.95 waitsec: 0.00 timesec: 11.00 order: 0.0000 rwintime: 0.6407 sendtime: 0.0247 cwndtime: 0.3346 rwin: 0.5098 swin: 1.4790 cwin: 0.5522 rttsec: 1.490947 Sndbuf: 193856 aspd: 0.00000 CWND-Limited: 270.33 minCWNDpeak: -1 maxCWNDpeak: -1 CWNDpeaks: -1 The theoretical network limit is 7.12 Mbps The NDT server has a 94.0 KByte buffer which limits the throughput to 0.99 Mbps Your PC/Workstation has a 65.0 KByte buffer which limits the throughput to 0.34 Mbps The network based flow control limits the throughput to 0.37 Mbps Client Data reports link is 'T1', Client Acks report link is 'T1' Server Data reports link is 'T1', Server Acks report link is 'T1'


What's all that about my workstations buffer slowing things down? I've not changed any settings. Oh, I'm using a router plugged into the master socket. My PC is connected to that via a wireless adapter. I'm unable to connect using a cable unless I really need to. I'd rather avoid it unless it's absolutely necessary for diagnosis. I've tried a different wireless adapter, with no luck, but haven't had time to really play around yet. The router is pretty old, so maybe it's dying. Strange that it's dying in such precise increments, though.
Also, I ran a few different speed tests and they all returned

Answer 1

Other things running?

Answer 2

Hello,



If I've worked out the figures correctly, you've downloaded 65.25 GB which is a vast amount and I would say your ISP has put a limit on you. Despite what they say, ISP's do throttle people back if they use torrents - this is to try and put you off file sharing.



The other thing to remember is there's no true 'unlimited' if you read the small print - bit of a con!! lol.... I think most only put this restriction on at busy times i.e. 5pm to 11pm. Try scheduling your download for 2am and see what happens. You can also test the speed of your download via http://www.speedtest.net and if it's lower than expected you have more evidence to complain!



Connecting via wireless will always be slower than by cable, I always download large files on my main PC which is connected directly into the router. You could try restarting the router and see if that does anything.



Hope this helps

Answer 3

The way to check if your ISP is interfering is to run ICSI Netalyzer. It requires Java.



You get it here:



http://netalyzr.icsi.berkeley.edu/



Wireless connection? Check for interference and change router channel. Or just hard wire connection to see if it improves.



Understanding the results:



http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18953-understanding-your-netalyzr-results.html



The results will highlight anything abnormal.



Optimize connection using:



http://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php



Read the documentation first.



Other than that - reset your router, check your line, connectors and cables. Disable anything that's connecting but isn't needed. Check using something like:



http://tcpmonitor.altervista.org/tcpeye-network-monitoring/



There are tons of similar tools available.

Answer 4

go in ur control panel and uninstall the things u don't need from their. this may eventually let ur computer work faster.