Internet is slow, I suspect ISP throttling. How could I prove this?

[cadabri]

My internet has been terrible for a while, I'm using spectrum and youtube videos struggle to play in 144p. I'm paying for a 300mbps, but constantly even regular web pages struggle to load. The moment I go to a speed test website, however, it always shows 150+, even though that's not what I pay for, that's better than what I'm actually seeing in usage. My modem is an ARRIS SB8200, my router is a Asus GT-AX11000 and I use a bitdefender box between them. My laptop uses a Killer 1535 card, so all of these devices should be capable of these speeds, the only thing I could see maybe harming it is the bitdefender box, but I don't think so. 

 

Does anybody see what could be the issue? If it is the ISP throttling the speed, how would I prove this? Thanks!

[Skiiwee29]

Have you tried bypassing everything and plugging directly into your modem and testing? This will 100% eliminate if its your equipment or not. 

[cadabri]

1 minute ago, Skiiwee29 said:

Have you tried bypassing everything and plugging directly into your modem and testing? This will 100% eliminate if its your equipment or not. 

I haven't yet because of the inconvenience, the throttling occurs some times and not others, so I'd have to find time to sit around my modem one day

[Skiiwee29]

Just now, cadabri said:

I haven't yet because of the inconvenience, the throttling occurs some times and not others, so I'd have to find time to sit around my modem one day

Well, next time you feel it, bypass everything and plug directly into your modem. Its the only way to for sure tell if its your ISP or not. 

[Donut417]

5 minutes ago, cadabri said:

My internet has been terrible for a while, I'm using spectrum and youtube videos struggle to play in 144p. I'm paying for a 300mbps, but constantly even regular web pages struggle to load. The moment I go to a speed test website, however, it always shows 150+, even though that's not what I pay for, that's better than what I'm actually seeing in usage. My modem is an ARRIS SB8200, my router is a Asus GT-AX11000 and I use a bitdefender box between them. My laptop uses a Killer 1535 card, so all of these devices should be capable of these speeds, the only thing I could see maybe harming it is the bitdefender box, but I don't think so. 

 

Does anybody see what could be the issue? If it is the ISP throttling the speed, how would I prove this? Thanks!

Judging by your location Im going to assume your talking Comcast, because PA is where their HQ is located. Comcast does NOT throttle. They used to, but they currently dont. Why? Because 90% of their foot print is under a 1.2 TB data cap, the faster you go over the cap the faster they can earn $10 for every 50 Gigs you go over with up to $200 in overage fees. ALSO you would see throttling most likely happening all the time. 

 

If your seeing issues at selected times of the day it could be due to congestion. Keep in mind Docsis cable internet your sharing bandwidth with everyone on your node. That could be a few hundred people. Another thing that can be happening is you marginal signals. Meaning that your signal could be dropping out of spec on select downstream/upstream channels causing performance issues. 

 

The first thing you need to do is do what @Skiiwee29suggested, take the router out of the equation. If it still happens, then you need to check your signals and ensure they are with in spec. If they are not within spec then you need to call the ISP. 

[cadabri]

2 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

Judging by your location Im going to assume your talking Comcast, because PA is where their HQ is located. Comcast does NOT throttle. They used to, but they currently dont. Why? Because 90% of their foot print is under a 1.2 TB data cap, the faster you go over the cap the faster they can earn $10 for every 50 Gigs you go over with up to $200 in overage fees. ALSO you would see throttling most likely happening all the time. 

 

If your seeing issues at selected times of the day it could be due to congestion. Keep in mind Docsis cable internet your sharing bandwidth with everyone on your node. That could be a few hundred people. Another thing that can be happening is you marginal signals. Meaning that your signal could be dropping out of spec on select downstream/upstream channels causing performance issues. 

 

The first thing you need to do is do what @Skiiwee29suggested, take the router out of the equation. If it still happens, then you need to check your signals and ensure they are with in spec. If they are not within spec then you need to call the ISP. 

Its actually spectrum

[Donut417]

1 minute ago, cadabri said:

Its actually spectrum

Still could be a signal issue. 

[cadabri]

2 hours ago, Skiiwee29 said:

Well, next time you feel it, bypass everything and plug directly into your modem. Its the only way to for sure tell if its your ISP or not. 

I just tried plugging right into the modem, and could not get internet from it, when I tried with the router though it worked, but was still slow. 

[Donut417]

Just now, cadabri said:

I just tried plugging right into the modem, and could not get internet from it, when I tried with the router though it worked, but was still slow. 

Did you reboot the modem when you did this? 

[Skiiwee29]

1 minute ago, cadabri said:

I just tried plugging right into the modem, and could not get internet from it, when I tried with the router though it worked, but was still slow. 

you likely need to reboot the modem to clear the CPE host in the network of the ISP. 

[cadabri]

18 minutes ago, Skiiwee29 said:

you likely need to reboot the modem to clear the CPE host in the network of the ISP. 

Okay so I just restarted and got the internet, I closed all the tabs and then opened one to give it the best shot and it worked reasonably okay, however when I opened the tabs I normally keep open (Maybe around 25 for various school, tracking, entertainment tabs) and it came back to being quite slow. The laptop I'm on has 32gb of ram so it should be able to handle these tabs fine, but maybe it is a hardware issue.

[cadabri]

25 minutes ago, Skiiwee29 said:

you likely need to reboot the modem to clear the CPE host in the network of the ISP. 

Actually, going back to WIFI it seems worse yet, so maybe it is a combination

[Donut417]

3 minutes ago, cadabri said:

Actually, going back to WIFI it seems worse yet, so maybe it is a combination

Some of your speed issue could be caused by congestion. Charter aka Spectrum does not value upgrades like Comcast does. Comcast has been deploying Node+0 in many areas, meaning no amps between you and your node. Charter on the other hand allows amps between users and the node which means there are more users on each node. The more users actively using the connection the slower it can become. 

 

Speeds on WiFi can vary due to a lot of reasons. Interference from other networks. Interference from devices that use the same bands as WiFI. The weather can have impact to an extent. The structure of your home will cause issues. 

 

You can try calling the ISP and seeing if they will help. Though likely they will blame your modem because thats why they generally do. You yourself can check your signals by going to 192.168.100.1. There might be log in info you need to fill out. I dont recall what he user name and password is, but you can look that up. 

 

https://www.dslreports.com/faq/16085

 

Compare your signals to the link above. Keep in mind that if your signal is with in 3dB's of being out of spec, your signal can change up to 3 dBs in a day, so that could indicate an issue. Also look at your correctable and uncorrectable errors. Especially the uncorrectable ones, because if you have lots of those on a channel that could indicate RF interference. Remember the cable system uses the same bands as broadcast TV, Radio, Cellular, etc. So if those service leak in to the cable system it can cause issues. Which is something the cable company would need to track down. 

[LAwLz]

5 hours ago, cadabri said:

Okay so I just restarted and got the internet, I closed all the tabs and then opened one to give it the best shot and it worked reasonably okay, however when I opened the tabs I normally keep open (Maybe around 25 for various school, tracking, entertainment tabs) and it came back to being quite slow. The laptop I'm on has 32gb of ram so it should be able to handle these tabs fine, but maybe it is a hardware issue.

Wait, so the speeds were fine until you opened up a bunch of tabs on your computer, and then everything became slow again?

Sounds like it's one or more of your tabs that are causing the issue, not the network itself. 

[tkitch]

12 hours ago, cadabri said:

Okay so I just restarted and got the internet, I closed all the tabs and then opened one to give it the best shot and it worked reasonably okay, however when I opened the tabs I normally keep open (Maybe around 25 for various school, tracking, entertainment tabs) and it came back to being quite slow. The laptop I'm on has 32gb of ram so it should be able to handle these tabs fine, but maybe it is a hardware issue.

 

My internet is perfectly fine until I open a buttload of browser windows trying to overload my computer!  What could have happened?!

[Falcon1986]

16 hours ago, cadabri said:

the only thing I could see maybe harming it is the bitdefender box,

Can you take this out of the equation while running the speed tests?

 

Also, are you running any software in the background that might be downloading/uploading? Are your speed tests being performed on a "quiet" network? Have you tried running the speed tests in a different browser or on a different device altogethre?

[tkitch]

1 minute ago, Falcon1986 said:

Can you take this out of the equation while running the speed tests?

 

Also, are you running any software in the background that might be downloading/uploading? Are your speed tests being performed on a "quiet" network? Have you tried running the speed tests in a different browser or on a different device altogethre?

He straight up said it tanks after he opens 2 dozen (plus) tabs for crap.  

[Nathanpete]

14 hours ago, cadabri said:

Okay so I just restarted and got the internet, I closed all the tabs and then opened one to give it the best shot and it worked reasonably okay, however when I opened the tabs I normally keep open (Maybe around 25 for various school, tracking, entertainment tabs) and it came back to being quite slow. The laptop I'm on has 32gb of ram so it should be able to handle these tabs fine, but maybe it is a hardware issue.

That's likely your problem. Close all those tabs (you can bookmark them under one folder in chromium based browsers with Ctrl+Shift+d) and try again on both a wired connection and wireless connection. Speedtest.net can be very CPU intensive and if you have also just opened ~25 other tabs in the last minute then speed test won't have much CPU room to work with and is being throttled by your CPU.

 

And if you are complaining about youtube, go into your browser settings and find Hardware Acceleration. Toggle it towards whatever the opposite of what it was set to. Then reboot your computer to be sure. Try again. 

And try a different browser, like if you are on chrome, try internet explorer or edge and see if the problems with both YouTube and internet speedtest persist.