Why is my upload speed faster on my phone on WiFi than on any PC?

[Magogan]

I did multiple speed tests on multiple PCs via LAN and WiFi but my android phone is much faster on the same WiFi.

 

I get about 70-90 Mbps upload speed on my PCs/laptops but I get 130-140 on my phone using the speedtest app.

 

I just cannot get those speeds on any computer, not even when I upload something via FTP or to Google Drive or something.

 

I have also verified that the speed in the speedtest app is accurate using another app that shows my network speed.

 

How is this even possible? I'm so confused.

[Cyberwolf]

It may have to due with hardware or certain settings on your pc but this is normal

[BiotechBen]

Your phone may have a better antenna array or better chipset. 

[Magogan]

2 minutes ago, BiotechBen said:

Your phone may have a better antenna array or better chipset. 

Better than a cable? Seems implausible.

 

38 minutes ago, Cyberwolf said:

It may have to due with hardware or certain settings on your pc but this is normal

This makes no sense to me. How can this be normal?

[Donut417]

16 minutes ago, Magogan said:

Better than a cable? Seems implausible.

What speed is the Ethernet ports rated at? If your Ethernet ports are only rated for 100 Mbps for example then yeah the WiFi can be better than a cable.

[Tetras]

24 minutes ago, Magogan said:

Better than a cable? Seems implausible.

Unlikely, but possible if you have slow ethernet.

[Cyberwolf]

42 minutes ago, Magogan said:

Better than a cable? Seems implausible.

 

This makes no sense to me. How can this be normal?

I believe a lot of us have this problem 

[Magogan]

1 hour ago, Donut417 said:

What speed is the Ethernet ports rated at?

Gigabit. I have also verified that it is fast enough with a local file transfer. And the download speed is around 200 Mbit/s.

[Falcon1986]

3 hours ago, Magogan said:

I get about 70-90 Mbps upload speed on my PCs/laptops but I get 130-140 on my phone using the speedtest app.

 

58 minutes ago, Magogan said:

Gigabit. I have also verified that it is fast enough with a local file transfer. And the download speed is around 200 Mbit/s.

1. Can you clarify the download and upload speeds you’re paying your ISP for?
2. What type of internet connection do you use?
3. What make/model of network hardware are you using? Starting from the ISP device, router, switch, etc.
4. What category of ethernet are you using? Are your computers reporting 1Gbps link speed at their respective NICs?

[Magogan]

17 minutes ago, Falcon1986 said:

Can you clarify the download and upload speeds you’re paying your ISP for?

I actually cannot because it is DSL + LTE. Only DSL is constant at 100/40 MBit/s, LTE is whatever I get on top of that. Usually it is around 200 down combined. Not sure what the upload speed is. It has been around 65 with the old router but it seems to be faster with the new one. It was actually faster on my phone with the old router as well, but only by 5-10 MBit/s.

19 minutes ago, Falcon1986 said:

What make/model of network hardware are you using? Starting from the ISP device, router, switch, etc.

Telekom Speedport Smart 4 + 5G Antenna

Linksys WRT1900AC

Several different computers I have tested it with. Phone is an LG G6.

21 minutes ago, Falcon1986 said:

What category of ethernet are you using? Are your computers reporting 1Gbps link speed at their respective NICs?

Gigabit Ethernet everywhere.

[Falcon1986]

On 2/14/2024 at 9:15 PM, Magogan said:

I actually cannot because it is DSL + LTE. Only DSL is constant at 100/40 MBit/s, LTE is whatever I get on top of that.

As in a load balancing or failover setup?

[Alex Atkin UK]

On 2/15/2024 at 2:15 AM, Magogan said:

I actually cannot because it is DSL + LTE. Only DSL is constant at 100/40 MBit/s, LTE is whatever I get on top of that. Usually it is around 200 down combined. Not sure what the upload speed is. It has been around 65 with the old router but it seems to be faster with the new one. It was actually faster on my phone with the old router as well, but only by 5-10 MBit/s.

If its load balancing then no real-world workloads can balance over upload that I'm aware of.  The data will be sent randomly over one of the Internet connections.  Sometimes it will be DSL, sometimes it will be LTE.

 

Downloads work because the servers at the other end just think you are two different computers.  Speed test also work because they perform the test over multiple different servers, so your router will randomly assign each upload thread to a different Internet connection.

 

Its not truly random as the router likely is doing round-robin, alternating between DSL and LTE.  But as that applies to all traffic on the LAN, it may as well be random.

[Magogan]

On 2/16/2024 at 8:39 PM, Falcon1986 said:

As in a load balancing or failover setup?

Technically, it is neither of those. The data is sent and received via DSL unless you need more speed than is available, in which case LTE is used on top of that. If DSL fails, LTE is also used.

 

On 2/17/2024 at 3:00 AM, Alex Atkin UK said:

If its load balancing then no real-world workloads can balance over upload that I'm aware of.

The data is sent over both connections, then combined on the ISP's server and sent to the target on a single connection. So it can combine download and upload speeds even if there is only a single connection to the other party.

[Alex Atkin UK]

6 hours ago, Magogan said:

Technically, it is neither of those. The data is sent and received via DSL unless you need more speed than is available, in which case LTE is used on top of that. If DSL fails, LTE is also used.

 

The data is sent over both connections, then combined on the ISP's server and sent to the target on a single connection. So it can combine download and upload speeds even if there is only a single connection to the other party.

Nice, its rare for ISPs to offer full bonded connections and even rarer if it indeed is able to intelligently only use DSL until more bandwidth is required, as that helps mitigate the latency/out-of-order packet problems with bonding.

 

So it seems we may be back to Windows glitchy network stack.  I never figured out why my PCs had similar problems, it just happened one day after a Windows Update and fixed itself later with another.  Although my phone still has more consistent WiFi performance than any PC.