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httpx6 slower than httpx1 in speed test

jafreer
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httpx6 slower than httpx1 in speed test

My parents have ADSL with a PC connected directly to the router via ethernet cable.
When I run the TBB speed test, the X1 (single threaded) download speed is about correct at 6 Mbps (give or take).
However, the X6 (multi threaded) download speed is always about 1.7 Mbps (give or take).
Does anyone know why the multi threaded would be slower than the single threaded?
I tried disabling anti-virus and also tried various browsers with the same result. I did actually also connect to the router wirelessly via USB dongle just to rule out the ethernet card in the PC, but same result on wireless.
Any thoughts or suggestions appreciated.
12 REPLIES 12
spraxyt
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Re: httpx6 slower than httpx1 in speed test

How old is the PC? Wondering if its memory or processor speed is insufficient to cope with 6 streams?
Although I note you tried disabling anti-virus, which product is normally used? With Avast I excluded web shield scanning of TBB speedtester downloads to eliminate low X6 speeds (on a fibre connection in my case).
David
w23
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Re: httpx6 slower than httpx1 in speed test

Quote from: spraxyt
How old is the PC? Wondering if its memory or processor speed is insufficient to cope with 6 streams?

I've had exactly this on an old laptop which has a specific fault causing the processor to run very slow - if I use task manager while running this speedtest I can see the processor is maxed-out 100% during the httpx6 test and the result is a slow reported download.
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jafreer
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Re: httpx6 slower than httpx1 in speed test

Thanks for both the replies - much appreciated.
@spraxyt - yes it is an older computer but not so old that I thought it couldn't handle a multi threaded speed test (but what do I know). I will need to check but I think it as an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (from memory) and 6GB of RAM.
The antivirus is MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials) and I got the same result with it disabled.
@w23 I will try and check task manager next time I have access to the PC.
Thanks.
w23
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Re: httpx6 slower than httpx1 in speed test

Core 2 Quad should be well up to the task but, there again, so should my old Core 2 Duo T7500 - problem I found was mine kept dropping the processor clock to something like 200MHz (from 2.2GHz - seemed to be a problem with the speed-stepping capability kicking in, sometimes it would be OK if powered by the battery but speed dropped immediately the power supply was plugged in but it gradually got worse until it eventually ended up pretty much always running in 'snail-mode'.)
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jelv
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Re: httpx6 slower than httpx1 in speed test

You mean something like this?

That was on a new PC with an i5 processor and 8GB RAM.
Turned out to be a mismatch on the 32/64 versions of Windows/Firefox/Flash Player but I can't remember exactly what I changed to fix it!
jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
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jafreer
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Re: httpx6 slower than httpx1 in speed test

A small update on this. During a recent visit I ran the speedtest on my laptop and noticed that it too suffered from a slow httpx6 result. I initially suspected that the older PC my parents are using was the culprit, but apparently not. My laptop is a pretty fast machine so I am wondering is this is a modem/router issue.
The device in use is a TP-Link Archer D20. I can't find anything relating to slow multi-threaded speed tests.
Would I be correct in thinking that the modem/router is the only thing left that can be causing this?
Thanks in advance.
jelv
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Re: httpx6 slower than httpx1 in speed test

No.
My speed test above was on a very new PC with an i5-4460 CPU @ 3.20GHz with 8GB RAM which might lead you to think it was a router issue.
Since I sorted out the 32/64 conflict, on the same PC my speed tests are normal with the x1 and x6 giving the same results.
jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
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jafreer
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Re: httpx6 slower than httpx1 in speed test

Thanks for that jelv.
Only thing that may throw a spanner in the work with that theory is that I have no issues with the httpx6 speeds on my own broadband connection. So if it were the laptop, wouldn't I expect to see the slow result independent of what connection I was using?
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: httpx6 slower than httpx1 in speed test

Is it possible that the parent's broadband is standard "ADSL Max", or ADSL2 with capped upstream,  therefore during a single thread test there is enough upstream bandwidth to cope with the download speedtest,  but when six threads are running the upstream becomes saturated and hence causes the downstream tests to become limited.
jafreer
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Re: httpx6 slower than httpx1 in speed test

Thanks Nibiru - that may well indeed be what's going on. They have ADSL2+ with a 1Mbps upload. I must admit, I would think 1Mbps upload would be enough to handle the upstream traffic even on a multi thread download test, but I don't know enough to say that with any authority. One thing that did occur to me when you wrote your post is that they have an IP camera. I wouldn't expect that to be uploading if nobody is viewing it, but next time I visit I will repeat the speed test with the IP camera disconnected just in case.
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: httpx6 slower than httpx1 in speed test

Having a 1Mbps upstream probably eliminates my theory, at a guess I would say a 6 thread speedtest would need about 300Kbps upload to run at full speed.
Unfortunately my connection is being fully used by my family for the rest of the evening, otherwise I would have tried measuring my upload speed during a x6 download speedtest, to get you an accurate figure.  Perhaps someone else on ADSL2 could try and get a result ?

As an aside, next time you are visiting, it might be worth seeing whether their connection runs faster on ADSL2 rather than ADSL2+.
jafreer
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Re: httpx6 slower than httpx1 in speed test

Just a brief update on this. I tried disconnecting the webcam and the x6 speedtest still runs slower. So the only thing I can think of now is the router itself.

 

I forgot to try connecting as ADSL2 (as opposed to ADSL2+) but I will also try that next time I am there.

 

I think there may be quite a lot of errors on the line (based on the modem's rudimentary line stats) and I plan to reroute the phone cable and install a centralised filter at the master socket).

 

I assume there is no mechanism by which a high number of errors would result in a slow x6 speed test (but a normal x1 speed test)?

 

Thanks for any replies.