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General discussion

low download speed in Vista

Jul 20, 2007 6:08PM PDT

Hi, I have Vista Ultm. 64bit and my ISP limit is 8600/1120 kbps. When I run speed tests or download from any server, it never exceeds 4000 kb/s. But if I run something in background let's say windows solitaire Happy the download speed immediately goes up to average 7000-7500 and stays like that until I shut solitaire down. Anyone have any ideas on that?

Discussion is locked

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Strange?
Jul 21, 2007 3:38AM PDT

That is pretty wierd about getting better speeds with something else running.
The RWIN (recieve window) is set automatically for the best download in Vista so that shouldn't be a problem.
First, the speed tests that are out there are very unreliable.
Go to a site like Microsoft, HP or Adobe that has a big pipe and download a file in the 15 to 20 MG or more and cancel it at about 50 or 60% and see how it comes out.
Are you behind a router? If so take that out of the mix and hook your computer straight to the modem.
Are you running ethernet or USB to the modem? I know stange things happen when using USB.
I Have Comcast Cable for my Internet and using ethernet and after I installed Vista my speeds actually went up and have stayed up for the past 6 months. The only difference is I have Vista home premium 32 bit.
Good luck.
Wayne

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re:
Jul 21, 2007 6:46AM PDT

I'm connected directly to a cable modem (via ethernet, onboard DFI). I tried downloading big files from rapidshare (and other reliable sites like Microsoft.com) and I can see the speed gain with realtime monitoring tools like Bandwidth Monitor or G15 Netspeed. I also tried different TCP/IP settings with disabled auto tuning in Vista Manager but it had no effect.