spotty internet, cannot download apps
Hello,
I have been unable to download or install required drivers/applications for the past few days. Downloads are halted with the notification “Couldn’t download- network issue”. It’s a struggle to search for solutions, as sites take an obscenely long time to load or open/close due to the lack of a stable network. When I check the Network Connections, WiFi 6 seems to be working fine, yet these issues are occurring. A swift response/solution is appreciated, as I am limited to my desktop for school work at this time. Thank you.
Answers
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Hello and welcome to the Spectrum Community!
I do apologize for the issues with the service. Are you seeing the issue on all devices or just some? I was able to find your account from you community login information and am not seeing any issues with your modem or router and it shows it is pulling in the correct speeds. Can you also do a speed test by going here to see what it shows and send us the results?
-Tyleen
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Hi,
I used my phone to run the test since it is difficult to access the site on my desktop. Is that okay? If not, I can at set aside some time to attempt the test on my computer. Here are the results from the test from my phone.
Thank you.0 -
If it is a Windows desktop, the network stack may have gotten some flow control values knackered during a Windows Upate... Basically, it leaves you in a restricted transfer window size state as though you were experiencing high congestion/error rates.
Doesn't happen often, but it does happen.
There are some fairly simple ways to reset it. But you will need to have the ability to run something with elevated admin privilege (right-click a shortcut and Run as Admin, be able to install a system driver, that kind of thing). I bring that up only because some work/school issued laptops may have the user account set to a restricted role that cannot do these kinds of things.
Should note that any method to reset these values will require a reboot to implement the changes, so be prepared for that as well.
In years past, we would either remove/reinstall the network card drivers or run one or more commands from an admin command prompt scope to reset certain things to default. But those approaches come with the caveat of making sure you back things up first in case you need/want to revert things.
Thankfully, the people at speedguide.net host a handy tool at thier website that not only does it all with a few clicks... but it also offers to back up current values and has a way to restore things as well.
The tool is called TCP Optimizer. There will be a link to it on the panel along the left of the homepage.
The tool came to be during much older versions of windows where the transfer windows and such were set to static values and we needed to tweak them to better match the various levels of bandwidth and packet round trip travel times to optimize throughput and responsiveness.
The magic of the tool lies in it's option to reset everything to the Windows defaults.
Just have to make sure to right-click and launch as administrator so it has the rights to run the network shell commands.
It will try to detect your active network adapter and current values... or you can select it from a drop list, or choose all network adapters if you have both ethernet and wifi controllers you want to manage at the same time.
Click to reset to defaults and apply the changes. It will prompt about making a backup (which can be used to restore settings from the drop menus up top), then give a prompt about rebooting the system. It will run the necessary commands from a popup command terminal, resetting all the registry settings and such and bounce the system.
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Downloaded TCP Optimizer, launched as administrator, then restored everything to Windows defaults. Everything is still running very slow. I had uninstalled Steam and GeForce Experience while I was troubleshooting, so I have been trying to reinstall them to no avail. Still cannot download games or drivers.
The internet isn't nearly as slow when I WFH with the company desktop. I log into my company's VDI, but from home.
I am not sure what else to try. I really need this fixed in order to complete assignments.
Thank you.
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Curious if you are still proxylocked/tunneling through the work network?
Could cause all manner of weirdness because of the redirection through thier network.
Have you been in touch with thier IT department?
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Downloaded TCP Optimizer, launched as administrator, then restored everything to Windows defaults. Everything is still running very slow. I had uninstalled Steam and GeForce Experience while I was troubleshooting, so I have been trying to reinstall them to no avail. Still cannot download games or drivers.
The internet isn't nearly as slow when I WFH with the company desktop. I log into my company's VDI, but from home.
I am not sure what else to try. I really need this fixed in order to complete assignments.
I have included some of my network properties below:
SSID:
SpectrumSetup-BD
Protocol:
Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax)
Security type:
WPA2-Personal
Manufacturer:
Intel Corporation
Description:
Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6 AX201 160MHz
Driver version:
22.200.0.6
Network band:
2.4 GHz
Network channel:
6
Link speed (Receive/Transmit):
17/81 (Mbps)
Link-local IPv6 address:
IPv4 address:
192.168.1.60
IPv4 DNS servers:
192.168.1.1 (Unencrypted)
DNS suffix search list:
lan
Please let me know if there is any additional information that I can provide that may help you narrow down solutions.
Thank you.
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Oof... 2.4ghz, and on channel 6. And you are bonding to a 160hz width too.
Can put you in a hotspot for various sources of interference... microwaves and Bluetooth devices, just to name a couple. Not to mention, the 2.4ghz band often caps out at 86mbps in either direction... and that requires strong, clean signal.
If you cannot latch onto the 5ghz radio, you are typically better off rooting to Channel 1... and bonding like 40hz width, 80 tops. .Gives you the best chance to avoid a decent chunk of the more common sources of microwave based sources.
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Yikes... brain got a little ahead of my typing and mixed the recommendations up.
2.4ghz band is best to root at channel 1 (20 width), or 3 (40 width) to avoid more common microwave sources of interference. Some routers may provide a 20/40 option in case you expect some devices may not support the wider channels.
A similar 40/80 option may be available on the 5ghz band as well... otherwise 5ghz should be either 40 or 80 width for a balance between potential bandwidth, compatibility, and flexibility to find a clear channel.
The wider the channel, the fewer options to switch to move away from noise (the more likely you are to run into more noise from others). While 5ghz can benefit nicely from bonding wider channels because there are more overall channels to work with... 2.4ghz is way more restrictive. You only have 2 options to find a mostly clean channel at 40 width in the 2.4ghz spectrum. So it is not uncommon to see that radio set for 20 for more flexibility/reliability. Likewise, the 5ghz band gets more flexibility/reliability at 80 than 160--but sometimes it's still better to run 40 for consistency if there is a lot of noise in the area.
When it comes to wireless... you generally want to shoot for clear channels first before branching out to wider channels.
Sometimes you have to make the call between a more consistent, reliable middle ground for throughput with narrower channels against potential higher peaks (and possibly extreme lows) when using wider channels.
I imagine that 17/81 rating in that snapshot was due to either excessive noise or low signal power. May be worth trying narrower channels to see if/how much it may improve throughput--but do it on BOTH radios. The 160 width on 5ghz may be preventing some of your devices from even connecting to 5ghz altogether.
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