Not getting Ignite 500 speeds via Ethernet to PC or Laptop

[kiki95r]

Forced to switch to Rogers. Ignite 500 plan. I have a desktop PC (Windows 10) and a faithful Laptop (Windows 7). When connected by a short, brand new, CAT6A Ethernet cable (and the red port of the XB8 Ignite gateway), I get nowhere near the 500Mbps speeds I'd expect (75-180-220 Mbps). (For reference my phone gets nearly 700 Mbps, obviously via the WiFi - so clearly the service is there.) Both the PC and the Laptop have 1G capable ethernet connections. The PC also has a PCIe WiFi card.

The story:

Initially was sent the XB6 gateway. Tech #1 arrived with his Rogers-issued Win7 laptop. He got same speeds via ethernet cable as I get. Agreed something was wrong. Swapped to a different XB6. No difference. Tech told me to request an XB8 model.

XB8 arrived. No improvement in Ethernet speeds. Only difference, in fact, was the LOSS of the ability for my PC to even see my WiFi signal. (Did not have problem seeing/connecting to the XB6 WiFi). My PC sees all kinds of neighbours' WiFi signals, but no longer sees mine.

Second tech arrived (Rogers employee, not contractor but also not the “senior tech” I was promised). Nice kid but completely unhelpful. Just told me what they taught him in training to, effectively, blame the customer’s hardware and leave. Really knows nothing more. Tested the line/gateway. Phone showed good speeds so "The problem is with your hardware" and effectively closed the case since Rogers' responsibilities apparently end at the modem.

Called in and got a 'Manager' who also really knew nothing but walked me through an obvious script involving things like shutting off Advanced Security, resetting network settings, telling me to search online for some random IPV4 Cmd prompt commands and run whatever I found. Obviously, nothing made a difference.

I keep asking someone to explain why, when I have 1Gbps Ethernet capabilities for both of my computers, can I not get the 500+Mbps that is available? They all insist that my hardware (in 2 different devices) has suddenly and simultaneously failed, which is clearly ridiculous - especially when Tech #1's Rogers-issued laptop showed THE SAME problem as I am having.

Obviously, I had already looked for any new drivers/updates and installed whatever the manufacturers provided for both ethernet components and also the PC's WiFi card. I even ordered 2 new items. First a new PCIe to 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet Network Adapter (TP-Link 2.5GB PCIe Network Card TX201) and a USB 3.0 Ethernet dongle (TP-Link USB3.0 to 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN Network Adapter). Remarkably, the Ethernet/USB3 dongle maxed out around 80Mbps on my devices and also on a friend’s 1 year old Win11 laptop. The 2.5Gig PCIe card was absolutely no faster than my native Ethernet port on my MoBo.

I keep trying to get Rogers to acknowledge that their Ignite Gateways are obviously not backwards compatible with older devices. While the loss of seeing my own WiFi signal (but still seeing my neighbours’) is frustrating because I want to understand what’s going on, THE problem I need help with is the failure to obtain the expected 500+Mbps via Ethernet to my 2 computers. I only know so much about computer hardware/firmware etc. but it sure seems to me like it’s like a ‘dialect’ issue. Sure, the Gateway can produce a great/fast signal but however it’s delivering that signal to my devices is not sufficiently intelligible by them. TBH, it would be easier for me to accept if I got NOTHING via ethernet. But, instead, I get 70-180-220Mbps via Ethernet (while my phone continues to get ~700Mbps) on my Ignite500 plan) – even though both computers have Gigabit Ethernet specs.

I'd appreciate any help to explain (at the very least) or fix (fingers crossed) this situation. I’ve been spending far too long on this. As a disabled person, I don’t have the time or energy (or money) to waste. Thank you.

Addendum, in case this is useful information (Network Properties) :

Link speed (Receive/Transmit):   1000/1000 (Mbps)

IPv6 address:    

Link-local IPv6 address: 

IPv6 DNS servers:         

IPv4 address: 

IPv4 DNS servers:       

Primary DNS suffix:      phub.net.cable.rogers.com

Manufacturer:    Realtek

Description:      Realtek PCIe GbE Family Controller

Driver version:   10.72.524.2024

Physical address (MAC):           

[kiki95r · Accepted solution]

Well, my friend, I must say you have been most helpful.....and discouraging. lol

I am very grateful for the Linux tip. Extremely eye-opening, and also a bit puzzling.

Using Linux:

Via Ethernet (CAT5 cable, just for fun):

Via WiFi - Using Linux, amazingly (/s), even my WiFi card saw my own WiFi signal. I don't understand why it didn't give me the 300Mbps speeds that it is capable of. But, as I say, that WiFi card is more of a curiosity and not my main problem.

So, with increasing dread, I did a quick install of  Win10 onto a different HDD just to test your theory.

😭 

 (Side note, the fresh Win10 install was NOT able to see my Wifi Signal (but Linux could).

So now I'm at a crossroads and have a request for your thoughts on what to do now.

First, some context. My current Win10 install was a fresh (not upgrade) install only 16 months ago. I made a clone of the system drive after about 6 months. So, in an effort to try to narrow this down, I booted up the clone (which I think would have had most of all of my current programs etc. by that point) and the speeds were lousy just like my current situation. Mind you, it was in a NON-STOP process of doing mandatory Windows Updates and I was not allowed to stop them. So the CPU was pretty busy during this test. I don't think that really was the problem but I'd be open for your thoughts.

So I'd like your opinion so I can decide whether it's worth doing a format/reinstall of my current drive. I ask because, as a disabled person, I am seriously struggling just to do daily tasks and a whole reinstall of my system is a massive demand on my injured brain. Not to mention that some of my software is old and is a PITA to get running on newer OS. Plus, some of the installs only allow "x" number of installs and I'd run out of installs on that Key Code and that would be hours of calling the company trying to get fixed etc.

All that to say, a fresh install would not be quick or easy. I'd be willing to do it, BUT (and here's my question), what do you think got messed up in the current situation and is that likely to just get messed up again as I try to get things up and running again? Like is old software and legacy drivers for my scanner etc etc etc possibly the reason this is messed up? I have trouble imagining this is the case but, frankly, I really don't know enough about Windows to know HOW this can get messed up. Unless someone can tell me how to do it, it does not appear that I can just stop all Windows Updates so if it's Windows update is responsible, that would make a reinstall pointless. (To that point, do you know if the Win10 .ISO I downloaded TODAY to do the Win10 install on the other HDD would already contain the updates....up to current date? If so, then maybe I can rule out Win10 updates as the culprit?

I'm sure I have more questions but I'm going to send this now. I'd really appreciate your thoughts on the probability of me somehow messing up a fresh install (just by installing older software and drivers for peripherals etc.) which would ultimately make it an entire waste of time to bother in the first place. Or, put another way, do you have any idea what might have gotten screwed up with my current OS and can it be avoided were I to proceed to reinstall?

THANK YOU so much for sharing your wisdom with me. 

[kiki95r]

I, unfortunately, am not too skilled navigating this forum but, as far as I can tell, you may not have seen my last reply (and questions). I thought you might be interested in the findings but I'm really hoping you might weigh in on the questions at the end. Thank you.

[-G-]

@kiki95r Hi.  Sorry.  Did not mean to ignore your post.  My expertise is primarily with macOS/Unix/Linux.  I am not a Windows expert; just a reluctant Windows user who uses it only when I absolutely need to.  Since I primarily use my system for testing, I am very meticulous about everything that gets installed on it and go to great lengths to maintain a very clean installation.

As I said, there are a gazillion things that could slow a Windows installation (and a web browser) down that I don't even know where to start troubleshooting.

[kiki95r]

Cool. Thanks. Certainly, because of your help, I know that my hardware is both capable and functioning. And that is invaluable because I can stop wondering what is going on and I can stop fussing with "drivers" etc. So a million thank yous for helping me identify, at least, what is NOT the problem.

It leaves me with the decision of whether to take the chance of wasting time and energy I simply do not have to spare to format/reinstall Win10. I suppose if I ever managed to do that, it might illuminate the question on whether completely unrelated incidental software is actually capable of messing up the running of networking hardware/drivers.

If you're interested, if I ever do it and have success, I'll let you know.

Until then, thank you very much, again. All the best.

[-G-]

@kiki95r Yes, please keep us posted with your progress.

I see that both our computers have Realtek Gigabit Ethernet adapters.  My driver is a 2021 variant that shipped with Windows 11.  I never had any problems with it when running Windows 10 either.

FYI, I have an ACER low-end gaming desktop PC with a Core i5 processor.  It originally shipped with Windows 10 and it has a Realtek Gaming Gigabit Ethernet interface.  The first thing that I did with it was create install media, so that I could reinstall the factory-default software image.  I updated the system and made sure that the BIOS was up-to-date.  The next thing that I did was perform the Give Your PC a Fresh Start procedure to rid of crapware and get as close as I could to a pure, basic Windows installation.  I stuck to the drivers that shipped with Windows and always used a wired Ethernet connection.

I upgraded the system to Windows 11 and, again, continued to stick to the drivers that shipped with Windows.

The only exception to the above was with Wi-Fi.  The system shipped with an Intel AX201 Wi-Fi 6 module.  It performed well with my own Wi-Fi hardware but when I tested with the XB7 gateway, performance was HORRIBLE.  I installed up-to-date drivers from Intel and that fixed the problem.

I was also given the opportunity to be one of Rogers early testers of their XB8 gateway.  With those same drivers, I had all sorts of performance problems with the XB8's Broadcom Wi-Fi 6E chipset and drivers.  I also experienced poor performance with my Mac.  Eventually, with the latest Intel drivers and updated firmware on the XB8, Wi-Fi performance improved... but the XB7's Wi-Fi at the time still performed better.

I also wanted to test Wi-Fi 6E connectivity on the XB8, so I replaced the AX201 module with an AX210.  I was hoping to break Gigabit speeds but experienced all sorts of stability problems with the connection and could rarely attain even 200 Mbps transfer speeds, even at close range.  It wasn't until January, 2023, that Rogers finally shipped firmware for the XB8 that resolved connectivity issues with my Mac.  It took a lot of debugging on my part to confirm that the problem was purely driver-related.  When I finally got stable drivers from Intel, I was able to connect reliably on the 6 GHz channel and attain transfer speeds in excess of 1.8 Gbps.

You can experience slow speeds with Wi-Fi if the hardware/drivers in your computer do not place nicely with the hardware/drivers on the Wi-Fi access point.  Also, obviously, if you are in an area with a lot of Wi-Fi congestion.

Server-class Ethernet cards can be problematic.

USB-connected network adapters can also perform poorly, depending on driver support.

However, desktop-class PCI Gigabit Ethernet controllers, with Intel or Realtek hardware, should perform well with drivers that ship with Windows, with default settings.

A web browser can perform poorly, depending on the extensions that you have installed and how many tabs you have open.  If you have ever downgraded a web browser after running into a problem after an upgrade, this can damage the browsers' profile, the files where the browser's data and configuration files are stored.

Third-party security software can slow your Windows system down and affect network performance.

Similarly, if your computer's CPU is loaded or if you have 3rd-party hardware installed that generates a ton of interrupts, that can also affect your network performance.

On Windows, Task Manager can provide you with CPU, Memory, Disk and Network stats.  When troubleshooting performance problems, the tools in Microsoft's Sysinternals suite can also be helpful.

Obviously, it's essential that you obtain all software and drivers only from a trustworthy source, ideally from their publisher.

Best of luck with your troubleshooting.  Hopefully you will not need to revert back to a clean installation.