My PC is connected directly by Ethernet, but downloads through Steam, Free Download Manager, qBittorrent, and regular browsers stay around 500–700 KB/s, which is roughly 4–6 Mbps. However, Fast.com and other speed tests report 70 Mbps or more, and normal web browsing works fine. Downloads on my phone do not have this problem. I use a 25 Mbps internet plan, and this issue has happened before but eventually disappeared. I have already tried using a VPN, disabling Energy Efficient Ethernet, resetting my IP, flushing DNS, performing a network reset, and updating the network adapter driver. What could be causing the difference between my speed-test results and actual download speeds?
3 Answers
First, make sure the units are being compared correctly. Internet plans and speed tests usually use Mbps, while download programs often show MB/s. One byte equals eight bits, so 5 Mbps is only about 0.625 MB/s, while a 25 Mbps connection should theoretically reach around 3.1 MB/s. Since you are seeing 500–700 KB/s, the connection is delivering roughly 4–6 Mbps during those downloads.
Try replacing the Ethernet cable, even if it looks fine, and make sure the cable runs directly to the router rather than through a repeater, powerline adapter, switch, or other device. Also check whether another device is using bandwidth during the test. Comparing with a different cable and a different router port can help rule out a local link problem.
A speed test does not guarantee that every download server will provide the same speed. Steam, torrent peers, file hosts, antivirus scanning, ISP routing, or traffic shaping can all limit individual downloads. Try downloading a large file from several reputable high-speed servers, and check Task Manager while downloading to see whether the Ethernet link is negotiating at 100 Mbps or 1 Gbps. If every source remains limited on the PC but the phone is fast, testing another cable, router port, and a clean Windows installation or live Linux environment would help isolate whether the issue is software or hardware.
Running ipconfig /release and ipconfig /renew can refresh the network connection, but it is unlikely to fix a consistent limit if DNS, drivers, and network reset have already been tried.
I have not tried another Ethernet cable yet. The PC is connected by cable, while my phone downloads normally.