Any Windows 10 Experts around?

[steve2006]

Just for a change I’m asking a question instead of answering one.

I generally use an iPad for my computer without any problems but recently decided, having seen the new Microsoft Flight Simulator, to buy a decent spec PC in order to run it.

I also purchased a Windows laptop secondhand.

Both are running Windows 10 but it is awful! Internet is so slow compared with apple and it is impossible to download any programmes as the wi-fi randomly drops out. I had pre ordered the Flight Simulator but fortunately cancelled it and was refunded.

Is it just me or is anyone else struggling with dial up internet speeds on windows?

 

[olliesgrandad]

I run Windows 10 on 2 laptops and a desktop. 

My thinkpad yoga x1 is about 4years old and very fast with i7 chip and 16mb ram. 

My desktop is a dell  refurbished unit with xeon quad core  E3 processor 32 gb ram an nvidia graphics card. Fantastically fast boot up and very fast overall. I use it for heavyweight photo processing in Adobe Lightroom where it breezes the processing 

I have got a 200mb fibre cable broadband from Virgin which clearly helps 

[m4rkw]

24 minutes ago, steve2006 said:

Is it just me or is anyone else struggling with dial up internet speeds on windows?

Windows itself is capable of high speed internet. Your issue is likely one of:

1) Poor wifi signal, I noticed that my work-provided surface laptop struggles with 2.4GHz wifi but works really well with 5GHz. This is counter-intuitive as normally 2.4GHz has better range. You should see if your wifi router provides a 5GHz SSID and try connecting to that instead of the 2.4GHz one.

2) Was the machine erased before you started using it? If not it may be full of junk software using up all the bandwidth. Try reinstalling windows from scratch.

3) Some kind of hardware issue, faulty wifi card for example. The above two are more likely though.

If it's happening on two windows machines then I would strongly suspect an issue with your wireless network rather than the windows machines themselves. Try plugging them into the router with an ethernet cable, if everything is suddenly very fast then you know the issue is the wireless network.

HTH
Mark

[Herbie]

All of the above plus one important point - both machines are likely to need updates and it's probably giving bandwidth preference to downloading these, thereby making other internet activity slow and laborious. Windows 10 is set to only do the updates 'out of hours' so that it doesn't interrupt the use of the machine, but it will download the updates at any time.

Also, don't forget that wifi will always be slower than ethernet due to the overheads it incurs. It's certainly not unusual for a wired connection to download at 60mbps for instance, while the same machine on wifi can be 30mbps or less.

The brand new machine should obviously be set up with the correct drivers already, but the secondhand machine not necessarily so, so it may be worth installing new drivers. Apart from the manufacturer's own websites, the only other drivers site I trust is https://www.snappy-driver-installer.org/  The Snappy Driver Installer is completely free to download and use and will give you a choice of just downloading the drivers necessary for the machine you're running it on, or you can download the whole database of nearly 40GBs-worth of drivers, which is great for computer techs like me who build and repair all manner of machines. If I reformat a drive or install a new one, I simply have to plug in the USB flash drive with the database on it and the installer does the rest, no matter which make and model of computer I'm working on.

One other thing that sometimes works is to turn all devices off but don't turn the router off with the switch, pull the power plug instead and leave it out for a couple of minutes. This is to ensure any residual current held in capacitors drains away so that a fault condition or corrupted setting can't be held. Power the router back up first and let it connect and stabilise; then, and only then, power up the other devices one by one, allowing each to come up to a stable working condition before powering on the next one.

[m4rkw]

7 hours ago, Herbie said:

Also, don't forget that wifi will always be slower than ethernet due to the overheads it incurs. It's certainly not unusual for a wired connection to download at 60mbps for instance, while the same machine on wifi can be 30mbps or less.

This should only be the case if he was using a very old or very poor quality router, or was some distance from it causing signal degradation. Even the previous standard 802.11n can easily max out an 80Mbit FTTC connection and most routers these days support 802.11ac which can easily support 800+Mbit and often much higher.

[nicnac]

13 hours ago, steve2006 said:

Just for a change I’m asking a question instead of answering one.

I generally use an iPad for my computer without any problems but recently decided, having seen the new Microsoft Flight Simulator, to buy a decent spec PC in order to run it.

I also purchased a Windows laptop secondhand.

Both are running Windows 10 but it is awful! Internet is so slow compared with Apple and it is impossible to download any programmes as the wi-fi randomly drops out. I had pre ordered the Flight Simulator but fortunately cancelled it and was refunded.

Is it just me or is anyone else struggling with dial up internet speeds on windows?

 

You  give little info on your setup , both provider service package , . etc Also no information on your hardware . It is impossible to make an informed diagnosis without infoermation . 

Speedtest your internet on all devices and see what is happening with nothing else open . Go from there . 

[Herbie]

2 hours ago, nicnac said:

You  give little info on your setup , both provider service package , . etc Also no information on your hardware . It is impossible to make an informed diagnosis without infoermation

But he does say:

Quote

Both are running Windows 10 but it is awful! Internet is so slow compared with Apple and it is impossible to download any programmes as the wi-fi randomly drops out

So, we can take from that that the router to 'outside world' Internet speed is good and not a problem. The problem lies with the two Windows machines on the internal wireless network.

[steve2006]

Thank you for your responses, both the laptop and desktop are secondhand but both have a fresh install of windows 10.

The pictures below show both specs.

I did try and connect the laptop via Lan but the port light does not come on the router to indicate connection and the laptop fails to connect.

 

[m4rkw]

run a continuous ping to the access point over a minute or two, post the output.

[Herbie]

25 minutes ago, steve2006 said:

I did try and connect the laptop via Lan but the port light does not come on the router to indicate connection and the laptop fails to connect.

That, plus the wifi issues, would point me initially to the drivers.

Windows 10 was designed to be 'intelligent' and sort of just 'work straight out of the box' so that anyone could be up and running quickly, even without much knowledge. An ideal example of this is a printer. Just plug it in and Windows 10 'recognises' it and installs it.

The problem is that it doesn't always get it right, or get the best driver for the job. Go to the link I provided above and use SDIO to install drivers and I'll almost guarantee it'll be better.

[Bluesman]

20 hours ago, steve2006 said:

Just for a change I’m asking a question instead of answering one.

I generally use an iPad for my computer without any problems but recently decided, having seen the new Microsoft Flight Simulator, to buy a decent spec PC in order to run it.

I also purchased a Windows laptop secondhand.

Both are running Windows 10 but it is awful! Internet is so slow compared with Apple and it is impossible to download any programmes as the wi-fi randomly drops out. I had pre ordered the Flight Simulator but fortunately cancelled it and was refunded.

Is it just me or is anyone else struggling with dial up internet speeds on windows?

 

"Is it just me or is anyone else struggling with dial up internet speeds on windows?"

We upped our package with BT to the fastest they have to offer and I haven't noticed any difference apart from the fact that its constantly dropping out.

[m4rkw]

4 minutes ago, Bluesman said:

We upped our package with BT to the fastest they have to offer and I haven't noticed any difference apart from the fact that its constantly dropping out.

Define "dropping out"? Without more detail it's hard to really know but that sounds like possibly another wifi issue (so not actually anything to do with the BT internet connection itself).

[Herbie]

1 hour ago, Bluesman said:

We upped our package with BT to the fastest they have to offer and I haven't noticed any difference apart from the fact that its constantly dropping out.

As Mark says above, we need more information. One thing I will say is that it takes about 10 days to stabilise the connection so if it's less than that, don't worry yet.

Think of the router/hub as the bouncer on a pub door - it separates the outside from the inside and acts as a gateway.

You can connect any device in the house to the internal wired/wireless network even if the phone line is broken, cut, or just plain not plugged into the router and all devices will work and be able to talk to each other as normal. For instance, if you have a wireless printer then any laptop, tablet or phone will be able to connect to the printer and print documents, photos and so on, even if the phone line is unplugged from the router.

So, first thing is to determine if it's the internal wifi network at fault and dropping out, or if it's the 'outside world' or Internet that's dropping out.

[ColinBarber]

17 hours ago, steve2006 said:

I did try and connect the laptop via Lan but the port light does not come on the router to indicate connection and the laptop fails to connect.

I assume the desktop has a LAN port - you can move that machine and connect directly to the router with a cable? If it works ok then we can assume it is a wifi issue.

[steve2006]

Thanks again for all the helpful information, when I get the chance ( work permitting) I will follow it up and report back.