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The original was posted on /r/linustechtips by /u/pm_me_WAIT_NO_DONT on 2023-08-07 19:05:44+00:00.

I consider myself pretty tech literate, but getting the most out of my internet is definitely one of my biggest shortcomings. Generally I set my DNS to 8.8.8.8/8.8.4.4, set my computer to highest priority in my router settings, and just go on with my life. But my Steam download speeds are terrible and I’m wondering what I can do about it.

The speed I pay for from my ISP is 600mb over fiber. Using Netgear speed test on my phone, I generally get 250up/down, but when I run a speed test on my PC (over wifi) I get 11down/4up. Wifi is my only option for the PC since I don’t have an easy way to hardline (without putting holes in the wall or running cables throughout the house; I’m so sick of these shit speeds that that I may just start drilling if that ends up being the community consensus). I assumed my poor speeds were due to my wifi limitations, but I ran into some odd circumstances which I’ll show below:

Speed after turning off smart TV/streaming

I had my TV streaming Hulu in the other room, so I turned it off when I began my download. Here Steam shows I got a speed spike immediately when I did that, but then for some reason the speeds go back down? If my wifi was limited to the 8mb/s or so it was doing previously, how would it go up to 21.5mb/s? And then why did it not maintain those speeds afterwards?

Speed after unplugging the TV from power

So then I removed the barrel plug from the TV to completely cut any possibility of network usage. The network speeds didn’t change this time, but for some reason my disk speeds went up, and then went back down to what it was doing prior?

No hardware seems to be running anywhere near capacity, so I don’t understand where my bottleneck is. It would make sense if it was just the limit of my wifi, but then why did I get the speed spike when I turned off my tv that quickly shot back down? Is it actually just my wifi 6 that is limiting my speeds or is there something else I can troubleshoot to try and increase my speeds?