Windows 7 64bit Very Slow Download Speeds

I too have just built a new computer and installed Win 7 only to discover that the download speed is very slow.  After disabling the firewall the speed is faster and back to acceptable speeds.  

But disabling the firewall does not seem like an acceptable solution.  Any other suggestions?

I bought a new top-of-the line HP Pavilion when Win 7 came out - fastest proc they offer, 12GB RAM, Win 7 64bit preloaded.  I've had it about 2 months.  The machine itself is lightning fast - but the internet download speed is molassas slow.  Would be faster to chisel in stone.

My home LAN has the Win7 box, my old HP running Vista (4GB RAM, about 3 years old) and an iMac (4 GB RAM, about a year old).  All 3 machines are connected physically to the router (no wireless connections).  It's a basic and no-frills network - I don't have a webserver, torrents, filesharing or anything like that.  Basic connectivity between machines, and internet access.  That's it.

My ISP is Comcast.

Here are my ul/dl speeds:

          UPLOAD    DOWNLOAD   PING

Win 7   ~3 Mb/s    > 1 Mb/s       88ms

Vista    ~3 Mb/s    20 Mb/s         89ms

iMac    ~3 Mb/s     20 Mb/s        88ms

(this according to speedtest.net)

The upload and download speeds on the old clunker Vista machine and on the iMac are as expected.  The Win 7 box upload is the same as the other machines - the download speed is slooooow.  Less than 1/20th of the Vista box or the iMac.

I also bought a new Linksys WRT210N Gigabit router.  Updated the firmware last night.  Updated the drivers for the Intel NIC in the Win 7 box.  Problem persists.

Rebooted the router & cable model (and the Win 7 box).  Problem persists.

Disabled IPv6, Discovery Mapper - basically everything except IPv4, QoS packet scheduler & file and print sharing.  Problem persists.

Booted into Safe Mode.  Problem persists.

Tried Firefox, Safari, Chrome & IE8 - no noticeable differences.

Disabled Norton A/V, Firewall, Win Defender.  No change.

Swapped the ethernet cable.  No change.

There is only one net device in Device Manager - the Intel 82567V-2  Gigabit NIC.  No conflicts of any sort that I can see.

Ran Windows Update to get the latest stuff - then disabled it.  No change.

Checked all the logs, ran diagnostics, and tried all the "netsh" tweaks I read about.  No change.

So, ultimately, this machine I sunk about $3K into is performing (online) like a snail.  It's almost unuseable, especially since 90% of my job involves online stuff.

I've read dozens - no, hundreds - of similar threads all over the internet, with people reporting the EXACT same conditions - expected upload speed, awful download speed.  So, this is obviously not an isolated problem, and it's not a problem with my ISP, router, modem, NIC, drivers, firewall, A/V or anything else.  It looks like a Win 7 problem - my question is, what is the solution??

Ferris?  Anyone?

Thanks!

I am a software developer and have worked with Windows since before the alphas of NT. Recently I aquired a brand new Dell Precision M6500 and installed Windows 7, Windows XP and Ubuntu Linux, triple booting as I need those environments. I have loaded all new drivers from Dell. Ubuntu has the fastest download speed with XP a little slower (when using Free Download Manager). I use Vista only on one machine because I have to! All my other machines still use XP. Even there recent updates are slowing them down and I re-install frequently.

Windows 7 is definitely a major improvement over Vista in general performance but its download speed sucks! Task manager reports only 2% of the bandwith is used after I've tried all the suggestions I can find. It's quicker to reboot into Linux or XP, download from there, then reboot into Windows 7! This is definitely a Windows 7 problem and it should have been found in QA before release.

I used to defend MS but have had difficult doing so since the launch of Vista. I've been told Windows isn't suitable as either a 7/24 or a C3I platform because of its unreliability and security holes. Several of my customers now use Linux and more are switching to OpenOfice.org for documents as it's easier to use, more powerful than MS Office, and it's FREE!.  MS has been described more than once recently as MicroSlop!

MS, get your act together quickly or you will loose even more market share to Linux!

What is your provisioned Comcast Speed?

What does the closest server to you report from http://speedtest.comcast.net/

(and where are you)

I've seen systems with that particular NIC where you need to specifically set

the duplex and speed and I have seen it auto negotiate only a 10 connection with

some routers and even direct to some cable modems.

On Tue, 24 Aug 2010 19:31:12 +0000, Stephen D. Metcalfe wrote:

>There is only one net device in Device Manager - the Intel 82567V-2  Gigabit NIC.  No conflicts of any sort that I can see.

Barb Bowman

http://www.digitalmediaphile.com

I had pretty much the same experience, but solved it two different ways and they both seemed to do the job. Pick the method that works best for you.

1) ... installed Ubuntu Linux, and download speed was awesome. That ruled out hardware or other network infrastructure. I still run it on another machine.

Well, ...re-installed Windows 7 from a clean OEM disk, thinking maybe the HP factory load was cruddy, and the slowness returned. Hmm... Okay, an OEM load from MS is no worse than the HP customized factory image (at least in terms of download speed). Don't get me started on their branding "enhancements". I ran Windows Update, but still no joy, none of the 42 or so updates seemed to address any issue with network speed.

2. So, on a wild hunch, ...updated the NVidia NIC driver and suddenly it's back to being a speed demon.

   Start  -> Control Panel  ->  System and Security  ->  System  ->  Device Manager  -> Network Adapters  ->  nVidia (original)

   Right click on the original nVidia adapter, and then select "Update Driver Software..."  It will go to the web, download an upgraded driver and apply the update, and then you should be good to go.

Hope that helps...