This Just Doesn't Add Up..

Ok a few things you should know before we start:
- I am with Orange Internet.
- My Livebox is on the second floor of the house. The 2 computers are on the third floor about 2-3 metres away from each other.
- We (Myself and my brother) are both running wireless.
- We have the EXACT same computer.
- I am using an external network adapter (I think thats what its called? It screws into a gold coloured port, it stands on top of the computer and stands about 1 foot tall.

The Problem:
My download speed sucks. His doesn't. That's pretty much all there is to it. I get download speeds of 4-10kb/s, that's shockingly bad. However, he gets around 300-400kb/s download speed which in my eyes is pretty decent. It just doesn't make sense. I can play games fine, surf the internet at fair speeds, but when it comes down to downloading it's just plain awful.

I've tried ringing up technical support, had a 20 minute conversation with them with no luck.

When I hover over network and sharing center it says I have 4 out of 5 bars of connection which is 'Very Good'.


So my questions to you are:
- Why is his speed so much better than mine?
- Will switching to a different ISP help?
- Any advice as to what I can do to speed up my download speed?

Many thanks in advance.

 

Are you older or younger than your brother?

• If you're older: bully him into swapping PC's positions with you.
• If you're younger: I don't know.

 

Lol, i'm younger, regardless like I said position is not a problem as they are near enough the same distance from the router.

 

It may just be the amount of information on your computer, if you have shitloads of downloaded stuff and his is clean his will be faster, try getting rid of ALL unnecessary programs and such and see what happens.

 

Tried re-formatting etc. everything.

If anything his is more cluttered. Mine was upgrade to 1TB hard drive and 4gb RAM, whereas his is still 250GB hard drive and 2gb RAM.

His hard drive is nearly full, I have atleast half left, so I highly doubt that's the problem.

Besides, I doubt that would affect download speed, thanks for the suggestion anyway.

 

Didn't read...
will edit when I think of something else


edit:

Maybe you have a virus??
are you completely wiping your computer? or just reinstalling windows? (if its windows...)

also there could be something under or around you that could be effecting you..
like for me, when my computer is near my mirror, witch is closer to the router, it will slow down alot..
when its next to my bed, its faster...
There could be something in the floor, like heavy wiring...
have you tried moving your computer??

 

Virus.. Nah, got NOD32 and Malwarebytes. Not to mention re-installed my OS 2-3 times for various reasons in the past. Always been like this.

As for moving the computer, it was initially downstairs but that was even worse with constant disconnections etc.

My new Sky Broadband should be here soon hopefully that clears it up.

 

Maybe your adapter sucks or you have some ports closed?

 

My firewall is permanently off as I play COD alot of the time, and things like that.

@ Adapter thing, my mums laptop also gets 300-400kb/s, and my brother doesn't even have an adapter.

 

It’s probably due to the bandwidth being in his favour. I had this concern when my parents bought a new laptop. Make him put the bandwidth 50-50. I don’t know much about this so I can’t personally tell you how to change it since my brother did it for me. Perhaps look on the internet on how to change bandwidth.
Hope I helped.

 

you need to leave orange asap, before i went with virgin media i was with them, they are easily the worst isp in the uk.

99% of people at the orange call centres are indian (i have gotten through to several people who speak ok english though) which makes it really frustrating when trying to sort shit out. they also have shitty caps (even on the 8meg unlimited package) and shitty pings for gaming.

my advice though if youre going to stay would be to ditch the livebox modem/router and get a new one, preferably linksys or dlink because the livebox, like the service provided by orange, sucks.

also i dont think you can split the bandwidth on the livebox.