Super slow ethernet on on Google Speed Test

Question

Super slow ethernet on on Google Speed Test

I am having a very tough time figuring out what is going on lately with my internet connection over ethernet. I'm on an old mac pro 2010 and Mojave. I have Fios 1 gig internet service. If I do a speed test thru Verizon or ookla I get results that I would expect, in the 800's mbps down and similar upload speeds. Everything was fine until a couple of weeks ago. However, if I do a speed test with google's internet speed test with M-Lab, I get results like 4 mbps down and .2 mbps up. I wouldn't care what the results were, if it weren't for some issues I'm having on youtube and other sites randomly. Videos will stutter and play at resolutions of 144 or 360. Sometimes webpages graphics won't load, similar to being on dial up.

I've taken the same ethernet cable and plugged it into my wife's windows laptop to get normal results on the google speed test

I have replaced the cable, switched ethernet ports on mac and router, reset PRAM and SMC, started in Safety mode, and "created new ethernet connections" in system preferences and changed DNS settings to google and cloudflare with no improvement.

Switching to wifi, I get results that I would expect on all speed tests considering the wifi capabilities of the 2010 mac pro.

Could the ethernet ports on the mac be bad? I am at a total loss.

Mac Pro, macOS 10.14

Posted on Aug 9, 2022 1:06 PM

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Answer 1

Aug 9, 2022 1:55 PM in response to sirihatesmealot

do you have IPv6 set to "link-local only? this allows Bonjour Discovery service to work without causing unexpected Routing activity on IPv6.

what speed is the link set for?

if using older than Big Sur, you can get ACTUAL connection speed and error counters from Network utility:

.

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Answer 2

Aug 9, 2022 1:25 PM in response to sirihatesmealot

Packets going to the Internet are sent to the TOPMOST, WORKING interface shown in

sytem preferences > networks

If that is Wi-FI, that is what you just tested.

Choose the gear icon and 'Set Service Order' and drag Ethernet to the TOP of the list and leave it there. (When the cable is not connected, it will not count as WORKING and will be ignored.)

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Answer 3

Aug 9, 2022 2:48 PM in response to sirihatesmealot

Actually changing that setting fixed it! I am now getting much better results with the google speed test, (700s down, 300s up) although not quite as good as ookla.

Thank you so much! Youtube is loading normally again. I can't believe that I had to change that setting which has been set to automatically for years with no issues until very recently.

Thank you for your help.

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Answer 4

Aug 9, 2022 2:49 PM in response to sirihatesmealot

The only time I have ever seen a lot of errors like that was when the speed was over 100 Mbits/sec, AND I had a broken wire in a cable-end.

A mis-wire in the cable could also do that, or possibly a bad port, or peanut butter on the port contacts, but those are less likely.

The reason I qualify with over 100 is that cables 100 or less are running baseband and using only two pairs. Above 100 requires a modulated signal on four working pairs.

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Answer 5

Aug 9, 2022 2:32 PM in response to sirihatesmealot

YES, set IPv6 to Link-local Only.

Otherwise some modern Routers will try to accommodate you and route those packets, which comes to no good.

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Answer 6

Aug 9, 2022 2:36 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Okay thanks, I switched it Link-Local Only. You can see below I have a good deal of receive errors. What do I have to do to stop them? This is with a brand new cat 6 cable btw.

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Answer 7

Aug 9, 2022 1:34 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Thanks for the reply, but I'm aware of the ordering which service you want to make priority and therefore which service you are testing.

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Answer 8

Aug 9, 2022 2:12 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

I'm sorry are you saying I should have IPv6 to Link_local only? It was set to automatically.

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Super slow ethernet on on Google Speed Test

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