Gigabit LAN giving me only 600 Mbps. Why?

I have an ASRock P67 Extreme4 (B3) motherboard. It's got the latest BIOS I can find (v3.10), running Win 10 Pro. Recently, I upgraded my Internet service to FiOS Gagabit connection. Everything is OK except that no matter what I do (or FIOS Tech Support does), we can't get the d/l speed past 600 Mbps. Today, I decided to speed-test the onboard LAN. I found this utility that basically tests the speed of the LAN locally: http://www.totusoft.com/lanspeed1.I got speeds of 1000 Mbps upload and 600 Mbps download. That's exactly what I see when I run a Internet speed test. Why? Why is a gigabit LAN capping off at 600 Mbps? If anyone has some ideas, please jump in. Thank you.

Edited by coolbeans - 07 May 2017 at 5:23am

Sorry. I didn't fully understand your question. What I have is the Verizon Quantum Router. Here's some specs: https://www.verizon.com/home/accessories/fios-quantum-gateway/

BTW, the LAN speed test I was doing shouldn't have anything to do with the router, right?

coolbeans wrote: Sorry. I didn't fully understand your question. What I have is the Verizon Quantum Router. Here's some specs: https://www.verizon.com/home/accessories/fios-quantum-gateway/ BTW, the LAN speed test I was doing shouldn't have anything to do with the router, right?

Are you using ethernet cables, or MoCA ?

parsec wrote: So your upload speed (from the PC out to the LAN or Internet) is 1000Mbps, but your download speed (from the LAN or Internet into your PC) is 600Mbps? Faster upload than download?

Exactly.

parsec wrote: Since the techs checked your connection, I assume they tested or replaced the cables running to the router? Have you tried a different cable from the router to the PC?

Yes and yes.

parsec wrote: What about the configuration options in Device Manager for the Realtek RTL8111E NIC chip in your board? Intel NIC chip drivers have a few diagnostic tests that can be run from their Device Manager? Properties. Are you using a Realtek driver or Microsoft driver? I only see a Windows 7 Realtek LAN driver on your board's download page. Add on LAN cards are cheap, a nice Intel LAN card would be worth it with such a great ISP service speed.

I'm using the Realtek drivers I just downloaded from their website so I know they're fresh. I also have driver auto-updates in Win 10 disabled. I'll look into the diagnostics you mentioned. Also, great suggestion re: a LAN card. Thanks.

I don't have a board that has your Realtek RTL8111E NIC chip, so I can't check the configuration options. My Intel I211 NIC has many configuration options in its Device Manager Properties.

I was checking the Performance Options, and was surprised to see the default settings had fewer Receive Buffers (256) allocated than Transmit Buffers (512). Receive is download, Transmit is upload.

That does not seem to make sense, since downloading is much more common than uploading for most of us. Increasing the Receive Buffer amount increases DRAM memory usage, but the amount would only be a few hundred MBs.

Frankly, the Realtek NICs are the lower cost option compared to the Intel NICs in mother boards. You'll get much better driver support and options for Intel NICs, since Intel provides professional level networking cards.

ASRock now has the AQUANTIA?™s AQC108 5Gbps chip in a few of their high end boards. Since you have a true 1Gbps Internet connection, that would give no excuses for lower download speeds.