Download speed gradually slows down

[lordxavier78]

I recently got Airtel Fiber 300 Mbps. One issue I found is that when I download large files, the speed starts at 30 MBps (bytes) but then gradually slows down and settles around 10 MBps. This doesn't happen with all domains; some, like Google Drive and Steam, work fine, and the speed doesn’t drop. However, for some domains, like downloading an Ubuntu ISO from their site—even from different mirrors—the speed slows down.

Speedtest.net, Fast.com, and Speed.cloudflare.com all show good speeds around 300mbps.

Interestingly, if I connect to a VPN, the speed does not slow down. So it doesn’t seem to be the domains’ fault. I also have JioFiber 300 Mbps, which does not show this behavior.

It feels like Airtel might be throttling speed based on the domain.

Has anyone else experienced this or knows why it’s happening?

If anyone wants to test, try downloading from the Linux Mint or Ubuntu site using different mirrors.

 

[lordxavier78]

If I do speedtest.net if I select any server other than airtel , its show low speed. around 100mbps.

Is anybody facing same issue

 

[Slithreen]

its the remote server that is throttling the download speed. All File servers don't supports such high speed like 300 Mpbs that users are getting in their homes through fiber. So users should not expect downloads at such high speed.

 

[Skye]

@Slithreen OP said download speed is fine in those sites with VPN and JioFiber though.

 

[lordxavier78]

Even in speedtest.net if I select any other server expect Airtel like Tata or Jio or ACT. speed shows same behavior gradually slows down to 10MBps.

So its not the fileserver or domains fault.

Anybody with 300mpbs+ plan can share this finding. would more helpful if you are In North East region of India

 

[lordxavier78]

@Slithreen What your Plan? if its 300Mbps+.
If so can you download the latest Nvidia Driver and check if you get stable speed. Even with downloding nvidia driver from official website my speed gets throttle.

 

[lordxavier78]

I downgraded to 40mpbs plan 499.
Now I get 5MBps as I should. no throttling. speed is stable and constant. will keep Airtel as backup for now
my theory is Airtel at least in NE region they cant provide full 300mpbs. so they throttle

 

[Nefarious]

When downloading large file with higher speed, open task manager and check DIsk usage. I remember when I had 1gbps plan, my download speed goes to 114-120MB/s and then after few seconds it dropped to 70-80 then kept fluctuating there. When I saw my disk usage, my HDD and even SSD was bottlenecking at 100%. Once it gets dropped from 100, speed goes back to 114+.

Ofcourse speedtest results will always remain 950+ but it happens when downloading at very high speeds as our PC/HDD/SSD isn't able to cache data at 100MBPS+ speeds

May be using a very fast SSD might help ?

 

[Skye]

@Nefarious OP said that he gets good speed with VPN.

@lordxavier78 Is it actual Airtel connection or is it some local ISP with Airtel backend? I know it might be a dumb question, but just trying to be sure since I have seen a few people with this scenario where local ISP claimed to be Airtel, but was just using Airtel bandwidth. Airtel should not be having lack of bandwidth to throttle connection.

 

[lordxavier78]

@Zuke Its Completely Airtel. no 3rd party. I think it maybe related to NE region. Because 2 years back I used to a local ISP which used Airtel backend. I faced similar issue . That was 500mbps plan.

@Nefarious As I have mentioned I get full speed with JIO and Airtel with VPN. its nothing related to my SSD, I have KC3000 SSD which is enough