Networks·41,463 discussions

Slow download speed from certain server

Tags: Browser, Networking

Hi,
I’m a radiologist from Argentina and I do remote work on sundays. Basically, I download images from CT scans and MRIs at home, write the reports and send them back to the hospital. These images are hosted on a certain server, and come compressed in large files (up to 5 GB), so I need a decent internet connection to send the reports back in a timely manner.
I have a 1000 Mbps internet plan. Speedtest.net results are fine, but download speeds (via Ethernet) from this particular imaging server are capped at ~200 KB/s. At first I thought the bottleneck could be on the server side, but when I share mobile data from my phone to my PC, the downloads speed up to 1000 KB/s.
My ISP says it’s not their issue because the connection speed works fine with every other website.
I do not have much knowledge in the networking field and I’m wondering what else could be the problem. Please, feel free to ask any details you need to help me solve this issue. I apologize for any grammar or spelling errors, as English is not my first language.
Thanks to everyone, I’m looking forward to your feedback. 🙂

Topic

Just my opinion

In reply to Slow download speed from certain server

When the internet provider says up to 1000 KB/s it is only an estimate considering everything is running perfectly on that connection. There are several factors that can slow down the actual data transfer rates to be far less. It is only a potential speed. Could be an issue with your computer, the physical internet wiring going to the computer, neighborhood congestion, etc. Could potentially be that the server connection may be partially blocked by your provider. You may need to ask your provider to research this on your behalf. Just curious, where are you and who is your internet provider?

Reply To: Slow download speed from certain server

In reply to Just my opinion

I live in Buenos Aires, Argentina and my provider is Personal (former Fibertel).
I excluded my computer, the physical wiring and local congestion as potential problems because all that would be a cause of poor performance on every website, and this is not the case. In fact, speed tests are normal and downloads from other sites are as fast as they should be.
Everything points to the server capping the max download speed, except that when I try downloading from that same server with mobile data the speed is 10x faster.
Should I insist that my provider checks that it’s not blocking that specific server?

Then it’s pipes?

In reply to Reply To: Slow download speed from certain server

On mobile the path from that server to the mobile may differ. For brevity we often call those pipes.

There is limited bandwidth across some connections and the connection from server to mobile appears to be big as most Telecoms have BIG PIPES. ISPs have smaller pipes to the Internet and figuring out where the bottleneck is, is a lot of work.

You found there is a bottleneck but not exactly where. That would be work for the IT staffer which may not be up to the task.

-> The server is not blocked since it still works.

[Author]

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