Isn’t it the worst when you want to conduct a Skype call or watch a Netflix movie, but your computer often has other priorities? While you stare in disbelief at a grainy, low-res video feed or wait impatiently for buffering, Windows Update and Dropbox could be slurping bandwidth through an extra-wide straw. They say they throttle your bandwidth so certain apps get priority like Netflix or a video call as shown below. Apparently, Rivet Networks make some of the network gear found in high end gaming PCs from Dell. Well we instantly saw that it was some kind of network bandwidth management software. So we jumped over to Google and did a quick search for SmartByte by Rivet Networks. We thought maybe it was one of those programs that claim to updated your drivers but only cause more problems instead. So we this weird program called SmartByte Drivers and Services by Rivet Networks which we had not seen before. We focused purely on programs we had never heard of and we saw one application that caught our eye. Just a few simple games, some productivity apps like Microsoft Office, PDF viewers and the usual Microsoft updates. The customer did not have a lot of junkware programs installed either. The customer had the usual applications installed, we also checked for malware and adware with no results in terms of viruses. At this point we started looking at installed applications and any recent Microsoft updates that may be affecting or impacting our networking speeds. We also checked the speed on multiple browsers such as Chrome and Firefox with the same exact slow download speed on the Dell. We knew it couldn’t be the ISP or the router because other devices in the home were getting network speeds of 150Mbps down and 150Mbps up which is pretty darn fast. We knew the problem was not the network drivers because they were up to date. So based on all the symptoms above we were at a loss in terms of network connection troubleshooting. The customer tested the connection speed over WiFi and a wired NIC card with 2 different CAT5 cables and same issue The customer had the latest network drivers for their WiFi and Network CardĨ. The customer already had Dell connect to his computer and they found no problemsħ. This was the only device with slow Internet downloads in the house so we knew the problem was only this computerĦ. The customer already has his ISP out to the house and confirmed Internet for all other devices was super fastĥ. All applications were loading very fast such as Microsoft Office or viewing data locallyĤ. The only thing that was slow was the Speedtest that you run online (around 15Mbps download)ģ. The entire Dell computer which was an Inspiron Desktop was blazing fastĢ. Symptoms of Slow Network Connection on Dell PCġ. Spoiler Alert the problem was an application that came preinstalled on this Dell desktop and apparently comes preinstalled on many Dell laptops and Dell Desktops. Well, we recently had a customer with a tough network problem causing slow downloads on his Dell computer and browsing slowness that took us hours to figure out on this Dell computer. It could be anything, from an application conflict, an incompatible Windows update, or even a faulty network cable to your router. This is where our online IT support experts begin the troubleshooting process trying to determine if the entire computer is slow or a specific application or possibly the Internet connection is just slow leading to slow downloads and pages loading slowly in any browser (Chrome, Firefox or Edge) you are using. It is one of the most common computer problems that we troubleshoot at Boxaid. We know the pain of our customers who have a generally slow computer.
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