Slow internet speed with Ubuntu but not with Windows

StuntMonkeh · 5 Nov 2011 at 22:01

I am dual booting my PC with Windows XP and Ubuntu 11.10.

A while back, I think it was when Unity was introduced my ubuntu connection to the internet became extremely slow.

if I am downloading a file and I issue a page request then the page request times out. Its exactly the same scenario with both Firefox and Chrome. If I pause the download the page request works instantly. The same is true if Ubuntu is downloading updates for the OS, the page requests in the browser fail.

It's like the OS doesn't share the bandwidth. I have no issues in Windows therefore I can only assume its down to the OS.

BigglesPiP · 6 Nov 2011 at 03:02

How do you connect to your router?

StuntMonkeh · 6 Nov 2011 at 12:01

Its a wired connection.

deano · 6 Nov 2011 at 17:27

whats in resolv.conf do you have IPv6 turned on? what are your ping times like to 8.8.8.8

Huw · 6 Nov 2011 at 23:15

Yeah, sounds like you need to disable IPv6; I had precisely the same problem a few years ago. I can't remember how it's done but I'm sure there's a how-to on the Ubuntu website.

jack.mitchell · 7 Nov 2011 at 09:30

A quick test to see if it is an ipv6 issue is to unload the ipv6 module:

Code:

sudo rmmod ipv6

See if that improves the situation. This will revert on reboot though so it is only used as a temporary test.

StuntMonkeh · 8 Nov 2011 at 08:42

jack.mitchell said:
A quick test to see if it is an ipv6 issue is to unload the ipv6 module:

Code:

sudo rmmod ipv6

See if that improves the situation. This will revert on reboot though so it is only used as a temporary test.

Just tried this but returns the following in the terminal.

Code:

ERROR: Module ipv6 does not exist in /proc/modules

StuntMonkeh · 8 Nov 2011 at 08:46

deano said:
whats in resolv.conf do you have IPv6 turned on? what are your ping times like to 8.8.8.8

Ping times as follows.

Code:

PING 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_req=1 ttl=52 time=50.8 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_req=2 ttl=52 time=49.9 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_req=3 ttl=52 time=49.0 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_req=4 ttl=52 time=48.6 ms

--- 8.8.8.8 ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 received, 0% packet loss, time 3002ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 48.607/49.629/50.880/0.906 ms

StuntMonkeh · 8 Nov 2011 at 15:47

Followed the guide here http://www.upubuntu.com/2011/05/how-to-disable-ipv6-under-ubuntu.html to disable ipv6.

It has not made a blind bit of difference.

BigglesPiP · 8 Nov 2011 at 16:58

Code:

sudo ethtool eth0
sudo ethtool -i eth0

deano · 8 Nov 2011 at 18:40

sudo gedit /etc/resolv.conf

delete everything and add

nameserver 8.8.8.8
nameserver 8.8.4.4

save and close edit, try again let us know how you get on.

StuntMonkeh · 8 Nov 2011 at 19:22

deano said:
sudo gedit /etc/resolv.conf

delete everything and add

nameserver 8.8.8.8
nameserver 8.8.4.4

save and close edit, try again let us know how you get on.

Ah ha.... Think that may have just done the trick! Still a little slow but at least pages now resolve rather than fail. Thanks.

I have a feeling I may have the OpenDNS nameservers setup in the network profile on the Windows OS so this would explain it...

Is it worth re-enabling all off the ipv6 stuff?

deano · 8 Nov 2011 at 20:14

only if your running IPv6 internally

StuntMonkeh · 8 Nov 2011 at 21:00

That's great, thank you everyone for assisting in fixing this.