Network slowdown/crash when laptop connects (solved)

[lwfitz]

Ok, heres a weird one (at least I think so).....

I have a modem which is connected to a Google WiFi mesh system and multiple devices that are regularly connected with no issue at all.
A while ago I started noticing at night my network would become unstable and disconnect or become so slow that it wasn't usable but then the next morning when I jumped on my desktop everything would be fine.

So I started troubleshooting this as if it were a network issue and I immediately got a new modem, restored and resetup Google WiFi and everything seemed fine until that evening when I had the same problem.

This morning I figured out the common denominator and it's neither my modem or my router but rather my laptop that is running VSIDO with both Fluxbox and Mate.

When I connect my laptop to the network:

Desktop



Laptop




And when I disconnect my laptop I test again and it immediately jumps back up to normal speeds:

Dektop




In fact, i just ran a speed test and in the middle of testing I disconnected my laptop and the test jumped from 2mbps download to 400+.........

So obviously the laptop is the cause, but why?

There is no torrent program running to suck up bandwidth or anything, no duplicate IP address's, I've switched from open DNS of 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 to using the router and made sure I didnt have duplicate host names.

I dont really have anything on the computer so I am currently going to try and reinstall to see if that fixes anything but I am at a bit of a loss

[PackRat]

Do you have a different laptop you can connect?

If you connect with just the VSIDO laptop, do you get the normal speed?

Does Google WiFi have a clause in their contract where your bandwidth is throttled once a certain number of devices are connected like some cell phone providers do?

[lwfitz]

No bandwidth clause as Google is not my ISP but just the maker of my router.

I have tried only having that laptop on the network and nothing else and it still slows to an unusable speed.

What I just did was I booted to a vsido USB and configured my network and had zero slow down with the laptop connected. So obviously there is something going on with the network configuration on the installed version.

I'm the process of reinstalling......

Will update in 2 min 😎

[VastOne]

I was having a very similar issue as you as well. Finally got a tech support guy out and he ended up going to every connection from the pole to my house with the cable modem and re-taped everything. There appeared to be some kind of  disconnect  with the connectors being exposed and not taped.  Ever since that has been done I've not had any issues at all.

Have you tried a different server with Ookla? I was having similar issues at very specific times, so I change the server on Ookla and it corrected the speed issues.. until I realize this it was driving me absolutely batshit crazy. Since both of these corrections andfixes I've never had the issue again

[jedi]

Is it possible that when you installed Mate it grabbed something like conn-manager and/or pulled in some other gnome dependencies?  Because the laptop increases the chances of this happening.  Some config file somewhere got changed to reflect/refer/link the Mate system files? It will have to be blamed on Mate!   I dunno somewhere-else to look maybe?  If so and you can figure out what services/systemd is calling (because of Mate of course! ) then maybe I might know some wireless ways to get you back going.  Then again, I do have a lot of garage time in... 

[lwfitz]

Yeah I tested multiple servers, and it wasn't just the speed test that was off. It was noticable as soon as I let that laptop connect to the network.

Jed might be right that it was mate related but I can't confirm.

I reinstalled and everything works fine again.

I'm marking as solved but I don't know exactly what caused it

[lwfitz]

Thank you all for the quick response!

[PackRat]

Jed might be right that it was mate related but I can't confirm.

Use apt to see what dependencies mate hauls in; maybe get an idea of what messed you up.

[VastOne]

One thing I have overlooked that could be a real possibility @lwfitz...

Dizzie might be ghosted somehow in the fibers of the net as a revenge for your teasing him eons ago on how superior your bandwidth is/was compared to his

[lwfitz]

@PackRat

Great idea, I'm doing that now......

@VastOne

LOL! He swore he would get me too.
That has me cracking up.

[PackRat]

One thing I have overlooked that could be a real possibility @lwfitz...

Dizzie might be ghosted somehow in the fibers of the net as a revenge for your teasing him eons ago on how superior your bandwidth is/was compared to his

Et in machina