Slow Ethernet Connection on SB2 15"

Question

I have a 500/50 Mbit connection. Connection Speed on the Network has been verified. When connecting my SB-2 15" (1809, all updates, Surface Diagnostic tool run - no problems) by Ethernet, I consistently get speeds between 83 and 97 Mbps, very rarely up to a peak of 100 Mbps.

The Surface Ethernet Adapter is set to 1 Gbps in all cases (from the default 100 Mbps)

The ethernet connection has been established in four different ways, always showing the same speeds:

• Surface Dock ethernet connector
• MS GB Ethernet connector to USB-C port on SB2
• MS GB Ethernet connector to USB 3 ports on SB2 (both)
• Third party GB Ethernet connector to USB 3 ports (both)

On the side, when using WLAN on a Netgear ORBI Mesh Router and either the built in Marvell WLAN card or a USB Wlan Dongle (Netgear Nighthawk A-7000), I get identical speeds. This holds when the the dongle is connected to the SB-2 's USB Ports (incl. USB-C) as well as the Surface Dock.

These facts lead me as well as the provider technician to the conclusion, that my SB-2's USB ports (including Surface Dock/Connector) cannot handle more than 100 Mbps.

Has anybody on this Forum ever reached significantly faster ethernet speeds (200-400 Mbps or more) on an SB2 15"?

Would such a person be so kind as to tell me how and with which provider and where? (I am in Switzerland).

Answer 1

How are you measuring speed? Only from the Internet or over the local network,

or both?

Answer 2

Good evening, Ms. Bowman

I use the application provided by UPC (my cable provider) and run by by the University Zürich spinoff cnlab.ch (very complete abd very recommended). 

I have tested Internet only, since I have not configured a local Network with servers etc. 

I have however tested cabling throughput in the house and this was verified by the UPC technician. Our original suspicion was that house cabling was insufficient. 

Perhaps of interest is the remark of the technician, that they often encounter this problem with Apple and other brands that do not have an onboard ethernet port and thus require a usb based dock or a usb dongle of sorts. 

Thank you for your interest!

Answer 3

I still think you should test on your local network for comparison AND try a

wifi network in a different location.

I worked for Comcast for 13+ years as a Product Development Manager on the

Internet side of the business and I sometimes heard the field techs giving all

kinds of explanations for slow speeds, some justified, some not. But for sure,

the Marvell internal WiFi adapter should be faster - when used with a Netgear

Orbi. I'd be interested in results if you temporarily disabled 2.4Ghz on the

Marvel internal adapter and forced 5GHz.. See

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/io/universal-serial-bus/usb3-frequency-interference-paper.html

As for USB adapters, I don't have a SB2, but I have a SP 5th generation and I

have a Pluggable Gigabit USB 3.0 Ethernet Adapter and see local transfer speeds

of around 800 and Internet around 600 (I have a 1 Gig connection).

Question for you - do you have an external monitor plugged in? Can you run tests

at 5GHz wifi with no dock and no other peripherals attached?

Answer 4

Good evening, Ms. Bowman

Thank you for your kind advice. I will go through your suggestions over the weekend and will also recheck the house cabling with a full load of data. 

With your permission, I will inform you of the results next week. 

You are right about the sometimes frivolous explanations of technicians - such are definitively not restricted to communications techies....

Have a nice weekend!

Answer 5

Good morning, Ms. Bowman

I brouht in an independent network technician with proper measuring equipment. In short, the astonishing cause was found. 

As this might affect many users living in supposedly modern housing with built in LAN cabling, I will describe in detail:

To save money, many builders and electricians routinely only lay a single Ethernet cable to serve inhouse "Multimedia Sockets" including Ethernet as well as Telephone connectors. 

They then split the cable, using four lines to service Telephone and the remaining four for Ethernet. 

A four line ethernet connection can obviously only manage a maximum of 100 Mbps. 

In Switzerland, this practice was/is quite common and private homeowners were often not informed about this fact or given a choice (???) in the matter. The charge remained the same. 

In the age of Gigabit Internet, these cases are slowly surfacing and multinedia cabling has to be redone at large cost. 

My advice to Owners of "modern" housing is to check the cabling and insist on two lines when initially building. 

To be fair, I know this practice to be very common in Switzerland. For the rest of Europe/the World I am not sure and have no data. 

To all Forum participants and especially to you, Ms. Bowman, many thanks for your advice and interest.