I'm running the latest version of/Boinc/virtualbox...been running Boinc since 2000. My machine is Win 10 64 bit--very high end and powerful.

Recently I noticed that often mt internet download (not upload) speed drops 90%. When I stop running Boinc tasks it does not help the problem, but interestingly when I uninstall boic completely--my internet is fine.

I have tried cutting down the amount of cpu and memory available to 30%. I would hate to have to stop running boinc on this machine altogether, but I am stumped.

Thanks in advance.

Please send a response to

kenmogul23@gmail.com

---

Your computer doesn't just consist of Windows 10 64bit.

So please tell us what's the CPU, GPU, memory amount, hard drives/solid state drives?
You complain about your internet speed being cut by 90% but neglect to mention what kind of internet connection you have, what its speed is, how many computers and other devices in the house make use of it (and yes, that matters for open ports on the modem/router).
You also don't tell what project(s) you see this behaviour with. There are a couple that require quite big downloads, especially the ones that need to download the VirtualBox VM image the first time around.
You don't say what else runs at that time, think of having a browser with 50 tabs open, playing Netflix, Youtube, or streaming other bandwidth intensive things.

And we're forums, it's completely unnecessary to register here and then go answer this in email. Want to receive an email when someone answers in the thread? Then click the Subscribe button at the top of the thread. Do make sure that your account preferences state that you want to receive an email and in what form.

---

This is basically a high end gaming machine
Intel i5 3.1 GHz
16GB DDR4 (2133Mhz) memory and 2TB SATA 6GB/s (7,200RPM) + 128GB SSD storage

NVIDIA GTX 980 4GB
IT is hard wired to a Comcast 150 MBPS connection (their modem)—there are 2 wireless devices in house which pull wirelessly off modem. I run about 10 projects.

When problem occurs OOKLA speed drops from 150+ to about 20—upload speed does not change, stays at about 25 all the time.. Didnt thin k BOINC was problem at first—had several calls to the cable company, etc.—then noticed in task manager CPU usage was jumping up to 100% regularly (even though I had BOINC set to not use more than 50%). I cut it down to 30%. Still had issue. Then tried three times running with and without boinc installed—and it is definitely BOINC which is the issue. Even tried on an image of the hard Drive (SD which had a more or less new image on Windows on it which I made at the time of original installation,when machine was new—same problem.

Have not tried to test if results change if I try activating/deactiviating different projects.

Boinc had been running on no problem for a long time. I dont know which projects cause the issue. I’m not sure what virtual box is, I was not running it when the problem started, then I thought maybe not running it caused the problem, so I installed it.

Nothing much else running on computer usually—maybe 5 tabs open on a browser, and an occasional video in 4k—but again nothing new –anad games of course—but issue occurs when games not running and the games are not pushing the system anywhere close to 100$ CPUS usage in tak manager..

I don’k know or understand about ports open on modem.

Projects—most run for years

Asteroids@home
Climateprediction.net
seti@home
cosmology@home
Einstein@home
Leiden classical
LHC@home
milkeyway@home
Woeld communirt grid

Maybe one or two more—don’t know as Boinc is uninstalled now

Not sure anymore where to find a record of my work contributed—I used to me in like the top 2-3%
Also it says I joined in 2005, but I joined in 2000 near the beginning.

Thanks in advance for help

---

You say that you have adjusted your CPU speed. Why do you feel that the speed with which your CPU calculates things impacts on your download speed? (In normal life that doesn't happen)

BOINC's CPU throttling doesn't use a sustained value, so if you set it to 50%, it doesn't mean that the load you see in Task Manager is 50% (on a single CPU core)
Instead it means that BOINC will be suspending and resuming tasks per a couple of seconds per 10 seconds. So for 50% that's a second on, a second off, a second on, a second off. For 30% that's 3 seconds per every 10 seconds that BOINC is doing calculations at full blast (100%), 7 seconds that it's paused.

We chose that setup because this way we can use the same code when compiling BOINC for Linux, OS X and Windows without requiring to use specific APIs that change over time and break things. If you want to use a sustained limit, check out third party add-ons such as TThrottle or Threadmaster at http://boinc.berkeley.edu/addons.php.

As for your download speed dropping to 20Mbit (2.5MB/sec), you have to take into account the upload speed that the project server has as well. Not all the projects you run use 1Tbit connections, and they certainly all don't utilize that whole connection. Plus you will always be sharing whatever connection you have with a project with several tens, if not hundreds of other computers asking work and getting it delivered at the same time. Having a download of 2.5 - 3.1 MB/sec is quite reasonable, I wouldn't complain about that.

If you mean that your overall download speed - for everything you do - is dropping to that speed, that's usually a preference setting somewhere in your setup.
Or perhaps your Windows 10 is set up to use a metered connection. Or you have a program or Network Interface Connector driver add-on installed that deliberately limits your internet connection.

Watching (streaming) content in 4K requires at least 25Mbit/sec but can easily be higher.

As for your registration date, we're not the Seti forums. The BOINC forums didn't start until August 2005.

---

Thank you for your detailed and thoughtful responses. Unfortunately nothing you have mentioned seems to lead to progress on troubleshooting the issue for me. So if anyone else has had experience with internet speed literally dropping 85-90 percent, on a machine, machine configuration and network configuration which has worked fine for years, please let me know Again the internet is not choked all the time, but it when it gets choked it is for a long time and nothing about changing computing preferences and even projects in boinc helps--but an uninstal always solves the issue. I'm sure it must have something to do with some setting that has changed on my machine, network, etc--just can't seem to zero in on where else to look Also it is interesting that only download, not upload speeds seem to be affected.

Cheers.

---

Do you have other computers on the net connection so that you can watch the download speed on them? If so, what happens to the speed when you leave BOINC running on "this" computer, and unplug it's net connector?

a Comcast 150 MBPS connection (their modem)

Checking on that, I found this thread on the XFinity forums where multiple people complain about speeds dropping enormously. I snorted at the repairman stating said nobody will ever get 150 hard wired to the guy, as I have a 200Mbit connection and I can fully utilize it. But that's via cable, not DSL.

But having said that, it does come down to using good cables as well. And replacing them every so many years.
Last time I tiled my living room, I went and put cable gutters down everywhere and put Cat 6 cables in them. Cost me an arm and a leg, but the connection is once again spotless.

The other main ISP here in The Netherlands is using DSL as well and when I had them I would always pay for high bandwidth and never fully get it.
I even had a couple of their salespeople at my door once when I changed to cable, and when they went on and on about how good fiber-optics were for the speeds and that their 60Mbit connection was 'da bomb', I calmly explained how my 100Mbit connection downloaded stuff from the internet with 12MB/sec. That was the last time I had salespeople of that company at my door. Their fiber can't do that.

The reason I asked if other computers were on the same connection is because when you use multiple computers that all download & upload things via torrent, these torrent clients open up a lot of ports. Open enough ports and one machine will be able to connect to the internet, while the others will struggle. (Speaking from experience, 3 computers downloading at full blast and the 200Mbit connection is quickly saturated.)

---

Hmmm, interesting...but that is not an issue here. Does Boinc use torrents? I am giving a try with letting Boinc run only when computer not in use. Also when I talk about my internet speed, I am not talking about what is promised by comcast, but rather what my tests show--also I make a point of using the best up to date cable on the computer with the problem, which is hard wired not wirelessly connecting to the internet. No other computers run Boinc and I don't download torrents.

---

Does Boinc use torrents?

No, there was talk about it and I think a partial code for it is in the source code but it isn't being used. Because of the security or lack thereof.

---