Home network is S-L-O-W when 1 PC is connected, but turned off. WTF?
 

Ok here's one I've never seen before:

My home network slows to a crawl when a PC, Which is turned OFF, is connected to my LAN.

I'm not kidding, and yes, I have tested this.

In trying to troubleshoot the problem I've replaced cables and network switches, turned off wifi, unplugged each device on the lan one item at a time, until I found the culprit: A PC (Alienware Area 51 Desktop), connected to the Lan, slows it wayyy down. Even with the machine turned off.

If I unplug the AC though, then the speed returns to normal.

So even though the machine itself is off, the LAN seems to be awake. Maybe there is some kind of wake-up-on-lan thing going on but I don't know.

Any suggestions?

Format C:\

What happens when the machine is turned on, but not doing anything?

Thanks Trump!

Is it win10? It updates while you are in sleep mode, I do not know what level of OFF you are using...

Its because the alienware PC doesnt like the superior macs on the system, so its trying to sabotage shit...

Many possibilities here, but from the few real details we have, if you mean OFF as in powered down, I would say that the network card is lowering the voltage of the net data across the switch.
(causing packet loss, but you can test that with a ping inside your nat)
Try a different router/switch or different net card or even swap the switch ports around. Sounds like a cheap router/switch and or cheap nic or both.

You might also look in the BIOS for utility functions of the network while asleep etc.

One last thought that struck me...
Check the AC Plug (wall) wiring that the HOT is hot and neutral is neutral and not ground ON ALL COMPUTERS HARD WIRED TO THAT NETWORK. especially if your ground is not bonded to neutral. You may have a mismatch on one of them and the potential is there for ac noise floating lightly on the net lines if the case. If you do not know how to check that, or can't find someone who does, they make a led plug that will tell you the wiring status.(cheap enough)

Yup. When it's on the LAN speed is pretty normal.


That orange bastard!


Yes its Windows 10, but it's pretty "off". It has to be turned on to do a windows update. I VNC to the machine so I don't have a kbd and monitor connected to it at the moment but what I will do this weekend is dig into the bios and see if there is more than 1 level of "off".


Thanks for the info. I tried swapping the switch for a brand new one but get the exact same problem. The NIC is on the motherboard so it can't be swapped, but since its an Alienware it should be top notch. I'm going to explore the bios this weekend and see. To me, this has to be a soft error somewhere and since this occurs when the machine is "off", but not with the AC unplugged, I'm now guessing its a bios setting.


Hmmm.. currently, there are 3 machines plugged into the same AC plug. The AC connectors are oriented the same way. The LED plug sounds like a good idea. Will check it too. thanks!

Nothing surprises me anymore when computers do weird shit. Will there be a day when everything finally works properly?

A few years back I had a similar issue with a dlink ethernet card in one of my pc's, was told the wake on lan was causing packet loss. Turning off the bios didn't have any effect for me so we had to swap out the card, luckly it wasn't embedded onto the MB :)

Good luck :thumbsup

If all 3 are in the same outlet & the switch, while it may be wrong in it's entirety, probably not the issue. The problem I was noting was for just for one and while it would still work, creates issues because frame ground might be energized. By itself not a extreme issue (outside of possible shock-hazard) until connected to other devices via wire. So you can probably put that to rest.
But one should ensure that a Ground/Frame Ground is present on computers. Especially when connecting external peripherals. All devices must have the same 'ground potential'. NEC is designed to protect people not equipment.

Without going into detail...

Most sound, nic and other built-in peripherals are what is called 'soft devices', meaning they are emulated in software as a dsp device much as they would be if they were a USB device. Kinda a pseudo-sound dsp device. It's all DSP and eats into overall cpu tasks.
If it is the NIC itself (likely), the only option is to turn it off in the bios and don't use it.
Use a expansion slot for a new nic, usb nic - or - wi-fi

No modern computer actually turns 'completely' OFF unless unplugged depending on some settings and all machines are not created equal in this manor. Many of them build-in functions for specific gaming platforms or enterprise not used by all. Some of which may never actually be deployed in the market.

But most likely the nic. And my years of experience shows that more of this is common from light jolts that spike through from lightning that struck nearby, and while it did not destroy a lot of equipment if any, it does not take much to take out 'just one transistor' of multi-millions in a average box and goes completely unnoticed/unanswered. Blame it on a cheap device and move on as we seem to do when no clear answers seem to be there.

Good Luck and say something when you find out exactly what it is. Always curious.