If you've found that your download speed is swell, but your upload speed is abysmal, I've got a possible solution for you. I struggled with this upshot for a while and decided to write downwardly my findings in a blog post in case I, or anyone else, runs into this in the future.

In fact, this is the second such web log mail I'm writing: a couple years ago, I hit the the inverse issue and documented the solution in a blog postal service called Got slow download only fast upload speeds over wireless? Hither'south a fix. That post has had several hundred thousand views and helped many people (check out the comments—I even got a marriage proposal), so I'm hoping this post will be useful likewise!

Here's your tldr: upgrade your router's firmware.

Symptoms

I noticed that on all my devices - a Macbook Pro, iPhone, Windows desktop - webpages were sometimes taking a long fourth dimension to load; information technology was a fleck intermittent, but everything from google maps to gmail all of a sudden got very sluggish. I accept one of their higher tier Internet plans from Comcast, so this was pretty disappointing.

I ran a bandwidth test on http://www.speedtest.net/ and the results were roughly the same across all of my devices:

Slow upload speed

At 57 Mb/s, the download speed was great; however, the upload speed was a mere 0.17 Mb/s, which is pretty much unusable. In fact, I had to re-run the test several times, as occasionally, the upload portion of the exam would get stuck and never complete.

The solution

I tried rebooting the router, the cablevision modem, tweaking a bunch of settings, just nothing helped. I besides checked with Comcast to ensure there were no bug our outages in my expanse, and of course, everything was fine.

Finally, I stumbled upon the solution: a firmware upgrade. My router, a Cisco/Linksys E1200, was using firmware version ii.0.02. I went over to Linksys' support folio, constitute my router, and saw that a newer version, ii.0.06, was available. Here'south a snippet from the release notes:

            Product:          Linksys E1200, Wireless-North Router Classification:   Firmware Release History ____________________________________________________________________   Firmware 2.0.06 (build six) - Minor corrective browser-based GUI update. - Various minor bug fixes.   Firmware 2.0.05 (build 2) - Enhanced WAN-to-LAN operation when Internet connexion type is set to PPPoE.   Firmware 2.0.04 (build 1) - Resolved issue with decrease in download speed when WMM is enabled. - Resolved issue with decrease in upload speed when QoS is enabled. - Increase throughput performance when parental control is not enabled. - Resolved event with incorrectly handle RTSP under sure circumstances. - Resolved PPPoE connection consequence with a few ISPs.   Firmware 2.0.03 (build 10) - Added dual-stack lite (DS-calorie-free) back up. - Let native IPv6 and 6rd support to be enabled simultaneously. - Implemented Wi-Fi Protected Setup lock-down machinery to prevent brute strength attack. - Resolved consequence with not being able to access the browser-based GUI via HTTPS when newer versions of Internet Explorer or Firefox is used. - Added Danish support in the browser-based GUI.

The notes for version 2.0.04 are particularly interesting, as they fix bugs with WMM (which was the cause of problems in my previous blog post), QoS, and more than.

I figured it was worth a shot, downloaded the 2.0.06 firmware, and installed it through my router'southward admin UI. The instructions for upgrading the firmware will not be the aforementioned for all routers, but here'due south roughly what yous need to practise:

  1. Go to [http://192.168.i.1](http://192.168.1.1/) and login to your router. If you've never washed this, look for instructions that came with your router or practice a google search to find the default username and countersign.
  2. Click on "administration".
  3. Click on "firmware upgrade".
  4. Y'all should meet a page like this:
    Upgrade firmware page
  5. Click "Choose File" and select the firmware file you downloaded.
  6. Click "Start Upgrade". DO NOT unplug your router or click anything else in the meantime; let the upgrade consummate!
  7. Look a minute or so for your router to reboot.

The results

After the router restarted, I re-ran my speed examination, and the results were much nicer:

Fast upload speed

The download speed is yet a zippy 57 Mb/s, only at present the upload speed is fast too, at eleven Mb/due south, or nigh 70x faster than what information technology was before. Woohoo!

I hope you lot establish the mail service helpful. If your router has a different firmware upgrade procedure, leave a annotate with the steps you followed so others can observe it. Happy web browsing!