If yous've found that your download speed is slap-up, but your upload speed is bottomless, I've got a possible solution for you. I struggled with this upshot for a while and decided to write down my findings in a blog post in case I, or anyone else, runs into this in the hereafter.

In fact, this is the second such blog post I'm writing: a couple years ago, I hit the the inverse event and documented the solution in a blog post called Got dull download but fast upload speeds over wireless? Here'due south a fix. That post has had several hundred thou views and helped many people (check out the comments—I even got a marriage proposal), so I'yard hoping this postal service volition be useful too!

Hither's your tldr: upgrade your router'south firmware.

Symptoms

I noticed that on all my devices - a Macbook Pro, iPhone, Windows desktop - webpages were sometimes taking a long time to load; it was a bit intermittent, but everything from google maps to gmail suddenly got very sluggish. I take one of their higher tier Internet plans from Comcast, and then this was pretty disappointing.

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

Slow upload speed

At 57 Mb/south, the download speed was great; all the same, 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 test would get stuck and never complete.

The solution

I tried rebooting the router, the cable modem, tweaking a bunch of settings, but nothing helped. I besides checked with Comcast to ensure there were no issues our outages in my area, and of grade, everything was fine.

Finally, I stumbled upon the solution: a firmware upgrade. My router, a Cisco/Linksys E1200, was using firmware version 2.0.02. I went over to Linksys' support page, establish my router, and saw that a newer version, 2.0.06, was available. Here'due south a snippet from the release notes:

            Production:          Linksys E1200, Wireless-N Router Classification:   Firmware Release History ____________________________________________________________________   Firmware 2.0.06 (build 6) - Small cosmetic browser-based GUI update. - Diverse modest bug fixes.   Firmware 2.0.05 (build two) - Enhanced WAN-to-LAN performance when Net connection type is prepare to PPPoE.   Firmware 2.0.04 (build 1) - Resolved consequence with decrease in download speed when WMM is enabled. - Resolved issue with decrease in upload speed when QoS is enabled. - Increase throughput functioning when parental command is not enabled. - Resolved issue with incorrectly handle RTSP nether sure circumstances. - Resolved PPPoE connection issue with a few ISPs.   Firmware ii.0.03 (build 10) - Added dual-stack calorie-free (DS-light) support. - Allow native IPv6 and 6rd back up to be enabled simultaneously. - Implemented Wi-Fi Protected Setup lock-downwards mechanism to prevent brute force attack. - Resolved issue with non 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 especially interesting, every bit they fix bugs with WMM (which was the cause of bug in my previous blog mail), QoS, and more.

I figured it was worth a shot, downloaded the 2.0.06 firmware, and installed it through my router'due south admin UI. The instructions for upgrading the firmware will not be the same for all routers, merely here's roughly what you need to practice:

  1. Go to [http://192.168.1.1](http://192.168.one.ane/) and login to your router. If you've never done this, look for instructions that came with your router or do a google search to find the default username and password.
  2. Click on "assistants".
  3. Click on "firmware upgrade".
  4. Yous should encounter 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 annihilation else in the meantime; let the upgrade consummate!
  7. Wait a minute or and then 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 nonetheless a zippy 57 Mb/s, merely now the upload speed is fast also, at 11 Mb/southward, or almost 70x faster than what information technology was before. Woohoo!

I hope you found the post helpful. If your router has a unlike firmware upgrade process, leave a comment with the steps you lot followed then others can find it. Happy web browsing!