In reply to a post by Fido:

In reply to a post by jabuzzard:

You do know that Cat 7 cable is a complete and utter waste of time?

I would like to say that I did know that but I did not.

That said; I don't tend to use CAT7, (which is why I had to search the garage for an old CAT7e cable).

Roughly speaking Cat7 has each individual strand covered with a shield. The upshot of which is each individual strand is electrically effectively a piece of coax cable. Actually it might be each pair but I can't be bothered to look it up and it makes little difference.

If these are not terminated properly then the signal will have a nasty tendency to bounce back off the ends and degrade the signal over a piece of Cat 6a.. That is why there are special plugs to go with Cat7 that have extra connectors so you can terminate the shield properly, aka get the impedance matched.

Unfortunately unscrupulous vendors are up selling to the uninformed Cat 7 on the basis it is a higher number so better. Random short patch lead in the home it probably won't make any difference because the distances are all way below the maximum permissible. One doubts any reputable network installer will ever use it. Certainly if one suggested it to me I would show them the door.

I do not see the point of the OP testing with both Linux and Windows. My suggestion would be that they test using Linux at different times of the day.

In reply to a post by haydnwalker:

Only way to more accurately test that is:

1. Boot the Linux USB - do the Test - note results
2. Boot back to Windows - do the test - note results

Yes: I fully agree and that it was my plan to do just that but I will not be using Linux any more.

Regarding speed: I did find that overall Linux was about 10% faster than Windows 10 Pro but I am not a Linux user and using it, (along with my tiredness from a week of early morning and daily tests), seems to have created other issues for me. - Partly because I did not fully trust a free Linux download.

Some people seemed to considerred that there was a problem with my Windows 10 Pro laptop/PC, (which to me was running really well and it had been running like a charm since I first installed Windows 10 Pro). That said, I took it onboard that something within my Windows PC was a part of the problem and I started fiddling around with the settings. I have two 1 TB hard disks in the PC and both had the same windows 10 installed on them with the same settings via a clone of the original to the 1TB hard disk. - Everything was good and I had got out of the habit of backing up to my portable 500GB USB drive which I last used over 2 years ago.

To avoid the possibility on a Windows 10 Pro issue on my laptop/PC I installed a brand new copy of Windows 10 Pro on the second, (ie the original/reserve), internal 1TB hard drive that the main 1TB SSD Hard Drive had been cloned from last year and then I was faffing about swapping between the Linux USB and the fresh install of windows 10 which seemed to make little difference and this was in the early hours of the morning and I had been at it for days,

The upshot is that when I seemed to see what I thought were Linux files, (which I don't really know/trust), inside my Main 1TB Hard Disk I deleted them and when these were changed I could not boot into the main 1TB Hard Drive and on foolishly pressing F4/recovery at start up screen it may have change its MBR to Windows 7 so now my main 1TB Hard Disk information is unobtainable and cannot be seen from the other hard drive even though the main hard drive is reported as being available and OK. - (These things happen at 4;00 in the morning when you have been faffing around for days with speed tests, making change to a system that was working well and and using different operating systems).

I was always more comfortable with hardware than software and since I retired, (some years ago), I have not had any PC problems/issues and Windows 10 had been so reliable that I become complacent regarding backups and I had tended to use the original 1TB Hard Disk with had a fresh format and a new install of Windows 10 Pro on it. - I never store anything in the cloud for and I keep everything on my PC. - I have tried recovery software but up to now no luck. - I will ask for support regarding this on another Thinkbroadband Forum.

Regarding Linux: My present view is that Windows 10 pro is a standard operating system and it needs to operate properly with Windows 10 Pro.

The upshot is that I will not be using Linux and there was nothing wrong with original installation of Windows 10 Pro settings or performance as it was working as well as the fully updated fresh install..

Regards,
Fido

Post deleted by Realalemadrid

I was trying to link to Mr Saffron's reply earlier in the thread but the link didn't work, the speed on the linux test looked good, implying that your problem is something to do with the windows configuration on your PC. There could be many reasons for this but saying you will not test again using Linux is not going to help you. I guess that this is the first time you have had such a fast connection running on a Windows 10 system, so you need to examine possible reasons for the poor speed performance. I hope you can get it sorted soon.

The point is that if your download speeds are as they should be when using Linux to test, there is nothing wrong with your connection. If they are only poor when using Windows to test, that is not something that you can expect Zen to sort out - as Mr Saffron said in an earlier post, that suggests a Windows configuration or NIC driver issue.

In reply to a post by tboorman:

The point is that if your download speeds are as they should be when using Linux to test, there is nothing wrong with your connection. If they are only poor when using Windows to test, that is not something that you can expect Zen to sort out - as Mr Saffron said in an earlier post, that suggests a Windows configuration or NIC driver issue.

Actually it never was a Windows configuration issue.

Linux was only, at best, about 10% faster the Windows but that sort of differential was not relevant to me and it also varied from one speed test to another as it did with Windows.

I pointed out from the start that the speed readings were inconsistent and that they varied at all times of the day and were no better at night or in early morning.

It is now certain that there not an issue with my Window 10 Pro configuration. - This was proved by a complete clean install of Windows 10 Pro on my second internal 1TB hard drive which then performed almost exactly the same as the Windows 10 Pro Installation that was, (at one time), fully operational on my first 1TB Hard Drive.

Therefore, after a full reformat and a clean full install of Windows 10 Pro on the second reserve Hard Drive. (Which previously had full backups of everything on the first 1TB Hard Drive including recovery backups, images etc, for the first Hard Drive it operates the same as the first hard drive one once did so the configuration of windows was never an issue..

The new suggestion that it could have be a NIC Driver issue is remotely possible but that would be unlikely to vary throughout the day/night and I always use the drivers that Windows 10 Pro recommends.

As I previously pointed out; due to swapping around between drives and systems in the late nights and the early mornings my main hard drive is now completely messed up and I have lost a good three years of stuff but I consider that to be my own fault.

I only blame myself for what happened to my PC System while I was looking for a fault that did not exist

I have not idea what the speeds have been as I am now busy trying mitigate the mess but it's hard to get The Dung Back in the Donkey.

Windows 10 Pro is a standard operating system and that is the system that I know and will use. - (One of the tests that I carried out, while my system was bootable, was to use Linux in Hyper V; which may have been why I noticed Linux on my main drive but although Linux seemed reasonable I don't know it and I found it hard to trust the free downloads for it).

Thank you to all who tried to assist.

Regads,
Fido

In reply to a post by Fido:

Actually it never was a Windows configuration issue.

This was proved by a complete clean install of Windows 10 Pro on my second internal 1TB hard drive which then performed almost exactly the same as the Windows 10 Pro Installation that was, (at one time), fully operational on my first 1TB Hard Drive.

Worth noting, that doesn't prove it. When I had speed issues in Windows I did a clean install and STILL had speed issues, even though Linux did not. The only thing that fixed it was a later Windows Update.

Have you gone back to Zen with your findings? Has an issue with your FTTP installation definitely been eliminated?

Have you tried turning QOS off in your router? There's some STP settings too.

Interesting thread, Zen 900 is available at mine now and I'm unsure whether it's worth it over Zen 300, especially if it's not even realistic to actually get that speed. Shame 300 is still £50 vs £62 for 900, would be awesome if it was like £30.

I read on Kitz people have Zen 900 and are getting 800/800 consistently.