Known issue: Poor speedtest/networking performance in WSL (maybe macOS)

[alexjustesen]

Problem statement

On certain host systems speedtests can differ drastically between running the test from the host OS and from within the Speedtest Tracker container.

Warning
If you use speedtest.net browser results to quantify the issue I'll throw out the results, you've been warned.

Warning
If you're testing this over wifi, LOL

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)

Status: ✅ confirmed
Fix: ⬜ tbd

Steps to reproduce

1. Select a server and make sure you're testing against the same server each time
2. Run a speedtest from within the Speedtest Tracker UI
3. Run a speedtest from within the Speedtest Tracker Docker container with the command speedtest --server-id=#####
4. Install the Speedtest CLI in WSL (using the Ubuntu/Debian steps) and run the speedtest from WSL with the command speedtest --server-id=#####`
5. If your results differ from a health margin (say more than 20%) you're likely having this issue.

MacOS

Status: ⬜ unconfirmed
Fix: ⬜ tbd

Steps to reproduce

1. Select a server and make sure you're testing against the same server each time
2. Run a speedtest from within the Speedtest Tracker UI
3. Run a speedtest from within the Speedtest Tracker Docker container with the command speedtest --server-id=#####
4. Install the Speedtest CLI in WSL (using the macOS steps) and run the speedtest from WSL with the command speedtest --server-id=#####`
5. If your results differ from a health margin (say more than 20%) you're likely having this issue.

Debugging

Before saying "me too" please follow the debugging steps below, I'll be adding more as I learn more about the issue and as possibilities are ruled out.

Check your network card

Make sure your hardware actually supports the networking speed you'd expect to see, @JohnnyDeeee gave some tips here #126 (comment).

Don't test the container and then run a speedtest on speedtest.net

These fundamentally don't use the same networking protocol and introduce more variables into the testing process to uncover the root cause. To accurately identify and test against this issue follow the "steps to reproduce under your OS".

Links

Research

• Very slow network speed on WSL2 microsoft/WSL#4901

Related issues from this project

• Results are very different from what Speedtest.com shows #126