Network/internet speed

[nomko]

Hello,

Can it be that my network/internet speed with Mint14+Cinnamon is rather slower than with Lubuntu 12.10?

I have 2 desktop systems:
Main system:
Specified in my signature.
Connected to Cisco modem/router by a Powerline adapter.

Multimedia desktop system:
P4 system
Connected to Cisco modem/router by a Ethernet wire.

I have the impression that my internet/network speed with the Lubuntu 12.10 machine is much higher.
Can it be that Mint 14 somehow slows down my speed?

[xenopeek]

Really? You don't suspect the powerline? Run a test on both with http://www.speedtest.net/, then run the test in reverse (switch which computer is connected through powerline and which is connected directly through ethernet cable).

And even then, unless you are running from the same hardware it is dubious to point fingers while the network layer of both operating systems is the same. Even if powerline isn't a factor, perhaps your specific network chip or driver is. Perhaps run the test therefor also on the other computer from a live session with the other operating system, so you are running the test on the same network chip.

[viking777]

I have one laptop with both Ubuntu 12.10 and Mint 14 installed side by side. They connect to the same router using the same power line network. The Ubuntu speed is measured at 5.36Mb/s the Mint speed is measured at 4.89Mb/s. So Mint is indeed slower, but I wouldn't consider that one test to be all that significant statistically, it could easily be accounted for by other factors. To get a true picture I would have to repeat the test many times over at many different times of day and average them out, and I don't think it is worth it for a difference 0.47Mb/s.

But if you want to criticise Mint over its speed capabilities, there is one huge difference - start up. From pressing enter in the login dialog to a loaded desktop appearing: Ubuntu - 5 seconds. Mint - 30 seconds, 6x longer. Now that may be worth investigating, but not the tiny difference in recorded internet speed.

[nomko]

Why that difference in speed? Really strange to see that a distro, based on Ubuntu, is much slower than it's origin...

I'll try to see what happends when i connect my Mint desktop with an ethernet cable to the router.

[xenopeek]

But if you want to criticise Mint over its speed capabilities, there is one huge difference - start up. From pressing enter in the login dialog to a loaded desktop appearing: Ubuntu - 5 seconds. Mint - 30 seconds, 6x longer. Now that may be worth investigating, but not the tiny difference in recorded internet speed.

You should probably look into that (Startup Applications for disabling automatically loading applications; disabling services you are running that you don't need; and so on). It is less than 1 second for me from pressing enter in the login dialog to a loaded desktop appearing. Surely my SSD is helping, but 30 seconds is too long

[jmor8801]

I have my machine Linuxmint 14.1 connected to internet via router and the speed is no different than going directly to the modem. I did have a slower response time on my machine using Ubuntu 12.10 for unknown resasons. Linuxmint 14.1 is faster than Ubuntu 12.10 on loading and using the installed apps. But that is my experience with this machine.

[viking777]

You should probably look into that (Startup Applications for disabling automatically loading applications; disabling services you are running that you don't need; and so on). It is less than 1 second for me from pressing enter in the login dialog to a loaded desktop appearing. Surely my SSD is helping, but 30 seconds is too long

Startup applications are identical in both cases, running ps immediately after start up on Mint shows 153 processes are running (or have been running at some time during start) and 188 processes on Ubuntu, so it isn't that either. Plus Ubuntu has the incredible baggage that is Compiz to run. Second only to Firefox in its memory usage.
Still, I am not losing sleep over it, I have got 25 seconds to spare these days