Slow Content Servers

[Mutley]

I'm trying to download IL-2 Sturmovik, which is 4gb+, when I was up at 3am, the download speed was 300-500kb/s which is reasonable for my connection.

But during the day, from 9am-11pm, it's 20kb/s. Why is it so slow? It's ridiculous to expect anyone to download 4gb in a day at 20kb/s.

Is there a trick to boosting it at all?

 

[Laivasse]

This is almost certainly a problem with your ISP, not Steam. During peak hours, many ISP's place a limit on 'peer to peer' traffic - read 'anything that isn't browsing or email' - as a way of providing a service to many customers at once without having to shell out on the proper infrastructure themselves; essentially they want to give the illusion of providing you the full package you've paid for while still reserving that bandwidth for other users. Steam falls into that 'anything that isn't browsing or email' category. You can test this yourself: try downloading a torrent during the day and I would bet that it will also be limited to around 20kb/s. Now try downloading something from a reliable, close-by server via http (through your browser) and it will probably hit top speed.

There might be a way around this if you could select the ports you wanted to use, but unfortunately Steam uses fixed ports AFAIK. Get in contact with your ISP and ask them if you've been picked out to have your account specially throttled. If not, or if you are and they refuse to remove the restriction, or if they are generally uncooperative, find another ISP. Be aware also that 'sort this out or else I'll find another provider' is an ineffective threat in a situation like this, because ISP's are always delighted to get rid of heavy downloaders. If they can replace you with a middle aged mother who only uses the net to check the news and her emails, they've made money. If you really don't want to change providers, ask them if they are aware of this problem with Steam (THEY ARE) and if they have some steps for resolving it.

 

[Mutley]

Wow that would explain so much, yeah it does it to torrents and everything but if I do a speed test I get 5mb D/L. Never put that together. Thanks.

What ISP would you recommend?

 

[Mutley]

It's true, I should of expected it from AOL to be honest, lol...

http://help.aol.co.uk/why-is-aol-broadband-prioritising-non/article/20070927082209990001

 

[Laivasse]

I'm sorry, I'm really not up to speed with what ISP's provide good bang for buck. So you're in the UK? Maybe someone can recommend something.

 

[PimpinPenguin]

If you have Sky, then i recommend to get their broadband. It's cheap and has no throttling. For ?5 you get a 40GB limit and for ?10 your unlimited. While you are never really unlimited , i have downloaded over 90GB in a month and Sky never said or did anything. The one to stay away from at all costs is Tiscali, they throttle everything especially Steam, infact they also block it completely at certain times in the day do you can't logon. They hate anything that takes bandwidth such as torrents and BBC i Player.

 

[Laivasse]

Seconded, thirded, fourthed, fifthed and mother****ing ****thed for the warning against Tiscali. Worst anything ever.

 

[BoroVC]

Go for Virgin Media Fibre Optic broadband(Cable), if it's available in your area.
No limits and they often upgrade your speed for free. I have just been upgraded from 4meg to 10meg.
The customer service is appauling though, you get connected to noobs in Indian call centres who repeat the same crap over and over. But I have'nt had the need to contact them in a while, and to be fair the last time I did contact them it was'nt their fault anyway.

So yeah, Virgin.

 

[Drackard]

Go for Virgin Media Fibre Optic broadband(Cable), if it's available in your area.
No limits and they often upgrade your speed for free. I have just been upgraded from 4meg to 10meg.
The customer service is appauling though, you get connected to noobs in Indian call centres who repeat the same crap over and over. But I have'nt had the need to contact them in a while, and to be fair the last time I did contact them it was'nt their fault anyway.

So yeah, Virgin.

Yeah, I'm currently with Sky Broadband as it's free due to us being a Sky customer. Don't have any complaints about them, good service, speed is fine etc. However I do feel like upgrading/changing ISP so will more than likely go with Virgin, heard so many good things about them.

 

[Laivasse]

If you're thinking of switching providers, check out http://www.thinkbroadband.com/. They have forums for pretty much every ISP in the UK, so you can gauge what the service is like from just taking a look at the threads. Some good comparison tables too.

That site also has a good speedtest btw.

 

[Pesmerga]

Wow your ISP is ****ing AOL?

 

[Mutley]

Yeah, to be honest we've not had any problems with AOL for nearly 5 years, we don't use their software either.

We just closed our Sky subscription, so can't go there.

 

[Blayze]

Don't get BT Broadband. After 6PM, you can either download via Steam or use the Internet for anything else. And the same limit applies to everyone in the network you're connected to, so if anybody in your LAN is downloading via Steam at that point in time, nobody else can use the Internet.