Steam downloads saturating internet

HangTime

HangTime

HangTime

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Does anyone else have a problem with Steam downloading completely crippling their internet connection?

I'm not talking about your standard, oh I'm downloading something so latency goes up, bandwidth is reduced, browsing is a bit sluggish. I'm talking about MAJOR issues i.e. latency > 2000ms, packet loss, some web pages not loading at all etc. Any sort of streaming is completely out of the question. Kinda like you would get it you were using P2P and uploading as well as downloading to many sources.

It's kinda annoying because with 'standard' downloads e.g. via HTTP I can just leave them going in the background and it just slows things down a bit but no great drama. But with Steam downloading, even my wife who is not particularly tech savvy or demanding in that regard, will complain because pages will time out, facebook won't update on her phone or whatever.

The only thing I can think is that maybe Steam is incredibly greedy and does a huge amount of multi-threaded downloads or something basically leaving only a tiny proportion for all other apps. As I said, if I download via other applications on a single thread, there are no such problems.
 
I just wish you could allocate it bandwidth allowance

I can't say I have noticed any problems but that
 
Steam will, most of the time, max out your line.

If it's not this that people moan about, it will be "Steam takes forever to download" when they limit the speed.

Suck it up fat boy.



Addition:- Grab Netlimiter if you want to limit the bandwidth of programs.
 
I have noticed it too, reinstalled Arma 3 earlier on and video browsing just wasn't happening and i'm on 40 down and 9.5 up.
 
Same for me, when steam is downloading anything my internet becomes completely unusable.

CaNsA said:
Steam will, most of the time, max out your line.

If it's not this that people moan about, it will be "Steam takes forever to download" when they limit the speed.

Suck it up fat boy.



Addition:- Grab Netlimiter if you want to limit the bandwidth of programs.
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Steam download speeds are no faster than via HTTP so this is not the reason.
 
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It used to cause problems like that with BT's traffic management but its been a long time since that was a problem.
 
I have problems too, sometime the internet just cuts out all together on the PC.. Have to restart to get it to reconnect.. Only when steam is updating..
 
HangTime said:
Does anyone else have a problem with Steam downloading completely crippling their internet connection?

I'm not talking about your standard, oh I'm downloading something so latency goes up, bandwidth is reduced, browsing is a bit sluggish. I'm talking about MAJOR issues i.e. latency > 2000ms, packet loss, some web pages not loading at all etc. Any sort of streaming is completely out of the question. Kinda like you would get it you were using P2P and uploading as well as downloading to many sources.

It's kinda annoying because with 'standard' downloads e.g. via HTTP I can just leave them going in the background and it just slows things down a bit but no great drama. But with Steam downloading, even my wife who is not particularly tech savvy or demanding in that regard, will complain because pages will time out, facebook won't update on her phone or whatever.

The only thing I can think is that maybe Steam is incredibly greedy and does a huge amount of multi-threaded downloads or something basically leaving only a tiny proportion for all other apps. As I said, if I download via other applications on a single thread, there are no such problems.
Click to expand...

I've noticed this since I switched to BT Infinity 20/80, unlocked my modem and disabled QoS. I don't know if any of those are the root cause (and I don't really have the time or energy to confirm either way) but I guess it would be interesting to know if you're using the same ISP/modem setup. For a router I'm running Tomato on an e3000, though I never had any issues with VM 100mbit and Steam downloads in a previous house.
 
ive actually noticed this in the last few days that ive been home, if steam is updating games i literally cant browse the internet, restart and then they will be fine.

not sure what it is, but its not right. After a restart i can download at around 7-9 mb/s and still browse etc. before. ive got no chance.
 
Yep. I've got shoddy internet (between 1.5mb and 3mb depending on if I've shouted at Sky recently) and opening Steam on my PC takes all my net.

Its why I started this thread to see if I could get my server to download all the files over night.

At the moment its a right pain. I turn my PC on and my net dies and I can't play any games as they have updates pending :(
 
Skeeter said:
Yep. I've got shoddy internet (between 1.5mb and 3mb depending on if I've shouted at Sky recently) and opening Steam on my PC takes all my net.

Its why I started this thread to see if I could get my server to download all the files over night.

At the moment its a right pain. I turn my PC on and my net dies and I can't play any games as they have updates pending :(
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I just leave my PC on overnight as I have the same issue, only have 2.5mb connection. I'm going to have to do it tonight to download BF3 End Game which weighs in at just over 6 bloomin gig.
 
I already have a server thats on 24/7, so it pains me (and the electricity bill) to have to leave a second machine on all night too :(
 
Go in to settings and change download location to somewhere else that gets slightly below your max speed.
 
CaNsA said:
Steam will, most of the time, max out your line.

If it's not this that people moan about, it will be "Steam takes forever to download" when they limit the speed.

Suck it up fat boy.
Click to expand...

As mentioned by others, it is not an issue relating to the fact it is maxing out my line, as the vast majority of downloads from any source will do that. The problem is that it does so in a much more invasive way than other applications. With pretty much every other download source I use, whether it be HTTP, FTP, XDCC, Capsule, Origin or whatever, I can be downloading in the background with only minimum disruption on browsing. I might have a latency of say 150ms in that case, rather than an order of magnitude higher as it is with Steam. With Steam, it is horrendous, the equivalent of what happens when your upload is saturated and you can't send ack packets.

As for pausing and downloading at night, I already do that as a workaround. But what I want to find out is why Steam is so incredibly invasive on my connection and if there is anyway to modify its behaviour, like limiting the number of threads or whatever.

In terms of changing the location to elsewhere, I suspect pretty much anywhere is going to max out my line.
 
HangTime said:
As mentioned by others, it is not an issue relating to the fact it is maxing out my line, as the vast majority of downloads from any source will do that. The problem is that it does so in a much more invasive way than other applications.
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Yep, I noticed this too. It's odd - makes almost any other activity impossible, at times.

Try using Netbalancer (it's free): http://seriousbit.com/netbalancer/

You might need to reboot before using it, but I didn't bother.

You can see all your running apps. Right-click Steam and choose 'limit' to enforce a slightly lower download speed (e.g. if your download is normally 900kbps, set it to 800, or lower if you're not too fussed).
 
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HangTime said:
number of threads
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"Netstat /a /o" will show the amount of connections steam is using.

Also, it could be that Steam isn't so "invasive" but more a case of "router being pants" and cant handle the requests.
The Steam network is geared to get you the files ASAP.
Upgrade your network kit if it is such a problem otherwise......
CaNsA said:
Suck it up fat boy.
Click to expand...

;)
 
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Changing location works fine I have 100mb and most steam download locations places outside of uk do not max it out at all.

Example is Atlanta I never go over 3mb sec there so it definitely works just find one that gives you the desired speed.
 
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