Steam download speeds

Merlin5 · 12 Dec 2010 at 18:56

I'm redownloading F1 2010, and the download speed started at 1.2mb/sec. After a while it went down to about 292kb/s and has not gone up since. This download is 7.9GB and is taking hours. Is this speed reduction a common steam thing, or do you think it's my ISP restricting speed after a certain amount has been downloaded? I'm with virgin media. Also, currently at the top left of the steam download window, it says total downloaded 4,450mb and lower down it says downloaded 5,890mb, so why are there two different amounts? :confused:

Speedy Pete · 12 Dec 2010 at 18:56

Ive always had different numbers for the amount downloaded!
Dont worry about it you will get it all in the end

SPARC · 12 Dec 2010 at 19:02

Yup, you are being throttled by VM. It happens to me too during peek times after I have downloaded a certain amount during the day. Don't quote me on this but I think the limit is 5GB before they start to throttle your connection, then after about 5 hours it should be back to normal.

Jsbeer · 12 Dec 2010 at 19:05

I use VM and they throttle you if you use too much bandwidth between 10AM and 9PM. Basically, I always try to start downloading (large) games after 9PM and leave it on overnight.

chaparral · 12 Dec 2010 at 19:10

Steam normally always maxes out my 4mb line (about 450kb/s) apart from when they have the very big sales on like last christmas...

Merlin5 said:
This download is 7.9GB and is taking hours.

I download my steam games at night when am sleeping or when am at work..

orderoftheflame · 12 Dec 2010 at 19:23

I despised VM while I was with them, the throttling was horrible.

Squark · 12 Dec 2010 at 19:26

afaik its 3/4GB from 9am to about 5pm then 1GB from ~5 to ~8 then unlimited

well something like that anywho, basically just dont download over teatime

scrlk · 12 Dec 2010 at 19:46

http://shop.virginmedia.com/help/traffic-management/traffic-management-policy.html

Destination · 12 Dec 2010 at 19:54

orderoftheflame said:
I despised VM while I was with them, the throttling was horrible.

No it isn't.
Its very well advertised, and very specific.
They cut you to around 25% of your maximum speed for a period of 5 hours if you go over the amount stated, which is 7GB earlier in the day and 3.5GB in the evening. This is still 10 or 5 full length movies worth respectively.
The amoun isn't small, and only downloading of large amounts of data, such as a game install will push you over it.
Steam is one of the reasons someone recently started a thread to see if he could drum up interest for a VM steam mirror, so they can cut their internation traffic but remirroring steam directly to their customers.

I had this yesterday when downloading empireTW and napoleonTW, the downloads came to 39.5GB in total, started at full speed 2.1MB/sec and kept at it until I hit my limit, then I was throttled to around 600KB/sec for 5 hours then the throttle was lifted, I returned to 2.1MB/sec until I hit the limit a second time where the speed dropped again.

I think it is fair, I still go the data in under 12 hours, beats any postage, and beats most ISPs full speed also.

If I wanted to be free of throttling on steam I could upgrade to 50Mbit service, and then only get throttled if P2P ports were in use heavily.

orderoftheflame · 12 Dec 2010 at 19:55

Hikari Kisugi said:
No it isn't.
Its very well advertised, and very specific.
They cut you to around 60% of your maximum speed for a period of 5 hours if you go over the amount stated.
The amoun isn't small, and only downloading of large amounts of data, such as a game install will push you over it.
Steam is one of the reasons someone recently started a thread to see if he could drum up interest for a VM steam mirror, so they can cut their internation traffic but remirroring steam directly to their customers.

I had this yesterday when downloading empireTW and napoleonTW, the downloads came to 39.5GB in total, started at full speed 2.1MB/sec and kept at it until I hit my limit, then I was throttled to around 600KB/sec for 5 hours then the throttle was lifted, I returned to 2.1MB/sec until I hit the limit a second time where the speed dropped again.

I think it is fair, I still go the data in under 12 hours, beats any postage, and beats most ISPs full speed also.

If I wanted to be free of throttling on steam I could upgrade to 50Mbit service, and then only get throttled if P2P ports were in use heavily.

Kay.... that's all well and good for the VM connection in your area and the package you're on...

I think all throttling is horrible. Thank god for ISPs that don't implement it.

Squark · 12 Dec 2010 at 20:00

Jsbeer · 12 Dec 2010 at 20:10

TBH, I don't mind the throttling since you get what you pay for. I never have any issues downloading games form steam overnight, and as you can pre-load most games nowdays if you absolutely must play them on release day, i don't see why people complain so much.

If it matters so much to you, simply sign up to a more expensive provider who allows unlimited daytime downloads.

Merlin5 · 12 Dec 2010 at 20:40

Ah, well my throttling must have started after I reached the 1.5GB mark. My steam download began at 3.50pm, and according to the traffic management for size L 10Mb download speed, evening management throttling is 4pm to 9pm for fair use amount of 1500mb.

Tell you what though, if BT ever finally roll out their much advertised cable broadband to compete with VM, they could make a great selling point of not including throttling. Mind you, they all make promises they can't keep.

F1 2010 all downloaded now.

koooowweeee · 12 Dec 2010 at 21:46

im on VM and its the 50mb package and they still throttle me. but its very tandom times. ive had 6.3mbs on steam

madindehead · 12 Dec 2010 at 21:51

koooowweeee said:
im on VM and its the 50mb package and they still throttle me. but its very tandom times. ive had 6.3mbs on steam

Don't talk rubbish. You don't get throttled on 50Mb.

The speeds from the Steam servers can vary greatly given server demand etc. It's not unheard of that speeds will vary.

As for throttling on VM, as has already been mentioned, it is very well publicised. Just download large amount of data outside the throttle times.

S00PR3M3 · 12 Dec 2010 at 21:51

I too get 6.3 when downloading from Steam. I've never experienced any throttling from VM on the 50meg package

ScoTTyBEEE · 12 Dec 2010 at 21:57

VM started throttling certain ports and conditions on 50meg several months ago. Google search it and you'll see, if you use port 563 on news servers, you'll be throttled in the evening.

Ravenger · 12 Dec 2010 at 22:00

They don't throttle the 50mb, but they do traffic shape torrents and newsgroups. The throttling really annoys me, though I understand why they have to do it, because when my connection became unusable last year VM admitted to me that student areas are a problem because they buy 50mb connections and use them 24/7 to torrent.

But if virgin didn't oversubscribe their areas there would be no need for throttling.

It's annoying for me because the only major downloading I do is on Steam, so I get throttled for legit usage.

koooowweeee · 12 Dec 2010 at 22:11

madindehead said:
Don't talk rubbish. You don't get throttled on 50Mb.

The speeds from the Steam servers can vary greatly given server demand etc. It's not unheard of that speeds will vary.

As for throttling on VM, as has already been mentioned, it is very well publicised. Just download large amount of data outside the throttle times.

do i not watch this in a min its happening now

cant even upload a image its running that rubbish

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

3.49 mb speed on a 50mb connection i would say they throttling me

and now the spped has come back. and both are with nothing running i get it all the time

CraigN · 12 Dec 2010 at 23:17

That looks more like a fault than throttling or shaping!

I get about 4.4 mb on my 50mb i got this for the exact reason of the OP i experienced the same thing when legally downloading so i upgraded from 10 to 50 mb very happy with the speed of it.