I'm getting 500-800 KB/s on average. I just upgraded my router today and on speedtest.net I'm getting 11 mb/s and about 2.1 MB/s from Los Angeles, which is where I told Steam to download from. Why is it so horrible? What do you guys usually get? This download rate is unacceptable...

1 decade ago*

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i get around 4 mb/sec from stream ... so im happy

i dont even know what the best option is for me ... i mean which city i should take .. just took random and .. yeah .. had luck i think :D

1 decade ago
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3.1-4.0 mb/sec

1 decade ago
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500-800 kb/s it's your download speed

1 decade ago
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I get 70 kb/sec. You should be happy.

1 decade ago
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Yep, fucking OP's got some serious FWPs. In Germany EVERYBODY's fucked right now, because of Telekom (almost monopoly regarding telephone and internet lines), who are reducing the up-/downstream for the entire country with the reasoning: "because fuck you"

And then the OP is coming like "omg I have a 20 times faster connection than an entire country but QQ I'm a fucking crybabby"....

Sorry; I'm just in the mood to punch someone.

1 decade ago
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I get 10 kb/s from 7 am. to 11 pm., the rest of the day it downloads at 700 kb/s, but at night I would love to sleep and sometimes I would really love to see people like the OP in some situations like ours, what would he do? Suicide?

1 decade ago
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Kabel Deutschland kicks ass.

1 decade ago
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I can only download at about 100 KB/s, sometimes 300 KB/s if no one else is on. You don't have it that bad.

1 decade ago
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This - 100 kb/s for me as well :(

1 decade ago
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+1

1 decade ago
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Servers limit the bandwidth. For me I can get like 7 MB/s and then have it suddenly shoot down to 5 kb/s. Quite misleading.

1 decade ago
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And try changing the download location to yours if you haven't already.

1 decade ago
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your's is faster than mine..

1 decade ago
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8 Mb = 1 MB

1 decade ago
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im surprised no-one has mentioned this... speedtest.net shows bandwidth, not download rate... just because it says 11MBps, doesn't mean you can get that download rate, it just means that is the total speed if you were multi-downloading files would be 11MBPS, mine is 23MBps but i only get 1.8 on a single download but i can have 10 running simultaneously without loss of speed from 1.8MBps on any of them

1 decade ago
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... Fail. MegaBITS per second versus MegaBYTES per second. Divide by 8 some time.

1 decade ago
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23 divided by 8 is not 1.8... when i check speedtest.net it is displayed in MBps (Mega Bytes per second) for me, not Mbps (Mega bits per second)

edit: and yes, the capitalization on the "b" matters

1 decade ago
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I know that. Apparently you don't, as OP stated mbps, all lowercase, and it looks like he should be having 1.375 MB/s according to speedtest, which by default shows Mb/s (11 in his case). That would also make his 500 - 800 KB/s logical - probably someone else in the house is using the remaining bandwidth, or other programs, or perhaps he's part of some botnet / has a trojan of some kind.

You said "just because it says 11MBps, doesn't mean you can get that download rate, it just means that is the total speed if you were multi-downloading files would be 11MBPS". "MBps".

1 decade ago
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I think OP is confused though, as he's posted 2 results from Speedtest in different formats (as far as I'm aware, Speedtest.net always uses Mbps)

1 decade ago
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Hence "..speedtest, which by default shows Mb/s (11 in his case).."

1 decade ago
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Speedtest.net uses whatever units you want it to.

1 decade ago
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This.

1 decade ago
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i feel i should reply to this proving you wrong about your "1.375MBps" theory.... if i wanted i could prove by removing the limiter, keeping it at 1.8 and show you it goes to 8 when using a download manager but i already went to too much effort for someone who knows nothing about my internet connection

http://imgur.com/CJAnRuL,8MU0qQv

edit: i feel i should also point out i used to work at a university setting up the network and maintaining it for just over a year...

1 decade ago
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???

What are you even on about? Read better, I said

"..as OP stated mbps, all lowercase, and it looks like he should be having 1.375 MB/s according to speedtest, which by default shows Mb/s (11 in his case). "

I wasn't talking about you. I was talking about OP. 11 Mbps / 8 = 1.375 MBps.

You said you have a 23 MB/s line. Ok. So, what's your point concerning the 1.8 in Steam (without the limiter set)? That Steam doesn't use your full bandwidth? And that with other applications, you get up to 8 MB/s? Or what? I have no clue what to make of what you're saying.

As for what you said about your university network, wonderful, how cute. Please refer to my lengthy replies to user CHTonRage to see what kind of work I've done, and maybe pick something up from my elaborations on some network info.

1 decade ago
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That speed... I get 150kB/s average >.>

1 decade ago
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As do I, when I'm at home :(

1 decade ago
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Steam counts in BYTES (or Kilo-Bytes) and Speedtest.net counts in BITS (Kilo-bits).

Speedtest.net will always count 8 times faster than Steam, 1 Byte (B) = 8 Bits (b).... So, Steam's 500 KB/s is roughly 4000 Kb/s (4 Mb/s) on Speedtest.net.

1 decade ago
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You can change that in options on speedtest.net so it can show you KB.

1 decade ago
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I've been living with that speed my whole life.

1 decade ago
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I have 10 mbps internet connection, im getting 2 mbps download. Try using TCP Optimizer, its free from to download. Close all internet related programs. Uninstall programs that you dont need like toolbars. Change your location download server location from where you are. Sometimes it depends on the download server, it can be slow and it can be sometimes. If any of this doesnt work. Reinstall your windows.

1 decade ago
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Like someone else already mentioned, 11mbps is your total bandwidth. That means you get that between all devices that are online. Think of it somewhat like a hot water tank. If you are the only one using it, you're probably not going to get a cold shower. If someone uses the hot water while you're in the shower, you'll run out faster.

It also is measured in bits, and downloads are measured in bytes. 1 byte = 8 bits. Therefore you are not going to ever see download speeds of 11MB/s because you aren't getting that from your ISP. What you are getting from Steam is actually about right for your speed. I have 15mb/s myself and get on average about 2.4-2.5 MB/s.

Also does depend on other factors like server load, how far away the server is, latency, your computer's ability to process the download quickly, etc. Speeds can vary, and on some sites you won't get as much as you do on Steam because they don't have as many servers to handle the load (or they purposely throttle downloads).

1 decade ago
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How can you even complain? When I get 500 KB/s I'll know the world is ending.
Anyways, people already answered you, I guess. >-<

1 decade ago
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Lol my usual is 1.5-1.8MBs

1 decade ago
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lol my usual is 8MB/s, 70/30Mbit (download/upload) (yes, yours and mine comment are completely pointless in this thread.)

1 decade ago
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Yes they are. Yes they are :3

1 decade ago
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Under steam...

Go to the top bar "Steam" -> "Settings"

Then under the download tab, check your current download region and speed limit (if any). You can try tweak these for a closer server.

1 decade ago
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I can conclude that you don't know your Internet speed is not dependent on your router.
Also, 11 Mbps is roughly 1.375 MBps so 500-800 KBps is pretty ok considering Steam "cuts" the download speed to make room for the other stuff like the chat and being online.

1 decade ago
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lolno dude. There is no way in hell that the communication overhead takes anywhere even remotely close to between 600 and 800 KB/s. More like maybe 20, tops. Max.

1 decade ago
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Oh btw, there's also the fact that you don't get your max speed most of the time. You usually get around 75% of it and Steam also doesn't use your max speed of that. Thus 500-800 KBps sounds about right.

1 decade ago
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No it doesn't sound right. In my case, Steam uses most of my internet connection (eg. over 95% of it).

1 decade ago
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And how much speed did you sign up for? I got a dual way fibre connection at 100Mbps and it doesn't even use a 50%, much less 95%.

1 decade ago
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Oh btw, I have worked on backbone routers on fiber lines, as well as ADSL2+, and have given support on both DOCSIS 1 and 2 lines. I've worked on all manner of Cisco hardware, including 2000 port Juniper routers (with about 10 virtual ports per port), part of which was managing the top 2000 business customers of KPN, the main Dutch ISP. Lines like Schiphol airports' dual 20 GB/s lines. Or the fire departments' national grid that had a max allowed downtime of 15 minutes, regardless of the cause of downtime, due to their SLA.

What you're talking about with "you won't get your max speed most of the time" refers to transport overhead, which is a negligibly small amount for the TCP/IP protocol (error correction bits) + in the case of DSL, due to how frames are built up (when dealing with PPPoA, which most providers use), you always have some extra transport overhead that is somewhat significant (slightly less so on DOCSIS 2 lines) along with DSL having its' own error correction, as well. The last two add up to usually take up about 10% of your line speed, excepting very fast lines. That still leaves a healthy 85 - 90% of your theoretically attainable line speed. All this "you won't get your max speed" stuff is, however, entirely irrelevant, as OP posted his speedtest.net results, which obviously already includes all this overhead.

Steam has always maxed out and used all of peoples' bandwidth - it was an issue many bitched about, due to a) no one else in their house being able to use the 'net while someone was downloading / updating a game, and b) themselves having an all but non-functioning 'net connection on their own PC. That's why now, Steam has a download limiter in the settings, under the "Downloads" tab. That's an entirely new feature that only recently was added. Before that, again; Steam used to max out people's connections.

The reason your connection doesn't get maxed out can be down to two things - you've got high speed fiber, you say? 100 Mb/s? Yeah, most ISPs offering such lines will state in their fine print that they offer speeds "up to" 100 Mb/s. No hard guarantee of that speed, ever. And usually you won't get it, either, due to local congestion. If you would, you'd be paying roughly 5 to 10 times what you're paying now for that line, and more likely have a business line with a SLA attached rather than a private line with no SLA or any guarantee of speed. It's because ISPs want to cheap out on infrastructure and hardware.

So, there's that. Then there's the fact that Steam, if its' collocation's (whatever location you've picked from the list in the "Downloads" tab) busy already with some uploads to people, they only have so much bandwidth to spare, themselves. Maybe they even have a hard limiter set on the port on their end to prevent someone with a huge fat pipe swallowing up a lot of their bandwidth and causing congestion issues and time-outs for others. With a 100 Mb/s line, in the few times you might actually be receiving that 100 Mb/s from your ISP, you'd be receiving 12.5 MB/s downstream, which is quite blazingly fast. Now let's say one of their collocations has a 20 or 40 Gb/s pipe, or two of them. Let's say, 2 20 Gb/s pipes. That's 2 x 20 = 40 Gb/s / 8 = 5 GB/s x 1024 = 5120 MB/s bandwidth. Your 12.5 MB/s line would only fit in there 409.6 times. So, if Steam were to allow you to download at that speed, they could only cater to 409.6 people with speeds like yours. To prevent too much congestion, it would be feasible to throttle some of that to keep steady connections across your hardware, and manageable speeds for all.

Is that enough info, now?

1 decade ago
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Even when I had a 10 Mbps ADSL download speed before, I still didn't max it out at all with 2 computers playing an online game using the Steam service and still had room for at least 2-3 more mobile devices. So those that got maxed out are probably the ones that got 5 Mbps or less.

Edit: So I may or may not be wrong about the 75% part, but it still assures that ISPs don't give you the full speed mostly cause of multi-users.

1 decade ago
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The 75% part ain't right. Not necessarily. In the case of fiber networks, yes, congestion can be a reason for slow speeds, but the effect of it can result in anywhere between 65% - 90% of your promised speed, and fluctuate quite strongly. In the case of ADSL networks, they rely on the same copper networks that have been used for phone lines for decades. There is far more hardware available, and the bandwidth being offered is far lower anyway, so the speed they advertise (let's say, 20 Mb/s) will always be available, regardless of local congestion. Still, in contracts they offer "speeds up to" on those lines too, but that's due to it being a copper-based network. Line distance from the DSLAM and line quality (which can be influenced by age, erosion, oxygen on the lines, even in some cases high EMF interference) are huge determining factors for final line speed. So, they can never guarantee that speed for all users.

As for you saying "even when I had a 10 Mbps ADSL download speed before, I still didn't max it out at all with 2 computers playing an online game using the Steam service and still had room for at least 2-3 more mobile devices".. Well, duh. Like I said, the Steam service itself - being any communication you have with the databases when you load up a store page, or the transmission of chat messages - won't be taking up more than maybe 50 KB/s downstream, max, when you're in multiple chat rooms receiving multiple messages at the same time. When you're playing a game in multiplayer mode, that constantly uses some up and downstream to keep you shooting and running around without lag, you're probably using only a few KB/s for that. In CSS, for example, you - as a client - many set their "rate" setting to around 3000 often, more than enough. That's the setting that determines your max incoming data speed, in bytes.

Of course, when you're playing 2 games on 2 PCs on a network hooked up to a 10 Mb/s DSL line, you won't be even close to maxing out that connection. If you've got a 10 Mb/s line, that means you can effectively attain probably a downstream of a good 400 - 500 KB/s. You could comfortably hook up 8 - 10 PCs and still game online together with no lag or slowdowns, assuming your own router isn't shitty, and that you're only using your line for gaming, maybe a webpage here or there.

Mobile devices? Unless you're downloading files to them over Wifi, all they're probably doing is some incidental syncing of your e-mail and some other apps, and loading webpages you're looking at. Again, nothing significant in terms of up/downstream bandwidth.

1 decade ago
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Sorry for the confusion caused by my lacking of some words in the previous post. The situation I was talking about then was both computers downloading a game while playing another both with Steam, and the mobile devices are surfing youtube.

1 decade ago
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Then that's down to decent / good QoS on your router. Steam does not have any other way to limit its' own download speed than the new limiter option that was added recently. Before that was implemented, Steam didn't magically limit itself to an <x> % of your download speed. It tried using all it could. If your router has decent QoS, it will manage the bandwidth needs of different clients / protocols / applications better, and nothing will feel like it's slowed down that much. Then there's also the OS you're using. I'm not sure (never bothered checking it out), but it's quite possible the TCP/IP stack in Windows 7 has been rewritten / tweaked from earlier versions of Windows, which would also make how your PC even tries to use your router more efficient.

1 decade ago
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In this thread: People who don't know their m's from their M's, and b's from B's.

1 decade ago
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lol yeah

1 decade ago
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I was just about to write that.

1 decade ago
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Yep.

1 decade ago
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What plan do you have?

1 decade ago
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We just got cable and we get a steady 35MBs which seems to be about 4-5mbps. Two weeks earlier we had signed up for ADSL2+ but we discovered that due to the phone lines in our house being really old and fucked, we were only getting 1/1.1MBs down and it was barely enough to load a page properly so we cancelled. It might be the lines, like us, or if you don't have cable you could be far away from an exchange.. I don't know where you're from so I dunno if cable is standard over there or what..

1 decade ago
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I get around the same speed as yours, but sometimes it can drob really low. I've never gotten past 1mb though.

1 decade ago
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First world problems. sigh

Anyways, the more you pay, the faster you can download today! :D

1 decade ago
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4mb

1 decade ago
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'I'm getting 500-800 KB/s on average'
Show off.

1 decade ago
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Closed 1 decade ago by C4m3r0n.