Terrible Download Speeds

Archie Gremlin · 01-22-2009 11:07 AM

Is anyone else getting truly awful download speeds for the latest update.

I'm looking at 200 bytes a second with an estimated completion time of 80 hours.

I'm trying to work out whether the bottle neck is with NCSoft or my ISP. (Demon) The rest of my internet access seems to be fine.

GR - Is it possible for you to find out if the NCSoft servers are saturated?

FloatingFatMan · 01-22-2009 11:12 AM

CoH's updater works on a series of different ports. I nominates a new one each time you start it. SOME of these ports are often incorrectly identified by some ISP's as being used for bittorrents, and get throttled. If you have a slow connection, you can usually resolve it by closing the updater and restarting. Any download you had going should resume.

It MAY take a few restarts to get an unthrottled port.

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OV_ohms · 01-22-2009 11:21 AM

You can also choose a custom port:

http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Game_Client#Game_Ports

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LunaWisp · 01-22-2009 11:31 AM

[ QUOTE ]
CoH's updater works on a series of different ports. I nominates a new one each time you start it. SOME of these ports are often incorrectly identified by some ISP's as being used for bittorrents, and get throttled. If you have a slow connection, you can usually resolve it by closing the updater and restarting. Any download you had going should resume.

It MAY take a few restarts to get an unthrottled port.

[/ QUOTE ]

As far as I'm aware Demon doesn't throttle or block any port unless you've hit their poorly documented monthly rolling download limit - they then chop you down to virtual dial-up speed without even bothering to let you know. I was with them for well over a decade but a few months ago I decided to move on, having decided that their service had detriorated to a point where I wasn't happy to hand them my cash every month.

Hate to sound negative but unless you're stuck with Demon for some reason I would give very serious consideration to at least looking into the services offered by other ISP's. Look around on the internet and see what other people think.

To answer your original question, my 80M download at about midday lasted just a few minutes with ADSL24...

Archie Gremlin · 01-22-2009 11:48 AM

Ok. I tried all the port numbers using the -port switch. (80, 6994, 13094 and 23094)

Both 80 and 6994 sucked at 1k a second or less.

23094 produced about 35k and second and 13094 gives me 40 to 50k a second. Winner!

So it's definitely worth trying the different ports. Thanks for the advice folks.

As for Demon, I've already decided to drop them. Like you I've been with them for about 10 years. I've found that reliability and speed are still OK but every time I'm forced to call customer service it's worst than the time before. The last time I spoke to them, they refused to answer my question and refused to escalate the call to someone who could. Fortunately, I only have to call them once or twice a year.

MaxPowerz_EU · 01-22-2009 08:35 PM

Glad I caught this, been trying to download since 18:00!!! At least now changing the port only have 30 mins to go now.

I wonder how many other people are encountering same problem.

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Isit_Hotinhere · 01-23-2009 10:09 AM

I had the same (through BT Broadband) although i was getting a tiny bit faster at 3.2k a second on 6mb broadband I restarted the updater a few times but nothing made it go faster. It was done by 11pm in the end, so i logged in, check my day job badge progression and logged out again, ready for this evening.

Thanks for the info about choosing a port though, that's good to know for future.

FireBlazer · 01-23-2009 05:23 PM

I am also having terrible download speeds! I not been about since wednesday so didnt know about the patch then come on tonight ready to start leveling and having to download a 80 mb patch with 3k/sec.

Tried to restart it a few times and used different ports but none has helped me. I am using BT broadband.

Think alot of people have been caught out by them relesing a large patch a day before the mass people logging on for this weekend.

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Isit_Hotinhere · 01-24-2009 08:41 PM

Fireblazer, i wonder if BT broadband don't allow patching, then. I tried on my fathers for I13 download around the same time of day (Tiscali Broadband) it worked fine, i come home (BT Broadband) and find patching on my 2nd PC, takes forever..

My assumption therefore is that BT no matter what throttle ports in some way, for sure, during peak time.

Gangrel_EU · 01-25-2009 06:59 AM

I had no issues downloading it during the day on BT... although granted with Tiscali they do do strange things (granted i *dont* like tiscali because when i had a download speed cap of 5kps (impressive seeing as i was on a broadband connection), they said i wasnt being throttled...)