Slow download speeds

[timberflake]

Hi guys,

All of a sudden my download speeds have started to tank and I can't work out why.

I've got a 200Mbps connection with Virgin Media, and I always hit that on speed tests and through Newsbin. However, today I'm getting 207Mbps on Speedtest.net, and only 32Mbps through Newsbin.

Any ideas as to why this could be?

[Quade]

Had another report from a Virgin guy reporting something similar. Might have been you for all I know.

If Newsbin didn't change and your server didn't change it's probably your ISP or some software on your PC.

[timberflake]

Had another report from a Virgin guy reporting something similar. Might have been you for all I know.

If Newsbin didn't change and your server didn't change it's probably your ISP or some software on your PC.

No wasn't me. I've disabled my virus scanner to see if that made a difference and it didn't. Would it be worth changing the SSL ports? I'm currently on 443, what are the others to try?

[Quade]

No wasn't me. I've disabled my virus scanner to see if that made a difference and it didn't. Would it be worth changing the SSL ports? I'm currently on 443, what are the others to try?

You have to know what ports your news server supports and then use one of them. You can't just pick them out of the blue.

If you haven't, it might be worth giving 6.71RC2 a try. It has a new SSL library.

[timberflake]

I posted on the VM forum and they've responded as follows:

"All I know is it seems to be on a per CMTS basis, and its only the last few months people have had the issue. The obvious assumption is that QOS has changed to prioritise multiple connections per IP instead of a single connection per IP- that would make sense as a LOT of modern apps multithread and perform better with multiple connections (STEAM for example)".

So it seems VM have changed something fundamental? They've also suggested that I use a "multi threaded client" - is Newsbin capable of this?

[Quade]

They're just bullshitting you. I'd guess VM threw a throttle on the connections and they don't want to admit it.

Newsbin has been threaded for as long as threads have existed. When you set connection counts in the server options you're setting the number of threads.

How many connections are you using? Typically there's no point to using much over 10. The upper limit is set by your news server. You might want to experiment with connection but if it's a throttle they probably won't help.

Just for grins, you could try a VPN and see if you get your speed back. VPN's hide what you're doing from your ISP.

[timberflake]

I've got 8 connections atm.

I've just tried a VPN and the connection has gone up to between 60-90Mbps, so I guess that confirms it's a throttle?

[Quade]

I've just tried a VPN and the connection has gone up to between 60-90Mbps, so I guess that confirms it's a throttle?

If it speeds up over a VPN which technically should be slower than running naked, I'd say it means they're throttling you.

[timberflake]

I've just tried a VPN and the connection has gone up to between 60-90Mbps, so I guess that confirms it's a throttle?

If it speeds up over a VPN which technically should be slower than running naked, I'd say it means they're throttling you.

After playing with the VPN a bit more I've been able to get a top speed of 212Mbps, so looks like it's definitely VM throttling.

[subzer011]

i'm having this same issue but i don't think it's ISP throttling. i'm trying to update to the latest version, 6.71, but for whatever reason, my downloads tank, speeds go down to ~20Mbps. I've made absolutely no changes in the settings. and i've tried leaving 6.71 running for a few hours to see if it gets any better but no luck. I've reverted back down to version 6.60 where download speeds are fine and consistent (~170Mbps).

any suggestions?

[Quade]

i'm having this same issue but i don't think it's ISP throttling.

Agreed. What security software are you using?

[subzer011]

running Windows 2012 R2 with no 3rd party security software. i use this box just for newsbin downloads, nothing else.

just to add-- i have both the main download folder and the newsbin data folder on mapped network shares. could this be the issue? this hasn't been an issue with any releases up to 6.60

[timberflake]

Im pretty sure it is throttling, there's a lot of threads about this on the VM forum (incl. the one I started). My speeds were lousy even when connecting to the VM servers, all other downloading fine. But as soon as i connect to a VPN, boom, full speed.

Im not the only person experiencing it, lots of people have noticed it right around the same time.

[Quade]

You might want to check "Pause Download during unrar...." in the performance options and see if the symptoms change. Ideally you would download to a local drive and then maybe unrar to a network share. Having the data folder on the network share is also potentially a problem. Newsbin stores partial downloads in the data folder. So, if you're unraring/repairing and downloading at the same time, your network connection is going to take a beating.


timberflake. if he says that 6.60 is fast and 6.71 is slow, it's probably not throttling. It's probably some change in how 6.71 downloads. The chunks in the data folder thing for instance.