It seems that you're using an outdated browser. Some things may not work as they should (or don't work at all).
We suggest you upgrade newer and better browser like: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Opera

×
low rated
avatar
DoomSooth: Slow downloads in Australia? That never happens.
Lol....good one.

-

As to the OP post/title: I think this video says it all
Post edited July 23, 2021 by GamezRanker
low rated
avatar
MeowCanuck: Not sure about the last 7 months, but Australia has slightly more users than China here in terms of revenue. So I don't think that's the reason.
Do you have a factual source for that?

avatar
MeowCanuck: You can also test and compare your hypothesis by using Galaxy and comparing speeds with your browser.
I don't download my games using my browser. At the very least I would use a downloader like Free Download Manager 5 with the browser links. These days I use gogcli.exe and failing that gogrepo.py.

I have given Galaxy as many chances as it is going to get, and won't try it again unless GOG has published they have removed half the bloat and it runs much better now and has a Lite variant.

If GOG try to force me into using Galaxy, I will just stop buying.
At this point, with my huge collection of games, both here at GOG and elsewhere, I am really doing them a favor, by continuing to buy games here, more than they are me.

I'm not against Galaxy, other than for my own personal use.

avatar
MeowCanuck: Anyway, the only people who can actually answer your question are GOG staff and other Aussies and Kiwis to see where your nearest servers are and inquire if they're having issues. Might be worth befriending them when they respond to this thread for future regional checks.
I struggle to see the advantage of that. And People & Stores have agendas, and so trust on the ground can be very thin.

Just because someone in Sydney for instance, hasn't seemingly been suffering a slowdown, doesn't really help when making a judgment based on where I live, which is not Sydney. Speeds vary all over the country, and NZ has a different network altogether. And many have 100 Megabit connections or better. If the slowdown is based on a percentage, then you are comparing apples with oranges.
Post edited July 24, 2021 by Timboli
low rated
avatar
Timboli: Do you have a factual source for that?
GOG recently made a thread where they released a set of (info lite) infographics recently.....one of which showed percentages of sales per world area.
low rated
avatar
Timboli: Due to appalling download speeds in the last few weeks/months, I am seriously considering boycotting the purchase of any games above a certain file size ... over 10 Gb maybe.
Yay, the guy who told me they're using a downrating script against me and others. But you know what? I don't like rep, anyway, and you said you don't want to see my posts anymore, but i think it would save some peoples' time from continuing this charade by responding to some things here...
What else can I do really?
I've got better things to do with my PC time.

GOG either don't want to spend the money on providing the necessary servers, while at the same time happy to take our money, or they are deliberately reducing the speed of non Galaxy downloads ... though I have seen complaints about Galaxy download speeds.

For most of my time with GOG I have been able to download at between 4 to 5 MB/s, whereas in recent times I am lucky if I even get 2 Mb/s, usually more like 1.6 to 1.8 Mb/s these days.

On a really good day (or moment) I might get as much as 3 Mb/s for a while.

I try at various times through the day and night, plus reconnects to my ISP. None of it makes any difference.

And yes, I still get fast downloads elsewhere, so the issue is clearly at the GOG end.

It's not good enough to use the old sales excuse, because GOG always have a sale happening. So there isn't a quiet time anymore, and some sales are a clearly worse time when it comes to downloading.

Many like me download to archive, and do that as soon as a purchase has occurred. We want that sense of security and comfort, and I'm certainly not going to wait days or weeks for an elusive better time to download.
Or just this whole thing. And how easy is this to do?

avatar
Timboli: I don't download my games using my browser. At the very least I would use a downloader like Free Download Manager 5 with the browser links. These days I use gogcli.exe and failing that gogrepo.py.
Wow, you see, for users who don't have a clue how these tools work: they're meant to archive your games in the background. In other words, he's not likely sitting there waiting to play a game he just purchased. No, it's going to some sort of archive folder or drive when he downloads them. If he was anxious to play these games, he'd likely be using the browser, since, odds are, his archive drive is on another computer, which means after it's done downloading, he'd have to wait for it to get off his archive to the one he'd actually play on. He's already adding wait time by not downloading the game twice: once through browser and the other through gogcli/gogrepo. He doesn't really care about the download speeds, but is just looking for something to complain about.

I'm sure, though, someone's actually upset about these speeds, but that's a whole other topic for a whole other time. He's not going to boycott games as a result of their size unless he's running out of HDD space.
avatar
Timboli: I have a 50 Megabit connection, which means I can get slightly over 5 Megabytes a second if a site I download from allows it. So yes my downloading speed from GOG has more than halved in recent times ... closer to a third of what I should be getting.
So are you now getting under 2 megaBITS/sec or 2 megaBYTES/sec? The first message indicated you are getting under 2 megaBITS/sec, which indeed is quite slow.

I have a 400Mbit/s cable modem at home, but I guess I don't mind if I get about 2 Mbytes/sec download speeds from one service (like gog.com), even if it would be nice if everything came at full speed.

I am currently downloading one of the 4GB .bin files of Control with Chromium browser in Linux, and getting around 4.7 megabytes/sec download speed, which is ok to me. Especially since this is on a laptop over the older 2.4GHz wifi in the room which is the farthest away from my wifi router, so I am pretty sure it is actually the wifi which is throttling me at the moment, and I would get faster speed if I was connected to the router with a LAN cable.

avatar
Timboli: As I said in my first post, I am not experiencing this elsewhere, just at GOG and only in the last month or so.
Does that include also big downloads from other web sites, with the same web browser? For instance HumbleBundle.com? Just to make sure that it is an apples to apples comparison...

Yeah it is possible GOG has pretty poor download server coverage for e.g. Australia and some other parts of the world.

avatar
Timboli: I suspect lack of servers and favoritism to where most customers lie ... USA, China, United Kingdom, etc. I also suspect the possibility that non Galaxy downloading is penalized.
I haven't tested recently, but at least some time ago I was getting very fast download speeds with a web browser e.g. at my work (several hundreds of megabits/sec, at least). So at least back then it didn't seem web browser downloads were throttled.
Post edited July 24, 2021 by timppu
I checked how it looks currently on my end. Right now I'm getting around 40 MB/s (that's 320 Mbit/s) when downloading Control offline installer. And it's pretty common for me to get this kind of speed. Sometimes it's lower in the rush hours and the download speed may vary depending on the title, but it hasn't fallen down to a really low values for a long time. I'm fully aware however that people from other regions have problems. This topic comes back to the forums from time to time. The most important variables are current traffic and region of download.
Post edited July 24, 2021 by Sarafan
low rated
avatar
timppu: So are you now getting under 2 megaBITS/sec or 2 megaBYTES/sec? The first message indicated you are getting under 2 megaBITS/sec, which indeed is quite slow.
It would be very slow indeed if it was Megabits.
Don't know why some think that Mb/s is Megabits. Generally if you are talking about Megabits, you use the word Megabits or Mbit/s as you have done, so as not to confuse the two.

avatar
timppu: I have a 400Mbit/s cable modem at home, but I guess I don't mind if I get about 2 Mbytes/sec download speeds from one service (like gog.com), even if it would be nice if everything came at full speed.
Clearly many GOG customers get download speeds far in access of what my connection is capable of. So I think it fair to assume I should at least get between 4 and 5 Mb/s, especially as that has been my download speed with GOG for a few years, until a month or so ago.

avatar
timppu: ..... and I would get faster speed if I was connected to the router with a LAN cable.
Which is exactly how I am connected, so no Wifi involved.

avatar
timppu: Does that include also big downloads from other web sites, with the same web browser? For instance HumbleBundle.com? Just to make sure that it is an apples to apples comparison...
I am NOT using a browser with GOG, but yes I get fast speeds with my browser with other sites.

avatar
timppu: Yeah it is possible GOG has pretty poor download server coverage for e.g. Australia and some other parts of the world.
Well it certainly seems that way, unless they are penalizing non Galaxy users.

avatar
timppu: I haven't tested recently, but at least some time ago I was getting very fast download speeds with a web browser e.g. at my work (several hundreds of megabits/sec, at least). So at least back then it didn't seem web browser downloads were throttled.
Yep, it seems to be a constant throttling though for the last month or so, for me ... with GOG.

In that time I have tried all the tricks I know, none browser based, because I don't use my browser for GOG. That includes turning off my Router for a few minutes, then restarting it ... which has often worked in the past with download slowness. But generally if download speeds are slow because of my ISP, I notice anyway, because even browsing is slow.
Post edited July 24, 2021 by Timboli
low rated
avatar
Timboli: Don't know why some think that Mb/s is Megabits.
Post edited July 24, 2021 by GamezRanker
avatar
Timboli: It would be very slow indeed if it was Megabits.
Don't know why some think that Mb/s is Megabits. Generally if you are talking about Megabits, you use the word Megabits or Mbit/s as you have done, so as not to confuse the two.
As GamezRanker posted, Mb are Megabits and MB are MegaBytes. The size of the letter is important here. I usually use Mbit for Megabits to minimize the confusion.

avatar
Timboli: Clearly many GOG customers get download speeds far in access of what my connection is capable of. So I think it fair to assume I should at least get between 4 and 5 Mb/s, especially as that has been my download speed with GOG for a few years, until a month or so ago.
Well, you could always try to contact support, because your speeds are way below expectations. But again, you're not the only one with this kind of problem. In the past I also had problems with download speeds falling down even to 1-2 MB/s with the same Internet bandwidth. I even posted a topic that covered this issue: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/whats_your_download_speed_on_gog/page1. Now it doesn't happen, so I presume GOG did upgrade its servers in the EU region. Not sure if the company has servers in Australia at all. It's possible that you're downloading from some other region.
Post edited July 24, 2021 by Sarafan
low rated
avatar
Sarafan: Well, you could always try to contact support, because your speeds are way below expectations.
My guess is that there are no servers in that country, and the slowness is possibly partly due to the bandwidth limitations of the cabling connecting Australia with the rest of the world.
avatar
Timboli: It would be very slow indeed if it was Megabits.
Don't know why some think that Mb/s is Megabits. Generally if you are talking about Megabits, you use the word Megabits or Mbit/s as you have done, so as not to confuse the two.
Because words (and capitalization, in this case) have meanings. MB/s (or MBps) is standard for MegaBytes per second where as Mb/s (or Mbps) is Megabits or Megabauds per second. People get confused because you used the wrong terminology.

It's the same kind of terminology that ISPs use to confuse customers and why they measure everything in Mbps (because the numbers are bigger) knowing that everything actually online is measured in MBps. They do this to trick people into thinking they will get a FAR faster connection than they do.
Post edited July 24, 2021 by paladin181
low rated
avatar
Timboli: Do you have a factual source for that?
Page 72.

I don't download my games using my browser. At the very least I would use a downloader like Free Download Manager 5 with the browser links. These days I use gogcli.exe and failing that gogrepo.py.
I presumed it was browser, but yes whatever method you usually use to download.

I have given Galaxy as many chances as it is going to get, and won't try it again unless GOG has published they have removed half the bloat and it runs much better now and has a Lite variant.

If GOG try to force me into using Galaxy, I will just stop buying.
At this point, with my huge collection of games, both here at GOG and elsewhere, I am really doing them a favor, by continuing to buy games here, more than they are me.

I'm not against Galaxy, other than for my own personal use.
Relevant. Anyway, it's to install to test one download speed in comparison to whatever you're using right now to see if there is a discrepancy. It's also very easy to do yourself instead of sitting around wondering if Galaxy users are getting preferential treatment.

I struggle to see the advantage of that. And People & Stores have agendas, and so trust on the ground can be very thin.
Yes, that's why you have to cross-check the conflict-of-interest data they give you with another independent source. If GOG says their servers are fine, but you and four other Aussies are getting 1 MB/s on a 5-10 MB/s ethernet connection, then something doesn't add up.

Just because someone in Sydney for instance, hasn't seemingly been suffering a slowdown, doesn't really help when making a judgment based on where I live, which is not Sydney. Speeds vary all over the country, and NZ has a different network altogether. And many have 100 Megabit connections or better. If the slowdown is based on a percentage, then you are comparing apples with oranges.
Yes, but it helps with process of elimination of the source of the problem roughly. If some Aussie was getting 4 MB/s and you were getting 1 MB/s on the same ISP plan, then the source of problem is localized to you and your pathway compared to your mate. You know your variables (e.g., throttling speeds, torrenting in the background, etc.), just keep them constant.

avatar
GamezRanker: As to the OP post/title: I think this video says it all
This is hilarious, thanks for sharing.
Post edited July 24, 2021 by MeowCanuck
low rated
avatar
MeowCanuck: This is hilarious, thanks for sharing.
It's even more funny when you imagine them saying some of the stuff in the OP post(also i'm glad ya enjoyed it).
Post edited July 24, 2021 by GamezRanker
low rated
BTW mate, running negrep scripts is a good way to ensure no one helps you in the future. I haven't negrepped anyone in a couple months yet I've noticed my other threads and its commenters being negrepped, probably getting caught in your chip on the shoulder paranoia crossfire.

Good luck resolving this.
Post edited July 24, 2021 by MeowCanuck
low rated
avatar
Timboli: I am NOT using a browser with GOG, but yes I get fast speeds with my browser with other sites.
If you mean e.g. gogrepo, it would help to test it also e.g. with a browser (just to see it is not a gogrepo or python issue), as I recall some earlier having some speed issues with gogrepo, possibly related to their python configuration or something.

avatar
Timboli: Well it certainly seems that way, unless they are penalizing non Galaxy users.
If they were throttling non-Galaxy users, I presume non-Galaxy GOG users all over the world would see the problem.

avatar
Timboli: In that time I have tried all the tricks I know, none browser based, because I don't use my browser for GOG. That includes turning off my Router for a few minutes, then restarting it ... which has often worked in the past with download slowness. But generally if download speeds are slow because of my ISP, I notice anyway, because even browsing is slow.
It would also help if you could test it somewhere else besides just your home connection (different ISP hopefully), to see whether it is an issue with your ISP.

That is why I sometimes test it at my work (because the internet is and should be super-speedy there), or alternatively with my mobile phone internet connection, instead of the cable modem (different ISP).

Anyway, I consider it a possibility that GOG servers serving your area in Australia may have just become worse lately. It is possible, GOG had some other slowdowns issues lately as well, there were a couple of threads of that IIRC.
Post edited July 24, 2021 by timppu