[TelstraClear] Steam install/updating very slow

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › [TelstraClear] Steam install/updating very slow

dets00b

60 posts

Master Geek

#84767 7-Jun-2011 23:41

Have always had a problem updating steam on adsl with telstra at my current address. I tested my computer on another connection and it updates fast, but on my home connection it takes forever. Downloads at around 2-3kb/s and takes about 3-4 hours to update to the most recent version from a fresh install. I checked the ip addresses its trying to connect to which are listed below:

68.142.72.250:27038
72.165.61.190:27030
69.28.151.178:27038

I have forwarded ports on my router and even enabled dmz on my internal ip to see if my router was causing any problems. I don't have any issues with download speeds for any other application. I have disabled/uninstalled any 3rd party software listed on the steam website that may possibly interfere with steam. I've tried killing connections to some of the ip addresses that steam tries to update from in hope it jumps to another update server but they are all similar ip addresses and all give no data transfer. I've tried changing the default download location to various australian servers with no change. Today steam required an update and it just won't update, i have nill data transfer between any of the update servers and it just sits on 0%.

Any ideas? or anyone else experiencing this problem?

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BDFL - Memuneh
76388 posts

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Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#478822 8-Jun-2011 03:06

Are tyou using the correct TelstraClear DNS or a third party one?

--- 203.97.78.43
--- 203.97.78.44

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dets00b

60 posts

Master Geek

#478827 8-Jun-2011 07:38

i am using the new clear dns, i don't think its a dns problem, i tried with the old paradise dns aswell 203.96.152.4 & 203.96.152.12. I also disabled windows firewall last night to rule that out.

0verdose05

102 posts

Master Geek

#478856 8-Jun-2011 09:31

Try changing to Singapore or LA I've found these servers to be ok when local ones are slow.

dets00b

60 posts

Master Geek

#478892 8-Jun-2011 11:03

yes i've tried that too, its really strange. Anyway happy world ipv6 day everyone :)

TelstraClear

566 posts

Ultimate Geek

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TelstraClear

#478957 8-Jun-2011 14:03

Hi guys, we are currently investigating this issue and will keep you updated.

dets00b

60 posts

Master Geek

#478973 8-Jun-2011 14:57

Is there a ticket reference for this

simcore

68 posts

Master Geek

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#478986 8-Jun-2011 15:26

Hey dets00b, thanks for the initial info you provided in your post.

I'll share a ticket reference with you once I've logged the internal ticket, just investigating all the different routes and speeds that separate content is providing.

I experienced the slow speeds myself last night and came here to see if it had been mentioned by other customers. Will keep you in the loop on here and GP.

Thanks for your patience and apologies for any frustration the speeds are causing.

NZCrusader

646 posts

Ultimate Geek

#478994 8-Jun-2011 15:45

http://www.gpforums.co.nz/thread/423171/?s=b5ce8c380a89f7c3d0d1715b285e84de

When Slingshot AYCE is beating you.

You know you are either capped, or have a big network problem XD

;)

NZ / AU Battlefield 4 Gaming Community
http://www.sonsofvalour.net/forums/forum.php

simcore

68 posts

Master Geek

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#478996 8-Jun-2011 16:02

Change your girlfriends download location under, SETTINGS > DOWNLOAD + CLOUD > Download Region to US - Los Angeles.

You should see much better speeds. Appreciate you letting me know if it does help.

Skolink

1081 posts

Uber Geek

#479006 8-Jun-2011 16:18

I also often get very slow Steam update speed on Telstra cable (in Christchurch). It normally sits around 100k/s but often is <10k/s.
The slow speeds are exasperated by the Steam bug where it says "preparing to launch <game>" when in fact it is actually updating the game (for an hour one time!). I tried restarting / reinstalling etc until I relaised what was going on. When I reported it to steam they suggested clearing some directory, rather than acknowledging the bug and promising to fix it.

simcore

68 posts

Master Geek

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#479042 8-Jun-2011 17:32

Okay, I have a solution that appears to solve this problem (from my testing). It appears this is not TelstraClear controlled or related to the TelstraClear network. I think however it is isolated to TelstraClear as an NZ ISP because it does not reach the ISP restricted Slingshot server, or the Affinity.net.nz server which other providers have access to (although reziN from Affinity tells me we should have access to it, we'll have to look into fixing that if possible)

The default download region (labelled default) will direct a TelstraClear customers steam client to the lowest latency server in Australia, which will be one of these three.

150.101.120.97 27030 (Internode)
steam1.adl6.internode.on.net (Internode)
180.92.195.130 27030 (Telstra)

Ironically, while there seem to be a lot of available options for Australian regions and different steam content servers I found that VIC, QLD, NSW, NSW (3FL), NSW (Internode) and even NSW (Telstra) directed to the same content server hosted at Internode (150.101.120.97) with the exception of the NSW Telstra option which served both the Telstra server and the Internode server together.

All traffic coming from the Internode server appears to be restricted from the source, I may be wrong, and can only assume at this point as?

a) I haven't contacted Internode
b) The internode stats for Steams content server page do not give much information
c) I haven?t tested this from another ISP to see if they experience the same speeds

I would guess that the total national bandwidth available for the content server is not maxing out, but that the international bandwidth likely is, especially if all of TelstraClear's customers are being directed to this as a default destination (or select it unknowingly from one of the many available Australian destinations, that all direct to the same end server). This would explain why at peak times last night it crawled to 2Kbps, whereas this afternoon it was more like 20Kbps (still nothing to call home about).

Latency and routing to the Internode and Telstra destinations is not abnormal.

The best result from the limited download sources I tested was US ? Los Angeles, which gave me 800Kbps, so temporarily while we find out how to have the steam client direct TelstraClear customers to a better default source, I would suggest this as the best option for Steam downloads. TelstraClear has sufficient international bandwidth for users to get considerable speeds from this destination.

SETTINGS > DOWNLOAD + CLOUD > Download Region to US - Los Angeles.

Now, importantly, STEAM often has issues where it will not update the client, or start properly on launch. Users will regularly delete the Steam.dll or ClientRegistry.blob files to get it started again, when I deleted the Steam.dll it retained the download source for the client files as the Los Angeles server. (209.197.4.35). When I deleted the clientregistry.blog file, it sourced the client update from another US destination at a fast speed (unused-208-64-202-252.valvesoftware.com). However! The steam settings had then reverted back to default, which directed any game updates or downloads to the Internode addresses again, the second time I deleted the clientregistry.blog it appeared to download the client update from the internode servers very slowly. (although not as slow as last night).

So, my suggestions are to make sure you change the download source back to LA, if you have or have to delete that specific file, and leave it on the LA server until we can contact Steam Support to specify better default content server destinations for TelstraClear customers (if that is possible). We?ll continue to keep an eye on this and work on a better solution in the mean time.

Appreciate any further feedback anyone has about this issue, especially if these changes I've suggested do not resolve the download speeds for you.

The above is my own personal opinion (and attempt to fix the issue for people) and not that of my employer (but I'll make sure we look into it further officially ;D)

simcore

68 posts

Master Geek

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#479045 8-Jun-2011 17:38

In a nutshell...

Go to SETTINGS > DOWNLOAD + CLOUD

Change the Download Region to US - Los Angeles. This should deliver future client updates and game updates/downloads at suitable speeds.

If you have to delete clientregistry.blob, ensure that you change the settings again, as it will revert to default.

"Default" and the majority of the Australian download regions I selected, all lead to the same Internode server which appears to be restricting the bandwidth.

If you have not been able to start the steam client because it is updating very slowly, you will have to either wait for it start that first time, or try block any access to the following IP's in an attempt to find an alternative and faster source. (Steam appears to direct to the Internode one as best/first preference)

150.101.120.97 27030 (Internode)
steam1.adl6.internode.on.net (Internode)
180.92.195.130 27030 (Telstra)

Ragnor

8085 posts

Uber Geek

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#479046 8-Jun-2011 17:39

Why don't Telstraclear host a steam content mirror?

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3326-TDKV-4603

Given you guys host google/youtube and akamai caching servers plus you run general http through a transparent caching proxy... I would have thought this would be a no brainer?

simcore

68 posts

Master Geek

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#479052 8-Jun-2011 17:49

Just a response to dets00b,

I noticed the IP's you specified by the way, and TCPView did show them very briefly during the initial launch of the Steam.exe (amongst other global Steam servers) but it always diverted to a different source for myself.

Are you certain that the actual update was coming from those IP's each time you closed or restarted Steam?

Ragnor

8085 posts

Uber Geek

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#479053 8-Jun-2011 17:49

Also if you want to try and coerce Steam to use certain addresses you can also use:

SteamWatch
http://www.users.on.net/~marttinen/

Frey's Steam Filter
http://members.iinet.net.au/~chapman.j/

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