Weird Steam and GOG Download Issue

I recently built a new PC, but I use the same network connectors as the old PC. When I’ve attempted to download games from Steam, I am getting less than a megabyte per second download speed. This is also true for GOG.

Yet, I accidentally discovered a work around. When I run the xfinity speedtest at the same time of the download, the download speeds shoot up to 15 or higher megabytes per second. I have not had notable issues with web browsing, including running youtube videos.

I am a bit puzzled. I don’t think it is a network issue, because nothing has really changed with my network and I can get the high speeds I’m paying for. However, without intervention those speeds just do not appear.

So, after an hour of searching online and not finding anything remotely similar to my situation, I thought I’d throw out the question here to see if anyone has an idea as to what is going on.

Sounds like throttling by your ISP which drops as soon as you’re checking your speed. I kind of doubt that’s what is happening but the tiny conspiracy gnome that lives inside me is convinced.

Try to stream something else other than a speed test and see if it still helps. Watch a Netflix/YouTube movie in 4k/HD or something.

My mind went to throttling to, but there is throttling and then there is quickly lose customers by providing 1/20th the agreed upon speed. Plus, the download speeds were fine before the new PC.

Yeah, it would be a hell of a coincidence. Maybe on your new NIC or OS install there’s some kind of QoS stuff doing it’s thing?

If we are into silly theories, I suggest that your hard drive is incredibly slow, so it can’t write as fast as you download, hence the throttling.

I had sometimes temporary issues with Steam speeds, but they wouldn’t carry on to other websites.

Maybe you could try to connect physically, through an ethernet cable, to check if you still experience this, as sometimes weird stuff happens when a wifi neighbourhood is super busy? Although in my case, the speed doesn’t drop, the connection does when this used to happen.
Yeah I’ll stop conjecturing!

If you are using a wired connection to the router, make sure your PC isn’t also making a wireless connection. It may not even be a problem if it does, but I’ve seen a couple of instances where this caused connection or performance issues.

Hmmm… I do not, but when I switched to comcast I had to rename my wireless router. However, the old names are still there. I wonder if there is some kind of mixed signal going on. Plus, it is dual band, and apparently the bands originally had the same names, but the first time I called help (when I was a new customer) I talked to someone who seemed to know a lot more than the list follower I talked to recently. Something I will have to try soon.

I’m guessing that you’re doing the GOG downloads from the client, but the speedtest from the browser. Is that correct?

If so, maybe it could be some kind of power management bullshit. E.g. the OS keeping the NIC in a low power state normally, and the browser somehow kicking it to a high power mode for a while. A couple of easy tests to verify that idea:

  • Try a GOG download with the browser rather than the client. Is it still 1Mbps, or full speed?
  • Start a Steam download. Then start something other than the ISP’s own speedtest in the browser. E.g. a Youtube playback, or the Netflix speedtest. Does this have the same effect on the speed of the Steam download as the speedtest did?

This is a longshot, but you may want to check Steam’s Downloads settings.

From within the Steam client, click “Steam” (upper left corner), then choose Settings.
On the Settings dialog box, choose Downloads.

  • First thing to look for is “Limit Bandwidth To:” and make sure it’s set to No Limit.
  • Next thing to try might be changing the Download Region to a different region near you. Steam automatically tries to select the nearest region to you at setup, but sometimes it goofs up and other times that region is just overloaded with prime-time traffic, so choosing a different region can speed up downloads in rare circumstances.
  • Also try unchecking the “Throttle Download While Streaming” box. Even though you don’t seem to be streaming, the Steam client could think you are and be throttling.
  • Finally, clear the download cache. While a new install shouldn’t have issues with the cache, it doesn’t hurt to clear it while you are already in the Downloads dialog.

If you try all that and still have very slow download speeds with only Steam, then I would suspect something happening at your router or your ISP resulting in throttling.

Could also be you’ve somehow latched on to a neighbor’s unsecured wifi signal and automatically connected. I’ve seen this happen many times.

Well, I tried most of the advice given here, and it did not result in a fix. However, I noticed the original name of my wireless network was still appearing. If that does not make sense to you, know that Comcast requires you to use “comcast gateway,” or something like that, which renames your wireless network (to one of your choice) and lets you create a custom password. However, the original, factory default name which I never bothered to change is still there. I thought it was a neighbor with a similar router, but I just managed to log into it using the factory default password, and I was able to get 11 megabytes a second on a steam download. So, progress?

I’ve been downloading Battletech for days now. Steam is downloading at 1,000kb/s. I confirmed that yes, there is actually 1,000kb/s going through my NIC. But it’s not writing anywhere near that to disk.

Here I’ve downloaded 800mb so far in the session and I’m at 5.2gb toward Battletech.

Here I’ve downloaded 1.3gb in the session, but Battletech is only up to 5.3gb.

What is gaben doing with my bandwidth?

Maybe you have a really noisy connection and it’s counting “failed” packets?

Yeah, that would make sense. Something is screwed up with my internet connection. I don’t notice when I’m web browsing, but I run into problems with stuff like playing games.

Have you had problems for a long time, or just recently?

Do you have a splitter on your connection?

It’s gotten worse over the last year or so. There’s no splitter. I’m connected to a wireless router that’s connected to another wireless router downstairs. I don’t think the problem is on the LAN because I’ve tried plugging in directly to the router and I still get the same issues.

Ugh. I was hoping it was some bug in Steam that there would be some easy workaround for. If it’s the network then I guess I’ve got to talk to my roommate about it.

have you tried a different modem?

Not yet. That’s a good idea.

Well, weird things happen at Valve lately

The watchmen watches the watchmen, I guess.