When I run a test at speedtest.net, I typically get values between 15 and 20 Mpbs for download speed. These plummet to .32 Mbps when I have a Steam game downloading to my library. Steam’s self-reporting says that the game is downloading at 1.2 MB p/s, so it’s not like it’s eating up all the bandwidth. Everything else net-related is running very slowly. If I pause the download, tested speeds (and basic observation on other sites) jump back to what we’re used to. As soon as I resume the download, things return to a crawl.
Well, 1.2 MB/sec (megabytes) is about 9.6 Mbps (megabits), so that’s half your available bandwidth right there. Where’d the other 5 or 10 Mbps go, you ask?
Some possibilities:
The speed test maybe isn’t accurate? Some ISPs (Comcast, notoriously) give you a faster speed at the beginning of a download and then throttle it down to normal after a few minutes or so. What do you actually pay for?
Do you have a really cheap router? Sometimes they can get overwhelmed by packets (or connections) if you have a faster internet connection and you’re downloading and uploading a bunch, but typically I’ve only seen this with Bittorrent and other multi-peered downloads.
As an aside, I’m surprised Steam leaves you ANY bandwidth at all. Mine happily gobbles up all 50 Mbps whenever I download games, and I’d have it no other way… fast, unqueued downloading is half the reason I use their service at all.
When I checked, nothing under the download/cloud settings seemed applicable. I changed the approximate speed to basic cable/DSL (2M), though it had been at 10M prior.
Speaking of prior, this feels like a relatively new thing (for certain definitions of new). I haven’t had time to download play a game in about seven or eight months, but I’ve never noticed an overall slowdown before, nor such a huge hit on speedtests–hence the thread.
I mentioned speedtest results (and thanks for picking up on the different capitalizations) as a relative thing, not expecting absolute results. But the test results are consistent over time. That is, I can run one throughout the course of the day (I started keeping track for this thread around noon or so) and get fairly consistent results. And every time I started Steam I’d see the results plummet–and jump back up again after quitting.
The house network is a bit complex (for certain definitions of complex). There are a couple switches in addition to the router, a couple A/B boxes managing two broadband connections (I need to untangle the port forwarding on the DSL side of things before I can compare), and lots of cable. But it’s all quality cable. Not $10,000 Pear cables, but since when I first started running wires throughout the house I wanted loooong-term upgradeability–they’re all Cat-6. All switches are Gigabit-enabled, and either D-Link or Linksys (router is a 310N).
There could be a problem (heck, the router could be on its last legs), but it seems like the only variable is Steam.
Supposedly there is a limit in Steam under Settings, Downloads. I don’t have Steam handy so I can’t verify it.
Otherwise the standard method seems to be using a program called NetLimiter.
You could also try downloading a big file from another source; download a Linux ISO file through your browser or something, see if that does the same thing to your network.