Downloading from Download Station is S_L_O_W

Just tried to download GN 44-ton GE 50, a file of 10 megs or so. I have a high-speed connection. Any reason why it would start at 500 kb/second or so and then quickly slow down to 4 kb/second? It's kind of like watching the real thing start up a grade that gets steeper and steeper. When I stop the process, exit the screen and then return to it and resume the download, it picks up where it left off without losing anything, just as quickly as before, and then slows to a crawl again.

The first question to ask is do you have an FCT? If you have, then the next question is have you activated it?

Getting an FCT is not the same as activating it. You can have several FCTs, one active until it expires and others inactive waiting to be activated to take its place.

Yes, welcome to Trainz. Without an FCT the downloads slow to a crawl. What that really gets N3V is people like me hogging a connection for days and weeks at a time while I try to download multi-megabyte assets. If I get too far behind, I will spring for a 30-day FCT, it really is not that much money. What you will also find is that with large downloads, often it does not complete successfully the first time and then starts over again. Argh! In T:ANE it would just throw an error, but would complete immediately if you started the download again. Not so with 2019.

The speed indicator is actually IMO rubbish and bears no resemblance to actually checking the speed with a download monitor. Looks like the reading you get in Manage content includes extracting and decompressing the assets and installing.
I use a little program call bitmeter to monitor actual speeds up and down. Often with the DLS downloads the file has been downloaded according to bitmeter, yet Manage Content / Content Manager is still showing a download speed.

Extremely unlikely that without a FCT you would get 500kb/s as the max speed is only 4kb/s your connection speed is only as good as the speed the server downloads at, no FCT then it's 4kb/s with an FCT up to just over 10000kb/s max, will vary depending on distance from server and routing.

Yes the 4kb/s speed for the free server is very slow and despite many complaints free server users are stuck with it. All down to cost of renting the server, FCT users by paying contribute towards the cost.

Thanks to all

Even with my very limited technical savvy - first time I've heard of an FCT, for crying out loud! - the explanations make sense. I don't plan on doing a lot of downloading, at least until I get better used to this, but good to know for the future. And, yes, for the first split second the download ran even faster than that. But only ​for the first split second.

Westernmost said:

And, yes, for the first split second the download ran even faster than that. But only ​for the first split second.

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Even with an FCT the first few seconds of my downloads show as running very very fast but then settle down to a more sedate speed. They do fluctuate and can even speed up (and back down again) during a download. As Malc points out above, the "download speed" value shown is a very unreliable indicator anyway.

At the best of times my download speeds, from all sources not just Trainz, can show a wide range of values. Time of day, network traffic, phase of the moon, all play their part.

My question would be is the DLS speed the same as it was when it first came into service? As newer gaming technologies and software products come out, they are usually increased in size and speed, too. So much for keepin' up with the times. LOL

clam1952 said:

Extremely unlikely that without a FCT you would get 500kb/s as the max speed is only 4kb/s your connection speed is only as good as the speed the server downloads at, no FCT then it's 4kb/s with an FCT up to just over 10000kb/s max, will vary depending on distance from server and routing.

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This is odd to me, as the DLS would normally download around 10kb/s for non-FCT users about a year or two ago (at least for me). I recall some server upgrade between then and now upping the speed to 20-something-kb/s, however the DLS has lately taken a dip to 4kb/s like the original post inquired about.

BakerBoat said:

This is odd to me, as the DLS would normally download around 10kb/s for non-FCT users about a year or two ago (at least for me). I recall some server upgrade between then and now upping the speed to 20-something-kb/s, however the DLS has lately taken a dip to 4kb/s like the original post inquired about.

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There is more traffic on the network these days but that's not all of it. As Malc pointed out, the "download speed" also includes the installation of the assets which occurs concurrently as the asset downloads. The initial speed is most likely the actual speed but then the install at the same time is the other speed displayed. Not having an FCT included.

JCitron said:

There is more traffic on the network these days but that's not all of it. As Malc pointed out, the "download speed" also includes the installation of the assets which occurs concurrently as the asset downloads. The initial speed is most likely the actual speed but then the install at the same time is the other speed displayed. Not having an FCT included.

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Gotcha. I'm intrigued about Bitmeter as Malc mentioned, but that does answer some questions of mine about "download" speeds recently. Just to probe, I am curious if N3V is considering any network infrastructure upgrades in the future as a result of said increased download activity (or for the future with TRS22). Thanks for the tip anyways.

pware said:

The first question to ask is do you have an FCT? If you have, then the next question is have you activated it?

Getting an FCT is not the same as activating it. You can have several FCTs, one active until it expires and others inactive waiting to be activated to take its place.

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Just curious... how do you "activate" the FCT? I bought the monthly FCT, so I would think it would activate automatically.

perrybucsdad said:

Just curious... how do you "activate" the FCT? I bought the monthly FCT, so I would think it would activate automatically.

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Just posted the link in your thread https://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?169939-Content-Manager-Stuck