Slow Downloads (Only On Steam)

[Zackydak]

I download on every other game platform, at 50+mb/s, but I only download on Steam at about 5-10mb/s, this has been happening for months, I have contacted Steam support, they were as helpful as a kick in the ass by steel cap boots.

I have tried:
1. Cleared Download Cache
2. Flushed DNS
3. Reinstalled Steam
4. Contacted ISP
5. Changed Download Server
6. Tried downloading on other PC's in my house

None of these help with increasing my download speed.
It is painfully slow and I really need this fixed before I lose my freakin' marbles for good.

*EDIT:
PC Specs:
CPU - i7 10700k
GPU - RTX 3080ti 12GB
RAM - 32GB Ripjaws 3600mhz
Motherboard - Z590 Aorus Elite (BIOS F4)
OS: Windows 10 Pro 64bit
Internet Connection - 1GB Down / 45mb Up

[SLAYER187]

Sounds like it is your ISP. I do not have any constant slow downloads but they do slow down occasionally and i know it is my ISP which is about to be switched but it is not valve (steam) everything else i do is normal i guess. I would check with you ISP i mean i see others always thinking it is valve but it is usually them having an unaware issue. idk good luck.

[Zackydak]

Originally posted by JR APOCALYPSE aka MR E.:

Sounds like it is your ISP. I do not have any constant slow downloads but they do slow down occasionally and i know it is my ISP which is about to be switched but it is not valve (steam) everything else i do is normal i guess. I would check with you ISP i mean i see others always thinking it is valve but it is usually them having an unaware issue. idk good luck.

I called my ISP everyday for 2 weeks regarding this issue.
They assure me my internet is working 100% fine after extensive tests which I ran with them, and that it is an issue with Steam, I am just hoping someone has an issue that is buried deep behind the other things I have tried.

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

Here somethings that come to mind might worth checking out.

- Ensure you didn't set any download limit via Steam settings.

- Clear download cache via Steam settings.

- Change download server to whole another country from another region via Steam settings.

- Restart modem and/or router by unplugging it power, then plug it back in after a minute. If it works then means modem and/or router has issue, and just needed a restart.

- Check your modem and/or router to ensure have nothing blocked via their settings.

- If using VPN/proxy, may cause issues you're having.

- If using custom DNS service depending which one may cause issues.

- If using 3rd party software to manage apps behavior, incoming, and out going traffic, or even 3rd party anti virus affecting other apps.

- If using custom firewall, pi hole, or etc, and blocking thing could affect things, might want to look into that.

- Flushing your network might fix things, open command promt as admin, and give this a try, then restart PC and test, do things in order.

netsh winsock reset
netsh int ip reset

If not working still try these in order, then restart PC, and test.

ipconfig /release
ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /renew

- Redownload Steam client, head to where you install Steam, go into folder, delete everything except for "Steamapp" folder, and "Steam.exe" file, once done run Steam.exe see if issue resolved.

[Zackydak]

Originally posted by Dr.Shadowds 🐉:

Here somethings that come to mind might worth checking out.

- Ensure you didn't set any download limit via Steam settings.

- Clear download cache via Steam settings.

- Change download server to whole another country from another region via Steam settings.

- Restart modem and/or router by unplugging it power, then plug it back in after a minute. If it works then means modem and/or router has issue, and just needed a restart.

- Check your modem and/or router to ensure have nothing blocked via their settings.

- If using VPN/proxy, may cause issues you're having.

- If using custom DNS service depending which one may cause issues.

- If using 3rd party software to manage apps behavior, incoming, and out going traffic, or even 3rd party anti virus affecting other apps.

- If using custom firewall, pi hole, or etc, and blocking thing could affect things, might want to look into that.

- Flushing your network might fix things, open command promt as admin, and give this a try, then restart PC and test, do things in order.

netsh winsock reset
netsh int ip reset

If not working still try these in order, then restart PC, and test.

ipconfig /release
ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /renew

- Redownload Steam client, head to where you install Steam, go into folder, delete everything except for "Steamapp" folder, and "Steam.exe" file, once done run Steam.exe see if issue resolved.

I have tried all of these before, but just repeated them again and to no avail, still slow af.

[Elucidator]

If you have an nvme western digital ssd as your main drive or the one you download Steam games onto, try disabling 'write caching on the device'

I recommend disabling NetworkThrottlingIndex. (registry)
And also sysmain and some other stuff to be honest, but its not related to download.

You could try using tcp optimizer.

If you have a dragon networking interface or a killer networking interface, then the software involved with the driver maybe throttling your download on Steam. Try disabling the automatic tuning / network optimization.

Look through Steam's settings > downloads and see if you have a limit set there.


Edit:
Just saying, people may get more hints if you share more about your system. I recommend sharing some if not all of your pc's specs if possible (as well as what kind of internet connection your system makes).

[Zackydak]

Originally posted by Elucidator:

If you have an nvme western digital ssd as your main drive or the one you download Steam games onto, try disabling 'write caching on the device'

I recommend disabling NetworkThrottlingIndex. (registry)
And also sysmain and some other stuff to be honest, but its not related to download.

You could try using tcp optimizer.

If you have a dragon networking interface or a killer networking interface, then the software involved with the driver maybe throttling your download on Steam. Try disabling the automatic tuning / network optimization.

Look through Steam's settings > downloads and see if you have a limit set there.


Edit:
Just saying, people may get more hints if you share more about your system. I recommend sharing some if not all of your pc's specs if possible (as well as what kind of internet connection your system makes).

I already have Network Throttling off apparently, I used TCP Optimiser, I dont have any limits on my downloads on steam. Any other information you provided is not relevant to me, I have updated my post with my PC specs.

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

Originally posted by ttvZackydak:

I have tried all of these before, but just repeated them again and to no avail, still slow af.

If so, then only other options I can think of is these.

- Try using a VPN/Proxy to see if speed changes, if it does, then means there an issue in your area, or your ISP doing something.

- Try using custom DNS there many of them, so results may vary which one may work for you, and if it works then means there an routing issues.

- Lastly, go visit someone else in your area such as friend, or family if they got good internet, or better than you, and issue resolve, then means there a problem in your area, or routing issue.

Originally posted by ttvZackydak:

valve has throttled your download speed its the same with me 0-100kb/s

theres nothing you can do about it so dont bother following any guide that gets spammed here

Problems vary person to person, it can be simple thing, or something hard to deal with as out of your control being ISP issue, or etc.

[Elucidator]

Originally posted by 76561198083019420:

vpn proxy will do nothing because the problem is on steams side
custom dns will do nothing its on steams side
don't know about the last one

its not an isp issue its a steam deliberately throttling your download speed as they hate you issue

I'm not sure if this something you really think or that you're trying to make them lose hope.

Steam has 15+ Content Delivery Network partners. It is from one of them that you end up downloading your content.
If one of them fails, the client picks another CDN.
The throttling as such, would need to occur at 'cloudflare', 'akamai', 'hwcdn', 'footprint', etc.

@OP, you could look through the content_log.txt file to see which CDN your client is trying to use at least.

Just an example, my own client grabs the games from AMS1 (a datacenter in amsterdam), which is part of Valve's content delivery network.
So, knowing that, it would benefit me (for Steam at least) to try and optimize the DNS, routing, network, towards it.

[Zackydak]

Originally posted by Dr.Shadowds 🐉:

Originally posted by ttvZackydak:

I have tried all of these before, but just repeated them again and to no avail, still slow af.

If so, then only other options I can think of is these.

- Try using a VPN/Proxy to see if speed changes, if it does, then means there an issue in your area, or your ISP doing something.

- Try using custom DNS there many of them, so results may vary which one may work for you, and if it works then means there an routing issues.

- Lastly, go visit someone else in your area such as friend, or family if they got good internet, or better than you, and issue resolve, then means there a problem in your area, or routing issue.

Originally posted by ttvZackydak:

valve has throttled your download speed its the same with me 0-100kb/s

theres nothing you can do about it so dont bother following any guide that gets spammed here

Problems vary person to person, it can be simple thing, or something hard to deal with as out of your control being ISP issue, or etc.

I seemed to have found a DNS Server that increases my speed, not by a whole lot but its progress.

Originally posted by Elucidator:

Originally posted by 76561198083019420:

vpn proxy will do nothing because the problem is on steams side
custom dns will do nothing its on steams side
don't know about the last one

its not an isp issue its a steam deliberately throttling your download speed as they hate you issue

I'm not sure if this something you really think or that you're trying to make them lose hope.

Steam has 15+ Content Delivery Network partners. It is from one of them that you end up downloading your content.
If one of them fails, the client picks another CDN.
The throttling as such, would need to occur at 'cloudflare', 'akamai', 'hwcdn', 'footprint', etc.

@OP, you could look through the content_log.txt file to see which CDN your client is trying to use at least.

Do CDN's have codenames like numbers or something? Sorry, just not sure what im looking for in the log file.

[Elucidator]

Originally posted by ttvZackydak:

Do CDN's have codenames like numbers or something? Sorry, just not sure what im looking for in the log file.

Created download interface of type 'SteamCache' (n) to host (hostaddress)

that would be the main location Steam grabs the files from, which would be the cdn partner your client picks or directly from a datacenter partnered with valve or directly from valve.

Created download interface of type 'CDN' (n) to host (host address)

this one would be the pipe to the SteamCache (if needed).


Edit:
It seems the client also grabs multiple sources to download games from:

Got 12 download sources and 0 caching proxies via ContentServerDirectoryService

and that is followed by a bunch of (checks if they are online... 200 OK messages xd)
omg.
that differs per game it seems though.


Edit 2:
I should answer you question so far I can find I guess..

CDN 2 is footprint
CDN 4 is hwcdn
CDN 11 is akamai

there is also google and cloudflare, but I am not sure which numbers they carry since the number is only there if the connection failed. xd

[Zackydak]

Originally posted by Elucidator:

Originally posted by ttvZackydak:

Do CDN's have codenames like numbers or something? Sorry, just not sure what im looking for in the log file.

Created download interface of type 'SteamCache' (n) to host (hostaddress)

that would be the main location Steam grabs the files from, which would be the cdn partner your client picks or directly from a datacenter partnered with valve or directly from valve.

Created download interface of type 'CDN' (n) to host (host address)

this one would be the pipe to the SteamCache (if needed).

Found the CDN's, what do I do with this information?

[Elucidator]

Now you can optimize your connection to that cdn. That is what it is useful to know for.
You can ping that server, see your speed with that server, etc.


Edit: https://www.cloudping.cloud/cdn
with that for example.
You can also see if the cdn is online or not.

[Zackydak]

Originally posted by Elucidator:

Now you can optimize your connection to that cdn. That is what it is useful to know for.
You can ping that server, see your speed with that server, etc.

It is saying "bne-iioa" or "bne-edgx", but I am already connected to the bne servers (Australia - Brisbane)

[Zackydak]

Originally posted by Elucidator:

Now you can optimize your connection to that cdn. That is what it is useful to know for.
You can ping that server, see your speed with that server, etc.


Edit: https://www.cloudping.cloud/cdn
with that for example.
You can also see if the cdn is online or not.

Is it normal for the CDN to change 5 times in 20seconds?

[Zackydak]

Originally posted by Elucidator:

Now you can optimize your connection to that cdn. That is what it is useful to know for.
You can ping that server, see your speed with that server, etc.


Edit: https://www.cloudping.cloud/cdn
with that for example.
You can also see if the cdn is online or not.

So if 1 CDN doesnt have a connection, how do I make it only use 1 CDN?
bne-edgx seems to be faulty
bne-iioa seems to be the one that works.