Steam Download Uses All Bandwidth, Disrupting Internet Connection

[The King]

Hi everyone,

I'm having a frustrating issue with my internet connection whenever Steam is downloading games or updates. Here's the situation:

-> My internet connection is 200 Mbps
-> Whenever Steam starts downloading, it completely monopolizes the bandwidth, making the internet almost unusable for anything else—especially for conference calls, streaming, and other online activities.

This issue doesn't occur with other download services like torrents or NZB downloads, which can run at full speed without affecting other devices on the network.

I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this issue with Steam, or if there are any settings or solutions I could try to better manage the bandwidth usage. Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance for your help!

[Supafly]

Settings > Downloads > Limit Download speed

[The King]

Originally posted by Supafly:

Settings > Downloads > Limit Download speed

Thank you for the suggestion! I’ve actually tried limiting the download speed in Steam, and while it does help with the connection issues, it feels like a compromise. The thing is, with other download services (like torrents or NZB), I can use the full speed of my 200 Mbps connection without affecting other activities on my network. I’d prefer to avoid limiting the speed because then I’m not fully utilizing the connection I’m paying for. Ideally, I’d like to find a solution that lets me use Steam at full speed without needing to throttle it manually every time. Do you have any other ideas?

[Jerry]

How about starting downloads, when you have only activities without or with low bandwith requirements going on for a while? Things like accessing text based websites or chatting only needs a handful of kilobytes, which are easily spared by Steam.

Otherwise, it sounds like a case of task priorities, so you'd need to lower the one of Steam.

[The King]

Originally posted by Jerry:

How about starting downloads, when you have only activities without or with low bandwith requirements going on for a while? Things like accessing text based websites or chatting only needs a handful of kilobytes, which are easily spared by Steam.

Otherwise, it sounds like a case of task priorities, so you'd need to lower the one of Steam.

I understand your point, but even a simple web search becomes significantly slower when Steam is downloading, which can be frustrating. Also, I've never actually raised the priority for Steam, so it's strange that it's causing this much interference. It seems like the download is just hogging all the available bandwidth, and I’m not sure why it’s happening with Steam specifically.

[Ettanin]

Steam downloads using multiple CDN servers. If such download is disrupting the internet connection for other uses, it's usually a symptom of weak routing hardware.