S L O W D O W N L O A D S .....

[jphespe]

I have been a member of SimV for several years.  After joining the Member's section I experienced the super download rates that were promised with membership. For the past several months I have noticed that the download rates during the day (West Coast USA) are averaging 25 to 35 kbps.  I have tried some of the corrective recommendation, such as different computers, different ISP's, etc.  No change.  However, if I try to download at late evening (8PM or later,PST) I do get the fast downloads.  What's going on??

[Jetranger]

Don't know about downloads on this site, as I never paid for a faster speeds.

But, I've noticed all summer that on YOU TUBE, when I click to play a Video, any video doesn't matter - not just Flight Sim Videos - but any type of Video , that sometimes it'll play just fine no matter what the quality , other times a video will play the damn commercials just fine before the video and then 15 to 20 seconds into the video , the video just stops & locks up, and I have to refresh to get the video to play or change the quality.

I've also noticed on other flight sim web sites, sometimes it'll pull up just fine, and other times theres this severe lag as the page loads.
that being -  flightsim.com

Now, I go to my local News Web site channel to see a news story with a video, and sometimes it'll play fine, and as always , 99.9% of the time , the commercial advertisements Before the Video play just fine - 
however when the actual news story comes on - here comes the LAG and stop again !

Now, back a several Months ago, there was a local news story I came across about Internet Speeds thru (TWC) Time Warner Cable, in which this Tech Guru who was a software programmer was very agitated with his internet Speeds at his home , after he was paying for TWC's High Speed Roadrunner "TURBO" , he didn't think he was getting what he was paying for - and used their TWC Site Meter to test his internet speed, which according to their own TWC Web Site showed NO Problems at all,,, according to TWC's own web site.

So the Tech Guru found a way to hook up some kind of meter to test the actual Internet speeds, and it was no where near what Time Warner Cable was saying it was, don't remember the exact figures right now, but it was NOTHING like he was supposedly Paying / Subscribing for monthly.

So he called the local TV Stations Action News, to do a story on it, TWC's response was, they were looking into it . 

Heres what I believe is happening across the USA and other countries, don't know it for a fact, but still,,

They have us paying for High Speed Internet and Blow a bunch of smoke up our butts with Fancy numbers and all kinds of Pizzazz,, to get us to believe we'll be getting Hi-Speed internet or Turbo or whatever,,,

When in Fact - were paying for High Speed Turbo or just High Speed whatever, and what were actually getting is "MEDICORE", if that - Internet Speeds and it doesn't matter what web site your looking at or Downloading from, its gonna suck, or at times it may seem just fine than, other times NOT !!

Its the one thing, that WE still have NO REAL IDEA for sure , to know exactly what the hell were getting for 100% thats accurate, Yes of course you can go to some web site that'll maybe supposedly Test your Internet speeds, but who knows if thats all that accurate as well ?  :-?

Thing is, you go pump gas in your vehicle at a Gas Station, you've got a general idea how many gallons your actually getting by the meter on the pump.

Your utilties are guaged off the meter on your house, rather it be Natural Gas or Water or electricity.

Buy a quart of oil, you know you've got a quart size jug in your hand and can tell by the way it feels.

Buy a 32oz soft drink, you can kinda tell how much your actually getting as you stand there in front of the soda dispenser.

Want a gallon of Milk or Orange Juice , you can tell because usually you can see thru the jug or its in a Sized carton clearly marked as to the size your purchasing !

BUT ------- You want High Speed INTERNET or Turbo High Speed Internet -- All you can do is "Assume" and Hope and "Guess" thats what your truly getting, because there is NO Real Accurate way to actually Test your getting the KA-BIPS whatevers that your actually paying for 24/7 ,,,

there is NO Meter on the Modem, all kinds of fancy lights that blink on/off, but no meter and even if there was, who's to say its Calibrated and accurate , who the cable company - like your gonna trust them
they could set those modems up to read anything to Ba-Fooey the customers        :-?

Certain times of the day my Internet works just fine, other times I Wonder if i'm really getting High Speed anything

Were paying and Assuming were getting what were paying for and hopeing for a Level of Honesty that we can't really see, hear, taste or smell,,, just Assuming,,, and paying for that assuming or Guessing      :-?

Well now many of us across the Internet World everywhere may be waking up, that we may NOT be getting what were paying for / subscribed to and wondering why, and who's at fault ?? 

Is it the Web Site owners
the Web Site service provider
the INTERNET Service providers
is it our computers
or is it the 3rd Party Internet provider who's renting / leasing the cable lines from the whoever service provider and then providing that service   

Or if you have Satellite, is it the Sattellite service provider ?

I know this much, and I'm NO Computer Tech Guru by any means - but - I believe were all getting the Shaft - "sight unseen" by all these companies          :-?  :-?  :-?

Were ALL led to believe that were getting what were subscribed to & paying for, but are WE Really, we can't actually See the High Speed, Can't Smell the High Speed, definetly can't Hear the High Speed and damn sure can't TASTE the High Speed , so what do ya do

WE just ASSUME and guess ! 

Yes ya can go to all kinds of Internet Test Speed web sites and maybe Test your internet Speeds, IF that sites even accurate  whos to say it is or isn't , how do ya know that even ??

Back to Guessing & Assuming again ! 

Meanwhile - I have to go take my MAIL to my Mail Box, because theres this Guy on Horseback coming down the road who picks up the Mail Daily and delivers it.

I Actually know this, because I can Actually See, hear and feel the wind as he grabs the Mail out of my hand, its as Real as it gets, kinda like Flight Simulator !!!  

[pete]

Just lately during the holidays we have been slow during the peak times - about 11 - 3 EST has been my experience (for some strange reason) but you should always be getting a lot better than those numbers! Please remember we have been exceptionally busy in the past few days and things will be back to normal soon. I've spent many hours on the server in the past 48 hours keeping it running due to this.

The worst I have experienced is 50KBPS and I am 4000 miles from the file server on a limited DSL phone line. The vast majority of times speeds are fine. The times you mention are fine for me. Let me try to remember to post a screenshot during that time (not tonight as it's NYE!)

As always - any problems are monitored and fixed if they are ongoing.

[jphespe]

Pete, this problem with slow downloads has been going a lot
longer than "this time of year".  For example I tried to download a 25MB file and the estimated time was over 4 Hours and the download rate was less than 30KPBS.  Recent messages on the forum show I am not a long ranger regarding this issue, ie: yesterday a message was posted by a new member of rates not exceeding 35KPBS.  There are too many reports of this issue to explain why these extremely slow download times persist with the exception of middle of the night (west coast) downloads.  I am very pleased with SimV and would stay with it regardless but obviously there IS a problem and it needs to be addressed.
Thanks for all your help, efforts, and etc to keep SimV alive.

[pete]

Hi

Please understand that the past week has been exceptional. We have had amazing files by such designers as Milton Shupe, Dino Cattaneo for example with huge file sizes and popularity.
Dino's F35 for example had over 4000 downloads in just over 24 hours with a 200MB file size.

I sampled the downloads yesterday at 2 times

Here is the 1st download which was at 12 noon pacific time (this is generally peak up to about 6PM EST)



This is one taken at 8PM EST





There isn't a problem right now - believe me I'd here about it. I always get lots of emails if there is anything wrong with the server. In addition I monitor things every day. Like I say there has been a lag in past few days during peak due to exceptional files. If it was ongoing I would fix it asap but right now all is as I'd expect it to be.

Meanwhile we will be upgrading our services this year so stay tuned.  8-)

[jphespe]

Thanks Pete....