Terrible Download Speeds

[rudel.dietrich]

Hello everyone, a handful of you might remember me. I purchased the new CM games back in July and ran them on a temporary computer. In the past 10 days I have relocated to a new residence and am have a new computer set up.

I am trying to re-download the three games I purchased over the summer and I am not having any success. My download speeds run from 25-40 kbps which is unacceptable.

Worse, the downloads frequently quit after 10-20% completion.

It is not my internet, I downloaded something off Steam earlier today and was getting 13.5 Mbps.

Are there any alternate ways to download the products? Does BF have a cloud or torrent I could use? The default method through sharefile is just not adequate.

Thanks!

On a secondary note, I loved the games as I played them over the summer. I got Normandy, Italy and Red Thunder and all 3 expansion modules for Normandy/Italy. Very enjoyable tactical combat. Now if I can just get the downloads completed I can update Normandy/Italy to 3.0 and keep my games going and continue work on my very bad user created scenarios.

[Michael Emrys]

You might try opening a ticket at the Help Desk.

http://battlefront.mojohelpdesk.com

BTW, this is why I always buy the games on disk. Faster and more reliable loading.

Michael

[womble]

If you still have the computer you've got them installed on, you can copy the files over intact. You'll probably have to re-activate on the new hardware config.

But if BFC are having output issues, it's good to let them know so they can sort it.

[Jock Tamson]

It is not my internet, I downloaded something off Steam earlier today and was getting 13.5 Mbps.

Ssshhhhh!!

[rudel.dietrich]

BTW, this is why I always buy the games on disk. Faster and more reliable loading.

Michael

I cannot remember the last time I purchased a PC game on disk. Probably around 5 years.

Usually I am very good about putting the install .zips or .exes on an external HDD.

Not sure why I didn't with my purchase from Battlefront. That is on me.

However, these downloads speeds are horrendous. I was hoping it would clear up but I have tried about a half dozen times for the past 72 hours and I am still getting very low speeds and my file interrupts usually before 20%

[rudel.dietrich]

Ssshhhhh!!

Yeah I know

1 gbps fiber optic is tough to live with but someone has to use it

[stevenh5545]

I have had the same problem trying to download FI and GL in the bundle 2.8 gb I think, goes off after approximately 25%.and my Internet is fibre optic with good download speeds

[rudel.dietrich]

I have had the same problem trying to download FI and GL in the bundle 2.8 gb I think, goes off after approximately 25%.and my Internet is fibre optic with good download speeds

I tried again all day today without success. I am going to open a ticket.

I understand BF is a small company but this is annoying. I purchase software from other companies the same size, or smaller, than BF and they offer multiple download options.

One flight simulation company I download from offers their products over Google Drive which is awesome since they offer nearly unlimited download speed.

Another company that sells sports simulations makes their products and updates avaliable through a torrent. That works well too since it greatly cuts down of bandwidth costs.

BF may want to look into some alternate ways of distributing their products.

If you have a few minutes, please open a ticket as well. The more tickets, the greater the chance of it being responded to.

[Anders_1970]

I'm having the same problem. Purchased the Commonwealth-2.0-Market Garden Bundle, but the download will never complete. It is always interrupted at some point. It's completely unacceptable and BF should look into torrent or some other way of distribution.

[Macisle]

It may be something outside of BF's control/servers-even if it doesn't appear to be.

I've never had slow downloads with BF's stuff and I don't even use a download manager (to avoid file corruption problems).

As someone suggested, you should drop the helpdesk a line.

[Erwin]

I have never had bad d/l speeds either. Surprised you didn't post this in Tech Support forum instead of here.

You should check into your own systems and servers before blaming BF. If you don't have an IT engineer on hand, maybe your neighbor's 8 year old kid can help? Otherwise this makes it look like an attempt to restart the "why doesn't BF use STEAM" discussion again.

[rudel.dietrich]

I have never had bad d/l speeds either. Surprised you didn't post this in Tech Support forum instead of here.

You should check into your own systems and servers before blaming BF. If you don't have an IT engineer on hand, maybe your neighbor's 8 year old kid can help? Otherwise this makes it look like an attempt to restart the "why doesn't BF use STEAM" discussion again.

As an update to my problem. After almost two weeks and almost 60 tries I finally re downloaded all three games. The speeds were terrible and the connection kept dropping but finally with enough persistence I got what I needed.

I did in fact drop BF a help desk ticket and they replied very quickly and politely but the advice did not help. Pretty much the standard 'check your own system and connection'

I have not used a download manage since the late 90s. I also have a top of the line system and my internet is fiber optic and I would venture to guess it is in the top 1% of speeds worldwide. I don' say those things to brag. I say them because the problem is probably not on the end of the user.

I did e-mail ShareFile (they handle BFs downloads) and they were less than helpful. It took two e-mails and four days for them to respond and they answer was 'we have no problems on our end' and 'being an overseas customer, you cannot expect fast download speeds'

My location needs to be update, I live back in Europe now.

I can accept that many problems are indeed on the users end. But I don't think this is on mine. I have had no trouble anywhere else. And I do a load of downloading. Typically 30-50 GB a week in a mixture of work and entertainment.

My constructive suggestions were not putting down BF. I was simply suggesting that I have dealt with software companies of BFs size or even smaller in some very niche game fields (like flight simulation and sports management simulation) and I have seen some nifty ways for small companies to distribute product and keep bandwidth costs down.

But saying all that, my problems are now over. It was just a major pain in the ass. A little disappointed at the comment though.

[rudel.dietrich]

I have never had bad d/l speeds either. Surprised you didn't post this in Tech Support forum instead of here.

You should check into your own systems and servers before blaming BF. If you don't have an IT engineer on hand, maybe your neighbor's 8 year old kid can help? Otherwise this makes it look like an attempt to restart the "why doesn't BF use STEAM" discussion again.

I will let this go. I have been around these forums long enough to not let the flaming bother me when someone suggest constructive criticism.

Yes, I will own up to making two mistakes. I should have kept the install files. And yes, I should have put this in tech support. This is not the place.

But the rest of your post is just not helpful. If BF is every going to grow as a company it does not need comments like this from curmudgeons with a superiority complex.

You may of not ever had DL problems. Before the last few weeks, neither have I. And I have been a customer since 1999. But have you tried to download a product in the past month? If not, then your comment is not helpful.

I am indeed not an IT engineer. And I refuse to get into a dick measurement contest over the interest about my 'IT skills' But I am proficient enough to know that the technology I have should be sufficient to download the ~6 GB worth of files I need in about an hour. Not the 10 days it took me.

My suggestions were not to belittle BF. They were meant to provide some alternate ideas in case the download issues persist. And who knows, maybe they could save money on bandwidth costs? I am sure the company has looked into ways to save money. But on the tiny chance they have not, the few keystrokes it took me to type out my suggestions would be worth it.

And finally, as far as Steam. I have seen the arguments against it. I like Steam. I like it a lot. It can be a fantastic tool for some companies. But I trust BF has looked into it and if it is not for them, then they know their finances better than any of us.

Steam was never mentioned in this thread until you brought it up.

And with that. I have said my peace. Normally I don't get offended by random forum posts. But your post in particular was out of line and the kind of thing that drives off casual customers and keeps war gaming a small hobby whose median age is in their 50s.

[roadiemullet]

Hey guys as it happens I am also overseas, in fact I haven't logged into this forum in a very long time and have only recently got back into combat mission as I have a new laptop.

I have been experiencing the same download problems. It's been a while and in my absence Ive missed everything from just after commonwealth for cmbn up to red thunder, so naturally I have been trying to download all of the demos, and just like rudel have had slow speeds or connection drop outs or both. This is not a problem with my connection as I had been trying it at home, a friends house and at work and I didnt have any other problems with my internet aside from this. In the end running it through a VPN with the server in the US is what got me the demos I wanted.

I just put it down to a problem at BFs end and didnt give it much thought but after reading some other comments in this thread I have to back up rudel here.

Seems like something is amiss anyways....

[Baneman]

I didn't post in this thread because I didn't think it would be helpful for me to say that I've had no problems.

However, perhaps I should just put it out there that I bought and downloaded CMFI+GL +3.0 approx. 2 weeks ago and it all downloaded in about 15-25 minutes. Doesn't really help rudel except to know that BFC does chuck the data out at reasonable speed.

[TimBee]

A late postscript to this thread:

 

I recently purchased CMBS. Straight away ran into Rudel's problem: I have a 50Mbs fiber optic and the download was going to take anywhere from 20 hrs to 1 day. I actually let it run for 20 minutes to see if it improved, but after this time I had 100Mb, at speeds between 40-120 Kbps. Unacceptable, certainly. I live in Thailand and I've concluded that there is a US bias to the BF dl server. I must thank roadiemullett because he's spot on. I fired up Hola in Chrome, pointed it to a US VPN and presto, dl speed went up to 1.5-2.5 Mbps and the files were had in 30-40 minutes. So, to other non-US resident BF members, set the Hola Better Internet app in Chrome, browsing from USA.

[sburke]

Just for informations sake, BF doesn't actually run the d/l hence the difficulty of getting anything more than the normal "have you checked x" messages. The DL service IIRC goes through the Amazon cloud and more than likely from prior experience the issue may be between your provider and the Amazon cloud. There was also an issue with the application that manages downloads on the provider side, Citrix IIRC when CMBS was first released.

At that time BF did assist by breaking up the installer to allow for smaller downloads, but I don't know if A.) that is still an option or B.) it would make any difference.

Your best bet as always is to open a helpdesk ticket to get direct assistance. This forum is more a self help area that BF may or may not be monitoring depending on their workload.