STEAM SALE started Nov 23

[ShunNakamura]

yea, there is no way to throttle the dloads within the steam client, you need a 3rd party program for that, that would be a nice addition
but all the other problems sounds like your internet/home network .. hardly steams fault!

I just want to say that I have never had issues downloading before. Everyone in the home network torrents practically 24/7. We transfer enough data monthly to just blow a lot of peoples minds(our connection isn't the fastest, but we still transfer more data than people with much greater connections). Yes there is an issue with overload on the router. But that is easily managed, cept when a download agent is irresponsible and shoves everything else out. Besides even without the router crashing it still would have used up 90+% of our down connection effectively blocking out all the other users on the network from doing their online stuff(playing games etc). So the crashing was actually only a minor annoyance. The real problem was the network hogging.

Such behavior from a program in my mind is just poor, or perhaps just lazy, programing. The number of people on shared networks is VERY large. So network hogging is an important issue for all networked apps. The easiest and best way in my book to handle this is with user controlled throttling with defaults geared towards certain connection speeds for ease of use for folks less versed in such. Or basically how torrent applications do it. But of course that is my opinion. I don't really expect others to hold it. However, it does add to my dislike of Steam.

... usually, after a dload is stoped, it will appear that it is starting from the start, but that is just steam checking the data before it resumes from where it left off

In my case though it either took an hour + a router crash from overuse of network traffic to check the data on my 3.5ghz quad core OR it started from the beginning again and only picked up that fact later. Either way it speaks of something not quite working right in my eyes. Possibly the router crash confused it somehow. Don't ask me how. . . generally I would say no way. . . but something clearly glitched and the router crashing due to Buffer overflow(if my memory is correct that is what we found the linksys router was doing, poor memory management when under heavy loads) is certainly a variable different from other peoples experience where resuming worked just fine.


Either way the reason I mentioned the home network issues is because the issue isn't purely on Steam. . . however, even the most basic of features present in even basic download agents can prevent the issues from occurring(Steam caused the first crash in several years, which is why I can't remember exactly what the cause was anymore . . . basic management works fine). For some reason Steam, which is focused on downloads, doesn't offer even these most basic of basic features. Just another point against them in my book. Other peoples' accounting may of course differ depending on how they weight individual values/topics.


Anyways, Shizuko thanks for mentioning netlimiter. Heard of it and even used it at one point but haven't really bothered to put it on my new computer since most downloading agents(thanks to Steam I can no longer say ALL) I use allow monitoring and throttling. It slipped my mind that such existed while I was having issues. Probably because I was more than half dead from illness at the time. But yeah that was just me letting off steam, I know the illness made me more agitated at it than normal, however, even in a milder state it still adds to the list of negatives I have on Steam that make me very loathe to use the thing.

 

[Maniacal]

Besides torrent programs, I have never seen one that allows you to limit your download speed, although I also have never had a router that is a cheap piece of garbage either (I hope you can afford to get a better one soon!). None of the other digital retailers allow you to limit the speed either.

 

[ShunNakamura]

Besides torrent programs, I have never seen one that allows you to limit your download speed,

Linky

Had to double check since I could have sworn many download agents allowed speed limiting. And while I hadn't done it with my current install(relatively new computer) I could have sworn Firefox at least could throttle down speeds with an extension. Anyways point being according to the Wiki; most, though not all, download managers possess the ability to limit download speeds. However, it has been a while since I have used them. I prefer to go through my torrent application if at all possible and I don't download much outside of linux distros or such(ie. nearly all that I download has torrents and if a torrent is available I default to it these days).

although I also have never had a router that is a cheap piece of garbage either (I hope you can afford to get a better one soon!). None of the other digital retailers allow you to limit the speed either.

I don't recall what we payed for it, but this is the third Linksys router we have had. All have had the same problem right from the get go. Max out the connection/network traffic and watch the router crash. In the end we just decided to stop throwing away our money on new bricks and just do the sensible thing and monitor/control our network usage to avoid the burn. Easy to do, as long as the applications you use incorporate even basic features. Or if you use a global limiter . I should have remembered to try that. I still blame the fever!

 

[anandus]

I must say, it is a rare situation that people are actually complaining that Steam is downloading too quick. Normally the complaints are quite the opposite

 

[ShunNakamura]

I must say, it is a rare situation that people are actually complaining that Steam is downloading too quick. Normally the complaints are quite the opposite

I know, part of the reason I shared . In hindsight it is indeed rather funny! Not so fun to fight through though. It is just bad manners to use a program that eats up all the bandwidth on a network. I wish I had statistics for this. . . but nearly everyone I know is on a shared internet connection. And in such a case a program that instantly shuts everything else out of the network is unacceptable. A crude way I guess would be to take the number of broadband users compared to number of broadband subscriptions. This would indicate about 19% share a connection.

Is that big enough that such programs as Steam should at least think of being network friendly? I would think so. Though I don't think the number matters. ALL programs should be network friendly by default. Well that is of course my opinion and it is a pet peeve of mine that I will worry at until there is nothing left of my teeth .