STEX Slow-Down

[bixel 1,224]

I want to donate money badly but I have no job at the moment. But I promise I will start donating.

[LironTheChick 20]

Oh my, I am downloading a 249 KB file 668 bytes per second...the Latest product of Pegasus! While I downloaded it from simpeg for only 10 seconds.

[madhatter106 3,905]

I dunno, is the slowdown of late a "throw money at it" kind of problem? Or is it the sheer volume of stuff that resides on the servers, waiting to be accessed?

If it's the later, then I wouldn't mind getting rid of some of the "junk," but then the problem arises as to how to determine what is "junk," when you're separating the wheat from the chaff. (Personally, I think stuff like imaginary flags from imaginary nations requested by people at an entirely other websites, ie. not even on Simtropolis, qualifies as "junk," but perhaps my eye is a bit too critical.) So it's a catch 22 - one man's junk is another man's treasure, I suppose...

Has anyone been able to positively determine just why this slowdown is occurring?

[mrbisonm 1,622]

Originally posted by: madhatter106 I dunno, is the slowdown of late a "throw money at it" kind of problem?

Has anyone been able to positively determine just why this slowdown is occurring?quote>

 

This is not getting better at all. Again we ask and no official answer..............hm. I am a Mod on three other FREE sites and one of them is even bigger than ST and has about 40% more file download capacity and the downloading is a little slow, but this here is below the *Normal* slow. Please don't give me the crap that *this is a free site* and depends on donations, all the others are too.

I think it is time to do something seriously about this, maybe a good clean-up of the STEX (need help, call me) with dead uploads, locked ones that are are locked for 90 days+ or just plein low-low quality stuff that has no or a very little download records, or maybe another server or....whatever it needs. I have no idea what is going on, it is a matter of the admins to know and let us know how to fix it, maybe we can help! 

On the sites where I modd, they have some small commercial advertizing , nothing to panic about, but it pays the bills! It is better to have some advertizing and good services than have a half-a-dozen or so members threaten they will leave when we get implicated with advertizing....Hey, let them leave, the majority usually overules, no? Many of us stopped donating because it doesn't seem to help.

Because this is seriously not normal:

This was a small file.....imagine a bigger one.

Oh, btw......I have fast cable connection.....lol....and usually download at around 850kb/sec

mrb

[The Arrowz 3]

Ah so it's not just me I thought maybe my internet was crappy, but other sites are working just as fine (so is the forums here).

Woohoo for 2kbps!

Hope it's fixed soon, cause there are some really awesome things on there that I wanna get!

[Cockatoo 2,257]

Yeah, I've (just like everyone else) been struggling with these STEX d/l speeds. I seem to get about 7-12 kbps on average- but yeah, it gets as low as one or even less.

We all know Dirk is still around behind the scenes (just look at the banner) and I'm sure he hasn't lost interest in maintaining ST just yet. We all know something is up, we'll be getting a site upgrade sooner or later and that'll probably include an STEX update. We're just gonna have to wait it out I guess, where's complaining going to get us?... but admittedly a couple of words from Dirk about what's going on would go a long way.

[Danlikebooks 6]

I downloaded the Burj Dubai at 20 Kbp/s... and its a 10 mb file... that took a while.

[Eʟᴇᴍᴇɴᴛ 273]

Well I think we really need an official STEX clean up. instead of re-proposing the stex to be pre-moderated how about we just get rid of the old locked files as what mrbisonm said? that way the servers will run alot faster. I think this site needs a new way of generating income. not by advertising but by somethig else, any ideas?

[Pegasus 2,821]

I PMed all of the listed STEX moderators a few days ago. I heard back from one almost immediately... but he was unaware of the problem despite that this topic has been running since Decemeber 6th.  Which brings up the question...  Has anyone  else contacted the staff about this issue or it it just assumed that they read all topics and are aware of the problem?

I too find it discouraging that there has not been some form of official response to this problem... even if its the classic "We are working on it" response. No response tends to send the message that the higher level staff are not actively participating in the site anymore... or are simply unaware of the problem somehow... or are aware of it but have no intention or ability to do anything about it.

* As to the discussion about "cleaning up the Stex"...  reducing the number of records in the STEX's database would speed up the STEX to some degree. But it would NOT have an impact on the download speeds. So that is a non-related issue.

If I recall correctly, ST runs on its own server(s)... not a hosted service.   The server(s) were purchased with approx $10,000 that was donated by the members here. So I don't believe that a host-related bandwidth issue could be a factor. However, I think that the actual uploaded files are stored elsewhere... and possibly the connection to where they are stored has been compromised in some fashion... or the bandwidth of that connection intentionally down-sized.

This definately does not have the has the look and feel of a specific hardware or software problem. It actually looks more like the site's resources (server processor cycles and bandwidth) have been diverted to run something else... or are being exploited in some fashion. The site itself runs fine... it just suddenly  seemed to have its 350 horsepower V8 replaced with a little beater from an old Yugo.

But o the flipside... and really iodd when you think about it...  upload speeds are fine... 200kb/sec and better. Actually, they are better than they ever have been from my experieince.

What ever the reason or cause,  lets just all be supportive... communicate with the staff... and hope the issue gets addressed and resolved fairly quickly. The STEX is a vital attraction of this site and I'd hate to see the site wither away & die off. Simtropolis is far more than juts a fansite. It's still SimCity4 Headquarters... the definitive  Home of SC4... and a Legend in the gaming community.

[beebs 129]

From what I know, this is probably a server connection issue.. and only dirk has access to that to do the appropriate fix-ups. Ski had mentioned in another thread he was moving earlier this month and now over the week of Christmas/New Years, he may be out of town with family, etc. Just hang tight guys, he should be on top of this asap.

As far as theories of too many files slowing down the d/l speeds, that's unlikely.. if that were the case, we would have seen a gradual slowdown rather than the sharp drop that we've seen. Peg's right, ST runs on its own servers, and I believe the STEX has a dedicated server.. probably just needs a tune up. But I don't claim to know a thing about that kinda stuff.

I'd like to mention as well that dirk has said many times the STEX will never be moderated for quality. The only time something will be outright deleted is if it is obvious spam or plagiarism.

[mrbisonm 1,622]

Well, it is patience that we need now I guess. Thanks for informing us beebs.

mrb

[srsdude 1]

I downloaded the SC4 Terraformer at 7.5 kbps!! 7mb!! =D Well, it will not even open the pages anymore. It says "server is not responding". But downloading works...

[srsdude 1]

I downloaded the SC4 Terraformer at 7.5 kbps!! 7mb!! =D Well, it will not even open the pages anymore. It says "server is not responding". But downloading works...

[Cockatoo 2,257]

I just hit 50kbps, it's back. A very big thankyou to whoever fixed the problem.

[SODATWIN 7]

apparently it isn't fixed... downloading "Alkaline Inc Northwest Works Coal Washer" on STEX takes 30 minutes, compared to downloading it on SC4D which took me 4 seconds. ::

[Cockatoo 2,257]

Oh, er maybe not then. It was back to its former glory all yesterday (for me anyway), but this today it's less than 7kbps.

[mrbisonm 1,622]

I know, it's not back, still downloading slower than 5 kb's, but I guess someone is looking at the problem........at least hope so.

mrb

[GMT 389]

go figure this:

as I dled the Figueroa @ Wilshire yesterday (FINALLY someone made it), I had such a terrible download speed, I was able to brew some coffee, make me a sadwich, eat it, get me my coffee, talk to my mums, go to the toilet

and still it was not even close to 50%

after all, I think it took 40 mins to dl.

well, still better than no download at all, but it kinda gets annoying over time...

I really really hope there's something in the tubes to fix it

[Feralan 0]

Let me let you guys in on a little secret. (Im so kind I know)

DLs using normal IE or Firefox agent hurts.

So what do you do?

Try something different.

Use a 3rd party DL app that allows multiple connections. And hey presto its complete!

I use Orbit (it kicks serious ass). DL +- 36kbits/sec. Could go faster but I only got a 384kb line so thats pretty much capping it. Im in South Africa as well. So you US and EU guys are getting screwed! But seriously, get better software. It really helps.

AND PLZ dont tell too many ppl as well!!!! Its kinda worthless then, if you get my meaning.

Hope this helps.

[slaforce 0]

I guess his ISP is not "Bell Internet" !!!! Maybe his ISP has slowed down is connection. Some ISP doesn't want website hosted locally but on a commercial internet account to retreive more $$$. Same thing if it's a non-commercial or personal website.

[slaforce 0]

Or it's a server problem ...

[beebs 129]

Just an update for those who haven't seen the news on the front page, dirk posted a news bit saying he's aware of the STEX slow down and is working on a fix for it. Shouldn't be much longer now!

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

Posted by dirk on the homepage news:

January 05, 2009

STEX Server Slowdowns

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We're aware the STEX Server is performing slowly for some members, we're looking into the matter!  Thanks for all the feedback! 

Posted by: dirk 

quote>

[asd195 1]

i downloaded two at once files (kinda big) and i got 5kbps on one and 11kbps on the other

[asd195 1]

i downloaded two files at once (kinda big) and i got 5kbps on one and 11kbps on the other

[un1 41]

I find at least 2 files that can be deleted on the STEX everyday, so I truly think it should go over major deletion. I even have a file I'd like to be deleted.

-un1

[Hamish 1,370]

Un1, no. A mass deletion won't solve the problem.

As was said before, if it was the amount of files that are causing the problems, then you would have seen a gradual decrease of download speeds. But we didn't, it was a quick decrease of download speeds. This means that something else has gone wrong. Its not the amount of files

Also, there are 12,645 files on the STEX.

If you find 2 files a day that need to be deleted, over a year you will find 730 files. Thats about 5% of the STEX. Thats not much...(And remember, this isn't taking into account the amount of new files everyday)

I don't think that deleting files will be the solution.

And remember, the STEX is a privilege, not a rite. Be thankful that we are even getting any sort of download speed.

[Cleaner475 150]

Yay! Problems solved!

For anyone that missed what Dirk posted on the frontpage:

STEX Download Speeds Fixed

Thanks for being patient everyone, the STEX Server download speed issues should mostly be resolved. Please note that during peak hours you may not get the same speeds as off hours, but overall, the file download speeds should be improved. quote>

Thanks Dirk.

Richard