STEX - General Slowness

[paroxysm 2]

 I wasn't sure exactly where to put this, so it goes here.

Over the past couple months, Simtrop has been getting steadily slower until it ground to a slow, painful halt today.  The main reason I finally decided to say something here is because the BAT-Open Discussion thread took a little over eight minutes to load.  I am now trying to download something from the STEX and it's going at exactly 67 bits per second.

Is it something wrong with my computer personally or is it a widespread problem?

[fukuda 351]

STEX has been slow for ages but I have no speed problems with the forums, forum pages load in less than 5 seconds today.

[Sniper296 83]

It must be because Simtropolis is still so popular, Servers do cost quite a bit you know.

[joshriddle 29]

I know it is rather slow. To be honest, 8 mins to load isn't too good. However downloads, there is something wrong with them. I am thinking it is a widespread problem across the site. Probably cause of the CJ images. Server might not be able to handle so much bandwidth.

Try another browser, connection, or computer and see if it helps. Cause yes, I don't care for the site being so slow either.

I knw they did replace the server not too long ago. I don't know if it was an upgrade or if the old one was going out. If it was an upgrade then it may have been worse before then. But still, it does get frustrating sometimes. However on the forums it is rather quick, the STEX on the other hand, I sometimes throw in the towel and say forget it and leave.

[paroxysm 2]

I'll have to try from different browsers.

Also, (and other people have told me this), my only file that I uploaded to the STEX is showing a 404 when anyone tries to download it.

[Vahr 341]

The STEX is the only part of the site that, to my knowledge, is having issues.The forums are loading fine for me.

I have a feeling that the NAM releases have a part in this... every single time we've updated there's been issues, and I assume due to the huge amount of downloading of a large file all at once.

[joshriddle 29]

Originally posted by: Blue Lightning

The STEX is the only part of the site that, to my knowledge, is having issues.The forums are loading fine for me.

I have a feeling that the NAM releases have a part in this... every single time we've updated there's been issues, and I assume due to the huge amount of downloading of a large file all at once.quote>

Sounds like it. I couldn't even start the NAM download when I upgraded mine. Thing is I allready deleted the old NAM files. I should wait to do stuff like that.

[beebs 129]

Dirk has been informed about the downloading issues... hopefully it's nothing too major to work out.

[simmaster07 1,220]

Originally posted by: joshriddle

I knw they did replace the server not too long ago. I don't know if it was an upgrade or if the old one was going out. If it was an upgrade then it may have been worse before then. But still, it does get frustrating sometimes. However on the forums it is rather quick, the STEX on the other hand, I sometimes throw in the towel and say forget it and leave.

quote>

It was simply a change in datacenters. As far as I know, all that happened was that the server was physically moved from one place to another.

Also, allow me to shine some light on the potential situation, if I may. Now, the main Simtropolis server is fine. However, because of the size of the STEX, files get offloaded to a remote server (stex-server.com, which, yes, is the official STEX server).

Here are some possible scenarios that would cause such slowness.

High Bandwidth Usage

Too many users are using the server to download at the same time. Therefore, all connections have to be divided among clients. It's the Internet equivalent of a bunch of magicians combining their wizard skills and creating a mega-laser.

Misconfiguration

A misconfigured server (too few threads for the HTTP server or such) could cause slowness because it is unable to move download requests to other processes and threads.

Heavy Load

In this situation, a program on the STEX server is taking up too much memory/CPU power. Therefore, the server process(es) cannot find enough CPU power/memory to handle requests, leading to less than satisfactory download speeds.

Denial of Service

A Denial of Service (DoS) attack is a situation where a user is bombarding the server with requests. The server is overloaded with these, and must now respond to the attacker's requests instead of a legitimate user's. This works because there's only so much bandwidth that can go around, so legitimate requests get killed or their priorities lowered.

Bandwidth Reduction
In this scenario, the amount of bandwidth the server can use is reduced like such:

[joshriddle 29]

Makes sense. Also I just went into another open tab and let this one thing download, and the download stoppped. I closed that one tab and went back to ST, and it started again.

[Mikeaut1 261]

Sometimes Simtropolis has its ups and its downs with speed; I've noticed the site is loading quite well for me. I usually am on Simtropolis during its off - peak hours, when not many people are online!

[foucault71 0]

As a new member I came to these forums to look for info about the extreme slowness of STEX and found this thread. Nice info here.

I have a 24 Mb connection and usually the stuff I download comes in with anywhere between 500-1900 Kt/s. However from STEX my download rate is about 20 Kt/s. Definitely something going on but I guess its one of the above mentioned scenarios.

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

Just remember folks... just because you personally have a fast connection at your end of the 'internet data pipe' does not mean to say that this pipe stays the same width all the way to where you are wanting to connect to or download from.

In reality there are a multitude of connections of those 'internet pipes' and there could be a choke point anywhere along the way. The choke point could be local, it could be at the other end or it might be somewhere in the middle. There could be more than one choke point.

[joshriddle 29]

I wonder if this is a workable solution:

What I do if downloads stop and dont move not even a single byte a second is I pause the download, resume it, and I get a dialog box. Click OK. Then if it is still down there on your status bar, click start, and it instantly finishes. This is for Firefox.

[Sniper296 83]

Originally posted by: joshriddle

I wonder if this is a workable solution:

What I do if downloads stop and dont move not even a single byte a second is I pause the download, resume it, and I get a dialog box. Click OK. Then if it is still down there on your status bar, click start, and it instantly finishes. This is for Firefox.

quote>

Same here it works most of the time.

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

Incoming thread...

[Pabbicus 0]

Downloads keep stalling and dying on me, is it frowned upon to use flashget or other download accelerators to continue downloads that fail, or will the site mind? 

[617squad 52]

i don't think STEX supports a download manager or anything of the sort. btw, welcome to ST

[Pabbicus 0]

Thanks for the reply. I've had SC4 for a while, but only recently felt like looking for addons and mods for it, so I found this site as #1 on google results, and decided to join. 

[TowerDude 2,186]

Simmaster, I learnt something today thanks to you, really

Anyway, the STEX is slow, it's gonna be fixed, it should be fine. It is probably NAM, (it surely is), last time it crashed SC4D and ST , so at least ST didn't crash ;D

[joshriddle 29]

Originally posted by: Sniper296

Originally posted by: joshriddle

I wonder if this is a workable solution:

What I do if downloads stop and dont move not even a single byte a second is I pause the download, resume it, and I get a dialog box. Click OK. Then if it is still down there on your status bar, click start, and it instantly finishes. This is for Firefox.

quote>

Same here it works most of the time.

quote>

Uh oh. If I do that then it shows up as a .PART file. I don't know what that means.

[mallets 0]

Has anyone thought of distributing the NAM and other big, popular files via torrents? That would take a huge load off the STEX server. (Plus, it would be legal for this use.)

[mallets 0]

Eh, looking at other threads, looks like the moderators/owners of this site have a gross misunderstanding of what torrents are and ban them. Too bad, because if they are done with a simtropolis.com hosted tracker, its 100% under the control of the site, 100% safe, and 100% legal. Heck, even Microsoft has used torrents to distribute some of their software.

[anshuvio2 0]

First time poster here. I've been trying to download the Network Addon Mod (NAM) v 29 like 15 times now and it keeps cutting out partway through. Is there any alternative download site?

[beebs 129]

Originally posted by: anshuvio2

First time poster here. I've been trying to download the Network Addon Mod (NAM) v 29 like 15 times now and it keeps cutting out partway through. Is there any alternative download site?quote>

Try SC4Devotion.

mallets: We won't be using torrents, in any way shape or form.

[anshuvio2 0]

Originally posted by: beebs

Originally posted by: anshuvio2

First time poster here. I've been trying to download the Network Addon Mod (NAM) v 29 like 15 times now and it keeps cutting out partway through. Is there any alternative download site?quote>

Try SC4Devotion.

mallets: We won't be using torrents, in any way shape or form.

quote>

Thank you! But torrents are legal as long as they don't distribute copyrighted material, aren't they? I know several Medieval II Total War mods are distributed vis torrents legally.

[Sniper296 83]

One way to slightly increase download speeds would be to use 7z files, an 8.85mb .dat is 6.04mb in a zip but 4.87 in 7z, not that much but the more that were in 7z would mean less bandwidth used and faster downloads. But to rezip every download on the STEX wold probably take months.

[beebs 129]

Originally posted by: anshuvio2

Originally posted by: beebs

Originally posted by: anshuvio2

First time poster here. I've been trying to download the Network Addon Mod (NAM) v 29 like 15 times now and it keeps cutting out partway through. Is there any alternative download site?quote>

Try SC4Devotion.

mallets: We won't be using torrents, in any way shape or form.

quote>

Thank you! But torrents are legal as long as they don't distribute copyrighted material, aren't they? I know several Medieval II Total War mods are distributed vis torrents legally.quote>

In 2003, dirk made an in-person promise to Will Wright that he, and by extension ST, would not in any way support piracy of games.. something torrents are used quite widely.

Now, lets please drop the torrenting idea.. I appreciate that we're all looking for ways to speed the STEX up, but that simply isn't, and won't ever be the solution. If anyone would like to discuss it further, please do PM me.

[Albatross Domain 2]

as of 0202 CDT (0702 GMT)- I have been waiting to finish the downloading of RTMT 3.605... it's started roughly 1.5hrs ago stalled at a little more than 5.0MB of 6.1MB, now it's telling me I have 29mins left? Obviously something is not right here... I'm still able to view videos and watch TV, without interruption. If I even think about refreshing... it will not resume.

Edit::: terminated download... just hope I don't end up with the "Box" flu.

[diamonddog_74 32]

This is what I'm getting:

It happens a lot when downloading from STEX. If I pause the download and then restart it, it transfers at a very low speed (under 20 kbps).

I don't get such slowdowns or complete stops from LEX.