Internet Speed - Regular vs Steam / Origin

[KEN]

I pay $20 / month for this internet which usually downloads at 120 KB /s. After certain GB(100 maybe), it goes down to 64KB /s. No matter what I use, IDM, FF, Torrent. It's the same.

I'm not much of a steam user but I once got COD MW2 from someone's account and decided to download it. I didn't check the speed but 1GB downloaded quite fast. 1 hour or something. That's not usual for me since 1 gb takes a couple of hours.

Now few days back EA sent me mail that they want me to test out Titanfall Beta and gave me a code to enter in Origin to get the game.
I got origin and entered the code, game was there but it was 12 gb so I thought I would cancel it since it would take shit load of time. I left it on in background though and later I checked and I got this speed:

zzzz.jpg (11.72 KiB) Viewed 2423 times

I thought it was just showing that and its gonna go down but I left it on and went to workout and returned in 1 or two hours and it was this:

It was really downloading at that rate and I played the game later so it did download 12gb super quick.

My ISP does say my net is 120KB/s but idk why or how it goes that high in origin and steam.. any ideas whats capping or uncapping the speed or is this just normal for everyone?

[Sethioz]

ahahah i think it's your ISP being idiots, no offence, but where you from, it's not a surprise to me if they're still using the OLD "cap" method that can be overwritten with some "pc magic".
I never done it myself, but i heard that maybe about 10 years ago, they capped the speed by setting it in your router or in your windows with some "temp" files, all you had to do is change those settings.

If you are 100% sure your ISP provides 120kb/s (kilobytes per second), then most likely they're capping it in router or client sided and steam/origin just bypasses it by using some different protocol they do not cap.
Steam uses their own encryption and i bet so does origin, because here they cap speed on their side and no matter what you do, it never goes over the limit.
However they have somehow found a way to cap "illegal" downloads from torrents, sometimes torrent is GOOD and friend gets like 1-2mb/s out of it, but i get a stupid 10-100kb/s ... and all the way to 20gb or something. no idea how the fuck they're doing it.
OR your ISP is doing it on purpose and boosts the speed when you're downloading via legit client such as steam or origin, you could ask them, but by doing so, if it's a bug they are not aware of, im sure they would patch it up.

Have you noticed some internet lag lately? because most people here say that internet is lagging randomly and not just here, but lot of people i've asked, say the same (all over world).
I think they are secretly implanting some sort of tracking system that gives them a general idea of what people use the internet for and that's what is causing all this lag.

[KEN]

Yes I'm 100% sure they have it limited to 120KB/s max for first 6gb and after that its 64KB/s. Everyone with this ISP and data plan gets the same.
Downloading via mediafire etc. also gives only this much speed. Direct transfer from a server gives the same also. It's only with Steam and Origin that it goes so high.

I don't think they care if we are getting things from torrent or whatever place. They themself are torrenting movies and games while sitting there and doesn't care.
I haven't seen any lag at all but I've heard lots of others talk about lag.

Any ideas on what to try to remove the cap so even on browser regular downloads speed could go up?

[Sethioz]

it's really odd tho. If it would be USA or some other known EUR country, i would say they have done this on purpose to support steam and origin, but your country .. i don't know.
You would have to ask from your ISP, but as i said, if it truly is a bug, then asking about it may get it fixed.

IF ITS A BUG then i'm sure they limit the internet speed based on protocols, like http, ftp ..etc, but Steam for sure does not use http protocol, they use some encrypted thing which im not familiar with and maybe origin too.
just use a packet editor and check, see what sort of data is going thru origin when it downloads.

but all this just sounds nonsense, why would they cap speed based on protocols? it makes NO sense at all, there are easier ways and im not sure they are not THAT stupid there.
So i'd give it a good 60% chance that they have done this on purpose to support those platforms.

as about doing it for everything, i don't know. First you have to find out what is causing this, then you can talk about reproducing it with other programs / protocols. If it's a client side cap, you should google for internet uncapping and similar terms, there are tons of posts from old days. if its done on purpose or its protocol based cap, you need to simply make your ISP think you're using steam, which i think is not really possible. Only between 2 PCs it would be possible, but that's about it i think.

[KEN]

Steam and Origin uses ftp I think.
I asked my friend to test this out and he responded today. He uses the same ISP but different internet plan and device as well and he is getting 1MB/s as well on origin.
He have a wireless device with internet download plan of 100KB/s. Speed varies but still 1MB/s is unusual for him too. While on torrents and direct download he gets anything between 30KB/s on low signal to maybe upto 150KB/s max.
Gonna have to try some ftp and see what speed I get there.

[Sethioz]

I doubt they use FTP, they use their own protocol. Monitor the packets, it aint FTP protocol.
If you want to be sure, make that test on FTP first.