Slow Transfer Speeds For File Transfer Manager 5.0 Build 0032
I have a 20Mbit internet connection. When I download from the Microsoft download site I can get files downloading at reported speeds of up to 1.7 Mbytes per second.
When downloading from the TechNet Benefits section I have to use the Transfer Manager and I can only get speeds that vary between 30-80 Kbytes per second. Rarely any faster.
I am using XPPro & IE7 straight out onto the Internet via my router / firewall. No proxy server.
What can I do to speed the process up or bypass the File Download Manager?
Regards.
Answers
Thank you.
My last two downloads have been much faster so maybe I was extremely unlucky with my all previous downloads and caught the servers / network at a busy time. I certainly haven't done anything to my computer.
Regards.
David:
I am glad to hear you had better success on later attempts. I did get a response back from the FTM team.
Basically it is expected that the transfer rates from the Microsoft Download Center would differ from the MSDN or Technet Subscriptions sites since the files are being pulled from different locations. The transfer rate difference observed is most likely an issue of the connectivity you have to the datacenters hosting the MSDN\Technet files rather than anything with the FTM Client itself.
If you continue to have these problems and would like to dig into them further to see if they are FTM related, there are some troubleshooting steps that the support team can walk you through - involving you running a diagnostic script on your machine following a problematic download. The script results would then be send to the FTM team for review and analysis.
If you would like to pursue this, you should contact support using one of the TechNet worldwide support phone numbers, based on your location.
All Replies
David:
Unfortunately use of the File Transfer Manager (FTM) is currently required to download files from the TechNet Subscriptions Benefits Portal.
I have not heard reports of download speeds as slow as you are experiencing. I will pose the question to the FTM team and see if they have any thoughts on the issue.
Thank you.
My last two downloads have been much faster so maybe I was extremely unlucky with my all previous downloads and caught the servers / network at a busy time. I certainly haven't done anything to my computer.
Regards.
David:
I am glad to hear you had better success on later attempts. I did get a response back from the FTM team.
Basically it is expected that the transfer rates from the Microsoft Download Center would differ from the MSDN or Technet Subscriptions sites since the files are being pulled from different locations. The transfer rate difference observed is most likely an issue of the connectivity you have to the datacenters hosting the MSDN\Technet files rather than anything with the FTM Client itself.
If you continue to have these problems and would like to dig into them further to see if they are FTM related, there are some troubleshooting steps that the support team can walk you through - involving you running a diagnostic script on your machine following a problematic download. The script results would then be send to the FTM team for review and analysis.
If you would like to pursue this, you should contact support using one of the TechNet worldwide support phone numbers, based on your location.
I am also seeing slow speeds in the range of 70-80KB per sec. Any replies with tips would be appreciated.
Slow here in Seattle as well 160k downloads. My connection is 900k. I've already tried updating the LM hosts, no change. 2 to 3 days ago, reasonable speeds. What's up? I have a deadline and MSFT was slow won't cut it.
Is there any diagnostic I can run to assist troubleshooting?
Thank You,
Port Tester
Please no referrals to a 3 hour phone call, that's passing the buck and not the level of service i expect with my MSDN license . The problem is on the MSFT end, not the user.
We are asking for help.
So I am sorry you don't want to talk to support, but unfortunately that is the most appropriate course of action to take if you want to investigate whether the issue is with the FTM client and your machine.
They have access to the diagnostic scripts that they would ask you to run and provide the results to them.
Then they pass along the diagnostic results to the FTM team for analysis.
I just called support and they are not sure what is happening save a rework of the entire FTM infrastructure. Reaseach is occuring.
Why can't msft give advance warning to their paying MSDN customers that downloads will be VERY slow as in dial up 1996 speeds. I should not have to call to get that information. Diagnostic scripts for a known problem should be posted.
How does this affect me personally? I have to cancel a presentation TODAY to my peers and managment trying to sell them on the TFS concept. In other words trying to get our team to purchase MORE software from MSFT. The counter, the open source guy is still giving his presentation.
How am I going to convince our team of 60 developers and testers to support my homogeneous MSFT solution when we with MSDN licenses can even download TFS to demo ( unless we started last week)?
Pleaese advise with more than a buck passing phone number.
current download speeds
61k
and 89k
- FYI, this is not answered. Why is it posted as answered.
This post was marked as "answered" by someone because the posts did address the original questions that were asked, untill people added to the thread.
As far as the information provided by the support agent, it is inaccurate. There is no "rework of the entire FTM infrastructure".
As with any Internet Service Provider, there are situations that come up where traffic has to be re-routed for one reason or another. An ISP did report such a situation yesterday to Microsoft, and based on that information Microsoft rerouted traffic through data centers not impacted by that ISP. That can alter transfer speeds for customers who have traffic going through those regions. I don't have specific details, but am using this to illustrate that speeds vary over time based on traffic and other factors.
- Yes, I understand and when can I expect to see an improvement?
Can you help? Phone support is off line. Can you please escalate? I really need this software for my job. What can I do to remedy this? Can I point to another host? Please anything would be of assistance. I don't want to lose my job on Monday.
My example above was illustrative of things that can impact transfer speeds. I did find out a little more detail and that particular situtation would have impacted customers in South and Central America, not necessarily North America.
I am not currenlty aware of any problems or issues at Microsoft Data Centers servicing Subscribers that would contribute to your particular situation. if you continue to experience network slowness you may want to consider contacting your ISP.
- I was getting unusually slow download speeds in the 30-40KB/sec range until I realized that a newly configured VPN connection to a client was setting my default route, so I was using their T1 instead of our 20Mbit OPT-E-MAN.
Properties of the VPN connection | Networking | TCP/IPv4 | Advanced | uncheck Use default gateway on remote network. Problem solved. Thanks John
Maybe that will be helpful to others as well. Thanks for posting.
- What version of Window are you using?
- I am also experiencing problems with MS File Transfer Manager, i am a new subscriber to TechNet, i am running Windows Vista x64 Ultimate and have a 24mb cable broadband connection, on various other MS sites i get very good download speeds, on TechNet Direct downloads i get no faster than 10-14kb/s so a small ISO can take up to 40 hrs to download which is unacceptable. i have tried various things like upgrading my version of MSFT and i have added exceptions to Firewall and Virus Scanners still no joy? any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks for your feedback Tekky. FYI there is also a forum specifically for TechNet Website Feedback which is the more appropriate place for TechNet Subscriptions questions at http://social.technet.microsoft.com/forums/en/tnfeedback/threads/
There are many suggestions in this post about improving your network speeds when downloading from MSDN and TechNet subscriptions sites. Here is one more place to look for tips, which we have linked to from our Downloads and Product Keys FAQ (MSDN version, TechNet version):
The website for the Microsoft File Transfer Manager, particularly their troubleshooting page which includes additional discussion on configuring the FTM and on slow transfer speeds.
As Julie stated above, you can call TechNet Customer support and they can take you through some additional troubleshooting and diagnostic steps to assist. Julie has linked to the support phone numbers in her reply.Thanks,
Mike Kinsman- Edited byMike KinsmanMSFT, ModeratorFriday, October 17, 2008 1:59 PM
- Great information - worked great for me.
Went from 40kb to 700kb
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2006/11/20/speed-up-and-download-faster-from-microsoft-msdn-downloads/- Proposed As Answer byMike KinsmanMSFT, ModeratorThursday, September 10, 2009 8:10 PM
- Thanks for posting this Paddy! If others can use this feedback to get better download speeds we would love to hear about it.
Thanks,
Mike
MSDN and TechNet Subscriptions Support - Thanks Paddy Way,
But it seems I too am getting extremely slow download speeds. I'm currently at my University, and can I download most large file at 1.5MBps; however, this down load is running at 20KB.
I also notice that the download isn't coming from Microsoft directly. It's coming from one of Akamai's distribution servers.
