Very low download speeds & frequent "Package Failed" messages

Okay, so I’ve routed myself to the USA with my VPN and I think you may be onto something…

Although I can’t definitively say it’s throttled here in Sweden, I do seem to have gained about 10Mbps in overall download speed (30-31Mbits total). Still not 100Mbps that I should get, but it’s enough to notice a difference.

Unless it’s the MS servers speeding up due to the time of day?

Was an option available in your VPN to connect to a server near Amsterdam? This is where the MS Server for MSFS is located.

Or maybe try one in Belgium?

I was just going to ask where the servers were.

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@PeterE1959,
Download ProtonVPN (it’s a free trial for 1 week). See if that works for you.

Using a VPN is a good test that:

  1. You will know it’s not your PC or Router
  2. You will know it’s related to your ISP (either throttling or an IPv6 to IPv4 issue)

Try to connect first to a location near you. If not good, then keep trying one further from that point.

Ok, thanks for the info Hester.

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Does it matter what country you live in? I’m in the USA.

I’m in Western USA and I see MSFS connecting to Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

However, I do see a connection to that Amsterdam server as well.

Depending on where you live in USA, try East Coast first, then a West Coast VPN server. If those don’t bring good results, then try one near Amsterdam or in Ireland.

Okay, I set it to Belgium (no Amsterdam on Bitdefender VPN) and I can confirm that my download is seemingly unrestricted. It starts slow, but rapidly increases and with files large enough I have seen it climb to 50+Mbps (just peaked at 82Mbps).

It seems a little more rapid when I just let it sit on Automatic for the VPN selection.

Looks like you are onto an ISP conspiracy, Hester. I hope you (and Microsoft) can put some weight behind preventing this type of behaviour by ISP’s, because I know they won’t listen to their customers.

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To confirm:

  1. You are in Sweden
  2. Telia is your ISP
  3. By-passing ISP brings faster speed

Indeed. Sweden, Telia and pretty much max speed (80+Mbps as I write this) with the VPN set to automatic.

I owe you a heartfelt thanks for getting us to this stage and finding a potential solution to the problem, as my initial post ranted. This is exactly the kind of help I was hoping for. You’ve done us proud! I hope it helps others as it has helped me.

If you need further help with this, PM me and I’ll do what I can to provide you with information at this end. Time permitting…

Cheers again! :wink:

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100 mbit internut. no vpn no nothing special. lots of mods in com…folder. Always get about 60-79 mbit download speed

I tried the VPN program, but not much difference. Basically the same download times, which is about 18mbps, which is my ISP Download speed.

If your bandwidth from your ISP is 18Mbps, a VPN won’t bring you any faster. :wink:

So if your bandwidth from your ISP is 25Mbps, a VPN will not bring you over that. You are still limited by your provider’s max speed to you.

Unless I’m misunderstanding?

No, please only cap the frames when installing/downloading. When playing you can remove the cap again :slight_smile:

Ok thanks Hester…:frowning:

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Okay, thanks :slight_smile:

I’m surprised that I can still fly MSFS 2020 with my speed.

Flying does not involve a lot of bandwidth, usually get just a few Mbits/s constant stream

Although I can download the updates at 100 to 200 Mbits/s

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Just to add another variable to this discussion about ISP throttling.

I’m in the UK using Virgin media cable at 300MBps down / 30MBps up.
Have been on that service for the last 3 years, and was on their 200/20 service for many years before that.
These are advertised as unlimited services with no traffic management unless there is a problem collecting your payments. I pay by direct debit and have never missed a payment.

I have often tested my speed at various times (usually at least twice a week, using the google & ookla speedtest sites) and I have always had around 310 Down and 30 up. Has been very reliable up until about November 2020.

Since then I have had very variable speeds at set levels from 0.2 MBps, 20, 40 80 & 120MBps and eventually back up to the full 300MBps.
I know when it goes down to 0.2 if i’m flying, as I get warnings about insufficient bandwidth for photogrammetry

I have tried all the usual troubleshooting suggestions from the ISP support website e.g resetting router to factory defaults, changing the Cat 6 connection cable, checking the coax cable is secure etc… but nothing has stopped my connection from becoming extremely slow on occasions.

All my recent MSFS updates have so far been downloaded at between 200-300 MBps so I have no problems with that.

But I’ve now noticed a pattern, if I test my speed and it’s at the full 300 when I start flying, after about 2 hours it drops to about 120, another hour it drops to 80 and then each hour after it drops until it gets to 0.2 MBps.
It then remains at that low level for a few hours before creeping back up again. Leave it for 24 Hours and I’m back at the full 300MBps.

If I don’t use flight sim at all it stays at 300 (tested it 3 times now with periods of up to 5 days with no sim usage). I occasionally play another online game called Planetside 2 and I can stay connected to that all day and remain at full 300 speed.

Connect to MSFS and after a number of hours my speed drops as I described above. The only way to get my speed back up is to not play MSFS for 24 hours.

Seems very much like ISP traffic management to me but their support people are denying all knowledge of any.

I am currently awaiting a new router from them to see if that cures it, but I doubt it very much.

It really sounds like Virgin are monitoring your usage over time and throttling you once you pass a certain level. Perhaps you should try the VPN with MSFS and see if it does the same. I’m sure that the encrypted stream will be more difficult for them to monitor as a specific data address, such as we’ve noticed here in Sweden with Telia, who I am now convinced are throttling Microsoft servers. I just disconnected my VPN to install some marketplace dlc in MSFS and went down to 13-20Mbps. I cancelled the download, switched back to the VPN and instantly jumped to 75Mbps.