Why are my downloads suddenly so slow?
This week I started hearing from many customers that their download speed has suddenly dropped to around 30 KiB/s, well below what's acceptable. I spent some time investigating this and I have come to the conclusion that this is happening due to factors out of my control. I have some theories as to what's happening:
Some internet providers have started noticing the amount of bandwidth that pixeldrain uses and are throttling connections to my servers to save on transit costs.
Some of the international cables connecting Europe and Asia may be overloaded or damaged. This means transit providers have to throttle some connections to make place for others. As pixeldrain uses the most dirt-cheap internet that's available it's probably the first to get throttled.
To really figure out what's going on I need some more information. Please fill in this short survey to help me get to the bottom of it: https://forms.gle/sdhUstwzLva4t7W69
The issue seems most prevalent in Asia and Oceania. I do not have servers in those regions so all the traffic is served from Europe and the USA. This means that files downloaded there always have to traverse an ocean. Traffic that crosses a long distance becomes expensive simply due to the number of routers it has to pass through.
Though it is really scummy, and illegal in some places, throttling international connections can save an ISP quite a lot of money. We know by now that most corporations have no problem with bending over customers to save some coin.
The only solution seems to be for me to install some servers in Asia. I already have my eyes on a good offer in Singapore, but I can't really afford it currently. If the subscriptions keep growing like they are now I should have enough budget available in about a month.
It's good to remember that pixeldrain does not throttle connections at all unless you have exceeded your daily download limit. If you have not exceeded your download limit and your downloads are slow then upgrading to Pro will not help. The problem is with your ISP. Contacting your ISP's support might help in some cases.
To test your speed to pixeldrain's servers you can try this link: https://pixeldrain.com/api/misc/speedtest. It will download a 1 GB file at the fastest speed possible.
Thanks,
Wim.
Comments (24)
Joined today, never had issues with speed before with the daily free limit. First couple of downloads on 'Pro' worked fine, but for the next it stays around 1 KB/s :( ... I can see my total daily download just got past 5 GB when it happened - maybe just a coincidence?
Same here. I have mentioned this several times. I hope everyone reads the comments before paying.
Can’t link my patreon to pixeldrain, the pop up window does nothing? All details are correct but will not link
Hi, sorry for the late reply. For these kind of problems it's better to send a direct message. I see your account has been upgraded, I assume the problem is solved now?
I bought the membership and link with pixeldrain but it doesn't work for me to download premium, the band notice comes out, I think I lost my money since the support doesn't say anything
UK, Working fine for me @ 3gbps
Very nice
i also had this problem (GER). With a VPN i get the full speed. Kinda weird.
hi, please check my message.. Thanks
Speedtest not working for me "{"success":false,"value":"authentication_failed","message":"The provided API key is invalid, has been revoked or has expired"}"
You have a cookie with an invalid key in your browser. Visiting the home page should be enough to reset the cookie. If that doesn't work try logging in to your account.
thanks for mentioning that ISP might be the root cause. I tried using my 5G as a hotspot and resumed downloading BAM! From 2mb/s goes to 8 mb/s even though my ISP normally download at 20-30 mb/s and my 5G normally download at 8-12 mb/s
won't get any faster than 25KB/s this couple days but with Cloudflare Warp it's reaching 70MB/s now (Asia)
why did you remove the ads on pixeldrain? If you have banner ad support, you can get extra cost for growing your business.
The ads really didn't earn that much. And I was getting really tired of all the advertiser spam in my inbox. I would get advertising offers nearly every day, all from really shady companies. It cost time to test all ads for earnings and trustworthyness. Pixeldrain has been doing really well since I removed the ads. Usage has really exploded. I like to think that not running ads really makes pixeldrain stand out from the competition.
I had the same issue but after installing Cloudflare Warp (free and available for every OS), now it’s back to 50+ MB/s
That makes sense. Warp essentially uses Cloudflare's own routing instead of your ISP's routing. Cloudflare does not throttle connections.
My download speed should be 30 MB/s. Pixeldrain stays at 4 MB/s with the link you provided for the test. I am from Cyprus . If I try to download any other pixeldrain link is working fine though
Thank you for being so transparent. I appreciate it. My download speed should be 60 MB/s. Pixeldrain starts at 2.9 MB/s and then drops to 0.3 MB/s within 20 seconds and stays at that speed. (I'm from germany)
These kinds of situations are the most confusing. How can a connection start fast-ish and then slow down? That should not be possible under normal circumstances. This leads me to believe some outside party is throttling my connections.
thanks for he update o7
just admit it you forgot to pay your bills ^_- jk
Thanks for the update, This is why we need Net Neutrality to come back.
Thanks for the heads up and keep up the good work.