Issue with connection too slow.

[coleroddy]

Hi, first time posting here. First of all, the software is awesome. The best thing that happened in the emulation scene for me. I really like it!

With that said, I have a simple question that didn't returned a proper answer while doing a quick search both on the forums or google: Is the connection to Launchbox servers really that slow?

I'm asking because when I try to import let's say... 5 games. Only 5 games takes me around 20-30min! I double checked the speed while downloading the metadata and it never goes past the 0.5mbps.

Also, even when trying to update my Lauchbox from 7.10 to the new 7.14 takes me forever, and the speed is about the same: 0.5mbps (megabit, not megabyte). Emumovies is slow but not that much, as it gets past the 5mbps mark, even with a Lifetime account.

Please don't blame my ISP 'cos I switched recently to a new one and the speed issues with the launchbox server is the same if not worst then before. I had a 10mbit connection when I bought Lauchbox 7.10 some months ago, now I have a 120mbit connection from a different ISP.

It seems to me that the software or the server does not allow multiple connections at once from the same IP address. I tried to force it with a download manager, and the lauchbox server only let me open one single connection to download the software. I had to download my 7.14 update from Majorgeeks site due this issue.

I'm not here to complain, so all I would like to know is: Is the connection really so slow indeed? Is there anything I can do to improve the situation? The only thing I've tried until now is to change the DNS to the google ones (8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4) instead of using the ones provided by my ISP. The issue persists. I live in Brazil by the way. Again, thanks for the software and for the updates. Really amazing piece of software!!!

[ckp]

i'm in the U.S., i can say it's not slow at all for me. that doesn't mean it won't be slow for someone in Brazil or other places. i don't know where the LB servers are, but i would imagine there is something slowing things down between LB servers and you. could very well be something before your isp gets it. if you do a network trace, you could get the ip of the LB server and try running a traceroute command to that ip to see where the problem occurs and give that to your isp to investigate.

[coleroddy]

Thanks for trying to help, ckp. But as I've said, I have this speed issue with two completly different ISPs. Both ISP download anything very slowly from the launchbox servers, be it updates to the software, metadata, or even themes and custom logo packs from the forums. Basicaly anything in the launchbox-app.com domain has this issue.

I found another people complaining but it was temporary issues that got resolved after sometime. Mine has been like this since day one, and even switching to another ISP didn't help at all.

Besides, it's clearly the fact that the servers doesn't alow multiple connections at the same time, hence the speed issues for some, no matter what internet speed you have.

I would really like a word from @Jason Carr about the matter, if that's not asking too much. I really like the software, but I can't just move myself to the US so I can have better download speeds.

[ckp]

58 minutes ago, coleroddy said:

Both ISP download anything very slowly from the launchbox servers

And this is all the more likely that there is some slow or troubled link between your geographical area and the LB server. Do the traceroute and prove where the slowdown is, otherwise you won't be able to get much help from anyone.  Like I said, it's not slow at all for me. It may not be blistering fast, but it sure isn't anywhere near as slow for me as the speeds you have described.

[coleroddy]

2 minutes ago, ckp said:

And this is all the more likely that there is some slow or troubled link between your geographical area and the LB server. Do the traceroute and prove where the slowdown is, otherwise you won't be able to get much help from anyone.  Like I said, it's not slow at all for me. It may not be blistering fast, but it sure isn't anywhere near as slow for me as the speeds you have described.

I already did the tracert command before you asked for it, but I don't know much about networks, so I don't know what should I expecting to see on the command prompt screen to blame my ISP for the issue.

Could you be more specific please? Which info should I look for on the results to confirm what is going wrong with my connection? Also, I called my ISP support and they can't do much right now because their support system is offline. It's gonna be back online in 3 hours from now. I would like to have the proper info so I can pass it to them. Thanks again for the support, sir.

[ckp]

so, if you give them the tracert output to the LB server (assuming you know the LB server IP or name), they should be able to see where there is a problem, if there is one. you want to look for unusually large response times. if you see good, somewhat consistent response times from line to line and then suddenly a very high one, that's where at least one bad link is. in the output you may be able to get an idea where the problem occurs, by looking at the names on each line. in any case, if you see some big response times, you can give that output to your isp. they may blame some other link and say it has nothing to do with them.

but basically, it takes me nowhere near 20-30 minutes to import 5 games and i'm sure it's not taking some countries in europe that long either since i haven't hear people like @neil9000 saying it's so bad. that leads me to believe there is an exceptionally bad link in the path from LB to you. maybe your isp can offer something that might help.

i just ran a traceroute from my Mac to launchbox-app.com (i have no idea if this is where downloads come from) and it gets past my isp with very good repsonse times, but does get pretty bad response times once it hits us.bb.gin.ntt.net, but not nearly as bad as the speeds you're seeing with your downloads.

lastly, maybe @Jason Carr has some suggestions for you.

[ckp]

i just downloaded the 166MB launchbox installer from launchbox-app.com in 2 seconds. i have a 100Mbps download with my isp.

edit: yes, i realize 2 seconds is way faster than 100Mbps. i guess my isp gave me some extra juice on that download!

Edited November 12, 2017 by ckp

[ckp]

here is a more realistic download speed i got for the LB setup installer:

$ curl -O https://www.launchbox-app.com/download?g=c90b94d1-c11b-41c3-b7af-17d8f36f98b7

  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current

                                                      Dload      Upload      Total  Spent  Left  Speed

100  158M  100  158M    0     0  8464k      0  0:00:19  0:00:19  --:--:--      11.1M

Very fast and what I would expect for my isp plan.

[coleroddy]

I ran the traceroute command at launchbox-app.com domain.

Here is what it looks like:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rastreando a rota para launchbox-app.com [76.164.xxx.xxx]
com no máximo 30 saltos:

  1     4 ms     1 ms     3 ms  192.168.0.1
  2    16 ms    12 ms    12 ms  10.xxx.xxx.xxx
  3    18 ms    44 ms    19 ms  c9118014.virtua.com.br [xxx]
  4    14 ms    14 ms    14 ms  c91180fe.virtua.com.br [xxx]
  5    12 ms    17 ms    12 ms  c91180fd.virtua.com.br [xxx]
  6    17 ms    14 ms    17 ms  embratel-T0-1-2-0-tacc01.bhe.embratel.net.br [xxx]
  7   137 ms   141 ms   134 ms  ebt-H0-10-0-0-tcore01.bhe.embratel.net.br [xxx]
  8   134 ms   126 ms   139 ms  ebt-B13151-intl01.atl.embratel.net.br [xxx]
  9   148 ms   132 ms   136 ms  7-2-4.ear3.Atlanta2.Level3.net [xxx]
 10   189 ms   196 ms   189 ms  ae-1-6.bar2.LasVegas1.Level3.net [xxx]
 11   199 ms   196 ms   199 ms  GIGLINX-INC.bar2.LasVegas1.Level3.net [xxx]
 12   194 ms   189 ms   199 ms  192.xxx.xxx.xxx (this is the last ip address)
 13     *        *        *     Esgotado o tempo limite do pedido.
(it runs up to 30 steps from here)

30     *        *        *     Esgotado o tempo limite do pedido. (it means timeout).

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Do you see something wrong? I have no idea if something is really off in those results. Thanks again for all the help

[neil9000]

I have never noticed imports being that slow on my end, importing 5 games has never taken 20-30 minutes for me. However I do get slow speeds when updating the program, I am on a 40Mb connection and the program updates regularly take 5-10 minutes (for a file size that would take about 20 seconds or less from other sites or download services) I have even have it take up to 30 minutes for a program update before, but that is a outlier time. In my case it does seem to be somewhat location based, I am in England, and when I have mentioned it to other people here who are in the USA and they say it is lightning quick for them, so I can only guess that it's quicker in mainland USA than it is elsewhere in the world.

[coleroddy]

3 hours ago, neil9000 said:

I have never noticed imports being that slow on my end, importing 5 games has never taken 20-30 minutes for me. However I do get slow speeds when updating the program, I am on a 40Mb connection and the program updates regularly take 5-10 minutes (for a file size that would take about 20 seconds or less from other sites or download services) I have even have it take up to 30 minutes for a program update before, but that is a outlier time. In my case it does seem to be somewhat location based, I am in England, and when I have mentioned it to other people here who are in the USA and they say it is lightning quick for them, so I can only guess that it's quicker in mainland USA than it is elsewhere in the world.

Yeah, it's really strange for me that this is happening. What I can see clearly is that LaunchBox servers does not accept more then one connection per file when updating the software, and it seems that it does the same for connections to the Game Database. In other words, the thing is not multithreaded (not sure if thats the proper word, english is not my main language so I'm trying to explain the best that can). I really would like a word about this matter from @Jason Carr . Again, I'm not complaining. I just want to understand what is going on and if something can be done to improve. I really love the software. It's very usefull. I just wish that I could download the data faster.

For now I'm using only EmuMovies to get my metadata from and not using LaunchBox Game Database at all. That way is much faster though.

[ckp]

9 hours ago, coleroddy said:

Do you see something wrong? I have no idea if something is really off in those results.

looks like things start to get ugly in brazil:

ebt-H0-10-0-0-tcore01.bhe.embratel.net.br 

[coleroddy]

38 minutes ago, ckp said:

looks like things start to get ugly in brazil:

ebt-H0-10-0-0-tcore01.bhe.embratel.net.br 

I just called my ISP and told them all the story. They couldn't stress enough telling me that there was nothing wrong with my internet link and because it's an issue with just ONE server in the whole world, there is nothing they can do on our side. And I agree with them because I don't have this issue with any other server connection I do. They told me they could do something if the issue was with a lot of different sites or servers or a whole country or an especific area. But the case here is just the LaunchBox-app.com domain.

And I searched through the web for other people with the same issue related to Launchbox connection speeds, and I found some on reddit, on this very forum and other not so populated sites. Nobody has a solution. As I already switched from one ISP to another and the issue persists, I can't just blame two completly distinct ISP's for this.

Everything is pointing to Launchbox servers having an speed issue with some countries. I just can't do nothing about it. Only @Jason Carr can, I think. It's sunday today, so he is probably taking the day off. But I would really like a word of wisdom from him regarding this matter. The only thing that I know is that I love Launchbox software, and also that the software does NOT accept multiples connections and it1s limited to just one per request.

[ckp]

That sounds reasonable to me @coleroddy. I believe the route to some countries from LB may have issues, but I do know the LB servers themselves are fine since speed is good for me. Probably it's in Jason's court to work this out with his provider. Hope he can.

Edited November 12, 2017 by ckp

[REYNALDO PEREZ]

 don't know how to set games I'm on lunch big box need help

[Lordmonkus]

5 minutes ago, REYNALDO PEREZ said:

 don't know how to set games I'm on lunch big box need help

Completely off topic, be sure to check out the tutorials section found at the top of the web page if you need help.

[Jason Carr]

The only way to solve this issue for good is for us to have many servers across the world, and unfortunately we are nowhere near big enough to manage or afford that on our own. I know what lots of open source projects do is allow colleges and such to host their own mirrors, but I'm doubtful that would work for us due to the nature of our content. I'm sorry @coleroddy for your issues and I'd do something about them if I could, but the fact of the matter is that this is just the nature of the Internet and there's literally nothing we can do. Multi-threading the downloads won't fix the issue.

[coleroddy]

49 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

The only way to solve this issue for good is for us to have many servers across the world, and unfortunately we are nowhere near big enough to manage or afford that on our own. I know what lots of open source projects do is allow colleges and such to host their own mirrors, but I'm doubtful that would work for us due to the nature of our content. I'm sorry @coleroddy for your issues and I'd do something about them if I could, but the fact of the matter is that this is just the nature of the Internet and there's literally nothing we can do. Multi-threading the downloads won't fix the issue.

Thanks for taking the time to answer, @Jason Carr. About the issue, that's OK. I accept the fact that you cannot afford many servers due to the size of your business, and I'm sure you would do something if you could. Just keep updating LaunchBox please. It's really an awesome piece of software you got there, and also the community is one of the best. Anyway, thanks again.

[coleroddy]

Hi, I just would like like to give some feedback about the issue. I tried to connect to Launchbox servers using a VPN and tested the connection with different origins. No matter which country the VPN was running from, the download speeds were above 10mbps (around 1 megabyte per second) at least. The only exception is Brazil which is capped somehow at half megabit (bit, not byte) per second. So I hope I'm not bothering you @Jason Carr, but I was wondering if you could just give a shout to the people responsible for your server maintenence because maybe they can do something about the issue. There is clearly something wrong with the route from Launchbox server to Brazil.

Again, thanks for the support

@ckp I did a traceroute command with the VPN turned on, and the results were basically the same if not worst compared to that direct one from Brazil that you suggested. And still I could download anything at least 20 times faster. It's strange.

[opoeta]

On 17/11/2017 at 8:59 PM, coleroddy said:

Hi, I just would like like to give some feedback about the issue. I tried to connect to Launchbox servers using a VPN and tested the connection with different origins. No matter which country the VPN was running from, the download speeds were above 10mbps (around 1 megabyte per second) at least. The only exception is Brazil which is capped somehow at half megabit (bit, not byte) per second. So I hope I'm not bothering you @Jason Carr, but I was wondering if you could just give a shout to the people responsible for your server maintenence because maybe they can do something about the issue. There is clearly something wrong with the route from Launchbox server to Brazil.

Again, thanks for the support

@ckp I did a traceroute command with the VPN turned on, and the results were basically the same if not worst compared to that direct one from Brazil that you suggested. And still I could download anything at least 20 times faster. It's strange.

Good morning, same problem here, on Vivo fiber 100MB. Very slow scrap.