You set a dl speed limit in Steam and don't remember?

This sentence is not very clear:

QuoteBut for some weird reason on my desktop system running Debian Sid, plugged directly into it, Steam downloads incredibly slow (like 300-400KB/s) over wireless on my desktop, (connected at 390MB/s according to Gnome) downloads at 200-220MB/s

The problem is on wired or wireless?

Last edited by damarrin on 15 November 2022 at 4:18 pm UTC

Quoting: damarrinYou set a dl speed limit in Steam and don't remember?

This sentence is not very clear:

QuoteBut for some weird reason on my desktop system running Debian Sid, plugged directly into it, Steam downloads incredibly slow (like 300-400KB/s) over wireless on my desktop, (connected at 390MB/s according to Gnome) downloads at 200-220MB/s

The problem is on wired or wireless?

No limit.
The issue is when wired (2500 is shown in the gnome network settings) it is only getting 300-400KB/s.

Downloading a file with Firefox or the like is speedy?

If so, rename your Steam folder and run it with a fresh config and see then.

Quoting: damarrinDownloading a file with Firefox or the like is speedy?

If so, rename your Steam folder and run it with a fresh config and see then.

Actual speedtest.net shows for sure that I'm getting the full speed. I get about 2200MB/s down and about 1100MB/s up, which corresponds nicely with 2gbps/1gbps advertised speed. Definitely do not get that while connected via WiFi.

Clearing the download cache in the Steam client seems to be one of those catch-all solutions to download problems. Might be worth a try?

The only other thing that comes to mind is the server mirror/download region used. But I don't see how wired vs. wireless would make any difference there.

WiFi drivers on Linux can be very broken, unless it's Intel.

In general, I just prefer to avoid WiFi when possible. You can't beat latency of the wired connection.

Quoting: GuestSo if your still using an old Ethernet Cable then buy a new Cat 8 Cable,

* - 5,6,etc.

I don't get why Cat 6 isn't good for it. Cat 5 - yeah, but Cat 6 should be graded for 10 Gbps. Unless of course you have a very long cable (> 55 meters)?

Last edited by Shmerl on 16 November 2022 at 4:24 am UTC

Quoting: GuestFor speed like that you will need a Cat 8 Ethernet cable, if your using an older cat * Ethernet cable then your have a major bottle neck, Had a very similar problem a few years ago back when i was upgrade from 100mbps to 200mbps, i had a cat 5 cable but needed to get a cat 6e Ethernet cable, after that it worked fine.

So if your still using an old Ethernet Cable then buy a new Cat 8 Cable, and check your motherboard/laptop can do 2gbps.
But if i reading this correct then you are using some sort of usb 2 Ethernet adapter?, i would still replace the Ethernet cable if it's an old cable, if it's a new cat 8 cable then maybe it's a fault/problem with the usb adapter?

And again if i reading this right, It all works okay on windows, is this with usb adapter, with same cables used on Debian desktop, if yes then some sort of hardware/driver issue with the usb adapter maybe, if you mean Windows/Linux/Mac over wifi then i'd still check Ethernet Cable, If your using the same cables but are plugging into the Motherboard Ethernet Port then check the motherboard Ethernet port can do that kind of speed.

* - 5,6,etc.

This is a load of nonsense. Cat 8? For 2 gbps? Cat 6e doesn’t even exist. Lol.

Last edited by damarrin on 16 November 2022 at 5:22 am UTC

Quoting: slaapliedje

Quoting: damarrinDownloading a file with Firefox or the like is speedy?

If so, rename your Steam folder and run it with a fresh config and see then.

Actual speedtest.net shows for sure that I'm getting the full speed. I get about 2200MB/s down and about 1100MB/s up, which corresponds nicely with 2gbps/1gbps advertised speed. Definitely do not get that while connected via WiFi.

Bandwidth test is a very theoretical thing. But at least it makes sure the local network works fine (no cable issues like some mentioned).

Steam likes to flush buffers immediatly so when your hard drive is slow - for whatever reason - this will affect download speed. So try to download on a different HD / partition where there's more space available and there's most likely little fragmentation of free space.

Also:
- Did you test with the same game on desktop and laptop? I have the effect that some games have low download speeds while with others I always get maximum speed.
- Did you try it at the "same time" (not in parallel of course, but more like: test on laptop and when finished, immediatly try on desktop)? During the day the download servers might have very big differences in available capacity/bandwidth depending on what's going on.

Last edited by peta77 on 16 November 2022 at 8:20 am UTC

You can run a local bandwidth test with iperf3 to make sure it's an actual issue with wifi and not something else.