Windows Update

[#1]

Just wondering if anyone else is seeing major slow downs on the Windows Update site?
Although browsing on the whole is OK, not brilliant, but OK, windows update is painfully slow - Routerstats show it is currently running at 4.5KB/s - it's going to take all night at this rate and I've still got another two PCs to do after this one.
Connection is good
                                          Connection Speed              Line Attenuation                    Noise Margin
Downstream                      2592kbps                                  58db                                          5db   
Upstream                              448kbps                                  15.5db                                      15db
current profile is 2000kbps and speedtests show 1800-1900 throughput.
Is this just Microsoft, or is there an element of throttling here too?
 

[#2]

MS downloads are rate limited as per download sites

[#3]

here to see rate limits for you pacage option if your on BBYW and not old products http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/quality_broadband/speed.shtml.
but microsoft downloads can be rubish some times no fault of PN.
to get the KB/s figure that most downloads are mesured in from the kbps qoueted on the link just dived by 8.

[#4]

I'm on BBYW Option 2 and although I knew download sites/servers were rate limited, I thought that the limit was capped at 256kbps and 1mbps respectively at this time of night.
Even at those limits I should still be seeing at least 25kBps - I'm currently getting less than one fifth of that.
That's why I asked the question really, I know there is an upper rate limit, but I'm just trying to see if the problem is beyond Plusnet. I did one update last night and it took four and a half hours to download everything. Not looking forward to this evening or the next two as I update the other computers...

[#5]

Any BBYW Pro users on line?
Would I get a better response from Microsoft update servers from the Pro product, as this doesn't have any rate limits applied at any time.

[#6]

when i downloaded the windows 7 beta a week ago i was geting no more than 110KB/s but it was up and down like a yo yo.
i jumped gateways and ran again and got my full line speed.
if you havent turned your router off since you last had poor download speeds from microsoft. just try loging into your router and using the option to diconnect internet and reconnect. no need to resync your router if holding on to a good sync is important.
it was strange that gateway jumping sorted my speed out as when i looked at the packet drops on the gateway i was connected to there was none for that time of day but you never know might work for you to.
you downloading from the web site or automatic updates. if web page post the link and i will see what speed i get on option 3

[#7]

I have business package and just re-installed office, the updates took an eternity really slow.

[#8]

I did some gateway hopping yesterday trying to increase the speed. That's what makes me think that the slow speed is beyond the plusnet network.
I'm currently updating via the website
http://www.update.microsoft.com/windowsupdate/v6/default.aspx?ln=en-us
Don't particularly like automatic updates so I tend to use the website once a month or so. It just gets painful having to update four computers at dial up speed.

[#9]

looking at the gateways there is a very small % of interactive packets being dropped on a few gateways. but still wouldnt of thought this would cause 4-5KB/s download. plus you saw poor speeds on microsoft downloads yestraday.
so looks like its the computer giant not being able to matain its own severs right.

[#10]

Looking at the graphs, PCL-AG01 is the gateway to be on, no dropped packets at all. I'd go gateway hopping now, but I'm currently downloading 23 out of 25 - after two hours, I'm not going to risk dropping the connection just yet.
I've still got another two PCs to go. Perhaps I'll hop gateways before starting the next one. Lets see if things are any quicker tomorrow.

[#11]

think that gateway is the one that droped when some one had a dos attack against them and i havent seen it record any stats since then so think its just a glitch in the reporting on that gateway.
i tried the link you posted in exploer 7 but microsoft being the idiots they are designed it so it opens automatic updates on my computer.
tried a diffrent one using mozila firefox and got an average of 50KB/s but again was yo yoing up and down.

[#12]

Downloaded SP3 for windows xp not long after midnight last night, didn't see what speed it was, I wasn't paying enough attention, it was completed before I realised (I think I made a coffee)  - on ptn-ag01.

[#13]

Quote from: ASBO

think that gateway is the one that droped when some one had a dos attack against them and i havent seen it record any stats since then so think its just a glitch in the reporting on that gateway.

The graph isn't broken, there's just very little packet loss on this gateway. We're going to look at rebalancing the network when we do the next ERX upgrade over the next week or so and we already have 'drains' on the busier pipes to urge users onto the quieter gateways when reconnecting.

[#14]

I did another of my PCs this evening, started much earlier than last night, around about 6pm. Pretty much the same number of updates applied as the PC I did last night - it was all finished by 6:30pm.
I'm going to attempt the last PC this evening, I'll start around 8, which was the time I started last night, and I'll see if this is slower later in the evening on the same gateway as the first update.
I'll post back later.

[#15]

The time definitely makes a difference. I did my final PC as planned, started at 7:30. There were less updates for this one, but noticed straight away that the estimated time to download had increases dramatically. On the first PC I did, estimated download time was 7 minutes and it actually took around 20 minutes. This time, estimated download time was stated as 29 minutes (four times longer) and it actually completed in about 40 minutes.
Looking at the rate limits, there is no change between 6pm and 12pm, so I can only conclude that the network just gets busier after 7pm.
It still doesn't quite explain the four and a half hours on Sunday night and two hours last night.
At least all four PCs are back up to date now....