Failed big downloads, and unknown file size / no progress bar : again...

[Daffa]

Download Size Unseen

Stupid title? Maybe.

Anyway, down to the issue.
I noticed the download server seems to not hand down numbers of the filesize being taken from the server.

As in turn, I see these issues pops up :
http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/warcraft-town-hall-99/download-problem-278465/
http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/maps-564/adventures-rowan-wise-161616/index42.html

Check my attachment for the issue directly.

EDIT :

By number, I refer to the file's size number (... Kb or ...Mb)

 

[Warseeker]

What server are you using and which browser?

 

[Daffa]

The download server I'm referring is Hive itself. I download file from Hive and BAM!

Oh, I use Safari here. Might try Chrome and see results.
EDIT :
Still the same.

EDIT :
Apparently, seem this globally applied to all users.

Shit, should have read that post from DSG more properly. Oh well...

A lot of people cannot download anything that will take 10 minutes. If you are like myself 100 megabytes can download in under 10 second if THW servers had sufficient upload.

It is possible the server times out the download request after 10 minutes for "taking too long". Such a mechanic is common with servers to help combat DoS attacks caused by starting thousands of downloads and purposely limiting them to only a few bytes per second so that the server resources are depleted having to keep track of thousands of active downloads.

I also do not get a download size (X/Y MB downloaded) so I am guessing the downloading operates by opening a TCP connection with closing of the connection signifying end of file instead of the downloader keeping track of what is left to download (such as with peer-to-peer file sharing). In other words the download will fail to fully download if the TCP connection times out or is forcefully closed.

 

[Ralle]

Guys try now. I have made a change to the configuration. You should now be able to get the size of the download.

 

[Daffa]

Tried and works.

Thank you Ralle

 

[GhostWolf]

It has nothing whatsoever to do with TCP or end of streams, it's called metadata, and a site is free to send it or not (and cannot in some cases, but that's not very relevant)...

 

[pyf]

This issue is still unsolved imho. Some big downloads fail.

Download progress bar might eventually appear (seems random), but this does not improve anything, thus downloads may be incomplete.

Best workaround for now is to download, when your download speed is at its peak (depends on your ISP / geographic location).

** Edit ** : opened a proper Bug Report thread, as per Dr Super Good's suggestion in another related thread.

 

[pyf]

Some big downloads may still fail, and the unknown file size issue (download progress bar not appearing) is back, too.

fyi, previous threads about such issues
dl issues
dl size unseen

An interesting fact : download progress bar might eventually appear (seems random), but this does not improve anything, thus downloads may be incomplete.

Best workaround for now is to download, when your download speed is at its peak (depends on your ISP / geographic location), until a definitive fix is found.

Testing file used : Survive custom beta 5.5
Browser : Pale Moon
Location : France
ISP : Free
Linode status : operational, all issues solved
https://linode.statuspage.io/

 

[Ralle]

How long time does it take before it happens?

 

[pyf]

10 minutes exactly.

Begin dl : 20:36
End dl (prematurely) : 20:46

File size on disk : 14.8 Mo (should have been 32.2 Mo if complete)

Average dl speed : 25 kB/s (*rough* estimate)
dl progression bar : no

connectivity with other sites : working (tested with majorgeeks.com)
therefore not an ISP issue here probably.

 

[Daffa]

Seems the system forcefully close a download attempt every 10 minutes for some reason.

 

[pyf]

Very probably. Dr Super Good already wrote something about it.


Testing, round 2 :

Begin dl : 07:02
End dl (prematurely) : 07:12

File size on disk : 30.2 Mo (should have been 32.2 Mo if complete)

Average dl speed : 50 kB/s (very *rough* estimate)
Min-max : 0-130 kB/s (note : in my previous attempt, was 5-60)

dl progress bar : no

connectivity with other sites : random. When dl speed is 0, connectivity is lost, too (various sites tested quickly). This happened quite a few times, with looong pauses. Had dl speed been sustained, I would have succeeded to dl the file.

With ISP Free, dl speed is *always* the best in the morning. It much degrades in the evening.
Also, some specific sites like YouTube might have additional performance issues (some ISPs might decide to save bandwidth that way, for technical reasons).

 

[Ralle]

Okay this is very helpful. The more exact it is (10 minutes) the more it looks like a configuration issue server-side. Good work. I will look at my settings.

EDIT:
I have changed a timeout from 600 minutes to 3600 minutes. Try now.

 

[pyf]

Testing, 3rd strike :

Begin dl : 11:12
End dl : 11:28

File size on disk : 32.2 Mo => success

Average dl speed : 25 kB/s (*rough* estimate)
Min-max : 10-55 kB/s

dl progress bar : no

connectivity with other sites : working

 

[Ralle]

pyf, what browser are you using?

Chrome does not show progress for me but Edge does. I checked, the server is providing the size to the client, so it must be the browser.

 

[pyf]

Pale Moon, as always.

** edit ** : I point out again, that download progress bar / time remaining, might eventually appear (seems random).

 

[Ralle]

Pale Moon... Okay. Anyway, I am super happy the downloads work now.

 

[pyf]

The downloads are indeed the most important things.

Download progress bar / time remaining, seems purely cosmetic. It does not make things better, nor worse. Probably some metadata, as GhostWolf already pointed out. Better concentrate on Hive 2 stuff imho.

I will keep the thread marked as Unsolved, because of the Download progress bar / time remaining minor glitch. But an admin might see things differently.

Thanks for being so responsive about fixing stuff, Ralle.

 

[Ralle]

Oh man, I have to be responsive. This is my first born.

Anyway, I really think it's a browser thing. The metadata about file size is being provided correctly. Try it out in a few browsers. The server behaves the same but the browsers don't.

 

[pyf]

Maybe reactive was the correct word here. English is easy to learn, but hard to master (for me, that is).


Anyway,
Testing, 4th attempt

Random means dl progression bar might eventually appear. No clear pattern defined.
Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit : deactivated

Links tested :
1) Survive Custom
http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/...flicts-flash-game-survive-custom-beta-5.5.rar

2) WC3 Complete (dl link is on the middle right, in blue)
http://www.file-upload.net/download-11487153/WC3Completev0.2.2.zip.html

3) http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/maps-564/scourge-lordaeron-enhanced-269491/


Pale Moon
1) no (random)
2) yes
3) no (random)

Firefox
1) no (random)
2) yes
3) no (random)

Opera Classic
1) no (randomness unknown)
2) dl not working
3) no (random)

Chrome
1) no (random)
2) yes
3) no (random)

IE8
1) yes
2) yes
3) yes


Other fellow Hive members might want to contribute some results ? I can not realistically test all possible ISP / software combinations (including browser settings + extensions).

 

[GhostWolf]

Just checked the map download.
It usually starts as a normal download, and sets the content length properly, but arbitrarily the file is sent with a chunked transfer encoding, making it impossible to set a content length.
No idea why the server does that.

 

[Ralle]

So it has content length and is chunked?

 

[GhostWolf]

When it sends it as a normal transfer, it sets the content length, but you can't set a content length when sending in chunked mode (HTTP specs). Why it sends it chunked sometimes is the real question.

 

[Wasabee]

I've also experienced failed downloads in UTM and Survive Custom.

 

[pyf]

Damn, me too with Survive Custom. It worked before.

Ralle, could you please check the modification you made about the timeout is still the same ?


Also, Ardenian made a very good observation in the post linked below
http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/2822773-post11.html

=> worth investigating imho

 

[Ralle]

Did it say that it failed?

 

[pyf]

Downloading Survive Custom failed for me.
apcrabnightlive said previously it failed for him, so I wanted to recheck.

Is the new timeout value (3600 minutes) still here ?

 

[Ralle]

3600 seconds. That's an hour.