Firstly, I know that this subject has been brought up before BUT I'm having the same issue again now. In the past, I've been told to take it up with my ISP because they are responsible. I did. And, of course, they said that they weren't responsible.

PING! PONG! Stuck in the middle!

A few days ago I downloaded Gothic 4, a hefty beast at just over 9 Gb and it downloaded at full speed (I'm on fibre optic) with no problems.

Today, I try to download NCIS and it flies through the first stage until it hits the part where you can play but the download will continue and at that point, the speed slugs instantly and drops off so that my download speed is now less than normal broadband: it's now crawling though at 0.44 MB/sec, whereas I was getting 2.5 - 2.7 MB/sec on the initial download.

This is a pattern that I am recognising because I always see it. The download speed is crippled as soon as I hit the intial download bar. Gothic 4 did not have that split and the download flew right the way through. Some people have said that it happens at 75%. I think that it will always happen at the split point, which quite often is 75%, but not always.

This is NOT an ISP issue. The ISP doesn't know when that initial download finishes! It has to be some glitch at Metaboli which slows the download down for the 2nd stage? Why?

At the same time as I was doing the download (0.4 Mb/sec) I ran a speedtest (slower than it should be because I'm running wirelessly), but my download speed was a little over 20Mb/sec. My Metaboli download slowed to 0.3 Mb/sec. I am not being slugged by my ISP. Metaboli is holding this up and the 2nd part of the download takes longer than the larger first part!

Has anybody else had this issue?

Hi,

the reason why you may see some occasional slowdowns is not fully due to the ISP nor to the Metaboli servers, but to the fact that our Player downloads AND installs the games at the same time.

Due to the varying number of files that compose a game, it might take more time to download and install some bits as compared to others (i.e. decompression of the files Vs installation). This will reflect in a lower download speed at certain points.

If you have ever purchased a buy&download game, you will probably agree that if you take into account the time you need to download the data PLUS the installation time afterwards, the waiting times are pretty much the same.

However, our Player gives you the opportunity to launch your game even if it's not 100% downloaded, and that's not bad I reckon

Just let the Player download the remaining bits in the background while you enjoy your game;)

Thanks for your response marcooasis, and I accept, from a logical viewpoint, what you are saying.

but....

Sorry, I hate to "but you" but I still aren't quite seeing this...

I've always been told since using Metaboli not to start playing the games until they have fully downloaded. Is this no longer the case?

Also, the slugging lasts for the full duration of the download. I could expect a slowdown for the initial period and then the speed to increase as the game has installed and only needs these additional files to download. Put to cripple my download to 0.4 Mb until the very end does not quite compute??

Same for me i normally get very good speeds. but tonight it is so slowwwww

EDIT*** its suddenly gone fast again

Now seeing a download speed of just 0.12 Mb.

Everything else OK:
Video on bbc running fine
webpages on all sites fine (including this forum page)

Just the download.

I don't think that this is my ISP slugging me.
What is going on with Metaboli of late?

This is definitely a bug. I've just tried to download Pharoah (an old time favourite of mine) and it got to the line and the download speed plummeted and then completely stuck.

I closed down my IE and then killed the the Yummy Process and then came back into Metaboli and told it to continue the download. It then finished in less than 1 second.

This is happening to every game that I download. Am I the only one?