What is the download speed set to for the PortableApps Platform / server?
New: Kanri (Oct 9, '24), Platform 29.5.3 (Jun 27, '24)
1,100+ portable packages, 1.1 billion downloads
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New: Kanri (Oct 9, '24), Platform 29.5.3 (Jun 27, '24)
1,100+ portable packages, 1.1 billion downloads
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on what app you are attempting to download and install. Installers are hosted on Sourceforge as are most FOS apps. Only freeware and on Open sourced apps are located on the PortableApps servers. Other apps may be hosted on the site of the original app.
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” Dr. Seuss
Most apps I've downloaded through the PA Platform get transmitted at around 48kbps. I tried downloading Stellarium, and it said it was going to take about an hour. I cancelled.
Speedtest.net gets speeds in excess of 8Mbps. Downloading files directly from sourceforge.net also gets rates in excess of 8Mbps.
I just figured it was normal for the PA Platform, so I have only tried the apps under 20MB. (Now my bug report about "sort by size" being broken probably makes sense to people!)
Most likely, you have a nearby SourceForge mirror that's performing poorly. When you download directly through SourceForge, do you pick a specific mirror? They vary wildly in speed at times. Most of our open source software that we host is on SourceForge. Some apps that publishers host is, too (Task Coach). At least one is at github (DB Browser). Most of our freeware is either self-hosted on our own download servers at Digital Ocean or hosted by the publisher.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
When I download directly through SourceForge, I don't pick a specific mirror.
For the example I mentioned, Stellarium, does that come from SourceForge? In the PA Platform, is there any way to tell the source of the download?
Stellarium, being an open source app, is hosted on SourceForge.
You don't pick a mirror on download from the SourceForge site. One is assigned automatically. Or, if you manually picked a mirror anytime ever, it will continue to use that one. You can easily get a different mirror from the website versus the one it assigns you via the platform due to the way SourceForge handles mirroring. It's entirely outside our control.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Thanks. Makes sense.
In the PA Platform, is there any way to tell the source of the download?
There is not a way to tell the source.
I discovered that the skylineservers mirror is exceedingly slow and have a request in to remove it: https://sourceforge.net/p/forge/site-support/11887/
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
The problematic mirror has been removed. Hopefully this will help.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Thanks John! Hopefully that will help. I've noticed frequent 100Kbps speeds since that mirror was removed, but not the 30-40Kbps speeds that were common before.
Hi John. Having them remove that mirror helped a little. Now things download at a little faster than dial-up speeds, which is still incredibly slow. Averaging about 80kbps.
The offending mirror is iweb.dl.sourceforge.net
Perhaps you can notify them about that one too?
You can file a support ticket through their public ticketing system. My last contact at SourceForge was let go as part of their purchase by a new owner.
I think there are some issues with mirrors today. iWeb is usually pretty good. But the number of mirrors dropped from around a dozen to around 4, so iWeb is probably overloaded. Were your download speeds good up until the last few days?
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I'll have to take a look at their system. I don't have an account there. Sourceforge has gotten a significant amount of bad press recently regarding malware. At least one major tool, uBlock Origin, currently includes Sourceforge in their list of "badware" sites. See: https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Badware-risks
The download speeds have been reminiscent of 1980's technology for over a month.
This happened a while ago in the first half of last year. SourceForge runs a program called Dev Share that allows participating projects to push a bundleware installer as the default and share in the revenue. The bundleware free download is a "Direct Download" link just below the download button. About 12 projects out of 400,000 at SourceForge participate. This is how projects like FileZilla are funded. In the middle of last year, the higher ups made the very bad decision to try using Dev Share with projects that had left SourceForge and were only mirrored on SourceForge like GIMP. This is legal under the GPL as the original GIMP installer was unmodified. Ethically is another story. There was a public backlash, SourceForge stopped and promised not to do it again. Now it's back to those same 12 projects that use Dev Share. uBlock has chosen to continue blocking despite getting the desired outcome which is odd as uBlock lets the vast majority of bundleware sites and downloads through. For example: things like Java, Adobe Flash, Avast, AVG, etc all do bundleware regularly. Google Chrome is commonly distributed as bundleware by those projects and others. None of those are blocked by uBlock.
All of the above is a complete misdirect, though, as it is entirely unrelated to download mirroring. No mirrors were lost or throttled when this occurred 8 months ago. SourceForge is in no distributed badware lists that would affect mirroring. It's a single hard-coded entry within uBlock Origin.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
That's a great summary, thanks.
One correction: To my knowledge, it is uBlock Origin, and not uBlock, that continues to block SourceForge by default.
If SourceForge is no longer engaged in the practice you described, and has publicly committed to not doing it again, I see no reason anyone needs to block them.
Like you, I found many things about uBlock Origin to be hypocritical.
It's Origin. Like many, uBlock usually refers to uBlock Origin as that's the original developer gorhill's version.
SourceForge's new owner even cancelled the opt-in DevShare program when they took over: http://sourceforge.net/blog/sourceforge-acquisition-and-future-plans/
While a good thing in terms of the site, it could be an issue for some apps as that's how FileZilla development was funded.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Firefox seems to download at ~68kbps. Where does that come from? What can I do to improve this download.
Libreoffice just started downloading, and it is settling in at about 270 kbps (so, respectable).
SourceForge uses a series of free download mirrors around the world. You may be unlucky enough to be closest to a slow one. That's where Firefox is served from.
LibreOffice makes use of a separate series of free download mirrors around the world that they coordinate with. The publisher themselves hosts this, so this is as fast as LibreOffice local install would download as well.
Our freeware that we self-host is hosted on faster servers. Try downloading Balabolka as a comparison. These downloads unfortunately cost us money, which is why we only do it when we have to.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!