• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Slow PS3 download speeds

Label

The Amiga Brotherhood
Fzq3G.jpg


Seriously, all your problems will be gone.


Wifi on the PS3 is terrible.

This is sadly true. I had to switch to wired because I would not get anything higher than SD High on Netflix as soon as I switched to wired I was getting X-High HD all the time.

However, the downloads from PSN are still kind of slow. Improved though.
 

Luigiv

Member
Yeah, PS3 connection speeds are atrocious. My internet is already quite slow and dodgey (200KB/s on a good day. It's only a good day about half the time) but the PS3 is an absolute dog crawl 99% of the time.

Ironically enough, today I was lucky and was able to max out my connection on the PS3 for a couple of hours. Managed to download the last 42% of the FFXIII demo in about an hour and a half (with few resets in between to maintain the speed). The previous 58% must have taken at least 8 hours.
 

frogg609

Member
on my 360, a 100mb download takes 45 seconds or so.

on my PS3, it can take 20-30 minutes.

I am using NAT Type 2, and have the following ports forwarded: TCP: 80, 443, 5223 and UDP: 3478, 3479, 3658, 4658. My PS3 is using a static IP.

I have also tried my PS3 wired and that didn't help either.

At this point, I'm not sure what to do to make my PS3 work better in regards to downloads.

Any help is appreciated.
 

CLEEK

Member
Download speeds for PSN and Live seem to be variable, based on ISP and location.

For me, it's the other way around. PSN maxes out my bandwidth, Live downloads at a crawl. But with friends, either the opposite is true, or both are slow/fast. More people have slow speeds with PSN, so I don't know if the server infrastructure is more limited for Sony, or ISP shape their traffic, or whatever.

The unfortunate answer is that there is not much you can do, other than moving/changing ISP and hoping it improves.
 

RoadHazard

Gold Member
We've been over this a thousand times before. Some users have this problem, while others don't (including me - I consistently get download speeds of about 2-3 MB/s from PSN). The most logical explanation is that it simply depends on where you live and which server you get connected to (there obviously isn't just a single PSN server handling all those downloads).
 

Seraphis Cain

bad gameplay lol
I find that if I just pause/resume the download over and over, eventually I'll start getting around 1MB/sec., which is really the best I can hope for from PSN.
 

LuchaShaq

Banned
People have called me a liar for this, but yup my download speeds both on wireless ps3 is about 10% as fast.

Basically makes psn/xbla games xbla exclusives between download speed and point card sales.


Not buying ps4 until I can borrow one and make sure the situation isn't similar.


Also yes I've tried other ps3s of friends and tried different routers/settings.
 

frogg609

Member
While there is somewhat of an increase going to wired, it's not a huge jump, and given the way my house is, it's not practical to be wired.

If there's nothing I can do then okay, but it does seem ridiculous that with a 30mbit connection and PC's able to download crazy fast and my 360 able to do the same, the PS3 feels like i'm on dial up.

(Sorry I didn't check other threads first *slaps forehead*)
 
I'm glad I never had this problem. It's rare that my PSN download speeds go below 1mbps, it's often 2+.

It wouldn't surprise me if it has to do with what router you have. It seems that some just don't want to play nice with the PS3 for whatever reason. I've know people who had problems with PSN download speeds and the PS3 as a media server that were completely nonexistent when they got a different router.
 

frogg609

Member
I'm glad I never had this problem. It's rare that my PSN download speeds go below 1mbps, it's often 2+.

It wouldn't surprise me if it has to do with what router you have. It seems that some just don't want to play nice with the PS3 for whatever reason. I've know people who had problems with PSN download speeds and the PS3 as a media server that were completely nonexistent when they got a different router.

I guess buying a Linksys just isn't common enough. I also had a Buffalo router before that and it still sucked. At that point, it's not the router, it's the PS3. If it refuses to play nice with hardware that is basically Cisco hardware, then I refuse to believe that replacing my router a 3rd time is going to help.

I will try turning off my Media Server, as I've never done that.
 

hank_tree

Member
Yeah my PS3 downloads have always been very slow compared to Xbox/Steam. And that has been consistent with the last 3 houses I lived in where I used different routers and different Internet providers so I'm pretty confident it's something to do with the hardware. That's on Wi-Fi. I'll try wired someday although it's not really practical since my PS3 is upstairs away from the router.
 

Hanmik

Member
Just read this on another forum... relates to Wifi and slow/unstable PS3 downloads.

Supposedly the Wifi thing in the PS3 is very weak. And is interrupted by other wireless stuff. This is especialy a problem with the old fat PS3´s. It is so bad that even the wireless controllers affect the performance of the Wifi.
So some persons decided to test this, and they found out, that if you have problems with the wireless Wifi connection, you need to turn off all your controllers. And then connect one controller with USB cable, and then turn that on. That way none of the controllers messes with the Wifi.

So in short: Turn of controllers. If you need to use a controller, then use the USB wire. This should increase speed and performance of the wireless connection.
 

snap0212

Member
Just read this on another forum... relates to Wifi and slow/unstable PS3 downloads.

Supposedly the Wifi thing in the PS3 is very weak. And is interrupted by other wireless stuff. This is especialy a problem with the old fat PS3´s. It is so bad that even the wireless controllers affect the performance of the Wifi.
So some persons decided to test this, and they found out, that if you have problems with the wireless Wifi connection, you need to turn off all your controllers. And then connect one controller with USB cable, and then turn that on. That way none of the controllers messes with the Wifi.

So in short: Turn of controllers. If you need to use a controller, then use the USB wire. This should increase speed and performance of the wireless connection.
Don't PS3 controllers connect via Bluetooth even if they're charging via USB?
 

Hanmik

Member
Don't PS3 controllers connect via Bluetooth even if they're charging via USB?

Might be.. but the reason they were testing this, is that they had problems with EA servers and PSN. They could not play the FIFA games online. Some of them even had problems with downloading patches to some games. But when they tried with the controllers Wired, then they could download patches and play FIFA.. so they made the simple conclusion.
 
Don't PS3 controllers connect via Bluetooth even if they're charging via USB?

I don't think they do. They sync instantly with the PS3 instead of taking 1 or 2 seconds, so I don't think there's any Bluetooth searching going on.

Also on the PC they work wired without bluetooth.
 

Melchiah

Member
on my 360, a 100mb download takes 45 seconds or so.

on my PS3, it can take 20-30 minutes.

I am using NAT Type 2, and have the following ports forwarded: TCP: 80, 443, 5223 and UDP: 3478, 3479, 3658, 4658. My PS3 is using a static IP.

I have also tried my PS3 wired and that didn't help either.

At this point, I'm not sure what to do to make my PS3 work better in regards to downloads.

Any help is appreciated.

What difference does the NAT type make?

I just tested the wireless connection speed with both the laptop and the PS3. The laptop result was 37-39Mbps, whereas the PS3 was 13-15Mbps. Which isn't that bad per se, but the real download speeds seem to vary between 50-200kbps; the 1711MB Mass Effect 3 demo took about four hours to download. =(

Unfortunately using a wired connection is not an option for me either.
 

Shadow780

Member
What difference does the NAT type make?

I just tested the wireless connection speed with both the laptop and the PS3. The laptop result was 37-39Mbps, whereas the PS3 was 13-15Mbps. Which isn't that bad per se, but the real download speeds seem to vary between 50-200kbps; the 1711MB Mass Effect 3 demo took about four hours to download. =(

Unfortunately using a wired connection is not an option for me either.

Supposedly wired, NAT2 with DMZ (essentially all ports open) is the optimal setup.
 

RoadHazard

Gold Member
What difference does the NAT type make?

Type 1 means that the PS3 is connected directly to the Internet and has a public IP address.
Type 2 means that it's connected to the Internet through a gateway (usually a router, which could be built into your modem) and has a private IP address on your network. In this setup, the gateway will have the public IP address.
Type 3 is the same connection as type 2, but indicates that there is some problem connecting to the Internet, typically caused by closed ports in the router/firewall.

So it's not a setting, but an indication of how your PS3 is connecting to the Internet. NAT types 1 and 2 are good (but since you're probably using a router type 2 is what you want). If you get type 3, you have a problem which you need to fix to get a solid connection.
 

Melchiah

Member
Supposedly wired, NAT2 with DMZ (essentially all ports open) is the optimal setup.
Type 1 means that the PS3 is connected directly to the Internet and has a public IP address.
Type 2 means that it's connected to the Internet through a gateway (usually a router) and has a private IP address on your network. In this setup, the gateway will have the public IP address.
Type 3 is the same connection as type 2, but indicates that there is some problem connecting to the Internet, typically caused by closed ports in the router/firewall.

So it's not a setting, but an indication of how your PS3 is connecting to the Internet. If you get NAT type 3, you have a problem which you need to fix to get a solid connection.

Ah, thanks for clearing that up. Just checked and I'm using NAT Type 1, I take it I should change it to Type 2? If so, how it can be changed?

EDIT: And how do I check whether all the ports are open or not?
 

RoadHazard

Gold Member
Ah, thanks for clearing that up. Just checked and I'm using NAT Type 1, I take it I should change it to Type 2? If so, how it can be changed?

If your PS3 says type 1, that means it's connected directly to the Internet. I'm kind of confused as to how that's happening, since you're connecting via a Wi-Fi router (right?), but in any case type 1 shouldn't be a problem.
 

jmdajr

Member
Yup it sucks. My OTHER console doesn't have these issues. All wired.

My favorite is when the download just outright fails. And it's too stupid to continue where it left off...
 

Hanmik

Member
If your PS3 says type 1, that means it's connected directly to the Internet. I'm kind of confused as to how that's happening, since you're connecting via a Wi-Fi router (right?), but in any case type 1 shouldn't be a problem.

NAT 1 with wireless..? that sounds strange..

but NAT 1 is the optimal connection.. do not change that.
 

Melchiah

Member
If your PS3 says type 1, that means it's connected directly to the Internet. I'm kind of confused as to how that's happening, since you're connecting via a Wi-Fi router (right?), but in any case type 1 shouldn't be a problem.
NAT 1 with wireless..? that sounds strange..

but NAT 1 is the optimal connection.. do not change that.

I have no idea why it's the way it is. And yes, I'm using a wireless connection.

This might be a stupid question, but how to check whether all the ports are open or not?
 

NIGHT-

Member
I have my PS3 wired right now and downloading a 86 mb file. Estimated time is 15 minutes.. No difference at all from wireless lol
 

Diablos

Member
I have found that resetting my cable modem (not the router) every now and then seems to fix the NAT problem. I get >15Mbit downloads on my ~20Mbit connection now.
 

Ardenyal

Member
I timed Mafia 2 (7.3GB) download at 21 minutes, not as fast as it could be but I got no gripes with PSN speeds.
 

Atruvius

Member
When I do Network Connection Test the speed it says I have are slower than what I get when I do an online speed test. Wired connection and PS3 is in DMZ.

Online speed tests: Download 10.31 MBps, Upload 1.31 MBps (same speeds with my computer)
PS's Network Connection Test: Download 8 MBps, Upload 500-900 KBps.

Last fall PS Network Connection Test game me better results: Download 12 MBps, Upload 2MBps. While browser tests gave me Download 18MBps and Upload 2MBps.

PS3 says that the given speeds are only estimates but I'm not so sure. Is my Upload that slow through the PSN or is really over 1MBps like browser tests say?

Anyone else experiencing something like this?
 

snap0212

Member
So I was really bored yesterday and after downloading about 50GB of GiantBomb videos I decided to compare download speeds between the various gaming devices I own. I'll do some additional tests tonight but here are the results.

I know what my internet connection is capable of (~12MB/s) [~100.000kbps]. I downloaded a 870MB file just to make sure I could compare the results.

PC:
Code:
Laptop
Connection: Wireless
Download manager used. 
File Size:                  870MB
Time to finish download:    109 seconds
Average download speed:     7.9MB/s

The download turned out to be not as fast as I hoped but it shows that my consoles should be able to at least download at the same speed my Laptop does.

PlayStation 3:

Code:
[B]PlayStation 3 [FAT 40GB][/B]:		
Connection: Wired
NAT Type: Open [DMZ]			EU		JAP		NA
File Size: 				400		115		99
Time to finish download:		337 sec		106 sec		101 sec
Average Download speed:		        1.18MB/s	1.08MB/s	0.98MB/s

I do own a PS3 slim [120GB] and downloaded some files on that system as well. I did not notice (calculate) any significant difference between the two consoles. However, what I noticed was that – no matter what I decided to download – I was never able to get full speed or even a high download rate. I decided to download some random video files from LPArchive.org to see if they'd download any faster... they didn't. The downloads were about as fast as regular PSN downloads. This is interesting because I downloading them on my PC is, while not full speed either, pretty fast (~4MB/s – ~10MB/s).

PlayStation Vita:
Code:
PlayStation Vita
Connection: Wireless (system right next to router)
NAT Type: Type 2
Filee size:               30MB
Time to finish download:  90 sec
Average download speed:   0.3MB/s
This seems really, really slow to me and I know that speeds were higher when I first got the system. I was actually surprised how fast stuff was downloading when I filled my memory card with Demos and downloadable games. So either Sony had a few additional servers for launch or I was just lucky that day.

Xbox 360:
Code:
Xbox 360 [Elite 120GB]
Connection: Wired
NAT Type: Open [DMZ]		EU
File Size: 			1.84GB
Time to finish download:	~21m
Average Download speed:	        ~1.48MB/s

According to my router, the download speed was higher at the start of the download but decreased a bit over time.

At this point, I'm starting to wonder if my connection is broken or something. I made sure the Xbox was still in the DMZ (which it was/is). It was really surprising to me as I always hear about Xbox Live downloads at full speed but that's definitely not what I'm experiencing. I may have chosen a bad time to download the file so I'll just download it again tonight to see if anything changes.

I should also mention that I'm currently not a Xbox Live Gold member but I'll find out if that changes anything. I have a couple of 48h codes somewhere (I hope). I'm a PS+ member but I did not notice any difference between an account that's PS+ and accounts where I didn't have the membership.

--------

Overall, the downloads on consoles seem to be very slow for me. I've checked forums to see if others with the same ISP are having the same problems but I've not seen any reports about my ISP is throttling download speeds. I'll also try to change the DNS to improve my download speeds and compare the results to the ones I already have. I'm not living in the middle of nowhere so I expect downloads to be (at least a bit) faster.

The speeds themselves are okay and downloading huge demos or full games is not a problem but considering that downloads on my PC are way faster, it's a bit frustrating. I'm really wondering if the results tonight will be any different.
 

spwolf

Member
you got to understand that download speed depends on the server, or rather the connection between you and the server. it is unlikely that this is an hardware issue.

We know now that PSN uses AWS, which is generally reliable but obviously people have issues with peering between their ISP and AWS.
 

DemonNite

Member
For those who have slow speeds try this.

This actually worked for me (I use wi-fi) so definitely give this a go. It worked for both my PS3 and Vita slow download speeds.

  1. Assuming the computer is running Windows and your PS3 is on the same local area network as the computer:
  2. Find your computer's IP address in the Control Panel -> Network Connections. This is probably something like 192.168.1.100. If it does not start with 192.168 then you might have a public IP and this won't work (at least not easily).
  3. Download Privoxy from their website: http://www.privoxy.org/
  4. Run the Privoxy installer. When it is done the Privoxy window should appear.
  5. Go to the Options menu and select 'Edit Main Configuration'
  6. Find the line that says "listen-address 127.0.0.1:8118". Should be about halfway through the file.
  7. Replace 127.0.0.1 with the computer's IP address (should start with 192.168). The :8118 part should stay.
  8. Save and close the configuration.
  9. If you have a firewall on your computer you need to allow access to Privoxy on port 8118.
  10. On the PS3 open the network configuration settings. When it asks if you want to use a proxy say yes and enter your computer's IP address and port 8118.
  11. Make sure the conenction test works and we're done! See if your speeds are faster and let us know the results.

And a test I recorded just now...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhrXeXvlqDU
 

Ocaso

Member
For those who have slow speeds try this.

This actually worked for me (I use wi-fi) so definitely give this a go. It worked for both my PS3 and Vita slow download speeds.



And a test I recorded just now...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhrXeXvlqDU

I'm interested in this, but to be honest this is the first I've heard of local proxy software. I take it that the software is emulating an alternate proxy server and that the information is still only passed between your computer and (in this case) Sony, right? I'm curious because of potential issues with credit card security and the like.

Just to add my experience to the thread, I was able to improve my PS3 download speeds somewhat by enabling a setting called QoS (Quality of Service) on my router, identifying my PS3's MAC address, and increasing its priority to highest. It's worth a shot for other wireless users.
 

iNvid02

Member
i can vouch for privoxy too

granted this is with a 100mb connection, but before i was lucky to get close to even
half of my speed through psn - privoxy works

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWVMxxEtxO0

psn actively throttles downloads on ps3 and psp for some reason - its not the ISPs doing this otherwise
the privoxy method wouldnt make a difference, guess thats the price we pay for free online
 

CSX

Member
Opening ports dont mean shit. You can still get NAT3 on wired connection.

Finally decided to activate DMZ. Been happy since.
 
Maybe it's a router setting? What is your NAT type? It took me 12 minutes to download the demo for Binary Domain the other day.

You know, my ps3 and 360 are both directly connected to the same router and the 360 is still much faster when it comes to downloads. Its very weird.
 

theBishop

Banned
Something happened in firmware about a year ago that killed my wireless performance. Although I get an IP and can reach the internet, the built-in speed test puts me at roughly 1mb d/u. I flashed OpenWRT on a different router, set it to bridge mode (to the same wireless network) and connect it to PS3 over ethernet. With that setup, I get 18mb down and like 2 mb up. Much better.

This is a launch 60GB PS3. It's slow PSN speeds, it's shit wireless networking in the PS3.
 
Top Bottom