Forums » Bugs

Very slow updates?

Aug 23, 2010 mikevdg link
Hi. I had the intention of trying the free trial. However, I can't get into the game.

Last night I signed up and downloaded the game client via HTTP. I tried BitTorrent, but after a few minutes at 1KB/s, I gave up.

I installed the game and ran it. Firstly, it doesn't add itself to your system menus [under Ubuntu Linux]. I'm completely unfamiliar with how those work and I use the command line anyway, so no biggie, but people unfamiliar with Linux would be a bit stuck.

The problem is with the updates. I fire up the game, which starts up a "Vendetta Update Utility", which just sits there. It's been sitting there for several hours now. My network graph is showing "1KB/s" download (no typo - 1KB/s). My cheap Internet connection can do 30KB/s easily.

I suspect that my ISP is throttling P2P traffic. Does the updater use BitTorrent? If so, is there an option to use something else instead?

It's been several hours, and I still can't play.
Aug 23, 2010 incarnate link
We're working with Canonical on an improved package for Ubuntu.

I'm not sure why you can't connect to the update server, though. Try closing it and re-running? It is not a P2P or bittorrent type protocol, it's our own TCP-based direct download system. It does use a proprietary port number, so it'll appear to be "weird" to something that does protocol analysis. But it's been very successful and heavily tested on a wide variety of systems, around the world, for over 8 years (since initial public alpha).
Aug 23, 2010 mikevdg link
It does seem to be my ISP throttling traffic on particular ports. Port 80 is full-speed, but some other ports seem to be slower.

After some research, my ISP doesn't "manage" traffic except for malicious traffic from bot-nets. It could be the case that port 21024 is considered suspicious?
Aug 24, 2010 yodaofborg link
A few searches of the Interwebs can show that in most places port 21024 is unclassified. Other sources show that VO uses this port :) Maybe contact your ISP and tell them you need this port open?
Aug 24, 2010 incarnate link
I would also recommend what Yoda says. Call them and tell them. We even went to some lengths to get our protocols included in several rate-shaping products that are popular with universities and ISPs, but we couldn't get the VO protocols recognized by everyone.
Aug 25, 2010 mikevdg link
Last night, the updates downloaded at full speed. Whatever the issue was, it's now resolved.

Also, the game is awesome :-). I often have a primal urge to blow stuff up.
Aug 25, 2010 incarnate link
Glad to hear it's working well, and you're enjoying it :).