Very slow downloads

[pls2000]

I've recently been having a problem with UE doing very slow download. I think this started with the last update.

By slow, I mean the download speed varies from 600 to 800 kB, on a 50 megabit cable connection.

No other program shows this problem. As part of testing I changed the pause/no pause speed on the Tasks tab both to 10000 bytes/sec. This made no difference. Everything else I tried made no difference. Finally, I installed NewsReactor and set up the same serve. This runs at the full speed of my inter connection.

I'm out of ideas. Is there anything else I should try?

Configuration:
Windows 10, 64 bit
3.2 GHz Phenom II cpu
12 GB ram
no shortage of disk space

Thanks,
++PLS

[alex]

Nothing changed as to downloading article bodies.

Do you have an antivirus which may interfere? It is better to set the antivirus not to scan UE network traffic.

You may try to toggle edit menu->properties->save/unpack, save, saving attachments, bypass database storage (if it is checked the downloading should be faster).

If no effect - set the antivirus not to scan UE downloaded files. If download gets fast - you may try to uncheck bypass database storage and set the antivirus not to scan the UE database subdirectories, with the bypass option unchecked UE will download into the database "Bodies" subdirectory and subsequent saving of files will be done using a single thread, which may address potential antivirus unefficiency when dealing with multiple threads.

Also you may try to increase the number of server tasks in edit menu->properties->servers, and the total and article tasks in edit menu->properties->tasks, to see if the download speed increases proportionally.

[pls2000]

I have done all of that. I have even shut down the antivirus completely. None of this has made any difference.

In any case, if the antivirus was the problem, why would it affect UE and NewsReactor differently?

My antivirus is Kapersky. It had put UE in a low trust category because the UE executable doesn't contain an identification resource that gives the publisher and isn't code signed. Adding the exclusion should have solved that problem and shutting does Kaspersky clearly should have solved it.

I'm still out of ideas.

++PLS

[pls2000]

BTW, I do have Bypass Database Storage set with Optimize. Turning those off makes no difference.

[alex]

The difference may be because UE is using multiple threads while downloading, then (in case it was working ok in the past) something was screwed in the antivirus release as to handling multiple threads.

Do you have a clean computer without the antivirus installed? Or just uninstall it temporarily, even reinstalling afterwards may help.

The antivirus drivers may well be in play even when the antivirus is shut down.

As to the trust category I'm not sure, I'm compiling all myself and compress the executable (for the default download from the website). The third party code I'm using didn't change for years and it is clearly not malicious. The trust category may affect how the antivirus monitors the application in terms of application speed, e.g. the system debug mode may be significantly slower.

By telling you tried all, in particular did you try to uncheck the bypass database storage option and set the antivirus not to scan the UE network traffic and the UE database folder "Bodies" directory and its subdirectories?

[pls2000]

Yes, I did all that and nothing made a difference. As to multithreading, NewsReactor is also multithreaded and it works fine.

As for how Kaspersky classified the program, I believe that was because UE was not code signed.

That's where I'm hung up. I get downloads averaging 800kB with UE and downloads averaging 4000 kB with NewsReactor. It seems to me this eliminates the news server, the network, and most of the software on my machine as possibilities.

Later today, I'll reinstall an older UE version and see if it makes a difference.

[alex]

What is UE CPU usage and number of processor cores/threads on your computer?

When downloading article bodies only it should be around zero.

If at least one core seems to be saturated something else may be in play.

Also read my PM.

[pls]

>What is UE CPU usage and number of processor cores/threads on your computer?

According to Task Manager, UE cpu usage is near 0, perhaps 1% while downloading. It is near 1 CPU when scanning pars, repairing, or unraring.

Since my last post, I have tried other news servers both SSL and regular, tried other Usenet clients, tried connecting through a VPN to eliminate ISP interference, and tried completely uninstalling Kaspersky antivirus, and tried most combinations of these.

In EVERY case, UE downloads at 700-900 k bytes. Every other client I've tried downloads about 5 time faster, around 5-6 Megabytes/sec. Every other app that I can get a download speed from, such as uTorrent, Chrome, MS Edge, downloads 5 times faster. The only program I have this slow problem with is UE and I have it in every runtime context I can think of to try.

I'm sorry, but i don't see any way this can be anything other than a problem with UE. Now, I like UE and want to continue using it, but losing 4/5 of my download speed is a steep price. I'm willing to help debug, and I'm s software developer so I can help, but you have to tell me what to do.

++PLS

[pls]

Sorry, missed the other question. AMD Phenom II, 4 cores, 4 threads.

[alex]

I replied to your email, screenshot etc.