SloWTOR killing my Internet speed?

SomeHuman

I just decided this weekend to try out STO and SWTOR to see which I like better.  I downloaded STO through Steam without a hiccup.  Everytime I run the SWTOR download/patch it kills my overall Internet speed even after I close down the client.  My speedtest.net drops to 1/20th of normal.  If I restart the computer, then everything is back to normal.  

Any ideas?  Is something lingering after I close the SWTOR client that is bottlenecking my bandwidth or something?  I appreciate any suggestions.

I'm not sure you'd need specifics about my computer, but it is a mid-level Cyberpower Gaming PC purchased last year, running Windows 7 Professional.

Thanks!

Rynet

Press control+alt+delete and see if it's still running as a background process.. If it's not then perhaps the way it functions is semi-crashing your router... So I'd see if there was a firmware update for your router if that's the case.

SomeHuman

Thanks.  I'll check into the firmware option as nothing obvious is left over in the processes.

[UPDATE] Firmware was already loaded with most recent firmware...

Rynet

Whats your router manufacturer and model?

Vrika

SWTOR is using Bitraider to stream game data, and it's possible that your internet provider thinks it's unwanted traffic, and prevents you from using it properly by slowing/cutting your connections when you try using it.

The solution is usually to get an internet connection that allows you unrestricted access to internet.

It might also be possible to disable to Bitraider Client and get SWTOR to use their old patching method. I don't know if these instructions still work: http://swtor.mmmos.com/?page=view&id=23271

EDIT: If the problem is only net speed after playing the game, then you might also want to check if you still have Bitraider running from Windows Task Manager. The process is named either Bitraider something or brwc.

You could also use Netlimiter to check all your internet traffic when there's a problem with net slowdown to try to identify everything that's causing net traffic at that moment. http://www.netlimiter.com /EDIT

SomeHuman

Originally posted by Vrika

SWTOR is using Bitraider to stream game data, and it's possible that your internet provider thinks it's unwanted traffic, and prevents you from using it properly by slowing/cutting your connections when you try using it.

The solution is usually to get an internet connection that allows you unrestricted access to internet.

It might also be possible to disable to Bitraider Client and get SWTOR to use their old patching method. I don't know if these instructions still work: http://swtor.mmmos.com/?page=view&id=23271

EDIT: If the problem is only net speed after playing the game, then you might also want to check if you still have Bitraider running from Windows Task Manager. The process is named either Bitraider something or brwc.

You could also use Netlimiter to check all your internet traffic when there's a problem with net slowdown to try to identify everything that's causing net traffic at that moment. http://www.netlimiter.com /EDIT

Thanks.  I've been doing bit more reading and found this thread: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=682680&page=7

Apparently people have been having this issue with the patcher for a year now.  I'll try those instructions.  If it doesn't work, I'll just download it in chunks at 512kbs over the work week.  None of the posters mentioned their system staying slow after closing the client, though.  I'll look more into Bitraider and my provider.  Thanks.

Quizzical

I don't know if SWTOR does this, but if it uses a peer-to-peer torrent system to distribute patches, then once you're done downloading a patch, it would continue using your connection in the background to "upload" it to other people.  Using some of your connection could be part of the problem, and as Vrika said, that could also cause your ISP to throttle your connection.

Ridelynn

FFXIV 1.0 (not the latest ARR release) did the same thing - used a torrent-style patcher. People with ISPs that throttled/blocked torrents were SOL, especially since S/E didn't allow patches to be distributed by any other means.

There are ways around it with VPNs or tunneling, or heading to Starbucks/McD's to download the patch, but it was a pain.

Blizzard has had the option to torrent patches for a long while now, but at least they provide the option to ~not~ torrent as well.

A lot of the eastern/asian F2P games like to install crap like Pando Media Booster, and that can and does often leech bandwidth even after the game is closed. I don't think that SWTOR uses Pando specifically, but it's entirely possible it's using something similar now.