I don't understand where this weird gaslighting of blaming browsers for GOG's backend issues became a thing. I just downloaded a game from itch.io via Firefox - Speed was 36MB/s (288mb/s), ie, it maxed out my current 300mb/s Fibre connection), just 1 file / 1 thread. Same story with a Windows 11 ISO. Same story with a Linux Mint ISO. Same story downloading nVidia drivers. Same story downloading newest version Firefox. Same story with LibreOffice. Same story with downloading a .zip MP3 album from Amazon. Same story with source ports like GZDoom. I then repeated with Vivaldi (Chrome based) and Edge. Same maxed speeds. Browser Speed Test? Maxed out on 3x different test sites.

If GOG.com and only GOG.com is slowing to a crawl / timing out for some people, then the fault there clearly lies server side at GOG, beginning and end of story. Whether it's unintentional, eg, CDN redirecting USA / Aus users to servers in more remote regions, or intentional, ie, artificially throttling download speeds upon detecting a "browser agent" whilst playing dumb about it to push "Just use Galaxy", the only sane honest answer to both is "No. Whether some people like Galaxy or not, if there's a problem with your website / CDN, then fix it anyway like stores 10x smaller all manage to do..." As I said the other day, for every offline installer "forcibly converted" to using Galaxy due to fake browser restrictions, there's probably 5-10 more people new to the site who take one look at the "downloading a file is now 'more work than work' but only for GOG" mess along with "95% of technical problems never get fixed" and go straight back to Steam due to a sour 'first impression' in general.

That's what I was getting at
You're getting such good dl speeds because you have gogrepo set to use multiple threads
If you used a single thread per file it would probably be about the same speed others seem to be getting

Of course it matters if it is intentional or a configuration error. If it is intentional at GOG's end to limit browser download speeds to certain speed (per thread), then they are less likely to change it either. If it is a configuration error either at GOG or Fastly, then they are more likely to want to fix it.

If it is intentional, I wonder why it is affecting only some people, or some areas. As said, I get 25 Mbytes/sec download speed with a browser. It is quite fast enough for me, even if it is not maxxing out my 75 MBytes/sec internet line (then again neither does any other web site, or Steam or Epic clients).

It is certainly possible that GOG or Fastly is throttling the speeds (per thread) only on some areas/servers. Or they have just forgotten to enable throttling on the Helsinki server to which that I am connecting.

Limiting the max speed is quite common in various download services and web sites. As I mentioned, the other day I downloaded several big files from a web site, and they were clearly limiting the download speed to 5 Mbytes/sec per file (it got multiplied if I downloaded three files at the same time). I was fine with that limitation even if it used only a fraction of my 75 MBytes/sec theoretical capacity.

EDIT: Also, as I pointed out, sometimes it can be the ISP as well. For instance, in Thailand I noticed that if I tried to download something from a server that was not located in Thailand (through a 4G mobile data), it was apparently artificially throttled to pretty low speed, I don't recall exactly but lets say e.g. 0,5 MBytes/sec. If the server was in Thailand (e.g. when testing the speed with speedtest.net which connected to a thai server for the test), I would get much higher speeds.

So, if GOG doesn't have a Fastly CDN server specifically in Thailand, then I guess I was screwed, using that ISP and their mobile data. I am sure I could have gotten better speeds by paying for a more expensive data plan.

As I said over and over again, I get around 25 MBytes/sec browser download speed in a single thread (downloading only one file), using e.g. Edge browser. I tested this recently both at home and at my work, I presume they both connect to the same Fastly CDN server in Helsinki.

So unless you are saying that "others" are also getting 25 Mbytes/sec download speeds with single GOG file browser downloads, I'd say you are incorrect with your assessment.

It is possible different Fastly CDN servers around the world have different throttling policies, I wouldn't know. Maybe their Helsinki server is throttled to around 25MBytes/sec per IP address (not necessarily per thread, I am not getting 75MBytes/sec total speeds if I download three GOG files at the same time), or maybe I am lucky and my server sees much less use so it has lots of capacity to offer to me alone.

For instance, if they have set a rule that there is a limit of 25 MBytes/sec per IP address (meaning a public IP address behind which you are), that would certainly affect if e.g. 10 GOG users are trying to download GOG files with a browser from the same university, as they all probably share the same public IP address. Just one idea why this might seem to affect some and not others.

Anyway, what I am most interested in this is why some seem to connect to Fastly servers which are on a far away continent, even if they apparently should have servers much closer as well. I wouldn't think that is intentional, more like a configuration error either at GOG or Fastly, of which they are not aware of.

EDIT: I guess I could test that theory, by downloading from two separate PCs in my household at the same, both using the same internet connection (hence sharing the same public IP address), and then again but using e.g. my mobile data connection on the other.

If the download speeds are halved in the first case, then there might be throttling to e.g. 25 MBytes/sec per IP address, which would certainly suck for people who don't have their own separate public IP address (as I do at home), and might have other simultaneous GOG downloaders sharing the same IP address. Like universities probably are quite often, and maybe some cheapo ISPs which don't want to give each customer their own public IP address, even if it was not fixed but changing all the time.

Apologies, I misread what you wrote earlier

Even with the limited information we are all working with one thing is apparent; there is something that needs fixing

Okay, I tried your number 2 (I don't know how to see what servers I'm hooked to and/or where, sorry) and your theory of single threads being throttled appears correct. I downloaded a game that 4 4GB files, and just clicked on all four. Funny, I've only ever used the browser and never Galaxy, and for some reason I knew about clicking multiple files at once to help speed things up, but for some reason I was for a long time under the impression that two was the maximum. Not so, as this test indicated. I did all four at once and each one got about the same speed I get when only downloading one. (Screenshot below)

4 Files:
1 - 4.3 MB/sec
2 - 4.1 MB/sec
3 - 4.5 MB/sec
4 - 4.7 MB/sec

All nearly identical, and all about the same max I get when downloading one and all going at the same time. So unless I'm misunderstanding something, that's about what... 17-18 MB/sec combined? That's still not as good as what I get elsewhere, but maybe you could even do more than 4 at time?

If that's the case then, well, I dunno, you almost sort of have to give GOG a tip of the hat. Maybe they set up a system where by default, the bigger the game to download and thus the more 4GB files, the overall faster speeds you'll get. If you have a game that's say 20+ GB and you start all five 4GB files and all 5 got let's say 4.5 MB/sec, then you'd be getting 22.5 MB/sec. And if you have a game like Fallout 4 GOTY with 10 files to download, and they all got 4.5, then you'd get 45 MB/sec. LOL, a sort of way to limit bandwidth on their end by limiting the speed of each individual download to help with overall site wide downloads, while simultaneously providing "relief" for it's customers who need to download very large games by effectively "multiplying" their speeds.

The end result is, the bigger the download required, the faster your speeds. Which does, I have to admit, make some sense. Of course this would still depend on whether indeed there is no limit (other than overall bandwidth speeds obviously) to how many you can download at the same time. For some reason I kept thinking when you tried more than two at a time the third (and above) paused until others finished. I don't think that just popped into my head out of nowhere, so perhaps at some point it was that way here or somewhere else that I used to download stuff from.

And yeah, sorry, I should have mentioned that NexusMods does require payment for their highest speeds. I don't recall what I paid, it was like probably more than 10 years ago, but it wasn't all that bad at all. Well worth it if you believe you'll need to download even occasionally over the years, which I have. But I should have mentioned that, so my bad. Of course maybe the cost is much higher now, I dunno. I just know it was very reasonable when I bought it almost certainly at least 10 years ago.

EDIT: Forgot the screenshot.

Doh, scratch all that I said above. If it were GOG doing this, then it would be the same for everyone. But many, many, many folks here do get very good speeds even when downloading 1 file, or at least I think I recall people saying that.

So much for the "Oh gog came up with a clever way to limit their overall bandwidth while simultaneously making it faster the larger the overall game to download is." It can't be a GOG "strategy" if some people get 20 MB/sec downloading 1 file and others only get 20 MB/sec if they download 4 or 5 files simultaneously.

My bad, I forgot about that small BIG issue. lol

In other words... I have no clue.

By following these instructions:

1. Open Windows command prompt, and type

nslookup gog-cdn-fastly.gog.com

You get an output, and look at the IP address that is the second last line in that output. In my case it is:

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: gog-cdn.us-eu.map.fastly.net
Address: <IP address>
Aliases: gog-cdn-fastly.gog.com

2. Go to https://www.ipaddress.com/ip-lookup and enter the IP address to the field "Enter IP address..." and click "Lookup".

That should show you the approximate location of the server where GOG wants to direct you to download your files, at least when downloading with a browser.

"It's not relevant or valid because I said so even though you were very clearly and obviously talking about comparing the 2 software and not a browser!"

"It's gaslighting if you complain about having a worse download speed using a browser than the software!"

lol

Not necessarily, can still be at GOG's end (because, after all, for many other sites your downloads work great, as you've noticed).

Could depend on so many different things, different download servers configured differently, or people in some areas routed wrong by GOG to download servers in other continents, or limiting speeds per IP address which is bad news for people who share the same IP address with other potentional GOG downloaders while not affecting those who have their own public IP address in use,, etc. etc. etc.

Okay, not sure if this is what you were asking though. (Screenshot)

EDIT: I live in a rural area of northern Virginia in western Loudoun County (eastern Loudoun not so rural, which is where Ashburn, VA is). So basically, it's about as close as I'll get out here in the boonies. lol

EDIT2: I just did some reading and discovered that Nexus mods no longer offers a lifetime membership. So I guess now folks must pay monthly or annually. Bummer. I think I might have paid like less than $20 for a lifetime premium membership, which really looks like a good deal now, but not so much for new members. Sucks if you ask me, but not surprising.

Also, could you tell me how to find out the same info for Nexus? Do I just substitute "nexusmods" for "gog" in the above?

Soooo... you and the Fastly server live both in the same state? Ok then, we can rule out the reason for your "slower than expected" download speeds being due to GOG routing you to some Japanese or New Zealandian server.

It is odd different servers seem to behave so differently, like my closest GOG Fastly server giving me 25 Mbytes/sec even for a single file download, while you get something like 4 Mbytes/sec per file, which is the multiplied if you download several at the same time... (I certainly don't get 50 MBytes/sec GOG browser downloads if I download two files at the same time, it is more like the total is always capped to around 25 MBytes/sec).

Oh well, mysteries of life...

EDIT: I tested it a bit yesterday again, I guess it was rush hours as I tested it in the evening, but now a single file browser download from GOG at least at first started out "only" at around 11 MBytes/sec, not 25 MBytes/sec like the other day.

I didn't wait too long before starting another download which also was around "over 10 MBytes/sec", and over time their combined download speed was around 20-25 MBytes/sec or thereabouts.

Either way, I guess I am fine with the download speeds as long as they are over 10 Mbytes/sec combined. Yes yes, I need to wait five times longer then than if they were downloading at e.g. 50 MBytes/sec, but normally I am not in a big hurry that I can't wait 10 minutes more for some big download to arrive. Or if I am for some reason downloading hundreds of gigabytes of stuff, I just leave it downloading overnight.

As said earlier, I've even been thinking of cancelling my 600 Mbits/sec (75 MBytes/sec) internet subscription, and manage with the basic and "free" 25 Mbits/s (3.1 MBytes/sec?) connection. Still pondering about it whether it makes sense to pay extra for being able to download stuff faster, instead of letting it download the biggest stuff over night or so.

And if I really was hurry sometime, I could also use mobile data tethering from my work phone (100 Mbits/sec) or my wife's phone (I think it is something like 250 Mbits/sec max or so with 5G?).

I already tried to find a way to limit my internet connection to 25 Mbits/sec on my router, just to get a taste what it would feel like to go back to slower speeds and whether I could manage with it, but I didn't find a way in the router settings to do that... Some routers allow that, AFAIK.

I've found the maximum number of files I can dl simultaneously is 5

Paying to speed up the dl of free mods?
Seems like a waste of money to me
I'd rather wait awhile longer for the dl

Yep, GOG are doing something to limit things or maybe it is Fastly.
I am at the bottom of Australia, and for some reason the server for me is in North America.

I've done some experiments with curl.exe, and I came up with a scheme to download files from GOG in parts and then combine them afterward.

If I download a single file or part from GOG, the maximum speed these days for me, is just over 1 megabyte, whereas it used to be around 5 Megabytes.

If I simultaneously download a second file, it also downloads at just over 1 Megabyte a second. The same occurs for two more files or parts.

So if I download four files (or parts) at the same time, I get close to the 5 Megabytes speed I used to get from GOG.

So nothing is more definitive than that, that single threads are being limited by GOG or Fastly.

Usually I just use Free Download Manager 5 to get game files over 400 Mb from GOG, using 5 streams. I tolerate the slower speed for smaller files, because I have an automatic MD5 checking regime, which I need to partially implement manually afterward for the larger files. My GUI also creates the game name folder the files are downloaded to, plus gets the cover image, and the Changelog file and Description file. All those are linked to downloading the first file for a game. The MD5 checking creates a Validation.txt file with results, in the game folder or adds to it.

So at the very least I download the EXE file for a game, and if that is over 400 Mb I cancel just after it starts and then use FDM5. I do that EXE to get the extra files and folder structure.