Get Some
General => Technology & Hardware => Topic started by: simcore on August 18, 2011, 05:58:57 pm
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The purpose of this thread is for people to learn of and discuss the available software used to manage the Steam client's downloading sessions.
One of the main concerns of people is that they may download from a separate content server which is not unmetered.
There are a number of third party programs that you could use that should prevent Steam from using other content servers. Which one you decide to use is up to you. In the following posts I will list some of these options, from third party software (OS dependant) to hard firewall rules. (OS or networking equipment dependant)
PLEASE NOTE
TelstraClear takes no responsibility for any user incurred charges for content served from another Steam Content Server.
TelstraClear takes no responsibility for any damage or harm caused by the use of this unsupported third party software.
Some titles may not be available on TelstraClear’s Steam Content Server, in order to download these they may come from a different content server which would be metered usage.
Please ensure you have read or more in depth FAQ (http://telstraclear.co.nz/sub-sites/gaming-steam/) before downloading via Steam.
TelstraClear's Steam Content Server IP is 203.167.129.4
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Steam-Limiter
Is designed to block non TelstraClear Content Servers and HTTP file system
http://code.google.com/p/steam-limiter/downloads/list
Steam Limiter was originally built for XP, but appears to work fine with newer versions of Windows, there is currently no support for OS X users. Steam-Limiter is capable of blocking both third party content servers and the Valve http file system.
Once downloaded, ensure that you start steam-limiter before Steam itself, and check that your profile is selected as your appropriate ISP, example below. If you have done correctly, a title that is not available on the TelstraClear Steam Content Server should not start downloading and the installation will fail. TelstraClear can not guarantee that this software will work perfectly and is unable to accept responsibility for any incurred usage through it's use.
(http://iforce.co.nz/i/1yncum1q.lc0.jpg)
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As far as I can tell from some forums, Frey's has had some issues since a recent Steam update.
I have been using Steam Manager (http://anguswolfcastle.fileave.com/Steam/) . Its advantage is that it changes Windows Firewall settings for you , and doesn't need to be running to do its job
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Firewall access setup (no Steamwatch/Frey's filter)
Hey guys, heres a quick run through of how to only use the TelstraClear steam server without having to set up SteamWatch.
People using Windows 7 or Vista (sorry XP users!) will have a firewall capable of this built into their OS. On Windows 7, you can find this by opening Control Panel, then going to System and Security and clicking Windows Firewall. Once there, click "Advanced Settings", which will open "Windows Firewall with Advanced Security".
Go to "Outbound Rules" and click "New Rule".
Select "Custom" and press next, then next again to skip the Program selection screen (you could set this up to only apply to Steam, but it doesn't really matter) and go to the Protocol and Ports screen.
Change protocol type to "TCP" and under "Remote port" select "Specific Ports" and enter "27030", then click next.
Under "Which remote IP addresses does this rule apply to?", click "These IP addresses"
Click "Add..." then "This IP address range:" and enter "0.0.0.0" in the "From:" box and "203.167.129.3" in the "To:" box, then click "OK"
Click "Add..." again and then "This IP address range:" and enter "203.167.129.5" in the "From:" box and "255.255.255.255" in the "To:" box, then click "OK"
Click next to go to the "Action" page and leave this on "Block", click next again to go to the "Profile" page.
On the "Profile" page, depending on your situation uncheck any boxes where you don't want this rule to apply. If in doubt, leave them all checked.
Click next and enter a name in the "Name" box. I called my rule "TelstraClear Content Server", but this is arbitrary.
Click "Finish"
From now on, Steam should only connect to TelstraClear's server for content updates!
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Hard Firewall-Rule
Blocks only non TelstraClear Content Servers, does not block http file system
Here is a quick run through of how to only use the TelstraClear Steam Content Server using a Firewall rule. These steps are translatable to various operating systems, (including OS X) which include an inbuilt firewall. Be aware, this will not block Steam's http file system, the titles of which are not available on the TelstraClear Steam Content Server.
People using Windows 7 or Vista (sorry XP users!) will have a firewall capable of this built into their OS. On Windows 7, you can find this by opening Control Panel, then going to System and Security and clicking Windows Firewall. Once there, click "Advanced Settings", which will open "Windows Firewall with Advanced Security".
Go to "Outbound Rules" and click "New Rule".
Select "Custom" and press next, then next again to skip the Program selection screen (you could set this up to only apply to Steam, but it doesn't really matter) and go to the Protocol and Ports screen.
Change protocol type to "TCP" and under "Remote port" select "Specific Ports" and enter "27030", then click next.
Under "Which remote IP addresses does this rule apply to?", click "These IP addresses"
Click "Add..." then "This IP address range:" and enter "0.0.0.0" in the "From:" box and "203.167.129.3" in the "To:" box, then click "OK"
Click "Add..." again and then "This IP address range:" and enter "203.167.129.5" in the "From:" box and "255.255.255.255" in the "To:" box, then click "OK"
Click next to go to the "Action" page and leave this on "Block", click next again to go to the "Profile" page.
On the "Profile" page, depending on your situation uncheck any boxes where you don't want this rule to apply. If in doubt, leave them all checked.
Click next and enter a name in the "Name" box. I called my rule "TelstraClear Content Server", but this is arbitrary.
Click "Finish"
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^^ This works mint, did last night. Only issue I found was I had to disable the rule to install games, because it kept telling me the server was too busy to handle requests. Installed, paused, enabled rule, unpaused downloads, away we went. Possibly (probably even) caused by some of the games not being fully available on that server yet would be my guess.
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Hey simcore,
I did this with SteamWatch 3 by putting what you said into the SteamWatchSettings.xml file.
How do I check if this is actually working?
Cheers
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Hey Camo, use a program like TCPView (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897437) for Windows, or NetLimiter.
You'll note the majority of the content coming from the Steam Content Server IP (203.167.129.4) presuming that content is loaded at this point (the majority is still yet to load), but other servers may be delivering content to you at the same time.
Please be aware of the usage risks. http://www.telstraclear.co.nz/sub-sites/gaming-steam/
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Also beware that steamwatch leaks (uses a small amount of data from other metered servers), and the setting up of the firewall rules is much better solution.
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http://users.on.net/~marttinen/
The requested URL /~marttinen/ was not found on this server.
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Yeah heard it's down yesterday, I'd suggest checking out Steam Manager or using hard firewall rules if you want to ensure it's restricted dark_hunter.
Tweet if you need some more assistance to @simcore (http://twitter.com/simcore)
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I set up all the firewalls and stuff, and it all appears to be working, and I was able to download the Counterstrike Beta at really high speeds, but when I went to download Driver: San Fran, Nukem Forever or Sanctum, it says Steam Server Busy. Is this because the files just arent present on the telstra server, will they become present etc, or is it an issue with the firewalls ive set up???
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Is this because the files just arent present on the telstra server
Generally, this.
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Thats the way it is supposed to be. If it is not on the server then u will get that busy message. They will appear on the server some day lol. Be aware as someone mentioned, some of the games are converting to an http system with delta patching or something which may mean its not unmetered.
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Last week when TelstraClear sent out the e-mail announce for this, since I have a gaming machine still running XP I quickly threw together a tool for my own use to limit Steam's content server connections. It's available at http://code.google.com/p/steam-limiter/ - like the other tools mentioned above it won't attempt to filter http downloads, but for anything on port 27030 it will limit Steam's connections to a specific server with no leakage by hooking into Windows Sockets so it can do the port-specific filtering and redirect connections to other servers to the unmetered one.
Given that it's at least in the "Works on My Machine" state (or two machines, on XP and one running Win7 32-bit) it's at least there if anyone wants to give it a try.
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I'll give it a try!
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Steam Manager has changed hosts. Now available here:
http://www.anguswolfcastle.co.cc/steam (http://www.anguswolfcastle.co.cc/steam)
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I tried the windows firewall, it worked like 2 weeks ago... decided to do a mass download last night of games with the firewall on... 42gb on my cap :ambivalence:
Has anything changed?
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Not that i know of. I just downloaded something now. Going through TCL server. I recommend checking with tcpview when you download. Unless all those games went through the http port (which the firewall doesn't stop).
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ahh might have gone though the http. Whats the best way to stop it going through the http port
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I set this up through my firewall in the end and it works really well. Unfortunately Telstraclear doesn't have Deadspace 2 mirrored so for all this effort i'm gonna have to download from orcon and waste my cap on NZ traffic.
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I'm sorry if this is the wrong area, if it is just redirect me to the right area, but:
I knew that telstra has unmetered Steam downloads, so I checked up on everything and made sure my content server to New Zealand (Telstra) and all. I downloaded Shogun TW 2 and Skyrim this month, and perhaps stupidly I didn't check my usage meter, which is 17 blocks over. I rung up to inquire about this but I don't think the lady knew much about steam, and just told me that sometimes websites have videos and such that aren't hosted on unmetered servers and such. She really did try to be helpful, but we weren't able to work anything out.
Is there any recourse I can take? I'm only looking to get the usage for those two games wiped.
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I dont think you can get the data back.
There is a post in this forum under announcements which shows how to control your steam downloads to ONLY telstra clear.
The way steam works (which is by design) is to offer the client the best speed, and least loaded content server.
Just because you set TCL as the location, its might either A: not have that game downloaded yet, or B: have been busy serving others, so your steam client downloaded from the next available content server.
There are tools you can get to hard-limit your steam to the one server, but as i mentioned, if that game isnt available on that server yet, you might not be able to download the game at all.
It sucks, but its steam's job to ensure you get the content one way or another, its the ISP who chooses to uncap data sources, but its up to us(gamers) to ensure we get it from the right place.
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The biggest problem atm, is a lot of stuff still isn't on the TCL server, because its still in the loading phase. So unless you can block your steam to only 1 server, I would hold off until the server is officially announced.
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Thanks for the responses guys.
Milkbot, I'm surprised that Shogun 2 is not yet available, Skyrim however I can confirm is not yet loaded onto the content server.
Feel free to PM me your account number and some further detail and I will see what I can do for you however.
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Lol this happened to me this month, decided to download a bunch of steam games without blocking other servers. By the 3rd day in on the months usage we were 95% lol... I have now learnt my lesson as this months gonna be a costly one.
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Please see this post guys.
http://www.getsome.co.nz/showthread.php?76096-TelstraClear-is-getting-all-Steamy!&p=1447602#post1447602
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Just to add to this, it seems that Steam is fairly fixed in its notion of whether a product uses HTTP to download or the classic Steam CDN; it appears to be an either-or kinda deal for now.
I've found one game I own on my list which is quite old but appears to be wired to use the newer HTTP CDN, which is Evil Genius. This goes through the newer protocol where it starts the download using a completely different protocol sequence, starting with an HTTP query to Steam that returns a JSON document containing the list of new HTTP servers to use instead of the classic CDN.
I've added some support for these to my filter app; it's a little crude but it works for now. Basically, if the HTTP download is being employed the returned JSON-format list of servers refers to them by name, whereas the classic CDN protocol uses raw binary IP addresses. In addition, the Steam servers in this separate HTTP have DNS names of the form contentserver1.steampowered.com, contentserver2.steampowered.com and the like.
This means that the Steam client has to do an additional DNS query to resolve those new-style content server names to IP addresses before initiating the HTTP download, and so I can filter out the HTTP-mode downloads entirely by blocking DNS resolution of names with that particular pattern; if and when the initial JSON query which starts the product download includes server names from Telstra's CDN then they should come down fine, but since I've been using Evil Genius as a test (and that's a really really old game) it's clear that for now Steam isn't reporting the existence of other servers via its JSON responses and until that happens, it's all or nothing.
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man that sucks, thanks for the help guys. Least I still get to enjoy skyrim!
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Would anyone be able to shed any light as to why the firewall rule is letting "http://steam.affinity.net.nz/" download Mass Effect for me?
Here is what I see in TCP View and in my Windows Firewall Settings:
(http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/1403/contentserver.jpg)
How can I be downloading from the affinity server (IP: 202.50.176.75) when my firewall settings show that anything other than 203.167.129.4 is blocked? What am I doing wrong?
EDIT: Even if I set up a new rule that specifically blocks the IP address for the affinity server (202.50.176.75), it still slips through.
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Probably the http system
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Probably the http system
You're probably right.
However, I can confirm that using Nigel Bree's little application does ensure that Steam only connects to the TC content server. Thanks Nigel!
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I don't believe the reason for your problem was Steam using HTTP; TcpView was showing that the connection is being made on port 27030, which is the classic steam content server protocol, whereas HTTP connections would show either as plain http (for port 80) in TcpView, or as connections to localhost on some other port depending on any personal firewall software being used (some of which redirects all HTTP traffic to a special proxy process to check it for safety).
However, I'm glad to hear the limiter application does the trick for you; "little" and "just works" were my primary goals in making it.
Note that I currently block HTTP downloads from the main Steam servers, but that's a stopgap while the TC steam server doesn't have port 80 open. I'll have to revise the app when that happens and I can observe the Steam client's actual behaviour in action. Until then I can't tell just what kind of encouragement it will *really* need to avoid using different http servers. It may be that the best approach once the TC server is available is to return a fake DNS result for the main Steam servers that points at the TC server, but until that server is really up it's better to pretend to the Steam client that the main http servers don't exist.
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Has anyone been able to sucessfully block http downloads? I tried nigel's program, and even thats not doing it for me. Though tbh, i don't think nigel program was doing anything for me. I have currently just blocked all http to steam on what i have identified as http servers to get it to download, but surely there is a more practical solution.
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I can't speak for anyone else but I've definitely blocked HTTP downloads successfully and I regularly re-test all the new versions I make to ensure that it does on the games I have that use the HTTP download system exclusively (Evil Genius, Mass Effect 2) - the tool definitely does block Steam from HTTP-downloading those games here, and definitely redirects my non-HTTP downloads to TelstraClear exclusively because I depend on it myself.
It's worth pointing out that what steam-limiter does for HTTP is to block DNS lookups; if you've already made the Steam client start an HTTP download, it'll have internally cached those DNS results and won't ask for them again, and so they'll get through. Basically, steam-limiter works best when it's run all the time (which should be tolerable given how tiny its memory load is, especially compared to Steam itself), or at least is running before Steam loads (for the HTTP side of things, anyway).
If the limiter doesn't work *at all* for you, then there'll be a reason why, and I'm happy to work with you to try and diagnose it (but here on these forums probably isn't the place). However, I'd start with making sure you have the latest version (v0.5) installed and then per the "How it works" documentation (http://code.google.com/p/steam-limiter/wiki/HowItWorks#How_To_Tell_The_Filter_Is_Working), using DbgView to see whether you get the "filter loaded", "filter unloaded" messages and the like.
For instance, here's some DbgView output I just captured, running limiter v0.5 blocking a post 27030 download:
[9572] wlgwpstmcon01.telstraclear.co.nz=203.167.129.4
[9572] SteamFilter hook attached
[9572] CAPIJobRequestUserStats - Server response failed 2
[9572] Connect redirected
[9572] Connect redirected
[9572] Connect redirected
[9572] Connect redirected
[9572] ExecCommandLine: ""C:\Program Files\Steam\steam.exe" steam://open/downloads "
[9572] ExecSteamURL: "steam://open/downloads"
[9572] CAPIJobRequestUserStats - Server response failed 2
Here's some similar output (edited down a lot, since Steam is quite chatty about all your game licenses and such when starting) from me starting Steam and doing an HTTP download:
[12632] appdatacache.cpp (451) : Assertion Failed: gameID == k_uAppIdInvalid || gameID == m_unAppID
[12632] appdatacache.cpp (451) : Assertion Failed: gameID == k_uAppIdInvalid || gameID == m_unAppID
[12632] C:\Program Files\Steam\crashhandler.dll
[12632] C:\Program Files\Steam\steamerrorreporter.exe
[12632] C:\Program Files\Steam\steamerrorreporter.exe
[12632] Starting minidump reporter process
[12632] Failed spawning steam error reporter process.
[12632] appdatacache.cpp (451) : Assertion Failed: gameID == k_uAppIdInvalid || gameID == m_unAppID
[12632] appdatacache.cpp (451) : Assertion Failed: gameID == k_uAppIdInvalid || gameID == m_unAppID
[12632] CHTTPRequestCache took 175 milliseconds to initialize
[12632] wlgwpstmcon01.telstraclear.co.nz=203.167.129.4
[12632] SteamFilter hook attached
[12632] Connect redirected
[...lots of "license added" lines elided here...]
[12632] Error: texture file 'graphics\support_flag_left' does not exist or is invalid
[12632] Error: texture file 'graphics\support_flag_right' does not exist or is invalid
[12632] Error: texture file 'graphics\support_flag_top' does not exist or is invalid
[12632] Error: texture file 'graphics\support_flag_bottom' does not exist or is invalid
[12632] ExecCommandLine: ""C:\Program Files\Steam\Steam.exe" "
[12632] CAPIJobRequestUserStats - Server response failed 2
[12632] System startup time: 11.60 seconds
[12632] Error: texture file 'public\steam_cloudsync' does not exist or is invalid
[12632] CAPIJobRequestUserStats - Server response failed 2
[12632] gethostbyname refused
[12632] gethostbyname refused
[12632] gethostbyname refused
[12632] gethostbyname refused
Basically, the above traces show the hook DLL injecting into Steam and initializing itself, and the "connect redirected" and "gethostbyname refused" messages show it doing its thing to fiddle with Windows Sockets underneath Steam. In the case of the Mass Effect 2 download, because it can't contact any of the HTTP content servers, Steam actually fails the download during the "preparing files for install" phase. If you go through a similar process with DbgView and Steam Limiter (preferably the latest version, v0.5 at the moment) running, start Steam, and don't see text like the above then something's likely up and if you contact me directly via gmail then we can look into this further.
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Can you please post what the IP addresses are for the NZ Telstra Clear servers for STEAM downloads for the FreysSteamFilter program. I need to update the ini file
kthxbai
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203.167.129.004
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I can't speak for anyone else but I've definitely blocked HTTP downloads successfully and I regularly re-test all the new versions I make to ensure that it does on the games I have that use the HTTP download system exclusively (Evil Genius, Mass Effect 2) - the tool definitely does block Steam from HTTP-downloading those games here, and definitely redirects my non-HTTP downloads to TelstraClear exclusively because I depend on it myself.
It's worth pointing out that what steam-limiter does for HTTP is to block DNS lookups; if you've already made the Steam client start an HTTP download, it'll have internally cached those DNS results and won't ask for them again, and so they'll get through. Basically, steam-limiter works best when it's run all the time (which should be tolerable given how tiny its memory load is, especially compared to Steam itself), or at least is running before Steam loads (for the HTTP side of things, anyway).
If the limiter doesn't work *at all* for you, then there'll be a reason why, and I'm happy to work with you to try and diagnose it (but here on these forums probably isn't the place). However, I'd start with making sure you have the latest version (v0.5) installed and then per the "How it works" documentation ([url]http://code.google.com/p/steam-limiter/wiki/HowItWorks#How_To_Tell_The_Filter_Is_Working[/url]), using DbgView to see whether you get the "filter loaded", "filter unloaded" messages and the like.
For instance, here's some DbgView output I just captured, running limiter v0.5 blocking a post 27030 download:
[9572] wlgwpstmcon01.telstraclear.co.nz=203.167.129.4
[9572] SteamFilter hook attached
[9572] CAPIJobRequestUserStats - Server response failed 2
[9572] Connect redirected
[9572] Connect redirected
[9572] Connect redirected
[9572] Connect redirected
[9572] ExecCommandLine: ""C:\Program Files\Steam\steam.exe" steam://open/downloads "
[9572] ExecSteamURL: "steam://open/downloads"
[9572] CAPIJobRequestUserStats - Server response failed 2
Here's some similar output (edited down a lot, since Steam is quite chatty about all your game licenses and such when starting) from me starting Steam and doing an HTTP download:
[12632] appdatacache.cpp (451) : Assertion Failed: gameID == k_uAppIdInvalid || gameID == m_unAppID
[12632] appdatacache.cpp (451) : Assertion Failed: gameID == k_uAppIdInvalid || gameID == m_unAppID
[12632] C:\Program Files\Steam\crashhandler.dll
[12632] C:\Program Files\Steam\steamerrorreporter.exe
[12632] C:\Program Files\Steam\steamerrorreporter.exe
[12632] Starting minidump reporter process
[12632] Failed spawning steam error reporter process.
[12632] appdatacache.cpp (451) : Assertion Failed: gameID == k_uAppIdInvalid || gameID == m_unAppID
[12632] appdatacache.cpp (451) : Assertion Failed: gameID == k_uAppIdInvalid || gameID == m_unAppID
[12632] CHTTPRequestCache took 175 milliseconds to initialize
[12632] wlgwpstmcon01.telstraclear.co.nz=203.167.129.4
[12632] SteamFilter hook attached
[12632] Connect redirected
[...lots of "license added" lines elided here...]
[12632] Error: texture file 'graphics\support_flag_left' does not exist or is invalid
[12632] Error: texture file 'graphics\support_flag_right' does not exist or is invalid
[12632] Error: texture file 'graphics\support_flag_top' does not exist or is invalid
[12632] Error: texture file 'graphics\support_flag_bottom' does not exist or is invalid
[12632] ExecCommandLine: ""C:\Program Files\Steam\Steam.exe" "
[12632] CAPIJobRequestUserStats - Server response failed 2
[12632] System startup time: 11.60 seconds
[12632] Error: texture file 'public\steam_cloudsync' does not exist or is invalid
[12632] CAPIJobRequestUserStats - Server response failed 2
[12632] gethostbyname refused
[12632] gethostbyname refused
[12632] gethostbyname refused
[12632] gethostbyname refused
Basically, the above traces show the hook DLL injecting into Steam and initializing itself, and the "connect redirected" and "gethostbyname refused" messages show it doing its thing to fiddle with Windows Sockets underneath Steam. In the case of the Mass Effect 2 download, because it can't contact any of the HTTP content servers, Steam actually fails the download during the "preparing files for install" phase. If you go through a similar process with DbgView and Steam Limiter (preferably the latest version, v0.5 at the moment) running, start Steam, and don't see text like the above then something's likely up and if you contact me directly via gmail then we can look into this further.
Dude... Epic.
I'd love to test this and make some more video guides.
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Possibly the wrong place to post this, but the "Unofficial Telstraclear Steam Server Content List" thread looks to be a necro thread...
Does anyone know if Telstraclear is still updating their NZ content server with latest steam game data?
Have the firewall rule (windows7) mentioned in another thread in place to block non-TCL server traffic. Has served me well in the past but bought a few games off steam in recent weeks and no dice with getting them to download.
Disabled the firewall rule to download a few of the smaller games, but don't really feel like dropping 18gigs worth of data cap to get Kingdoms of Amalur
Reckoning (which is on sale atm). Figured the TCL Steam server would have it as its been out for a few months but no luck so far with trying to download with rule enabled.
Thanks
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See discussions about HTTP content..
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Thanks for the reply.
For some reason I thought that the issue with HTTP content(from glancing at some posts in other threads) was that it was bypassing the programs set in place to restrict content to the TCL Steam server and therefore inccuring a metered data cost for telstra customers?
I assumed my issue related to the content (Kingdoms of Amalur) not being on the TCL Steam server as I am getting the "Steam Server Busy" message that was mentioned
on the previous page (and have encountered in the past before games were added to the TCL Server).
Is the HTTP issue something different entirely?
Apologies for lack of current networking/programming knowledge, havent done anything more complicated than set up a router/firewall since the mid 90s :o
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I'm not an epxert but my understanding is as follows.
Valve have two ways of distributing content. The "old" way, which is the type currently supported by the TCL cache server, and a new HTTP system. Most stuff is on the old system, some is on both, and some is only available on the HTTP system. HTTP distributed stuffs can't be obtained via the TCL server. At some point in the future my understanding is Valve will enable caching of the HTTP CDN for the existing servers, but it's not up and running yet.
You can try disabling your firewall rule, installing the game, the reenabling it before it downloads too much of it. You may find you can get some of the game content from the TCL server that way. If it stops downloading as soon as you turn the rule back on, pretty much you can't get it from the TCL cache and will need to burn data to get it from whereever you can.
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That's correct, http content is coming from Valve Master Servers and being cached in typical http caches that ISP's set up (a sneaky way of taking advantage of standard caching setups and enabling faster delivery everywhere at no cost for Valve).
The only way to get that title is to download it, which will be metered as it will not be coming from the TelstraClear Steam Content Server (or any other third party content server for that fact).
There are ways to limit http delivery now, but you still won't be able to get it unmetered by any means, so if you want an http delivered title, then it's got to be downloaded sorry.
Valve have confirmed they are working on two things,
1). Change to the Steam client UI so you can force downloads to a single server instead of load balancing (removing the requirement for firewall rules)
2). An update to the Steam Content Server software to allow http delivery from 3rd party content servers.
We're looking at all these things and more right now and figuring out how we can do a better job of keeping people informed and educated.
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Revisit the start of the thread for information on Steam-Limiter which appears to be the most effective solution for Windows OS users.
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Ugh. Looks like Steam is getting a lot converted - and the fix ain't come. I'm getting a lot of titles that won't download unless I open up my filtering rule. Sucks, since a.) I'm using data by doing so. And b.) TCL's Steam content server is literally the ONLY thing that actually performs at near 100mbps. Considering taking the case to TCL since this Warpspeed malarkey is becoming a bit of a joke.
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Hey Jimmah, I'm sorry to hear it's an inconvenience for you.
I think it's going to be a critical mass sort of thing, unless Valve truely decide to take their content delivery methods down an entirely different route. They are unable to provide a timeline for any sort of change at this time, however, I am discussing other options with them for providing unmetered access to these http titles through other means.
We'll have to see how things play out on their schedule however.
Cheers.
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So lame. The minute we get unmetered steam they pull this crap on us
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just get a bigger plan
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just get a bigger plan
Pretty much. I stayed with TCL for a while with the unmetered, and still struggled to sit inside my 40gb cap. Even with unmetered steam, TCL data plans are still way too little bang for buck. Especially when most providers have unmetered steam, and bigger data plans. TCL really gotta get their head out of their ass.
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Wait so this new system won't allow us to get unmetered access for some games? D:
Damn Ghost Recon Future Soldier, new games have such large downloads and I am getting such low speeds for this lol.
Hope we get unmetered access for everything again.
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Hey there sorry guys new to this,
So what you are telling me that I joined telstra because they had unmetered steam downloads, So now its stopped???
I do not think thats fair at all if that is the case
NZWonka
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Hi NZWonka,
No, TelstraClear's unmetered Steam Content Server has not stopped, however, Valve/Steam have changed the way that at this present time, roughly 30% of their total content library is delivered, which bypasses their own third party content server network (which TelstraClear's server is a part of).
This is unfortunate, but there are steps you can take as we have advised that prevent you from downloading titles which are not unmetered, and avoiding any unwanted contribution to your usage pack.
We are waiting on Steam to make some changes to their content server software, but in addition to that, we are looking at other options that keep it convenient for customers. I do not believe any other ISP in New Zealand currently provides the HTTP delivered Steam content unmetered, but if you are unhappy with the situation and felt you've been mislead, then please contact me further via PM and I will be happy to discuss your contract and the terms you joined us under.
Cheers.
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Hi there I use steam limiter and works fine, but for past couple weeks it does not work. but there are steps you can take as we have advised that prevent you from downloading titles which are not unmetered???
Sorry what steps do i do as not that good with computers if you have to get inside them ( if you know what i mean )
do we have a time frame for this to be fixed???
thanks Les
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Steam Limiter appears to be working fine for me - if I choose an http only title like Portal 2 it'll just sit there at 0 bytes/s
(http://i.imgur.com/jMfUas.png) (http://imgur.com/jMfUa)
Also if you're seeing 1.5MB/s + then chances are content is coming from the TC content server - the http stuff is slow by comparison
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I know some are but not all the good games like witcher 2 and others which is over 18 gig. Seems all the new ones are not on there list,
portal 2 is a value game so would be very surprised them not having that open.
Steam limiter works i know thats not the problem.
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Hey Les, sorry, what is your issue?
Try sending me a PM and I'll assist.
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I tried out the Steam Limiter and at first thought it wasn't working when the first 5 games I tried didn't work. It wasn't until I tried TF2 that I realised it's just that telstra's content server was severely underpopulated.
Are they working on this?
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TelstraClear don't have any input on what gets populated on to the server. More and more content is coming across http rather than from the TCL server.
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Connection timeout with TCL Steam Content Server. 18 days remaining his month. 16 gigs remaining this month.
So far getting this response for Dota2 and Orcs Must Die 2.
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Hard Firewall-Rule
Blocks only non TelstraClear Content Servers, does not block http file system
Here is a quick run through of how to only use the TelstraClear Steam Content Server using a Firewall rule. These steps are translatable to various operating systems, (including OS X) which include an inbuilt firewall. Be aware, this will not block Steam's http file system, the titles of which are not available on the TelstraClear Steam Content Server.
Has there been a change in this? Since the start of the year I have used the Firewall rule and it's worked for pretty much any game I've downloaded (with a few exceptions where I simply turn it off and go back to using metered servers). I've been away for the past 2 months and when I came back a couple of days ago I began to download a number of new games I'd purchased while I was away. Today I double checked my usage and it would appear as though all the content that I had downloaded had been metered :/ There goes 75% of my monthly usage...
Is this because the games I've been downloading are being delivered with the http system? If so, does that mean in future I should be using the Steam-Limiter?
Cheers.
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Yes that is correct, I would use Steam-Limiter from now on.
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Anyone smart enough to make something to force it to telstras content server rather than the metered http system?
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Nigel's Steam limiter program does that.
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Yes that is correct, I would use Steam-Limiter from now on.
Ah nuts. It would have been nice to know about the change before I used up 30gb of my 40gb cap :(
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Nigel's Steam limiter program does that.
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/steam-limiter/yjXbGTKnlzQ
This is Nigels message from July. I am running steam manager to get Telstra's content. To be clear I'm wanting to use telstras content server which will be unmetered. Any game using the new http content system will download via that and wont be unmetered regardless if Telstra has them in the content server.
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2109493&page=8 This forum thread list games using new system though there is no one post with all updates.
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csquirrelrun, can you PM me your account number along with the date the usage was incurred and I'll take a look at what I can do for you.
Cheers.
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[url]https://groups.google.com/forum/#[/url]!topic/steam-limiter/yjXbGTKnlzQ
This is Nigels message from July. I am running steam manager to get Telstra's content. To be clear I'm wanting to use telstras content server which will be unmetered. Any game using the new http content system will download via that and wont be unmetered regardless if Telstra has them in the content server.
[url]http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2109493&page=8[/url] This forum thread list games using new system though there is no one post with all updates.
Well this would very much explain why I have 7 games in my downloads that are just doing nothing... Is this going to be upgraded at any time telstra? Or is there essentially no point to even trying for these newer games?
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Is this going to be upgraded at any time telstra?
Probably not, because this is a classic kind of coordination problem (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordination_game) between the NZ ISPs.
In other markets (South Africa and Australia) where local Steam servers are popular, the majority of market players have steam servers which are unfiltered, and thus can and do serve HTTP content for the new CDN while having unmetering arrangements for their own customers - and since almost all the ISPs in those markets run unfiltered, there's no reason why any new server anyone stands up in that market needs to be filtered either. That's the good market equilibrium.
Now, we don't know "officially" why Valve have probably decided to require unfiltered servers, but if you look at how things work technically we can observe that in their HTTP CDN, the server selection is done almost completely by DNS lookup - including filtered servers in the result sets from their DNS servers could cause serious problems for Valve's customers if they return a filtered server to someone who isn't going to be able to access it.
[ There is a separate mechanism in their HTTP CDN that could allow filtered servers to be used rotation, but it's going to be tedious for Valve to use it for this and Valve probably have no real interest in spending more of their money and staff time on something as spectacularly unnecessary as allowing ISPs to play these kind of childish games. ]
Here in NZ part of the use of filtered servers is (like the generally anti-customer approach taken by local ISPs to peering arrangements) a way of ensuring that the very limited resources that ISPs want to devote to hosting a server are delivered only to their customers, without yielding any benefit the customers of other ISPs. That's a counterproductive thing to worry about, and of course once unfiltered servers start appearing (i.e. someone takes on the externality of supplying other ISPs customers) then the natural game-theoretic equilibrium is for everyone to run unfiltered servers, at which point the externality becomes pretty much a non-issue. But in the meantime, because of that externality, the first servers to appear were filtered and thus we've ended up with that as a market equilibrium.
The fact we face is that the NZ ISPs have all independently voted for a beggar-thy-neighbour market equilibrium where everyone runs filtered servers so everyone's customers suffer. Unfortunately that's a stable equilibrium, so unless a provider brave enough to break the current dysfunctional market state comes along we're probably all out of luck no matter what ISP we're with.
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Probably not, because this is a classic kind of coordination problem ([url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordination_game[/url]) between the NZ ISPs.
If thats so then I feel telstra need to make it clearer exactly what is going on with steam and the un-metered claim they make when its only for a small portion of games now. At least let the customers know whats going in more openly than in a forum that you have to find, something a little more offical.
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In other markets (South Africa and Australia) where local Steam servers are popular, the majority of market players have steam servers which are unfiltered, and thus can and do serve HTTP content for the new CDN while having unmetering arrangements for their own customers.
Can you cite any evidence of this? I have spoken with Valve directly on numerous occassions about these challenges, and simply switching the server to a non filtered server was not raised as a solution or method to deliver HTTP content from our server.
Everything Valve have indicated infact servers that HTTP content only comes from their official master servers, and is not currently available using the third party content server software.
I'd love for you to prove me wrong however, as then I will have a new avenue to resolve this challenge and make things easier for our users.
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Can you cite any evidence of this?
That other ISPs are offering this? Both WebAfrica in South Africa - at steam.wa.co.za and steam2.wa.co.za and iiNet/Internode in Australia run their own HTTP CDNs with Steam game content at steam.cdn.on.net, and I've personally done HTTP game downloads from the WebAfrica ones as part of working with WebAfrica customers to get this right (http://forums.webafrica.co.za/showthread.php/6987-Steam-using-HTTP?p=57753&viewfull=1#post57753) since early on their IIS configuration was wrong on their unmetered side.
Everything Valve have indicated infact servers that HTTP content only comes from their official master servers
Bear in mind that there are several separate things at play here; one is the operational arrangements that the ISPs doing this have with Valve (and precisely how much of the operation of these servers is ISP-managed versus something they've stood up physically but Valve really operate) and of course that's a business detail that I haven't asked for. Secondly is the question of precisely which specific HTTP-capable servers Valve are including in their DNS results for Steam clients to use, which can be a subset of the servers and which Valve can do whatever they like with.
For all I know they may not be actively including any ISP-specific HTTP servers in their official DNS results currently; that's a policy decision which they can look after on their own terms on their own time.
However, that both WebAfrica and iiNet run HTTP-capable servers and having steam-limiter point at them to force the issue has resulted in working game downloads is an empirical fact and has been for quite some time (although there are occasional hiccups (http://forums.webafrica.co.za/showthread.php/8823-Unable-to-pull-games-off-WAGE-content-server-using-its-new-download-system-port-80) with the WebAfrica ones).
For WebAfrica specifically, I've found their operations folks fine to talk to (I did quite a bit of messaging on their forums with WARob and WAJeff when this wasn't working for their customers earlier in the year) and it may be worthwhile for you to touch base with WARob specifically and perhaps compare notes about this from an insider perspective. One of the things I certainly know from my time at Symantec was that our customers would often be given wildly different stories by whomever their POC was, and it wasn't until customers contacted me directly as the actual guy who wrote the product that we could get both them (and the Symantec staff they had been talking to and were misinforming them) all working from accurate information.
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By the way, I'll just toss in the side observation that since this is standard HTTP content delivered over regular HTTP, if anyone with any networking knowledge had spent 30 seconds looking at the question then it would be obvious that all that's necessary to efficiently offer Steam downloads over HTTP unmetered to customers is a bog standard HTTP cache like Squid. Of course, to make that work you still need something like steam-limiter to force the DNS issue so that the Steam client supplies the appropriate host: header, but then your customers absolutely have to be running something like that anyway.
[ I'll also observe that the only thing that varies in these kind of download systems is the manifests - the actual file chunks in these systems tend to be immutable because that's what make the underlying push-replication systems work efficiently behind the scenes, as in the likes of Akamai. Using a Squid cache instead of Valve's normal replication can't get the benefits of an Akamai-like private non-Internet replication network (although since Valve apparently aren't using Akamai and TC seem to have an active policy of not peering with anyone, I rather doubt you get that anyway), but given that the file chunks are immutable the retention policy of the Squid cache can be set so that it would seem to be exactly the same from a cost standpoint to TC as having an official server. ]
And this is true for any ISP in NZ, of course. That would be an unutterably cheap and nasty way of doing it, and it's still pretty customer-hostile compared to the good market equilibrium when we have ISPs freely peering locally hosted content like this. But it would work, and any NZ ISP could do it in a trice of they cared. The fact that none of them have bothered speaks volumes as to how important this is to ISPs.
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So I'm capped at home, and I cant install anything on uni computers, but I can download heaps of national data.
Ideas on how I can get gcf files legit?
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I've been using windows firewall to force telstra's server. None of the programs seemed to work for me.
And it was fine. But now it doesn't work... just downloads from some server in the US...
This is going to be a MASSIVE downfall.
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So I've set up the firewall and I'm using SteamLimiter as well. Using TCPView the only place my current download (Saints Row 3) is downloading from is wlgwpstmcon01.telstraclear.co.nz. So this means I'm safe right? Or is there some hidden server which I can't see
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If you see a lot of data going through the http ports on TCPView on Steam, then your not safe. But from my experience, using steam limiter should block HTTP steam downloading.
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Put it this way, these days everything is using the new http system. Don't count on anything not being http. There is a list somewhere that shows what is using the new system. Probably not updated though. Need either something to force it to use Telstras content server, Steam to put in the option to use the Telstra content server, or Telstra to offer all Steam unmetered. Just have to wait and see what happens in the future but dont get your hopes up.
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Making great progress guys, hope to give you more information either before Christmas break or in early January.
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Hi all
So I've been using the steam-limiter and the hard firewall rules but they both haven't worked. I've just checked my usage meters and my multiple steam downloads have been metered and I'm over my limit :upset: Has there been some change so these two techniques don't work anymore as I thought they should work?
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Hi all
So I've been using the steam-limiter and the hard firewall rules but they both haven't worked. I've just checked my usage meters and my multiple steam downloads have been metered and I'm over my limit :upset: Has there been some change so these two techniques don't work anymore as I thought they should work?
What games were you downloading? Are they HTTP only?
http://www.getsome.co.nz/showthread.php?81579-NEW-List-of-HTTP-delivered-titles-NOT-available-on-the-TCL-Steam-Content-Server
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What games were you downloading? Are they HTTP only?
[url]http://www.getsome.co.nz/showthread.php?81579-NEW-List-of-HTTP-delivered-titles-NOT-available-on-the-TCL-Steam-Content-Server[/url]
Yes all 3 are on that list sadly. If only I had seen that.
Shouldn't have the firewall rules or steamlimiter blocked it?
EDIT: Just saw that the steamlimiter 'Filter Content Servers' box wasn't ticked. That explains half of it
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okay, im pretty sure everything on steam is delivered by http now. I have tried so many games without avail this week. :(
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Yeah +1 for that, no luck with the 6 games i bought in the Steam sales. I downloaded first 1 and that got me capped which brought me to this thread. I was wondering why all of the games i bought from Steam were counting against my data but this explains it well. Hope Steam throws you something you can work with Simcore.
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At this point Telstra should remove the advertising of unmetered steam. There may be what 5% of games that are unmetered and they would be games people have or will never get. Of course I made up that percentage but the point stands. For people who do not search or do not visit these forums, they will hit their cap and have to pay stupid amounts for over usage. As much as we all like the idea of unmetered steam it is just not happening at the moment. Once it is sorted then advertise it again when ever that time may be.
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At this point Telstra should remove the advertising of unmetered steam. There may be what 5% of games that are unmetered and they would be games people have or will never get. Of course I made up that percentage but the point stands. For people who do not search or do not visit these forums, they will hit their cap and have to pay stupid amounts for over usage. As much as we all like the idea of unmetered steam it is just not happening at the moment. Once it is sorted then advertise it again when ever that time may be.
I agree. Here is a list of the games currently on the old content servers.
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3025212
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Could you direct me to any advertising that you feel makes this situation unclear? We have made changes late last year to address this but happy to take further action if it is still confusing to customers.
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Everyone playing 1.6 is confused >.>
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Everyone playing 1.6 is confused >.>
Can you elaborate on that? Confused by what? :>
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Can you elaborate on that? Confused by what? :>
Clearly a rhetorical question. :|
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Making great progress guys, hope to give you more information either before Christmas break or in early January.
So uh, how is that going?
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Honestly, just hit a delay wall due to a changing environment with the TelstraClear/Vodafone merger.
Not bad news, just put to the back of the list of priorities until it can be sorted out, still in contact :)
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For anyone interested, during the last few days the old TelstraClear steam server had its DNS name vanish, but I was pleased to discover it is now named steam.cdn.vodafone.co.nz and unlike the Telstra server which had HTTP access firewalled, this now allows HTTP downloads.
I have just released a new version of Steam-limiter (v0.7) which supports this server and over the weekend during my testing I was able to download several games over HTTP and verified that they did not count against my metered data usage.
I haven't yet changed the recognition of this to specifically call out Vodafone as a group since absent an official announcement there's no way of knowing whether this is unmetered for the other Vodafone broadband customers, but for ex-TelstraClear customers like me it definitely is. I'll add in any other Vodafone customer ASNs as and when there's some official announcement of support for unmetered download for those customers, but in the meantime it does all appear to be working fine. Be nice if it'd been up during the Steam sale, but given that basically every other ISP in New Zealand has discontinued their Steam servers, this is a welcome development.
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For anyone interested, during the last few days the old TelstraClear steam server had its DNS name vanish, but I was pleased to discover it is now named steam.cdn.vodafone.co.nz and unlike the Telstra server which had HTTP access firewalled, this now allows HTTP downloads.
I have just released a new version of Steam-limiter (v0.7) which supports this server and over the weekend during my testing I was able to download several games over HTTP and verified that they did not count against my metered data usage.
I haven't yet changed the recognition of this to specifically call out Vodafone as a group since absent an official announcement there's no way of knowing whether this is unmetered for the other Vodafone broadband customers, but for ex-TelstraClear customers like me it definitely is. I'll add in any other Vodafone customer ASNs as and when there's some official announcement of support for unmetered download for those customers, but in the meantime it does all appear to be working fine. Be nice if it'd been up during the Steam sale, but given that basically every other ISP in New Zealand has discontinued their Steam servers, this is a welcome development.
Sweeeeeeet
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Sounds good but I've personally found bigger caps have solved the problem for me. I have to go finding games to download just to make use of my cap.
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Sounds good but I've personally found bigger caps have solved the problem for me. I have to go finding games to download just to make use of my cap.
You sir, are not spending enough during steam sales!
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Sounds good but I've personally found bigger caps have solved the problem for me. I have to go finding games to download just to make use of my cap.
Same here. No longer really come close to finishing my cap, so my worries over unmetered steam are long gone.
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You sir, are not spending enough during steam sales!
How much do you have to spend to reach an unlimited cap?
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Interesting how within 2 years we have gone from caring about Steam bandwidth to not giving a shit. :D
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Have biggest possible cap on vodafone cable (150gb) hit cap every month.
Simcore needs to get some farking unlimited cable up in this shizzle for me.
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For anyone interested, during the last few days the old TelstraClear steam server had its DNS name vanish, but I was pleased to discover it is now named steam.cdn.vodafone.co.nz and unlike the Telstra server which had HTTP access firewalled, this now allows HTTP downloads.
I have just released a new version of Steam-limiter (v0.7) which supports this server and over the weekend during my testing I was able to download several games over HTTP and verified that they did not count against my metered data usage.
I haven't yet changed the recognition of this to specifically call out Vodafone as a group since absent an official announcement there's no way of knowing whether this is unmetered for the other Vodafone broadband customers, but for ex-TelstraClear customers like me it definitely is. I'll add in any other Vodafone customer ASNs as and when there's some official announcement of support for unmetered download for those customers, but in the meantime it does all appear to be working fine. Be nice if it'd been up during the Steam sale, but given that basically every other ISP in New Zealand has discontinued their Steam servers, this is a welcome development.
Yeah I just installed steam limiter again with latest update. Didn't think there was much point after new pc build so only just reinstalled. Appears to be working. Wish I installed it earlier. Thanks for that and hope it will work for everything. Lots of huge downloads to get through
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I can confirm that as recently as January 2014, steam content via HTTP and using the latest steamlimiter build was still unmetered for me on TCL/Vodafone cable.
YMMV