PC Aviator US download speed?

[fppilot 4,360]

Yes. Purchased some updates a couple of weeks ago and even navigating the site was very slow.

[Gartro 18]

I had not accessed the PC Aviator US and Australian sites for over a week.

Prompted by Frank's comment, I tried both of them and they found them so slow it is almost as if they were loading the page line by line

To remove the possibility that the speed for page loading is due to something here in Australia, I then tried FSS (which was very fast), FS Pilot Shop (which was almost as slow as the PCA sites) and Simmarket (which was slower than usual but much faster than PCA and FSPS).

Gary

 

[JimmiG 244]

Same problem here!

I recently purchased Seattle City X from them, a ~5 GB download. I was getting around 50 KB/s and their download server didn't support resume. At that speed, 5 GB would have taken over 24 hours, but I was never able to stay connected for longer than 15 - 18 hours, then the download would fail and restart.

I'm in Sweden, so I thought maybe the downloads were slower because of the geographic distance. Luckily, I have access to Microsoft Azure, so I was able to set up a virtual Windows machine in the "USA East" region, and download the file to that. That way I got 100 - 150 KB which is still abyssal, but the download finished in about 14 hours which was lower than the 15 - 18 hour "disconnect threshold", so I finally got the file. I then transferred it to my own machine over FTP in a matter of minutes.

I sent PC Aviator a support request on the 10th of January (before I had thought of the convoluted Azure trick), but have I have not received a reply as of yet even though they say 24 - 48 hours for a reply.

Clearly the problem is at PC Aviator's end. I have a 250 Mb/s connection and normally download files at 20 - 30 Megabytes/second. Also, downloads were only marginally faster from the virtual machine in Azure's USA East region.

I could forgive the slow download speeds if PC Aviator had replied to my email and at least offered some assistance (or refunded the order if they were unable to help).

[overspeed3 410]

Having never purchased from PC Aviator myself, I say to you all:  "Don't take out your wallet" again until they fix an obvious server problem at their web site...

[JimmiG 244]

1 hour ago, overspeed3 said:

Having never purchased from PC Aviator myself, I say to you all:  "Don't take out your wallet" again until they fix an obvious server problem at their web site...

Yup, what's worse is they seem to ignore emails too (I've read about that before but I thought it was just a case of people not checking their Spam folder etc.). It's like everyone at the company abandoned the office and the web server has just been puttering along on its own but is now on its last legs.

Those download speeds might be fine for small utilities and simple addons, but it's simply not practical to download anything bigger than ~100 MB at those speeds. Also if they ignore support emails, what do you do if you need a new activation key or download link?

[carlito777 712]

7 hours ago, AdvancedFollower said:

Same problem here!

I recently purchased Seattle City X from them, a ~5 GB download. I was getting around 50 KB/s and their download server didn't support resume. At that speed, 5 GB would have taken over 24 hours, but I was never able to stay connected for longer than 15 - 18 hours, then the download would fail and restart.

I'm in Sweden, so I thought maybe the downloads were slower because of the geographic distance. Luckily, I have access to Microsoft Azure, so I was able to set up a virtual Windows machine in the "USA East" region, and download the file to that. That way I got 100 - 150 KB which is still abyssal, but the download finished in about 14 hours which was lower than the 15 - 18 hour "disconnect threshold", so I finally got the file. I then transferred it to my own machine over FTP in a matter of minutes.

I sent PC Aviator a support request on the 10th of January (before I had thought of the convoluted Azure trick), but have I have not received a reply as of yet even though they say 24 - 48 hours for a reply.

Clearly the problem is at PC Aviator's end. I have a 250 Mb/s connection and normally download files at 20 - 30 Megabytes/second. Also, downloads were only marginally faster from the virtual machine in Azure's USA East region.

I could forgive the slow download speeds if PC Aviator had replied to my email and at least offered some assistance (or refunded the order if they were unable to help).

I have exactly the same problem. I purchased Aerosoft Anchorage Professional on Tuesday and have not been able to download it. Download would take approx. 24 hours but always stops with an error after a couple of hours. Not very pleased to say the least. Have bought quite a lot of add-ons there and never had those problems. I‘m based in Europe as well. Maybe that is part of the problem. Having bought an and-on and not being able to use it, is not funny at all. 

[JimmiG 244]

16 hours ago, carlito777 said:

I have exactly the same problem. I purchased Aerosoft Anchorage Professional on Tuesday and have not been able to download it. Download would take approx. 24 hours but always stops with an error after a couple of hours. Not very pleased to say the least. Have bought quite a lot of add-ons there and never had those problems. I‘m based in Europe as well. Maybe that is part of the problem. Having bought an and-on and not being able to use it, is not funny at all. 

It seems download speeds to Europe are even slower, but even the download speeds in the USA were abyssal from my testing. Hope you have better luck than me receiving a response from their support.

[carlito777 712]

16 minutes ago, AdvancedFollower said:

It seems download speeds to Europe are even slower, but even the download speeds in the USA were abyssal from my testing. Hope you have better luck than me receiving a response from their support.

I wrote them an email three days ago but haven't heard from them since. This night the download reached 99% and then terminated with an error...

[casv 14]

30 minutes ago, carlito777 said:

I wrote them an email three days ago but haven't heard from them since. This night the download reached 99% and then terminated with an error...

Same here, no response at all from PC Aviator. Also 99% of total download size - then terminated and started over from 0. I have also purchased Aerosoft Anchorage Professional this Tuesday. It's frustrating. Not good that.

[BlueStar 323]

Not to defend PC Aviator, but they've had some unseasonably cold weather with ice and snow.

I did some upgrades with them the other day and did not have any problems.

I hear a lot of people complain about PC Aviator but I've never had a problem with them.  When I've contacted them they have always been quick to respond and resolved or answered any questions I had to my satisfaction.

blaustern

[Heronjr 3]

How long should I wait for a 4gb download of Anchorage Professional? I'm trying that for 2 weeks at random times of the day/night. I guess we have the right to complain for this. I don't have this problem for years at any other web shop and my internet speeds are quite good and stable. I think yes they have to answer any complain from customers and the excuse of a cluttered server is unacceptable. If one wants to sell tons one has to acquire heavy trucks, cranes and big installations.

At the moment, the nth try to download with FDM is expecting 2d 8h to finish.

Regards

[carlito777 712]

18 minutes ago, Heronjr said:

How long should I wait for a 4gb download of Anchorage Professional? I'm trying that for 2 weeks at random times of the day/night. I guess we have the right to complain for this. I don't have this problem for years at any other web shop and my internet speeds are quite good and stable. I think yes they have to answer any complain from customers and the excuse of a cluttered server is unacceptable. If one wants to sell tons one has to acquire heavy trucks, cranes and big installations.

At the moment, the nth try to download with FDM is expecting 2d 8h to finish.

Regards

Exactly the same here. I have been trying to download Anchorage Professional from PCAviator without success for the last 4 days. Takes almost a day and then always terminates with an error. Even got to 99% this morning and then stopped with an error. This is so annoying. I guess, I will not buy from them anymore even though I never had problems up to now. 

[Ted Striker 338]

I downloaded a couple packages last night from PCAviator and the speeds were 120-160 kb/sec. Fortunately they were not that large. The last package I gave up on as it was the Majestic q-400 and at 500mb it was going to take over an hour. To put salt in the wound a few of the download packages are a few versions old and one did not even have a download link. I have sent off a couple support e-mails. If I hear anything I will report back here.

Ted

[Gartro 18]

I don't think cold, ice and snow can be enlisted as the excuse.

To my experience, the slow download speed saga has been going on for some years.

Earlier than the 2017 Avsim discussion the subject of the link in my post above, there was a 2014 and 2016 discussion on the PC Aviator Australia Forum where Dean, the efficient and cooperative manager of the Australian store, sought to explain the experience with PC Aviator download speeds: http://pcaviatorforums.com/index.php/topic/839-downloading-made-easier/    - start at post #23.

 

Gary

 

 

[JimmiG 244]

Well, looks like there site is completely down now:

http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/pcaviator.com

This isn't just about "slow" download speeds and people being impatient. The speeds are actually so bad that it's impossible for customers to download the products they paid for. With no resume and download times of 24 - 48 hours for 5+ GB, connections are simply being dropped before the download ever gets to finish.