8 minutes ago, Mace said:

You are talking about a fast boot option in most BIOS's, correct?

No, it's a total different thing. Fast boot means that the bios skips a memory check at startup and you can save some seconds during boot up, while fast startup is a windows setting whitch saves the current state with open programms or docs to a file, so that windows can continue at the same point at the next start.

32 minutes ago, Dominique_K said:

wouldn't the ISP  monitor the flow of data parameters rather the servers to which the client connects ?

Yes, ISPs can easily determine that you are receiving packets via UDP and can therefore shape your connection during busy usage periods.
A VPN circumnavigates this as you are connecting to your VPN's servers, not your ISP's. However, VPNs can have their own drawbacks.

It really comes down to whether your ISP is strict on shaping (or properly throttling) your internet usage. If it is, then a VPN could be of help when flight simming.

58 minutes ago, Mace said:

You are talking about a fast boot option in most BIOS's, correct?

No, fast startup is a Windows feature.  See https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/windows-11/how-to-enable-or-disable-fast-startup-on-windows-11

The BIOS fast boot option bypasses some of the initialization tests done in hardware at boot time.

1 hour ago, F737MAX said:

Yes, ISPs can easily determine that you are receiving packets via UDP and can therefore shape your connection during busy usage periods.

Most MSFS services use TCP not UDP. All incoming packets have to be acknowledged - which could be part of the problem (in some cases), if there are problems in a user’s upstream connection. If incoming packets are not ACKed in a timely fashion, it could lead to packet re-sends or even a failed connection.

Using a program like CCleaner I use gets rid of a lot of junk some of which can interfere with your connection or efficiency of your devices. I like Cleaner but there are others Cleaner is safe to clear out old registry entries I find on the rig I use. I also can put to sleep any resource eating programs like anti-logger which can interfere with downloads that may be necessary for msfs to run properly.

Not sure if any of the above will help but when I upgraded to win 11  I almost gave up on MSFS when it would crash each startup for over a week very frustrating but by getting rid of my 3rd party firewall I think I resolved the issue computer also runs much better.

for what it's worth that's my two cents

Regards

pt

Soooo....

The commercially available VPNs allow you to hide your identity by connecting you from your computer to their VPN concentrator (router) which then proxys your requests to the Internet. So your IP address is hidden and trackers can't track you and anyone trying to spy on what you're doing can't do so.

However, your ISP can still see that you're passing encrypted data between your IP address and the VPN concentrator, they just can't see what data it is, which they really don't care about anyway. If your ISP is throttling bandwidth due to excessive usage they don't care about the source of the bandwidth, they just want it to be slowed down and a VPN cannot stop them from throttling your bandwidth, so your connection to your VPN is slowed down too. It's as simple as that.

As a matter of fact, a VPN is going to slow down your bandwidth anyway. Instead of going from your computer along the most optimal path to the Microsoft servers, you go from your computer along the most optimal path to the VPN server, and then from the VPN server to the Micrsosoft servers. AND since most VPNs are all about privacy they may or may NOT take the optimal path and bounce your traffic through other data centers to further hide your identity. So as a rule of thumb a VPN reduces your throughput speeds. 

I have a 1Gbps fiber connection to my home and typically get downloads at 200 - 400 Meg. Using Express or Nord VPN - rated the fastest - I get 20 - 40 Meg. So 10x slower than naked Internet.

So...Can a VPN prevent ISP "throttling"? Absolutely not. If anything your ISP may stop throttling you because you are restricting your bandwidth yourself with the slower VPN! Does a VPN help you with bandwidth issues? Absolutely not - it makes them worse.

Regards,

Mike T.

 

Re: Fast Startup, you can easily check your actually system uptime by pulling up the Task Manager and opening the Performance tab... uptime is listed there... if fast startup is enabled, shutting down and turning back on the system will not reset the uptime counter.

Edited September 15, 20232 yr by Funky D

On 9/15/2023 at 4:47 AM, Rockliffe said:

Yesterday, on a quick test flight with my newly installed LG Ultragear monitor, I decided to take a quick flight from Bristol down to Exeter in the UK, only 15 minutes. This was mainly to assess Gsync and the higher refresh rates that I had not previously experienced, which incidentally, makes a huge difference! Take off worked fine and the flight down to Exeter went without any problem, then I got that ridiculous 'connection lost' error message, then it was replaced with, 'connection restored.' This has peed me off big time, as I have now paid for a VPN, wrongly assuming that the issue lay at the feet of my ISP using throttling tactics on my connection, this is clearly not the case and the issue obviously lays directly at the feet of Asobo.  I got those same messages about three times, after which I continued with my flight. When I got to within about 20 miles of Exeter the ground terrain  became visually unuseable, a complete and uttter mess! I had never experienced the terrain look so blurry, I could hardly make out any features whatsoever. There was also deep caverns running across the terrain, following the aircraft. This was all happening at about 3000ft as I was flying west towards the runway. I feel stupid now, as I should have recorded what to me must now be the most outrageous issue in MSFS!  I understand Asobo have acknowledged the issue, but that doesn't help those who are experiencing the problem. Asobo should explain to their customers what they're doing about it. This is unacceptable. Sorry for the rant, but for me, this is happening most of the time now and makes the sim hardly worth using.

how would a VPN fix an ISP throttling problem?  In my mind, that would not help throttling at all.

Moral of the story: Every computer setup is different where MSFS is concerned. The fact that yours experiences problems with MSFS does not in itself prove that Asobo is at fault. When will this basic truth ever sink in?

1 minute ago, cobalt said:

When will this basic truth ever sink in?

the answer my friend, is blowing in the headwind.

Yeah, this seems to be very random but the message itself is annoying and distracting.

On 9/15/2023 at 1:47 AM, Rockliffe said:

This has peed me off big time, as I have now paid for a VPN, wrongly assuming that the issue lay at the feet of my ISP using throttling tactics on my connection, this is clearly not the case and the issue obviously lays directly at the feet of Asobo. 

This has nothing to do with Asobo...  Microsoft maybe... Time to back off these accusations 😉

Kicking a dead horse possibly?

sp

There is this constant confusion.

 Asobo is the architect and  building contractor for Microsoft flight simulator and works with Microsoft assets (Bing imagery, Azure servers, legacy code) and subcontractors (WT etc.) .

  As far as I understand, the day to day running of the show (networking to the clients, telemetry) is made by Microsoft out of Redmont (through its server farms all over the world) and not Asobo out of Bordeaux.  

We all are aware that this great sim is not perfect still and that  Asobo has a lot to do to improve its own programming. But In this case, the issue seems to be with Microsoft external assets without discounting an exotic connection (VPN) not meant to be and the possibility that the local connection is erratic. Where is the weakest link ? Not sure. When I look at my 4G box  LED at anytime, I see that my own is not a model of regularity.

On 9/15/2023 at 4:47 AM, Rockliffe said:

This has peed me off big time, as I have now paid for a VPN, wrongly assuming that the issue lay at the feet of my ISP using throttling tactics on my connection, this is clearly not the case and the issue obviously lays directly at the feet of Asobo. 

Using a VPN, the same amount of data is still going through your connection.