Increase download speed

[cyphish]

This is not directly related to LabVIEW but I haven't found any other thread which seems like a better fit. I'm posting it on the Idea Exchange since this is the best place for other customers to potentially agree with me.

NI drivers/software are quite often large, and above 1 GB is not uncommon and sometimes above 3 GB. Having everything in a single file is in my opinion a good thing because I don't have to look for multiple driver parts and download packages, but the file size must be matched by the download speed. Waiting three-four hours or more to download a single driver is not a fun thing to do and quite often you need more than one driver.

Sometimes the speed is okay, but as a general rule I would say it's slow. I'm located in Sweden and of course this issue is dependent on a lot of links between where I am located and the server where NI host the files.

But, download speeds of 200-300 KByte/s from NI are not uncommon but I can run speedtests on for example http://www.speedtest.net/ and get download speeds at 50Mbps using American servers.

I don't know how NI host the files, if it's internal servers or something else but it would be nice if NI looked into the possibility of somehow making this faster.

[crossrulz]

I have seen threads discussing this and NI is making strides to fix this (along with a lot of other IT issues).  I think most of the threads I have seen were on private boards.  At least I do not remember any public threads.

[Rickard]

I totally agree! I wouldn't mind a more intelligent handler of drivers, ie an desktop application, that knows what's already installed and downloads exactly what's needed for a driver/application, nothing more, nothing less.

[EngrStudent]

The trick is likely that they should be cached within the EU. 

[Michael_78]

I just spent the entire weekend downloading labview and drivers. We need a UK/ European mirror!

[Yamaeda]

It could be a good idea to make the download client Torrent based. Then it wouldn't lose performance if several were downloading. I don't think it is currently.

/Y

[Darren]

The LabVIEW Idea Exchange is not the proper venue for this suggestion. Your local sales office would probably be the best place to direct this feedback. Also note that there are internal discussions currently taking place at NI to investigate addressing the download speed issue.