I've noticed recently that rapidshare downloads are pretty slow compared to what I used to get. At the moment I'm downloading at only 48 KB/sec. Has anyone else noticed this? Is the slowdown at the rapidshare servers or is exetel throttling rapidshare downloads?

doubt it.

Make sure you choose a decent mirror to download off.

Rapidshare can have some shocking speeds some days :P

Use flashget. with a premium account I usually get 1.4/1.5 mb/s

I'm on an 8mb connection with exetel and the fastest speed I have ever got from rapidshare was 180k/s (with paid membership). Usually it sits around 45k/s though. I'm not sure what the problem is. I can achieve 800k/s from the exetel mirror.

I downloaded a few things and I seem to always get 48 KB/sec,

I just tried rapidshare using iinet and also get 48 KB/sec, so it mustn't an exetel thing.

I used to get ok speeds with rapidshare as well but lately it has been poor. I think its rapidshares fault. I used to get happy hour occasionally with them during the night, doesn't seem to happen anymore.

They probably changed a few things around. I think the only way to get full or good speeds with rapidshare is to get a premium account (which I haven't got nor will I get lol).

sp0radic writes...

I've noticed recently that rapidshare downloads are pretty slow compared to what I used to get. At the moment I'm downloading at only 48 KB/sec. Has anyone else noticed this? Is the slowdown at the rapidshare servers or is exetel throttling rapidshare downloads?

If you dont have a premium account the max speed you will get is 512kbps = 64 kB/s

I used to get slow speeds from Rapidshare until I used Internet Download Manager which uses file segmentation and up to eight part downloading that accelerates the downloads to full bandwidth.

iSplicer writes...

If you dont have a premium account the max speed you will get is 512kbps = 64 kB/s

Not true. I downloaded a couple of files today at 150kB/s.

iSplicer writes...

If you dont have a premium account the max speed you will get is 512kbps = 64 kB/s

Not true at all... I was downloading for free with waiting periods at 158ish... and now have paid membership... still downloading at the same speed...

PS: i am on 1.5 exetel plan...

I just think RS is getting little unreliable when it comes to download speeds. I just churned to a exetel 8000 plan yesterday [from a westnet 1500 account], with a RS premium account. And setup a line of downloads last night.

I was getting anywhere from 50kB/s to 600kB/s when I had my download manager set to download one at a time. I just set it to do multiple downloads at once, problem solved. Back up to full speed.
[I also on occasions got slow download speeds on my westnet 1500 account].

In short... no.

It seems that Rapidshare now throttle the free service as a means (presumably) to encourage people to purchase the premium service.

Take a look at the new download interface. Where it asks you to choose between the free or premium service there are two "speedometers" (much like the speedtest.net page). You will notice that the free dial is at the lower end of the scale and the premium at the upper end (naturally).

Therefore...

Free service = crap speed
Premium service = download heaven

Choose your weapon.

BraM

LOL thats just a crappy GIF file showing that you will ALWAYS receive full speeds on rapidshare..

The only time RS would be slow is if the servers are being crammed (like happy hour for instance).

The other times RS should have a top speed of around 500-600 Kb/s

I'm downloading a file right now at 156kB/s, this is the usual speed I get from my premium account.

drknezz writes...

thats just a crappy GIF

I wasn't implying that it's an actual speedmeter... Just that it's an indication of speeds between the two options.

Jigsta writes...

Not true. I downloaded a couple of files today at 150kB/s.

This may only be termporary due to RSs recent/rapid increase in users. But he is right about the limit of 512,

http://rapidshare.com/news.html

Is anyone else having trouble connecting to rapidshare? I can access it from work fine, but I'm remote desktop'd into home, and it times out on my exetel connection.

SmokyJoe writes...

Is anyone else having trouble connecting to rapidshare?

No.

Speeds are fine here, 24/7.

I get 48 KB/sec all the time. I tried the same on iinet and it's the same speed so I assume that rapidshare are limiting free downloads to 48 KB/sec.

I use flashget and login with my membership account and i get max speed on my 8mbit connection when you download multiple files at the time. If you download one file you might get 200Kbs. rapidshare sets speed 52Kbs for none members.

terminator69 writes...

This may only be termporary due to RSs recent/rapid increase in users. But he is right about the limit of 512,

http://rapidshare.com/news.html

That is very strange. I downloaded an RS file today (well, the 31st today) that fluctuated between 100kB and 130kB. Maybe it'll be fully implemented in August.

EDIT: Downloading an RS file at 80kB at the moment.

It may be slow for premium users because they are in the middle of upgrading their network:

RapidShare upgrading in progress

July 30, 2008
The upgrading of the RapidShare infrastructure is in full progess. Due to the extent of the upgrade we are calculating to finish the job at the beginning of September. Thus, we have raised the daily premium download traffic from 4 gigabyte to 5 gigabyte.