Hello,

I've been experiencing a rather strange behaviour when downloading ISOs via FDM. There's more than a significant/exorbitant mismatch between the actual downloaded portion (something in the order of 1.5 times the actual size) and that reported by Internet Options dialog box. Also confirmed by checking for bandwidth consumption on my ISPs end.

I made a video showing how bad the situation is. You'll see in the video a short download segment (of Windows ISO) -- from 1.01 GB (give or take) to 1.06 GB (roughly 50 MB) --. Yet the actual reported consumption by internet options dialog is approx 100 plus MB -- 330,xxx,xxx to 440,xxx,xxx Bytes -- (accounting for conversion from bytes to MB). I can confirm there's negligible internet activity going on in the background.

The issue isn't just restricted to a particular ISO. The same thing happened upon downloading a Linux ISO (2.5 GB). The overall data used up downloading the ISO was well in excess of 3.5 GB.

I would like to know if this is something related to FDM or am I being taken for a ride by my ISP by deceitful accounting of actual bandwidth consumption. I have had similar experience in the past downloading via FDM, but nothing of this magnitude. Is there some way to check what might be causing this.

Link to the video: https://www.dropbox.com/s/2wgezpb4yd5a2 ... 7.mp4?dl=0

Thank you

Edit: Since I'm connected to the internet via Cloudflare Warp, performed a test run by disconnecting Warp. The issue persists with the actual bandwidth used up going from 390,xxx,xxx to 590,xxx,xxx bytes while the download has only progressed 100 MB (1.75 GB - 1.85 GB) in FDM.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/81t4cvg4b27p9 ... 0.mp4?dl=0

The mystery prevails.

Hello,

I've just compared my FDM and web browser (Firefox). Both gave me the same results shown in this window.

For 1,049,000,000 (i.e. 1 GB approximately) file I'm getting around 1,100,000,000 bytes in that window. I don't know the reason for these additional 50,000,000 bytes.

Still, results are the same for web browser so I can't consider this as a bug of FDM.

P.S. Dropbox videos has awful unusable quality. It would be better to upload to YouTube.

P.P.S. Please note that 1 GB is 1024*1024*1024 bytes, i.e. 1,073,741,824 bytes.

Thanks for the reply

YouTube links for the videos.

1) Connected via Cloudflare: https://youtu.be/TlqGOQKRs-A

2) Disconnected to Cloudflare: https://youtu.be/MUfNGaoc-5o

Today's progress: No Cloudflare from download segment 2.31 GB to 2.36 GB in FDM. Consumed data as per internet options - 115 MB (215,xxx,xxx - 336,xxx,xxx Bytes). Upon reconnecting to Cloudflare: 2.36 GB to 2.4 GB in FDM. Actual consumed - 95 MB (389,xxx,xxx - 487.xxx,xxx Bytes). The conversion from Bytes to MB/GB is literally blown to bits. https://youtu.be/qlT0OGKMqzc


I did bring this to their (Cloudflare) notice and was told a minor overhead in data consumption is to be expected given an additional layer to the traffic from their end. But what I'm experiencing is complete insanity.

Thank you

Apologies about the video quality. Even higher quality settings end up looking awful.

Edit: Finally managed to record one in decent quality (CRF set to 1 in OBS and still no luck). You can clearly see the data usage going nuts (257,000,000 to 400,000,000 bytes) for a mere 50 MB section in FDM. Verified Cloudflare is disabled.

https://youtu.be/C6Uc-GNuOjA

Don't know for certain if what's happening aligns with my observation or if it's just a placebo effect. But, setting the download speed to Unlimited in the Settings seems to mitigate the problem a bit, i.e. the excess bandwidth consumed by FDM is within reasonable limits. Any manual override of the speeds and the actual data used up gallops well clear of FDM's.

Cloudflare or No Cloudflare seems to have little effect after a few trials.