Starcraft 2: How to increase digital download speed

Throttle your upload speed on the Starcraft 2 downloader to increase download speed.


 

Running NetLimiter on the Starcraft 2 downloader to increase download speed.

As I write this I have just begun downloading Starcraft 2 after purchasing the digital download copy off of battle.net. I don’t know about anyone else but when I buy a game, especially one as long-awaited as Starcraft, I am itching to load it up and start playing it straight away!

Anyway, I started the 6.99gb download about half an hour ago. To begin with, the SC2 downloader gave me an estimated time of about 4 hours, which is ok I guess. But a few minutes later I watched in horror as the estimated time increased, 6 hours, 8 hours and so on. I looked at the connection details and realised that the downloader uses peer-to-peer sharing and that my upload speed was now higher than my download speed!

Fortunately within the downloader there is an option to switch off peer-to-peer sharing and just use direct downloading. I tried that but the speed barely increased. A quick scan of a few forums put me on to a little piece of software called NetLimiter. After installing NetLimiter I was able to re-enable the peer-to-peer method of downloading and limit the upload speed (within NetLimiter) to around 30kbps which saw my download speed eventually increase to around 900kbps.

A few points to be aware of:

  • Limiting your upload speed too drastically seems to also drag your download speed down as well, so don’t go cutting it back too much.
  • Inside the preferences for the Starcraft 2 downloader there is an option to disable background download throttling which I would also suggest you set.
  • NetLimiter runs as a 28-day trial. Should you need to use it past the trial period then it only costs $30USD for a single user license.

I’ll let you know how Starcraft goes!

Also if anyone has their own experiences, suggestions or comments please leave me a comment.

For a detailed and comprehensive guide to the art of Starcraft II be sure to check out the Shokz Starcraft II Strategy guide as well.

Thanks for reading.


28 thoughts on “Starcraft 2: How to increase digital download speed”

  1. I just turned of the peer-to-peer and my speed went from 70kB/s to 600kB/s.
    All direct download

    SCORE!

  2. Awesome news. So you didn’t even need to use the NetLimiter? Glad I could be of assistance…

    Thanks for reading!
    – Ben

  3. I’m downloading at 30 kbs its says Weill take 100 hours nothing seems to work I have a MacBook pro

  4. Thanks for stopping by Jesse. Unfortunately I have not had much experience with Mac products, you could try Entonnoir for Mac and limit upload speeds on port 3724 which is what I think the Blizzard Downloader uses for P2P connections.

    Let me know how it goes.

  6. Hi, Befor trying any of this. In the downloader running, go:

    View –> Preferences

    Make sure you CHECK the “Don’t throttle background download”

    This will kick start your download!

  7. Turn off peer to peer and turn of “Don’t throttle background download” and speeds went to 1.7 MB/s

  10. thanks man 🙂 2 days ive been downloading this on and off. I left it running while i was at work hoping to play when i got home. and to my horror it was at 60% and said 12 hours remaining 😮 i turned off the peer thing and now its down to 1 hour xD once again thanks i am really looking forward to playing….

  13. Thank you so much! I left my download on overnight and it still wasnt even close to finished. Now that i turned off peer it says 2 hours! thank you so much!

  14. Thanks dude, LOL, my upload speed went up to 30 hours until completion 😛 now its 2 hours, again, thanks a lot!

  15. Im not tech-smart enough to figure out the Netlimiter program, but unchecking PtoP transfer and checking “don’t throttle background” seems to help a little. So far I’ve been downloading for 15 straight hours but I’m only at 60%…

  19. lol… says three hours for mine. didnt do anything. id like to speed it up but i dont know how to view the throttle thingy or something

  21. nice went from 3-4 hours to 38 mins. just turned off the throttle and peer to peer turned off. sick.

  22. I’m having trouble downloading. I turned off peer-to-peer and my downloading jumped up to 1.89 MB, but my download rate went to zero. What should I do?

  24. I have the same problem. I left my computer on all night. In the morning it was only 10%…..
    I turned off peer-to-peer, delete my starcraft download folder and began new download from cero. Now it is downloading at 180kB/s …. before that it was like 20 kB/s.
    P2P needs a lot of users without upload limits, think its not the case for Starcraft.

  27. Wow, my download went from not download at 1kb/s to not downloading at all; then i turned peer download off and it went to 1.4mb/s WHY DID THEY CREATE PEER TO PEER TRANSFER! anyway Thanks so much for creating this page :D. and the person who linked me to it.

  28. Hey i cant find the view click inside the downloader plz help
    There is options info and help

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