Ubisoft Uplay issues

[Scufflegrit]

Hello all,
This is related to gaming, but it is a technical problem so I posted here instead of the games section.

So I was wondering if anyone here had experience dealing with Uplay. My new video card came with some Uplay codes for a couple of games, Splinter Cell: Blacklist and Assassin's Creed 4. I installed Uplay and have been attempting to download AC4, but it hasn't been going too well. I have low end DSL so I know my connection speed would be abysmally slow to most people here, but this is abysmally slow even to me. Like most large downloads, I set it to run overnight while I am asleep. But in 3 nights of this plus some time during the day, it has downloaded less than 200 MB of a 23 GB game. In that amount of time I would've had a few GB at least from any other sources. I've tried downloading other files from various other sources and they all download fine at acceptable speeds. Even the Uplay installer downloaded at a good speed.

But the slow download speed is only half the problem. The download rate is horrible yes, but it completely maxes out my modem and appears to be downloading or uploading massive amounts of data. I can't even load up any web pages at all while downloading the game. Uplay simply dominates my connection until I stop the download, then it's back to business as usual. I'm also afraid that if it is in fact transferring so much data, I will reach my monthly cap well before the game is even remotely near done installing. I'd honestly even wondered if downloading from a non-cracked version 3rd party site might be worth considering given how slow it is.

I've tried everything I can think of on my own and searched for fixes online, but nothing has seemed to help and most fixes are talking about older versions of the Uplay client that don't seem relevant to the current client. I've added every .exe file I can from the Uplay folder to my firewall permissions list. In the Uplay settings interface I've done no/automatic/forced proxy with multiple values for forced. I read something about deleting my HOSTS files, but I didn't want to do that just yet as I wasn't completely sure if that would break anything. I'm assuming not, but wanted to play it safe.

So, does anyone here have experience with Uplay and any tips/advice/fixes they can offer?

[Cyrops]

I usually don't suggest software, but if you have an upload quota I think you really need this http://www.netlimiter.com/download.php
The program shows you what stuff is consuming how much down/up speeds and you can limit anything accordingly.
I think Uplay like the rest of platforms uses P2P protocol, so you are probably seeding more than you leech.
Install netlimiter, run Uplay and see, if it's uploading like crazy and not downloading, just limit the upload for Uplay, to like 5kB/s.

The thing is, if you have slow ass DSL, it could have a limit on both up and down combined, so if you are uploading like crazy your connection reaches it's limit for total transfer speed and that's why you are suffering issues with everything else you do internet related.

Just download it and see what's up with Uplay.

[apepi]

While this is not your problem, I am giving you this warning. Make sure you install the games on your C drive, if you don't you may not be able to play them.

[Deleted]

Don't buy games with uplay.

[Korgoth]

The main problem with U Play is that it exists. Just let Steam, Origin, and Amazon do your authentication/drm for you, stop forcing first party clients.

[Pickynerd]

Buy a external HDD and download it from a friends house who has more than 56k dl speeds.

[Deleted]

The main problem with U Play is that it exists. Just let Steam, Origin, and Amazon do your authentication/drm for you, stop forcing first party clients.

Korgoth, kazih, you didn't read it properly. he bought a new video card and he got some UPlay codes with that. so he is FORCED to use UPlay.

[Pickynerd]

Korgoth, kazih, you didn't read it properly. he bought a new video card and he got some UPlay codes with that. so he is FORCED to use UPlay.

It's not the codes, its the games. You have AC, Anno ect.. You use uplay period. You even have to use uplay from steam to play offline. Worst service ever.

[Scufflegrit]

Regarding my data transfer limit, it used to be 20GB/month with a $1 charge for each GB over. I checked and it's been changed some while back to 150GB/month with a $10 charge for every 50GB over that. So it should be a non-issue. Will still grab the netlimiter program though and see what it says.

As I said it's NOT my connection speed, it's something up with Uplay itself, so suggesting I use something that's no dialup is useless. speedtest.net shows me having 0.67-0.69 Mbps up and 0.13-0.15 Mbps down depending on where in the world the servers I check happen to be. My average download speed is ~80-85 KB/s. In the course of around 24 total hours of trying to DL the thing, I have gotten 192 MB. Do the math. I'm getting about 8 MB an HOUR or something like 2.275 KB/s. At my normal download speed I probably would have gotten something like 5 GB or so.
Yes I've read reviews that Uplay sucks, saying something like don't use Uplay or don't use dialup help me in no way. I've read other reports of people with very high speed connections also having the same problem, but I never saw any solutions given.

What I'm asking for is help given what i have to work with to make this thing download before the end of the century.

[Deleted]

It's not the codes, its the games. You have AC, Anno ect.. You use uplay period. You even have to use uplay from steam to play offline. Worst service ever.

somewhat off-topic, but I guess i'm just a lucky man for rarely having major issues with any first or 3rd party software. I can honestly say that the biggest consistent issue I got with UPlay is that I get most support mail in French while that's borderline illegal for companies with a Belgium branch (I checked, they got a sales office in Antwerp) who sell to Flanders. I once had the client crash while registering a game, but that had no lasting consequences. And I did recently have an issue with some DLC that I bought, but that got cleared out once they explained that DLC can only be purchased once per account.

[Scufflegrit]

Okay so after about 3 and a half hours of downloading and nothing else while I was outside the home, here's what netlimiter shows me.
Uplay downloaded a total of 667.58 MB and only uploaded 1.39 MB. Total DL/UL for that time was 668.02MB DL and 1.49MB UL for all processes.

But the weird thing is the Uplay downloaded shows me going from my previous total of 192 MB to 213 MB. So now I'm wondering if it's just some weird system Uplay uses while downloading; like it has downloaded a partial file, but doesn't display that as part of the total download until it is a complete file. Something else that makes me think this may be the case is that the AC4 folder shows a file size of 23GB, and has since it was first created when there was basically nothing in the folder.

Ehh, I'll keep it running when I'm not actually using the computer and see what happens. Hopefully I'll suddenly see some large % increases as some of the big files like video and audio completely download.