Speed Up and Download Faster from Microsoft MSDN Downloads
Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) subscribers who pay for subscription fees on annual basis, have access and licenses to deploy and use almost all Microsoft software that has released to the public and retail. MSDN subscribed developers will generally receive new Microsoft software which are identical with retail or volume-license product on CD or DVD on specially marked MSN discs every few weeks or months, together valid and genuine unique activation product key which can be used to activate as many copies of software or Windows operating system as needed for their own development purposes. Beside waiting for media to arrive, MSDN subscribers can also download Microsoft software such as the latest Windows Vista 32-bit or 64-bit ISO images over the Internet.
When download a large collection of software from MSDN Downloads, the speed of download is very important in order for faster completion of download. If you’re located in US or North America, the download speed achievable from Microsoft’s MSDN Subscriber Downloads can be very low at just tenth of KB/s. The cause and reason for the slow download speed from MSDN is probably due to the fact that you’re actually downloading from a non-US mirror site.
In order to speed up the MSDN application downloads, the developers or subscribers need to make sure that the web browser will always connect and access to US-located servers. Following the following steps to achieve this:
- Edit the HOSTS file located at %windir%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts by using Notepad or any other text editor (make sure that you have Administrator Rights when using Vista with UAC turned on).
- Add an entry to the HOST file for the global US Microsoft server:
207.46.252.185 global.ds.microsoft.com
- In Internet Explorer, add https://global.ds.microsoft.com to the list of Trusted Sites (located in Tools > Internet Options > Security > Trusted Sites).
- In Internet Explorer, always allow cookies of https://global.ds.microsoft.com regardless of privacy policy by going to Tools > Internet Options > Privacy, and click on Sites button. Enter the URL (https://global.ds.microsoft.com) to Address of Website and click on Allow button.
- If the download has already begun and half way through, suspend the MSDN download and select or activate “Place application shortcut on the desktop” in the Microsoft File Transfer Manager Options in order to resume later.
- Open command prompt and run the command “ipconfig /flushdns” or simply reboot the computer.
- Start Microsoft File Transfer Manager from the Desktop to resume download from MSDN.
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LOL From 200,100 KBPS to 35,24,34,36
Holly shit it actually worked!
went form 150KB/s to 1100KB/s Thanks!
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Immediately went from 20 – 40k/sec downloads that couldn't complete, to full bandwidth 1mb+. Amazing that nearly 5 years later the same trick still applies.
As someone else put it, "You flipping rock for this one!".
Yep, that kicked it up a notch or 2. It's still not anywehre near a decent download speed but it's twice to 3 times as fast as it was going before.
does not work for me
thnaks, is need a way to speed up technet dl.. will this work too ?
This worked like a charm
many thanks.
Nice,
even works for MSDNAA downloads, 50kB/s inc to ~800kB/s.
thx
Doesn't work. Speeds still around 10 KB/s
I didn't think this would work but my download speeds went from ~125KB/s to nearly 1MB/s. Thanks!
500kb/sec -> 1050kb/sec
Nice work-
just went from 14 hours estimated download time @ 32 KB/sec
to 51 minutes estimated download time @ 380 KB/sec!!!
Thanks for the great tip!
Even though this post is 3 years old, I can confirm that the fix worked for me.
I am in British Columbia, Canada using Shaw Internet. My connection speed for downloading Windows 7 went from 0-20KB/s to a consistent 110-120KB/s.
Great post went from 8kb/sec at 72hours left for my download to 360kb/sec at 2hrs for the download.
It would be great if somebody could figure out a fix for this for US-based people…
Now, I wanted to revert the settings. So, I just took off the hosts file settings and did a ipconfig /flushdns (as described by this post).
When I restarted the download, I am consistently getting 250KB/Sec download speed.
I dont know if anything affected the speeeds, but wanted to share.
I was getting 30 KB/Sec or less. After I did this procedure, it jumped to 220 KB/Sec (After reactivating from the suspended mode) and dropped back to 20 KB/Sec.
I experience the same problems like so many others. I applied the fix and some times, for about 2 minutes or so, I get speeds of up to 282KB/s. Then it is back to speeds between 2.6KB/s to 40KB/s.
For the past few days I'm trying to download HyperV, Server and System Center VM. I have a presentation/demo on Tuesday. I still don't have any SW because MSDN is sooooo slow. My connection is OK. I even tested it with Speakeasy speed test while downloading from MSDN. The speed test never drops below 6800Kb/s. NEVER! So, I guess VMware wins over HyperV. I can download VMSpehre within minutes on the same machine/connection. So much for nothing wrong with the MS sites!
The problem with this is that if the US servers are saturated your are going to get the slowest speeds available because MFTM will not resolve to another less busy host. Ultimately this is a Microsoft issue and how they don't know how to host files for fast transfers. Bottom line is if you want to download something from MFTM, start it up before you go to sleep and hope its available the next day.
Still not work
Unfortunately, my Windows 7 download is still fluctuating between 8 KB/sec and 24 KB/sec depending on MFT's mood.
Working perfectly. Thank you!
This worked! I was at 12k and now I'm at 600k. Very awesome! I was skeptical but delightfully wrong.
Thank you.
This worked perfectly. Thanks!
I have a technet subscription, and this does NOTHING. Its the same slow download speed of 5kb/sec. The other posts here are obviously lieing.
Actually made mine worse… down to 8k on a 20M pipe…
Thanks for thinking of me, though
)
Thanks – interestingly it starts out better for me (around 200KB/s) but then slows. Maybe they are throttling it?
Holy crap, I went from no more than 100kb/sec to 500kb/sec. Oh nevermind, it went back down to 50kb/sec.
That did the trick. My transfer speed went from ~20 kbps to 160 kbps. Nice work!
Wow, that's brilliant. THANKS!
What if you're outside US, is there any way to speed-up downloads?
Perfect tip! Speeds up from 300 KB/s to 1 MB/s. Thank you!
You fuckin rock for this one!