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Why is Spotify chugging upload bandwidth when it is not streaming?

community.spotify.com

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Re: Why is Spotify chugging upload bandwidth when it is not streaming?

#61

What is the best way, under OSX or Windows, to selectively limit upload (or download) speeds per-application ? Is there a way? It would be so nice if something like this were built into the OS, but is there any kind of third-party software which will do that?

http://superuser.com/questions/135719/windows-program-to-lim... NetLimiter (free) and NetBalancer (paid, free for 5 processes) have been the go-to solutions for Windows for a little while. IceFloor ( http://www.hanynet.com/icefloor/index.html ) is the OSX (10.7+) analog.

http://superuser.com/questions/474255/is-there-a-free-local-...

also lists http://bandwidthcontroller.com/trafficShaperXp.html

Re: Why is Spotify chugging upload bandwidth when it is not streaming?

#62

I didn't know this. Although as a tech reporter I should have, I would argue that typical people are unaware of these kinds of architectural implications and that without obvious disclosure this design decision sort of takes advantage of users. Customers are paying twice, for the service and for other people's data, and it shouldn't take a Hacker News-level understanding of technology for them to be aware of this fac…

You idiot reporter dont you have anything else to do rather than bitching about struggling good companies ?

Re: Why is Spotify chugging upload bandwidth when it is not streaming?

#63
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about setting up a firewall rule so that Spotify can only talk to Spotify's servers? Here's a post from Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/spotify/comments/jdhj6/is_there_a_wa...

Right. I was just about to say. This is hackers do it. Sniff out the traffic and block really selectively. My concern woud be: Am I violating TOS when i don't share bandwidth?

Good point. You can go to jail for that; it makes you a felon.

Re: Why is Spotify chugging upload bandwidth when it is not streaming?

#64
post #59
post #18

I have never liked this about Spotify... So the solutions outlined by Spotify are... 1) Suck it up. Its how the system works. 2) Use the web player. (Seems to be invite-only beta - US Only) 3) Use offline mode. Unlimited members pay for the service and cannot download tracks so not much use to those. Somewhat kills music discovery. Means you cannot use the radio option. Do social options work in offline mode? Not muc…

I'm mostly shocked at how I simply was uninformed that spotify was using my connection so. I know over the past few months I've had occasional and even sometimes frequent spikes of latency while gaming. I'm often left confuddled at these spikes as I won't have anything open I would consider requires much bandwith. Also, even though I would have high latency, opening a browser and navigating through sites would work a…

Yeah. And on top of connection quality issues, some companies with bandwidth caps count uploads as well. I haven't really seen what kind of bandwidth would be used but it's something I'm going to check out and possibly warn some people I've recommended it to in the past.

Re: Why is Spotify chugging upload bandwidth when it is not streaming?

#65
I just use my operating systems firewall to block Spotify from connecting to any IP address that isn't theirs. It results in you streaming music from only Spotify's servers and it prevents any uploads from your computer.

I've found this to be the best solution.

Re: Why is Spotify chugging upload bandwidth when it is not streaming?

#67
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about setting up a firewall rule so that Spotify can only talk to Spotify's servers? Here's a post from Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/spotify/comments/jdhj6/is_there_a_wa...

Right. I was just about to say. This is hackers do it. Sniff out the traffic and block really selectively. My concern woud be: Am I violating TOS when i don't share bandwidth?

> My concern woud be: Am I violating TOS when i don't share bandwidth?

I wouldn't worry about it. If it bothers you, adjust your firewall to allow a few bytes through an hour and still be able to sleep at night.

Re: Why is Spotify chugging upload bandwidth when it is not streaming?

#68
post #24

I don't use Spotify anymore, but when I did I was completely aware that this was happening, and ultimately I'm not too bothered by it using my connection to support other clients, because that's partly how it starts playing so fast. I would be very upset if it was using my entire connection. Spotify should cap the speed at like 128KB/s, because that should be plenty for what they are doing. If they were using my full…

Even at a 128KB/s fixed upload, that is still ~2x as much as my upload speed limit on UK ADSL.

Is that a typical speed limit in the UK?
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