Found and tried 0.7F and it's just as slow so must be a coincidence.

Continually pinging the web server doesn't keep the route open. I use Plusnet which is owned by BT.

1 192.168.1.26 Sheffield gig
2 192.168.1.1 Unknown
3 195.166.130.255 Unknown
4 213.120.163.20 Unknown
5 217.32.240.95 Unknown
6 213.121.192.110 Unknown host213-121-192-110.ukcore.bt.net
7 109.159.252.242 Sutton peer8-et-3-0-5.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net
8 195.99.126.65 Unknown
9 109.200.218.228 Unknown nlrtm1-rt001i.i3d.net
10 109.200.219.89 Unknown nlrtm1-rt113i.i3d.net
11 0.0.0.0 Unknown No Response
12 188.xxx.xx.xxx Unknown s12.lfs.net

I asked Victor but he is also puzzled, we can't really see why something that has been in the game and our site for so many years and has not changed in any way, might start to be a problem for some people. We are using simple http protocol, with no funny tricks.

He sent a couple of example links that you can try in Firefox:
These links are just as they would be accessed from LFS.

http://game.lfs.net/eventImage.php?name=dOH2RaLx.jpg
http://mods.lfs.net/cover.php?skinId=4FF048

Just to see if you have any trouble getting them in your browser (Firefox, so it doesn't complain about http).

You can create similar links by looking at image links on the event calendar or the skin id of mods.

E.g.
http://game.lfs.net/eventImage.php?name=BcYGEUfQ.png
http://mods.lfs.net/cover.php?skinId=FC0AAB


EDIT: One thing I wonder about is if the ISP (e.g. BT) might be doing deep packet searching. If so it would find "User-Agent: LFS" (rather than Firefox etc) and I just wonder if they might be doing throttling or traffic shaping (e.g. they could possibly think the requests come from a bot or crawler and not be legitimate traffic - I'm just making this up, I really have no idea). There's one tiny change you can make in LFS to remove a small item from the URL that it sends to our site. Although I find it extremely unlikely that it would make any difference, if you switch off "Allow regional downloads" it will not include "X-Caps: 1" in the URL (it's just a line telling our web server that LFS can allow redirections).

I haven't had time to test these because of my busy work schedule. I've done the tests now and haven't had any issues.

Quote from Scawen :

He sent a couple of example links that you can try in Firefox:
These links are just as they would be accessed from LFS.

I use Firefox and the "Don’t enable HTTPS-Only Mode" is broken on mine, I have to manually add sites in the exceptions or it just redirects to https. I tried the http links posted and had to wait 15+ seconds for them to load.


and "switch off "Allow regional downloads" made no difference.

Quote from o000o :

I tried the http links posted and had to wait 15+ seconds for them to load.

Well that is strange, they are only small files.

Let's see what result some of the other people come up with.

EDIT: If they also get slow downloads of those files in Firefox then it seems like we may have some sort of a clue.

Results we are waiting for now:

For those who have got consistent slow downloads of skins, mods, mods browser and event list in LFS:

We are trying to establish what could be the cause. It seems particularly strange in the UK, where connections are good and our servers are located just across the sea in the Netherlands.

Known UK users with the issue are o000o, Zero7, Cimanu, Boypower, ka darai


TEST 1: This test was to see if there is some issue with plain http, between your ISP and our servers.

Using Firefox so you can view http (not https) visit the 'LX skinning competition' and see if the images and skins download at normal speed:
http://competition.lfs.net/lx_skinning/

Results so far: those people who could visit it, reported no issue.


TEST 2: This test is to get closer to what LFS does in game.

Using Firefox again, follow these links that are very similar to what LFS uses in game:
http://game.lfs.net/eventImage.php?name=dOH2RaLx.jpg
http://mods.lfs.net/cover.php?skinId=4FF048

You can create similar links by looking at image links on the event calendar or the skin id of mods.
http://game.lfs.net/eventImage.php?name=BcYGEUfQ.png
http://mods.lfs.net/cover.php?skinId=FC0AAB

We need to know if those images seem to load at a normal speed, or if you see any issues.

Results so far:

User 'o000o' reported a slow download: https://www.lfs.net/forum/post/2137340#post2137340

You may also be able to do the test with Chrome instead of Firefox.
How to do it: https://superuser.com/questions/1400200/chrome-persistently-redirecting-to-https-for-http-site

(Link to instructions provided by tankslacno on another thread)

Quote from Scawen :

User 'o000o' reported a slow download: https://www.lfs.net/forum/post/2137340#post2137340

I meant slow as in a delay before the page loaded, not 56k slow, line at a time. I tried the links you posted, some came immediately, two had a long delay before loading including http://competition.lfs.net/lx_skinning/ which after a long delay redirected to https://www.lfs.net as I hadn't added it to the exceptions list in Firefox.

Trying the below tests, using Firefox, with BT connection. I have checked and confirmed that mod list is still broken for me at the time of these tests.

Test 1: No issues opening the link (Firefox of course warns that it is http), no issues with any of the images. Everything loads fast.

Test 2:
http://game.lfs.net/eventImage.php?name=dOH2RaLx.jpg - loads fine
http://mods.lfs.net/cover.php?skinId=4FF048 - loads fine
http://game.lfs.net/eventImage.php?name=BcYGEUfQ.png - loads fine
http://mods.lfs.net/cover.php?skinId=FC0AAB - loads fine

Quote from o000o :

(...) some came immediately, two had a long delay before loading including http://competition.lfs.net/lx_skinning/ which after a long delay redirected to https://www.lfs.net as I hadn't added it to the exceptions list in Firefox.

That one works for me without issue.

For me, the links all work fine.