Uktrainsim Downloads!

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by inversnecky, Jan 23, 2021.

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  1. inversnecky

    inversnecky Well-Known Member

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    Is it just me, or is there an issue with UKTrainSim.com download speeds?

    I’m looking to install a lovely third party route that calls for a dozen odd requirements: seven are from UKTS.

    I’m downloading my first (LNER signals pack) of 33.7MB, that my PC tells me will take over one and a half hours to download!

    At this rate, rather than installing my route tonight, it’ll be into next week before I get these seven downloads from UKTS, files totalling maybe a couple of hundred MB that you could download in seconds from any other site.

    UKTS must have terrible bandwidth.
     
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  2. Reef

    Reef Well-Known Member

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    They have great bandwidth if you're subscribed, can't expect there to be no advantage over a free account really.

    Just consider me for a second, I've just lost ALL my data (see my signature below) I have to dl everything again that I've amassed for TS over the last 12+ months (not to mention my mods for other games and all the stuff I've made or edited myself over the last 12 yrs), once I've bought new SSD's that is.
     
  3. inversnecky

    inversnecky Well-Known Member

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    Sorry, I can’t see your signature, Reef. Sorry you’ve had issues.

    Did you not have a folder to store all your DLC zips, etc? I have on two drives.
     
  4. Reef

    Reef Well-Known Member

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    Not sure why you can't see my signature field, must be 'turnoffable' in the forums settings somewhere I guess.
     
  5. inversnecky

    inversnecky Well-Known Member

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    That’s awful, what a thing to happen....

    Still waiting for my 37MB file to finish downloading, at the giddy heights of 9kB per second!
     
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  6. Cat

    Cat Well-Known Member

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    Did you subscribe to UKTS? It's worth it for the immediate and faster downloads.
     
  7. 749006

    749006 Well-Known Member

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    It costs
    £2.50 for 1 month
    £6.00 for 3 months
    £10.00 for 6 months
    £17.00 for 12 months

    Some people just sign up a month at a time for very fast Downloads
    https://www.uktrainsim.com/index2.php?form_reader=subscription
     
  8. Pookeyhead

    Pookeyhead Well-Known Member

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    ...and a back up solution to prevent this from happening again, right? If your "back up" was in the same PC as your other drives, then it's not back up. I have a separate file server for back ups, and then that mirrors to another server in my garage to mitigate against a house fire. Each of those servers is also RAID10 so each can stand 2 drive failures and carry on. I also DO have separate drives inside the machine as well. I'd need 5 simultaneous drive failures to lose data. I earn money with my computers though (well.. not this one with TS on it I don't, but once you have a networked back up solution, you can use it for everything), so I'm not expecting anyone to go to the same lengths I do, but at least have a fast external USB3.0 drive or fast NAS system. It's not just PSU issues that can b0rk other drives that you need to worry about. If someone breaks in and steals your PC they steal your "back up" with it if they're in the same case.

    It ain't back up until it's somewhere else.

    Sorry for evangelising, but once losing data has cost you thousands of pounds, you quickly learn what is, and what is not back up. Most people neglect back up. It's not sexy or exciting, and you pay all that money to have it sit there, hopefully not even being used. Most people see it as dead money... until they need it, and realise they don't have it... then they wish they'd had it. I know this is true because I used to think the same.. until I was in a position to regret not having it.
     
    Last edited: Jan 24, 2021
  9. ntypeman

    ntypeman Well-Known Member

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    Blimey... at least TS will.be safe if WW3 breaks out...!!! ;)

    Eric
     
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  10. ntypeman

    ntypeman Well-Known Member

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    I just wish ATS worked a similar system... 30 quid a year is a bit much for me, I'd far & away prefer a "pay & go" system...

    Eric
     
  11. inversnecky

    inversnecky Well-Known Member

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    Don’t think he’s prepared adequately for a nuclear blast, though, so he’s not backed up properly ... :)
     
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  12. Pookeyhead

    Pookeyhead Well-Known Member

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    ...I have a tin foil hat :)
     
  13. Reef

    Reef Well-Known Member

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    Yeah, I mentioned in another thread that I'd be purchasing a HDD in an external enclosure, I had backups in the last setup, it's just they were all internal, I even have a cloud service running now but that'll just be for my nudes to get hacked and shared (hey, gotta get famous somehow right?)
     
  14. inversnecky

    inversnecky Well-Known Member

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    Will have to see what else I’m likely to want from there to consider it.

    Certainly throttling your downloads to a bitrate that would have made me cuss even in the dark days of dial up, purely to force you to pay extra, isn’t a business model I find attractive: indeed, it reminds me of some very unscrupulous sites.

    I clicked on the link to see the offer, and my browser blocked it due to wrong security certificate or something. Doesn’t really inspire you with confidence. I’ve little experience of the site, so maybe the first impressions I got aren’t typical.
     
  15. Pookeyhead

    Pookeyhead Well-Known Member

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    Would you have subscribed if the downloads were full speed for free? People need to make money on the time they invest in providing you with all this content. They can either do what UKTS do, or as ATS do, restrict certain content to subscribers only. Personally, I prefer UKTS's model, as at least nothing is off limits, and you can always set a download going overnight if it;s something you really need but can't afford to pay £2.50 for it. Essentially, think of that monthly £2.50 as the cost of the download, and then it doesn't actually seem that bad. A set of bridges for £2.50? A reskin for £2.50? That seems reasonable considering people pay £20 or more fro a product from DTG or even AP. Also, that £2.50 lasts for a month, so you are unlikely to just download one item either.

    Should UKTS be run for free? Server costs? Time? Should he provide these things at his own expense to provide you with free stuff? There are already people who do indeed make free stuff as a side line, or hobby, but something as complex, comprehensive and time consuming as running UKTS is not tenable as a free service run as a "hobby".

    I'm not having a go here. I just don't think you've thought through that without an income of some kind, a venture such as UKTS would not exist.
     
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  16. Pookeyhead

    Pookeyhead Well-Known Member

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    No such problems here using Firefox v84.0.2 and Bitdefender security. I also disabled it and fell back to Windows Security, which also gave no issue. Was it flagged up by the actual browser or a virus checker/security suite of some kind?
     
  17. inversnecky

    inversnecky Well-Known Member

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    Seems to be ok when I try now, but this sort of screen popped up the first time. I got it just now by clicking it from a Google search, but that could well be because it didn’t include ‘www’. It was from Firefox on Win10. Maybe a temporary glitch.
    B37F5491-ACE2-4E53-8471-6D2478B606A8.jpeg
     
  18. inversnecky

    inversnecky Well-Known Member

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    I fully understand your points, and certainly don’t begrudge paying for things at all (heaven knows, both DTG and AP have both received three figure sums from me this last month!).

    It was just the way it was presented: all I can do if speak for myself, perhaps others wouldn’t have the same reaction to that way of getting you to spend, perhaps never having been tainted by previous experiences.

    if it was a flat up charge, I wouldn’t have thought twice about the matter

    Even if they allowed only limited content for free, that would be different, I guess deliberately handicapping bitrates and making the download of a few MB of files into a day long chore didn’t sit well with me! Could be that others are similarly put off, I don’t know.

    I’ll put aside this impression and explore the site in due course, with a newly opened mind :)
     
    Last edited: Jan 25, 2021
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  19. Pookeyhead

    Pookeyhead Well-Known Member

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    The alternatives woudl be
    1. Give everything away at full speed for free and just hope that everyone pays for it.
    2. Restrict some content to subscribers only.

    Option 1 would see the site closing down in short order, and option 2 would inevitable mean at some point, what you want will not be available to you at all, at any speed unless you subscribe.

    At least with this option, you can still get what you want for free if you choose. (shrug).
     
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  20. theorganist

    theorganist Well-Known Member

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    I think UKTS are only trying to cover costs, I don't begrudge them that. Considering the hundreds of pounds many of us have probably spent on train simming £2.50 for a months subscription is peanuts.

    I usually buy a one months subscription a couple of times a year, I have one now, and have a bit of a download spree.
     
  21. Reef

    Reef Well-Known Member

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    Hear hear, although I'll add that I've not yet paid a UKTS subscription, I am after all equal parts stingy and stubborn, but it's more than that what deters me.

    I do agree with UKTS's approach and there may well come a time where my impatience will win over my stubbornness/stinginess and I'll pay for a month, the price of which I have no problem or issue at all.

    BUT...

    I probably would have succumbed already and have less of an issue parting with my hard earned if they'd just use PayPal, come on Matt what decade are you trading in, do people honestly still pay for digital software with cheques and/or postal orders??! (it's a rhetorical question as I'm pretty sure it's only POPQers (Post Office Pension Queuers) left who would ever choose this option).
    I absolutely will not use a credit/debit for front line online transactions and I have no idea who World Pay are.

    SO...

    TrainSim-Matt I can't iterate this enough PayPal PayPal PayPal !!!!

    As for ATS I'll likely not pay for a subscription just to access otherwise restricted content here or there, at least there is the sweetener of the additional 10% discount on paid products but still I'm only likely to subscribe if I absolutely can't live without a certain route or whatever and that'd have to be something along the lines of an extensive SWW extension or full valleys line.
     
  22. 749006

    749006 Well-Known Member

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    Despite what you might think there are a number of websites that take Cards but not PayPal
    Might be due to what PayPal charge for the transaction
     
  23. inversnecky

    inversnecky Well-Known Member

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    I’ve come across WorldPay in many online transactions over the years, it’s just another company, don’t worry.
     
  24. Reef

    Reef Well-Known Member

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    Oh for sure, but I generally tend to look elsewhere if PayPal isn't an option, after all PayPal is about customer protection not venders profit margins.
     
  25. Reef

    Reef Well-Known Member

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    I never have (until UKTS) odd that huh, especially when you consider that 98% of my purchases are online (the 2% being Aldi down the road.. lol )
     
  26. theorganist

    theorganist Well-Known Member

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    I come across worldpay through work quite a lot. It is used on a lot of trade/commercial websites.

    On a personal note I would prefer it if UKTS did use Paypal but that is simply because it is just one click!
     
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  27. DTG Matt

    DTG Matt Executive Producer Staff Member

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    World Pay was part owned by Royal Bank of Scotland. It was just recently sold to Florida finance company FIS for around $43 billion. It's no small organisation :) I can also assure you that in my experience as a vendor with WorldPay, if the customer has an issue, I have to deal with the brunt of it, as indeed I should. On more than one occasion i've had some kids stealing their parents cards to order CD's and pay for subs and when the parents have found out they've received full refunds - WorldPay ask me to come up with a valid reason not to give the refund as the default is to pay it. Oh and I get charged a processing fee too... so I end up significantly out of pocket. That hurts :) Fortunately it doesn't happen very often.

    I hear the requests for Pay Pal. WorldPay actually have an option to add PayPal to their list of payment providers which would be by far the easiest option for me - except that when I looked into it, the paperwork required was far more than taking credit cards, bonkers. :)

    Now that things have settled on the new server, I will try and take a look at what I can do to integrate it directly - but as we don't have a nice neat shopping cart solution I don't know how long it will take unfortunately.

    Matt.
     
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  28. ntypeman

    ntypeman Well-Known Member

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    Reef...

    I've never had a problem with World Pay either...

    Eric
     
  29. Clumsy Pacer

    Clumsy Pacer Well-Known Member

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    I think throttling the download speeds so they can cover costs is fair, albeit annoying. They're not doing it to make you pay up. You'll also notice there's no adverts, bar ones for Matt's personal Twitch, and a (I assume) route for MSTS, so their only income comes from premium subs - and web servers aren't free. I doubt those two very small adverts get much money, if any.

    You may say "well, ATS doesn't either" and that's true, but ATS's yearly subscription costs more than UKTS's, and ATS also has some rather popular products that are available to subscribers only - that's not a thing for UKTS (at least I've not seen anything like that).
     
  30. theorganist

    theorganist Well-Known Member

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    There are some good stuff on the ATS site and at some point I will probably get the Peterborough route as it looks very good. Unfortunately it doesn't cater so much for those who like older content, it seems to be mainly for those who like modern period routes, which I don't mind but it isn't my main sphere of interest so I don't think at this stage I am unlikely to pay for a subscription there. I haven't really checked out what other payware items are on there, only the route they have built.

    I have discovered other websites which are for projects or have reskins which I have never come across?

    Would it be worth starting some kind of sticky post where those websites we come across can be linked too, thus making more people aware of them? I assume that would be allowed?

    I have always wanted to see a route based on the Kington and New Radnor branches on the Welsh Borders and lo and behold I recently, by accident stumbled across a webpage for that exact project. We might all know of projects ongoing which others might find useful.
     
  31. Clumsy Pacer

    Clumsy Pacer Well-Known Member

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    • Like Like x 1
  32. theorganist

    theorganist Well-Known Member

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  33. R3dS41ft

    R3dS41ft Active Member

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    Has anybody tried to download anything from uktrainsim today? I am getting a "503 service unavailable" message and have tried a few times over the afternoon.
     
  34. 749006

    749006 Well-Known Member

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    Still the same now.
     
  35. DTG Matt

    DTG Matt Executive Producer Staff Member

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    Oops! first i'd heard of this so have just logged in and yes looks like the machine rebooted and the download server hadn't come up properly - fixed and just tested seems fine now, let me know if any other problems.
     
  36. R3dS41ft

    R3dS41ft Active Member

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    Thanks Matt.
     
  37. dunworkin2

    dunworkin2 New Member

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    HI! New(ish) member here. How do you purchase a premium membership when it's impossible to sign up in the first place? I've tried umpteen times with zero success.
     
  38. 749006

    749006 Well-Known Member

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  39. dunworkin2

    dunworkin2 New Member

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    I have now done so. I was called away when you replied. Thanks!
     

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