Yes, we all know about the direct downloads of Sony content on PSN to be slow. But that is because Sony is limiting the speed at which people can leech their downloads.

What I'm talking about is the speeds of PS3 and PS4 when downloading from OTHER servers, from browsing Facebook photos to streaming a YouTube video to doing a google search.

Something is radically wrong with the way Sony consoles handle internet, and no one seems able to help. People can barely acknowledge what's wrong without sending you down some Kafka rabbit hole.

Here are the following misinformed answers people have given on various parts of the internet.

1) "PSN store downloads are slow that's why." No, I'm talking about lag, slow browsing speeds of all websites. Meaning, if I download PS4 firmware on PC to a USB stick, it will be 4MB/s as my 32Mbit connection should allow, only when using the console itself to download it is slow.

2) "PSN is free you get what you pay for." Not anymore on PS4.

3) "PS3/PS4s test connection isn't as reliable as speedtest.net" While that website doesn't work in console browsers there are HTML5 websites like http://speedof.me/ that show 33.85mbps download on Xbox 360s Internet Explorer but only 8.12mbps on PS4's browser.

4) "It's a port forwarding/quality of service problem. PS3 is 802.11g!" I plug my modem directly into 360 via Ethernet and it shows 33.85mbps and plays online games with no lag. I do the exact same with PS3 and 4, same cord, same modem (both before and after a reset) and the speed is 8mbps and the online is unplayable due to lag.

5) "Call Sony/your ISP." Both companies say to call the other one, then give you their predetermined grandma advice such as 'have you tried resetting your modem?' 'here's how to login to your router...' and 'are you sure an Ethernet cable isn't loose?' Or the granddaddy of em all 'perhaps the network is experiencing (blank) try again later' or 'this time of evening lots of people in your neighborhood...' again paying ZERO attention that I've said the Xbox 360 works fine. My internet isn't broken due to neighbors Netflixing or my phone streaming giant bomb quick looks because the Xbox and the PC can still download and game online just fine. Before I upgraded my Time Warner I had their 15meg bundle and Xbox always showed 14-ish and played fine, and when I upgraded to their 30meg tier it only got appropriately faster, even exceeding the rated speed. On the night I called TWC to bump tiers, before and after the technician doubled the speed the PS3 always showed 7-10meg speeds with far worse upstreams.

---- I though these problems were PS3 exclusive, due to the brand of Ethernet slot included (PS3 being so non standard with its proprietary CPU, and PS3 seemingly being designed for Japan, which for one doesn't care about online gaming so much and two, because PS3 was a global system the Ethernet jack they used might have been only as a fast as a universal all-territories one could be.)

Like if one type of SNES was built for PAL and NTSC both and the games ran terribly in both places because of it.

PS4 fixed a lot of the Japanese RPG focused jank of PS3, but this connection problem remains. Google is loaded with forums of people saying "I've got a 70meg internet service and PS3 only allows 2megs!" Something is broke with how they handle internet.

To reiterate A) It's not just me B) it's not just PS Store content and patches C) it's not router modem setting or ethernet cable brand biased D) Xbox live works fine and is now only $10 more per year E) it's not a rare outage of PSN or due to the launch of a major game or system in a territory F) it's not the time of day or the place you live

Something's wrong with how internet is handled on PS consoles, and PS4 didn't fix it. If anything my speed tests are slower than PS3 and the lag is tenfold worse.

Can we get a petition over something that actually is a major flaw for a change?

Man. I still don't understand what's going on with people.

This stuff all works perfectly for me. The downloading, the patching, and the web browser--all of it works 100% perfectly, and the download speeds are a significant step up from the slower PS3 speeds.

Same here.

Dunno bruh. I download stuff just fine. Downloaded all 12Gb of Battlefield 3 the other day in under 90minutes.

Me too.

#fixpsnpls

+1 my PS4 experience has been a vast improvement over PS3 for this stuff, sorry about OP's issues but it really might be your ISP or something.

Like, sure, it isn't as fast as downloading a Steam game or what not, but it's certainly adequate for me. If you want more than adequate, I don't know what to say.

Yeah, same here. I'm very satisfied with how PSN seems to be working on PS4.

I don't use my consoles to browse the internet.

You must live somewhere terrible OP, it's fine.

The OP mentioned that it's slower on PSN even though all the other stuff in his house like his iPhone, PC and Xbox are all pretty fast.

People keep forgetting something: Part of "The Internet" is at your side. The slowdown might be in your home setup (who knows what you've done to it at this point). The slowdown might be coming from your immediate provider.

Suggesting this is all Sony's fault and they need to fix it belies the small fact that Internet is complex that no one has control over.

Why are you doing Google searches and browsing Facebook on your PS4?

It works fine in GBs launch stream with alot more than 8mbit/s

Sorry that you're having browsing problems. It's been fine for me as I've been watching some twitch streams at the highest quality directly through the browser, as well as the highest quality on youtube w/o any stutter.

My speeds on PS4 are monumentally better than PS3, and judging by the responses in here, that seems to be the case for most people. I think it may be something on your end OP.

Joining the legion of people saying download speeds are fine. I re-downloaded Bioshock Infinite earlier this week to play the DLC and it was completely down and installed within 90 minutes.

I was apparently one of the few people who had pretty alright download speeds on PS3 and my PS4 downloads continue to be speedy.

Wow, another person who believes their personal internet woes are somehow the fault of a hardware manufacturer.

Newsflash: I have 0 of the problems you mentioned. I guess they made my PS4 special just for me, right? My PS3 downloads/browser was complete garbage; everything on the PS4 is fast for me.

Hate to be a jerkface (well, sorta) but you gotta learn a little more about the internet duder.

I don't know, my PS3 used to be going at about a fifth of what my actual internet speed was, on a good day. On PS4 I'm getting it full speed and it's been perfectly fine. Everything is quick and snappy, no complaints from me.

@boocreepyfootdoctor: I didn't see if you have mentioned that you set up port triggering on your router for the ports that PSN needs in order to operate properly...what about uPNP? Under your "It's a port forwarding/QOS issue" you said something about your 360? Xbox Live and PSN use completely different ports for their services.

Alternatively, just put your PS4 in DMZ. It's worth a shot.

@hunkulese: For testing speeds, really... I was trying to use the PS4 to see giant bomb content on TV without running a long cable from the pc, or buying an AV receiver and apple tv, cause my TVs hdmi ins are full. yes i know my premium sub just expired, but before it did the html5 videos on GB would load but stutter terribly.

another issue is uploading footage. there is no pause button on PS4 uploads to Facebook. and, footage is constantly overwritten as you play games, only the most recent 15 minutes is saved. so if I have a great run in call of duty and want to save it, i can either quit playing altogether and wait 15 minutes for the clip to upload, or upload while still playing and get terrible lag. like your soldiers having an epileptic attack lag. like every opponent and teammate running in place the entire round while you smoothly walk around them lag. theres no way to mark footage to save and upload later. my upload speed on PS4 should be able to game and upload footage, because when I upload something to youtube from my digicam on PC while I'm gaming on PS4, theres no issue-- dividing the bandwidth two ways doesn't go horribly unless both ways are on Playstation.

@mb: I thought directly plugging the modem into the PS4 means no ports/dmz/upnp or anything, just a raw connection. unsafe in the long term, but for testing purposes, to rule out the router. Regardless, I did port forward and upnp was enabled. Sorry for posting in the wrong place. I understand other people are having no problems. But my internet works great with all other systems. If Im playing MW3 on 360 online and browsing thru a Facebook album on PC at the same time, it doesn't slideshow lag the game on every "next pic" click, but does so for Ghosts on PS4. Its weird. I can't complain to Time Warner because technically my connections fine, and if my speed tests are alright on PC thats all they need to say "not our problem call Sony". It'd be weird that both the PS3 and PS4 I bought both had unique manufacture flaws in their ethernet jacks AND wifi antennas, you know? all in all, to play anything PS online, I have to shutdown all other computers and devices in the house, and never use PS4s cool streaming and Facebook upload features.

@strainedeyes: The speed is affecting gameplay lag and uploads of video capture. i web browse cause PS4 has barely any apps yet, and for GB videos on TV.

Sounds like the TC is having a personal network issue he/she needs to troubleshoot. My PS4 download speeds are lightning quick, similar to Steam on my PC. Then again I'm on a FIOS fiber optic connection with a gigabit internal network.

Working great here. It feels like the PSN Store finally uses a real CDN. My cable connection maxes out.

Maybe investigate the MTU settings on your modem.

I don't have any issues with my performance on the PS4, but a speed test from my PC shows 31.66 down and 8.96 up, PS4 shows 12.5 down and 2.7 up... Both are on wifi.

Running a wire isn't a great option for me, I need to re-rout or extend my coax. Not sure if that'd help. That said, except for a bit of lag in DC Universe from time to time I'm good.

Anyone who runs off wireless and complains about slow download speeds and/or lag is a moron

Funny... I feel the same way about people who act like jerks on message boards.

I've had much better speeds with the ps4 than the ps3. That being said, it still behaves like the poor mans online network. I can't even redeem a code or access the store today. Can't even redeem the code from the PC. What is the point of having some codes that only work from the console? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of that feature?

Microsoft had all their marketing talk about a more proven and reliable online service, but it's still absolutely true. PSN has always crumbled under pressure. I'm not even trying to download anything, just want to redeem a code and the store crashes.

@rachelepithet:

I signed up just to reply to this.

I had the same problem, network was fine, my ps3 and ps4 were not. Speedof.me was reporting 22bits, (my max is 25), but psn downloads were 3...5bits.

For me, the solution was to stop using 8.8.8.8 as DNS, and start using my ISP DNS. (I have Teksavvy). I believe the reason is that when I use 8.8.8.8, I'm accessing the same tired CDN that all 8.8.8.8 users steer using. Once i switched to ISP DNS, the CDN resolved to a fast local one. My firewall shows a solid 25mbit for both my ps3 and ps4.

The reason your 360 is ok is that MS uses the source address to relocate you to an ideal server, Sony uses DNS.

I can download 15 gigs per hour. That's fucking great.

@jz:

That's just it. PSN is hosted by Akamai. Akamai is a world leader for performance. Akamai uses DNS for load balancing and performance. If someone is using the "wrong" DNS, Akamai will not optimally.

@largoplantington: I have no idea what you just said

Never had any download speed problems.

@jz:

I'm a rambling fool.

Basically PSN relies on the DNS setting to determine the fastest/best server to connect to. If someone (likely OP) uses generic DNS entries like OpenDNS, or Google, then they will be sent to generic PSN servers.

If someone (like yourself, or myself) uses ISP or regional DNS settings, then they will get the best server for thier ISP or region.

A google search for "akamai DNS load balancing" will confirm this. Akamai IS the PSN file network.

@rachelepithet:

I hope to hear back. Can you tell us what your DNS settings are?

When I changed to TekSavvy East (I'm eastern Canada) I went from 5 to 25 :

206.248.154.170

206.248.154.22

Welcome to Giant Bomb?

Works great for me which does not mean your problem does not exist. But i do think it's a stretch to blame all of PSN when it seems like an isolated problem with some users.

@phantomzxro:

The problem with Akamai (the company that hosts PSN), is they do load balancing via DNS. If you have sub optimal DNS settings, (I.e. using 8.8.8.8 ...), you will get sub optimal response.

Xbox, and http in general, support redirects, so they can send you to the best server based off your ip address. PSN only supports DNS load balancing. Bad DNS, bad performance.

@rachelepithet: just signed up to reply, so let me start by saying that if i was reading this post 6 months ago i would have reply the same as other: is your provider, your connection, blah blah because around 6 months ago i was getting on average 45mbs download and 11-11.9 upload with a 50mbs services from comcast in florida, now for the last fews months somehow the maximum speed is basically capped at 25 and 4.5 even thou nothing have changes for the rest of others devices like the ps3, ipad,xbox360, pc etc. I have contacted both sony and comcast and all they do is blame each other, now, im not a genius here but someone is hiding something. Im starting to think either sony or comcast is caping the device. I know 25/4 is enough for fps but thats not what im paying for and we all know that speed is not consistent. So with that said just because you ps4 is working fine doesnt mean that all are. Raise awareness!

@janler: It's a conspiracy!!

@baillie: Chemtrails

I don't think this is an all encompassing PSN problem...sounds like an ISP thing, since it doesn't happen to everyone.

PSN downloads at the same speed as my PC, even on PS3 which many have long complained about.

I had horrible downloads on the PS3, still do but my PS4 is much faster, no online lag on FFXIV when i play (i get less lag than most pc gamers in my FC) and netflix and amazon movies run at 1080 with no buffering or artifacts. I hate to say it but something on your ISP's side is throttling you on your Sony devices, maybe they have a deal with MS to let the 360 and X1 run at full speed? We certainly have some dodgy ISPs in the UK doing that very thing right now.

Same here, I've never had a problem with download speeds on psn.