Download window seems very inaccurate?

[digitalaudiorock]

I'm using palemoon 29.2.0 for Linux. However this is an issue I've always noticed, and was a little surprised I couldn't find anything searching here. In fact I'd always noticed the same thing with FF:

Especially when downloading files from slow sites, the download speed and the time remaining in the downloads window are always wildly inaccurate for me...so much so that downloads can end up saying that there are 3 minutes remaining and still say that 30 minutes later. Do others find that to be the case? Thanks!

Tom

[vannilla]

Tracking actual download time is mathematically impossible, so all a browser can do is make estimates based on the current download speed and other factors.
If it keeps staying at 3 minutes even after 30 minutes, it's either a bug (unlikely) or the network speed (and the other factors) fluctuated so much so that the browser had a hard time making estimates (most likely.)

[digitalaudiorock]

I'm aware of that, but that really doesn't appear to be what's happening at all. I can tell that in these cases, the real speed is pretty consistent. It seems as though at times the speed reported by the downloads window is overstated.

I'll have to keep an eye on that when it happens and also see how fast the actual file appears to be growing.

Tom

[Moonchild]

If your networking causes "burst" behaviour then what the browser sees is fast speed - 0 - fast speed - 0; since you can't make an estimate based on 0, the "best guess" is "guess by fast speed". Not really much to do about that if you aren't actually having a consistent download.