Slow CC updates - A possible solution

[Samoreen]

Hi,

Like many others, the CC updates are (were) extremely slow on my system although I have a decent ADSL connection. I gave this some thought and found the following...

Adobe are distributing their software through the Akamai CDN (this can be observed with a network monitor while updating). For those who are not aware of this technology and to make things simple, a CDN is a system that is able to make the downloaded package available to a myriad of servers all over the world and to connect you to a server near your location (which is detected from your IP).

This works automatically but not always, especially when you are using a DNS server that is not able to provide localization information to the CDN system. In which case, you are systematically downloading from the central server. If you are living far from Illinois, this can slow down operations a lot. A good example is when using the Google DNS servers (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4). This can also happen for some internet providers. I made some tests and I could observe that indeed, I was always downloading from the central server in the US (I'm based near Paris in France).

Given this information, I thought to myself that if I could use the Akamai DNS servers instead, I may have more chances to download from a nearer server. Fortunately I could find the IP addresses of the Akamai servers :

- IPV4
88.221.162.120 and 88.221.163.120

- IPV6

2620:119:35::35 and 2620:119:53::53

I changed the network settings on my system to make it use these DNS servers and I could immediately observe that I was now downloading from a server in Frankfurt (Germany). And the update was significantly faster. I wouldn't say lightning fast (I only have a 10 Mbps ADSL connection) but this was more acceptable.

I cannot guarantee that this will work for everyone but there's no risk trying. I didn't observe any side effect since I have changed the DNS servers.

Hope this helps.

[Samoreen]

By the way, since Microsoft is also using the Akamai CDN, the suggested network settings may also make your Windows updates faster. This is the case for me.

[Samoreen]

Please note that this doesn't solve the "CC Desktop eats all the network bandwidth" problem which makes impossible to use the network for other tasks while CC Desktop is downloading updates.

[Jeff A Wright]

Very interesting information, Samoreen; thank you! It is quite amazing how much effect the domain name server settings can have!

For future viewers of this discussion, I would encourage you to contact our Internet Service Provider to verify the Domain Name Server and other settings and use their recommendations. This could be especially important if you have kids or roommates who may have adjusted DNS and other Internet settings for other purposes.

[kglad]

thanks for all the info @Samoreen