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Dropbox still incredibly slow on Verizon Fios

For the last ten years, as described in Really Slow Upload...only Dropbox | The Dropbox Community and https://www.reddit.com/r/dropbox/comments/6n74lu/dropbox_slow_on_fios_gigabit_connection/ Dropbox has been incredibly slow on Fios - as in, less than 5 Mbps.

If I simply set a SOCKS5 proxy in the Dropbox preferences so my connection goes through some other host instead of directly to Dropbox - then I get 100+ Mbps.

This is not about the bandwidth limit setting. If I take my computer to a neighbor's house that is on Xfinity, it works fine. If I stay at home, but route the connection using SOCKS5 through someone else's non-Fios host first, it works fine. The problem is only if the connection is direct via Fios.

This problem has been going on for more than a decade, for a majority of people on Fios, at least in the northeast US.

How can this get fixed? There is clearly a peering issue somewhere.

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Walter

Hey @Daniel D.2 - thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Just to make sure we're on the same page, you're noticing slow uploads when using the Dropbox desktop app on your computer or maybe when you do it through the web?

If it's the former, can you clarify the app's version/status as shown in your system tray/menu bar? Also, what is the exact OS of your device(s)?

Also, if it's been a while since you first noticed this, did you try getting in touch with our support team?

Any additional information or even screenshots are more than welcome.

Daniel D.2

Desktop, currently v239.2.2708, but as I said, this has been consistent for the last decade.

I have contacted support about every 2 years. I have never, ever gotten any better responses than "try reinstalling it" and "have you rebooted your computer".

This is not a me problem. People have been complaining about this here on this forum and reddit for ten years. Anyone at all who is on Fios in the northeast can reproduce this problem. And all it takes to fix it is walk next door to a non-Fios connection, or go through a non-Fios proxy.

euclidean

Just FYI - speaking as a former FiOS employee (in neteng west) - this is unfortunately intentional. We hate it just as much as you do. It comes out of a very misguided attempt to entice people to use Verizon Cloud.

euclidean

(Not saying this is a good idea. It's just what they did.)

Hannah

Hey @Daniel D.2, thanks for the additional info here.

I see you mentioned that you're on v239.2.2708 of the Dropbox app. Can you switch to the stable version to see if that helps?

To do so, you'll first need to turn off the "early releases" option here.

Then, simply download and run the Dropbox installer from this link and let me know how it goes.

Daniel D.2

No, that doesn’t help, and please don’t clutter up the thread with completely vacuous suggestions. Obviously a minor version change has nothing to do with this.

Hannah

I understand where you're coming from, Daniel.

However in this case, you're using the 'alpha' version of the app, which is part of our beta services.

As you know, products in beta are still in development and are not as reliable as other products, like our stable version which is more thoroughly tested.

So, I do suggest you try switching to the stable version and if that doesn't work, we can try something else.

Of course it's all up to you!

Daniel D.2

As I said, I have tried a stable version. And it's the same on iOS. And it's the same on Windows. And it's the same if it's someone else entirely, using a different version of Dropbox.
And this has been happening across versions for a decade now.

All that fixes it is routing around or leaving Fios.

And if the 1-post person above isn't a troll, we have an answer anyway.

Hannah

I see. In any case, I just sent you an email, Daniel, so we can look into this internally.

If you want to do that, please reply back to me when you have a chance.