Re: Driver download procedures

Ian D wrote:
> Has anybody figured out how to download from ASUS.
>
> I want to download the Win 7 drivers for my P6T Dlx, and
> here's the procedure I follow:
>
> - I go to the download page where all drivers, etc., are listed.
> - I select a driver to download, and the site to download from,
> i.e., Global.
> - I'm presented with a graphic verification key which I type into
> the adjacent box.
> - When I press the enter button next to the box, I'm immediately
> returned to the download page with no download.
>
> What am I doing wrong?
>
>

You'll notice that the first time you go to Asus, you'll
get a "Bad Request - Invalid Hostname". This is presumably
caused by the hosting used by Asus. It is a problem at the
server end. (It is how the server converts support.asus.com
into a local machine name in the hosting site.)

The same response, can happen at any time during the download
procedure. So perhaps you're just about to get your download,
you click the button. A "Invalid Hostname" happens again,
and the response happens to be hidden by the script being used.
Sometimes, all that is needed, is to repeat the operation a
second time.

OK, I did a test similar to yours, and right now, the
Captcha is disabled. So perhaps something is wrong
with the Captcha system, and all they needed to do is
disable it.

Any time you have a similar situation, there are some alternatives.

Hold your mouse over the link you'd normally click to start a
download. Copy the link and paste into Notepad, so you can pick
the link apart.

javascript:downloadfile(this,'P6T%20Deluxe','misc/sata/Marvell6121_SATA_V12068_V12069.zip',
'1','29','1','1','Marvell6121_SATA_V12068_V12069.z ip','0')

Take note of the portion of that, which is the file path specification.
Glue that onto an alternate link, such as the following.

ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/asus/misc/...068_V12069.zip

http://dlcdnas.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mis...068_V12069.zip

http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mis...068_V12069.zip

http://dlsvr.asus.com/pub/ASUS/misc/...068_V12069.zip

The FTP site probably doesn't run too fast, but it is better than nothing.

At least some of Asus transfers are done using Akamai, but Asus seems
to have a number of alternatives they switch in from time to time. Some
give the appearance of having Asus hostnames.

Asus has seemed to suffer for long periods of time, from what appears
to be denial of service (downloads requested by bots, instead of by
customers trying to get their motherboards running). On the one
hand, Akamai should have given virtually infinite bandwidth, but
perhaps Asus installed Captcha to try to reduce the billing they're
getting from Akamai. Otherwise, there seems to be no logic to
when the Asus site is reduced to a crawl, versus when it is doing well.
The server loading, doesn't seem to correspond to the yearly sales cycle.
To me, it doesn't seem like the slowness of the Asus server, is
caused purely by actual customers. There has to be more going on
than that.

Captcha is hardly a panacea, and I'm surprised Asus even bothered. Captcha
has been beaten a number of times. And in some cases, humans are
engaged to beat the system, in a distributed way. So if a company
really expects to defend their servers from attack by using Captcha,
it is a hopeless cat and mouse game. The images Asus is using right
now, are not really a challenge as Captcha goes, so I don't know
what they hope to stop. Anyone that owns a botnet, probably has
access to Captcha busting technology to run on the bots. The scheme
Asus is using right now, is about as weak as it gets.

Paul

"Paul" <> wrote in message news:hbve36$ef3$...
<..>
> Asus has seemed to suffer for long periods of time, from what appears
> to be denial of service (downloads requested by bots, instead of by
> customers trying to get their motherboards running). On the one
> hand, Akamai should have given virtually infinite bandwidth, but
> perhaps Asus installed Captcha to try to reduce the billing they're
> getting from Akamai. Otherwise, there seems to be no logic to
> when the Asus site is reduced to a crawl, versus when it is doing well.
> The server loading, doesn't seem to correspond to the yearly sales cycle.
> To me, it doesn't seem like the slowness of the Asus server, is
> caused purely by actual customers. There has to be more going on
> than that.

Paul, one of Asus's FAE's is a good friend of mine, and he has always
complained about his company's lack of funding for their servers. It's
been an issue for 20+ years. It's not an ongoing DoS attack.

To the OP, Asus runs their FTP and HTTP download servers on
pitifully slow connections. The only option is to keep trying, and
eventually you'll hit them when no one else is using them.

On Sun, 25 Oct 2009 17:42:38 -0700, <> wrote:


>
>Paul, one of Asus's FAE's is a good friend of mine, and he has always
>complained about his company's lack of funding for their servers. It's
>been an issue for 20+ years. It's not an ongoing DoS attack.

It IS an ongoing DoS attack, from the ASUS finance department.


>To the OP, Asus runs their FTP and HTTP download servers on
>pitifully slow connections.

And they want to have "enthusiasts" among their customers? What a
disconnect between marketing and finance (?). Ever try the EVGA site?
Very fast.

-AH