Brand Portal supports accelerated download of large asset files by integrating with IBM Aspera Connect, which is an install-on-demand application. The application uses proprietary technology to remove TCP overheads and helps improve transfer speed for files, thus ensuring enhanced download experience. Users distributed across geographies, experiencing high latency, can also benefit from this capability.
Note:
IBM Aspera Connect enables speedy download of large asset files from Brand Portal and shared links, but download speed may vary depending on factors such as network bandwidth, server latency, and geographical location of clients.
To configure specific tenants for accelerated file download, administrators Enable Download Acceleration (which is disabled by default) from General Settings in the administrative tools panel.
If enabled, Brand Portal users can significantly reduce the time taken to download the desired asset files from Brand Portal or through Shared link by installing the Aspera Connect client.
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Ports 33001 (both TCP & UDP) are opened in the firewall by administrators. For more information on the prerequisites to using IBM Aspera Connect, see Aspera Connect Client documentation.
Following are the download domains for different geographies:
| OS | OS Version | Browser | Required Libraries | |
| Windows | Windows 7, 8, 10 Windows Server 2008, R2, 2012 R2, 2016
|
Chrome | 64-66 | |
| Firefox | 57-60 | |||
| Firefox ESR | 52 | |||
| Internet Explorer | 11 | |||
| Microsoft Edge | 39-42 | |||
| MacOS | 10.11 - 10.13
|
Chrome | 64-66 | |
| Firefox | 57-60 | |||
| Firefox ESR | 52 | |||
| Safari | 11 | |||
| Linux (64-bit) | RHEL 6 – 7 CentOS 6 – 7 Debian 7 – 9 SLES 11 – 12 Fedora 26 – 27 OpenSUSE 42.3 Ubuntu 14 – 17 |
Chrome | 64-66 | OpenSSL 1.0.2g or higher Mesa EGL glib2 2.28 or higher
|
| Firefox | 57-60 | |||
| Firefox ESR | 52 | |||
For platform support matrixes of different versions of Aspera transfer client, see Aspera Connect platform support matrix.
The following table shows expected time to download a 1 GB file using Aspera Connect file download accelerator from Brand Portal, considering latency in different geographies:
Client Location |
Latency between Client and Server | |
U.S. West (N. California) |
18 milliseconds | 36 MB/s |
U.S. West (Oregon) |
42 milliseconds | 36 MB/s |
U.S. East (N. Virginia) |
85 milliseconds | 35 MB/s |
APAC (Tokyo) |
124 milliseconds | 36 MB/s |
Noida |
275 milliseconds | 13.36 MB/s |
Sydney |
175 milliseconds | 29 MB/s |
London |
179 milliseconds | 35 MB/s |
Singapore |
196 milliseconds | 34 MB/s |
Note:
Cited data are as per the tests conducted in lab and are only indicative. Observed results vary due to factors such as network bandwidth, server latency, and client location.
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Browse and select the desired asset file, folder, or collection to download. Tap/ click download option.
Download dialog appears with Enable download acceleration option selected.
Note:
The functionality to send email notification with the link to download assets is presently not supported while faster downloads are enabled.
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Download Aspera Connect Client
If Aspera Connect client is not installed on your system or the existing installed Aspera Connect client is out of date, a prompt is displayed on browser page from where you can download the system-specific Aspera Connect client by selecting Download Latest Version.
To download the latest version of Aspera Connect from https://downloads.asperasoft.com/connect2/, select Download Now and follow the instructions.
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Once the client is successfully installed, either refresh the browser page and initiate the download steps again or select Restart in asset Download dialog box (Step #2).
When using Aspera Connect for the first time, the browser prompts to open the link using IBM Aspera Connect. To skip this dialog in future, enable Remember my choice for FASP links.
Note:
This message is different on the different browsers.
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A dialog box confirms whether to proceed the transfer or not. Select Allow to begin.
To skip this dialog in future, enable Use my choice for all connections with this host.Download begins. A dialog box shows the progress of the download. Use the dialog box to pause, resume, or cancel the download.
Aspera Connect application provides an Activity Window on the system where user can view and manage all transfer sessions. For more information, refer Aspera Connect Client documentation.
On successful completion of the download, a dialog box shows the location where assets are downloaded to user's system. If there is a failure, it shows error.
Note:
There is a known limitation in Aspera Connect client application that no prompt to select download location appears if Always ask me where to save downloaded files is enabled under the tab Transfers within Preferences. Before any download begins, provide the location in the text box Save downloaded files to.
Microsoft Edge runs in Enhanced Protected Mode (EPM) preventing communication with the Aspera Connect server, while on same private network or with a Trusted Site. Therefore, a pop- up shows up every time a connection with the server is being established.
To use accelerated download functionality on Microsoft Edge, remove the Brand Portal site from the trusted site list.
There are a few useful preferences which can be set in IBM Aspera Connect Client preference by right clicking the icon and selecting Preferences.
Also, the Aspera Connect client can be marked to automatically start on system startup so that the connect client is running and available for the download to begin faster.
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Check that ports are not blocked, by visiting https://test-connect.asperasoft.com from your machine.
If ports are not OK, then reach out to your network team and ensure that Ports 33001 (both TCP & UDP) are not blocked in the firewall.
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If the ports are OK then check if your network is not slow, by measuring the available bandwidth using http://www.speedtest.net/.
If the bandwidth is a few (1-10 Mbps) or in Kbps, then use Aspera Preferences and try to limit the bandwidth equal to the available bandwidth.
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To confirm whether the downloads from Aspera demo server are working, use https://demo.asperasoft.com/aspera/user.
(login:asperaweb , password:demoaspera )
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