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Technical Content Delivery: FastDL

In the legacy GoldSource engine, the default method for transmitting custom assets (maps, sounds, models) occurs via the game’s binary port. This “SlowDL” method is severely limited by the engine’s bandwidth caps, often resulting in agonizingly slow download speeds for your community. FastDL bypasses these limitations by redirecting the client to an external web server using the high-speed HTTP protocol. This ensures that even massive custom maps are synchronized in seconds, significantly reducing the “Wait time” for new players.

Difficulty

Intermediate

Time

5 Minutes

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Technical Implementation Workflow

Setting up FastDL involves a coordinated synchronization between your server binaries and an external web host.
1

Stage Web Assets

Upload your /maps/, /models/, and /sound/ directories to your external web server or the specialized FREAKHOSTING FastDL storage.
2

Establish Directory Parity

important: The directory structure on the web server must exactly mirror your server’s /cstrike/ folder. If a map is located at cstrike/maps/de_dust2.bsp, it must be reachable on the web at http://yourdomain.com/cstrike/maps/de_dust2.bsp.
3

Configure the Engine

Open your /cstrike/server.cfg and define the authoritative download URL.
sv_downloadurl "http://fastdl.freakhosting.com/YOUR_ID/"
sv_allowdownload 1
4

Initialize Growth

Save the configuration and Restart your server.

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Strategic Optimization

To further accelerate downloads, you can compress your assets using bzip2. When a client requests an asset, the engine will prioritize the smaller .bz2 file (e.g., de_dust2.bsp.bz2) if it exists on the web server, automatically decompressing it locally.
Our high-performance clusters use Linux, which is strictly case-sensitive. If your .cfg defines a download for de_dust2.bsp but the physical file on the web server is named DE_DUST2.BSP, the request will return a 404 error, and the client will fall back to SlowDL.

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Need Extra Help?

If you encounter any issues, our support team is ready to assist:

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Last Updated: January 2026 | CS 1.6: Content delivery optimized.