Stop steam choosing Israeli mirror by default

If it uses DNS at some stage then you can falsify DNS to point it to another server.
Or use a VPN to force Steam to go through another IP.
Or (advanced solution) do transparent IP masquerading.

What if you totally block the Israeli server, will Steam try another country, or will it terminally fail?

I don't think that steam are interested in making an exception for Lebanon. Apparently their whole system is flawed, they base the server selection on geographical proximity, which is not a reliable indication of speed. They should do something that automatically tests speed across various options to select the best option. So I think they should change their algorithm into something smarter if they care about performance at all. It is not realistic to expect internet infrastructure to comply with their simplistic model (closer is faster).

Title : Stop steam choosing Israeli mirror by default.

My comment on topic : But Why?

Are your reasons political / hate?
Or your aim is to improve download speed for the users in Lebanon?

On my side, I think your aim is for the first reason, correct me if I'm wrong.
And if I'm right, then I ask you again, BUT WHY?

Why servers / gamers / citizens, or on a more recent happening, Professors of Israel are a target that you can aim your hatred and terrible behavior towards.

I understand the countries are in war, but that's on both of the governments in my opinion and all other aspects of the countries should not be included.

I used to play a mobile augmented reality game, which uses location to play, which means, players with different geographical locations can have many advantages / disadvantages, plus player collaboration and coordination from one country to another was also an important and crucial strategy in order to win.
And I remember members of my team REFUSED to collaborate with Israeli players indefinitely. Even though seeing the countries locations, could have been a really good advantage of that collaboration.

And how about we talk about the mentioned recent episode that happened in AUB when an Isreali professor came to make a lecture.
I mean, did you take a look at how our "future generation" behaved? And supposedly these are aub university students that should have an open mind about stuff, without any discrimination or hatred towards anyone no matter the reason.
It looked like a nitwit convention where one person chants something and the other sheep follow by repeating the same chants.

Sorry I got carried away.
But I simply do not understand this hatred.

If you dig through the core files of steam you might find a default setting to change it or be able to set a default one. I've uninstalled steam long ago so dont have access to play with the files. (this approach is more suitable for your case i think).

I remember when I first installed Steam after formatting my PC I went to the download settings and chose Germany Frankfurt instead of Israel (Since the download speed is higher of course) but now after reading your post I went to the settings and found out it is back to Israel.
It seems after each update it will reset to the nearest server and you will have to amend this manually.

lol "slow", yeah ok, im sure thats why.

nuclearcat wrote please post your opinion there

No I'll post mine here.

It's just data packets passing through Israeli servers, why would I care? It's probably the nearest server, and it's getting me 1.6MB/s (yeah that's megabytes).

Also steam/valve is are companies that I respect a lot in terms of technological advancement and service providing. Sure their UI in CSGO is stuttery, but look at their GOTV, the events they sponsor, the security measurements they have*, the support department, etc... There is a reason why it's the top platform for gaming.

*I really like their steam guard. Their one-time key that you generate offline is an RFC (a proposed standard), and yet their implementation seems really good, it's been there for a while and I don't see anyone complaining about it.

rolf wrote

vlatkozelka wrote It's just data packets passing through Israeli servers, why would I care? It's probably the nearest server, and it's getting me 1.6MB/s (yeah that's megabytes).

So do think the packets are switched in Cyprus? (Lebanon -> Cyprus -> Israel)? Can you do a traceroute to check maybe?
I thought the packets would go all the way to France and then back to Israel, which would make a European server a faster option.
I don't have Steam, I'm just speculating.
I just traced a couple of random Israeli IPs an the packets go all the way to Europe like I predicted.

By the way, this is related:
https://www.reddit.com/r/lebanon/comments/5ymdnb/israel_steam_servers_block_lebanon/

Thanks for the effort, though it was not my point really. All I'm saying is that I really wouldn't care where my packets pass through, as long as it works. I don't think there's anything in it for Israel, is there?

Well it should work better if your server is in Europe, because Lebanese traffic goes through Europe first.
So the automatic selection of Israel is a technical problem.

rolf wrote So the automatic selection of Israel is a technical problem.

Completely agree. I believe our best pings are to Germany and France (talking from experience when we once rented a csgo server)

I wonder if it's not actually a technical problem, and just steam trolling us (it's a company that deals with gamers so...). Most probably just choosing nearest by distance.

Sorry OP for taking the thread as a political one. Of it's a technical issue you're pointing out then I completely agree.

While I'm not versed with steam or the legalities of the matter (although I'm fully aware of them), if any of the premises, Technical or Legal are true, then having "Israel" as a default being set is obviously not correct. This is not a matter of personal opinion or feelings.

[1] It's either legal for us to download from Israel servers, or it's not.
[2] If it's legal, it's either slow for us to download from Israel servers versus other servers, or it's not.

One precedes the other.

I guess the answer of these questions will let your conscious rest, I don't have the answers but I think this might help to direct the conversation into a clear result/end:
- Are we supporting Israel is any way if Steam default download servers where there?
- If this is illegal in Lebanon, shouldn't the ISPs blocking them already?

Israel is officially an enemy of our state, meaning any form of interaction or communication will make us suspects and we might be dragged for investigation about the nature of the communication. But in this situation it is the responsibility of the ISPs to block any traffic from and to Israel, but don't know if there is any law which prohibit digital form of communication specifically.

Other than this i suppose xterm assessed the situation best.