Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

Its ok bill is still with us we have burried the hatchet ouch:D

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

Did not feel a thing :pp

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

thats the point - the bandwidth is not the issue. the problem is usually with load balancing of proxy servers (along with other things), which is not helped by ppl specifying an explicit proxy and WCCP routers which determine which proxies cache which page etc.

"they dont utilise their external bandwidth" beacuse the more we use the external bandwidth the more it costs them! if you want all the proxies turned off then you may find BB prices will go up or a pay per bandwidth billing is introduced, (maybe not a bad idea for those who want proxy-less web browsing)

its not a case of ntl forcing this on users without their permission - they are the ISP and they have always used proxies. if they are turned off then that is a maintainence issue. frankly ntl can and will force users to use proxies as long as it is a cost effective option for them. in other word they will do as they please.

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

what? so my proxies were turned of for more than half a year because of maintenance?

I find that very hard to believe I think its more likely someone in upper management made a decision and they were turned on, higher costs if turned off?

so 34.99 1 mbit/1 gig a day traffic/proxy on-ntl

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

What proxies are you using ? - I thought Leicester NTL customers routed via Nottingham, and they have always been operational on the Nottingham core.

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

I think it is nottingham proxies I am using but not fully sure.

IP is 62.254.0.38

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

Yep, that's one of the Nottingham ones - but they have not been turned off for months :confused:

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

no they were turned off because they needed maintenance but there were other more critical jobs that needed doing first - ntl cant fix everything at the same time they need to allocate resources. so if something isn't vital (like proxies) then why not switch them off and fix something that needs to be fixed?

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

hey im not complaining they were turned off :)
its the fact they were turned on :(

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

If you do not think ntl force them on their users, then why do we not have the options to turn them off as we please unlike other companies who allow users to choose whether they use proxies or not.

Even Telewest AFAIK who used to have forced proxies have turned them off and allowed users the choice as to whether they want to use them or not.

Why does it cost more for ntl? Other ISP's are capable of offering proxyless capless connections for pretty much the same price as the ntl offering, give or take a few quid, so why can't ntl?

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

it doesn't cost ntl anymore than another ISP of a similar size. what i am saying is they have to pay for the exta bandwidth used when proxies are not in use.

I would like the option not to use proxies. they are excellent for dial up connections and quite good for caching regularly used websites. I wouldn't mind if they were more reliable - although i have had few problems in the swansea area when they are on (they were off for some time last year)

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

Is something really wrong with these proxies tonight?

mosts sites are timing out, i can make it to the web page now and again but trying to get into forums is hit and miss.

dunno if these tracerts bypass the proxies?

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

Strangely enough, one place I cannot reach tonight is Ntl Broadband Plus pages, the don't even time out, just instantly unavailable. I suppose I should be thankful that I am 3 months free trial, I would be miffed if I was paying the extra charge.

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

<Realists hat on>
Well if what I read a few posts back from BBKing is correct, ie NTL have added 6 more caches to the Manchester area, the chances that NTL are going to turn them off after such an investment is slim to none IMO. Us moaning about it is going to do nothing for the situation.
</Realists hat off>

I suggest we try to work with NTL (BBKing/BillC?) to work out the kinks. Granted not ideal but if we need to live with the proxies then lets at least get them working correctly :)

They say we should report the faults but where/how? If it's an 0845 number then no way will I participate as I am not paying for the priveledge of debugging NTL's system.

Can they arrange an alternate reporting method?

What Info do they want/need?

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

unfortunately tracert wont say much - as you correctly say they are not intercepted by the proxies as they run on a different port

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

Thanks DVS for a thoughtful post. Unfortunately I work in a completely different part of ntl (home rather than networks) so my room for manoevre is limited. Hence me asking people to ring in and report problems, since if I mention that I think the caches are misbehaving and there are no reported browsing issues in the area, I look stupid, whereas if I mention it and it completes a picture that's beginning to emerge, it speeds up the diagnosis. Bill C, if th'eng hasn't completely peed him off, I think works in networks, but nowhere near the cache people. He does have his ear firmly to the ground in the NW though.

I don't know which number to ring, either, but it may indeed be the 0845 number, if you want to get through to Swansea. Would appreciate confirmation of this.

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

I did contact about the proxies the other week. I must say this week theyare behaving so no more problems for a while.. Will call if they happen again

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

I'm guessing that all they'd need is:

- your location
- your ip address
- the URL you are having problems with
- whether the URL works with a manually-specified proxy (aka one of:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robin.d...cache.html#ntl)

That should be enough to show which redirector and proxy you're using.

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

Ping's and tracert's have very little in common with web browsing.

Web browsing uses a protocol called HTTP which is then transmitted using an IP protocol called TCP, this in turn uses a concept of "ports" and HTTP uses TCP Port 80. NTL's routers re-direct tcp80 to their proxy servers.

Ping and tracert use another IP protocol called ICMP - this does not have the concept of ports, nor is it intercepted by NTL - however it is often blocked by far end servers (hence timeouts).

Routers that respond to ping requests often only do so when they have nothing better to do - so they are not reliable measure of how well they are performing.

Maybe I should post a simple networking explanation as well - I'll see if I have time tonight.

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

the problem is 90% of webpages will work, just a lot slower.

As far as the average user is concerned this is not a problem so he/she will not ring up, a lot of user's may have only ever used ntl with the proxies on so they dont even have a experience of what it should be like.

Hence the lack of phone calls.

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

just a message relating since the proxies have been switched on it might not be related but here goes.

Since the proxies have been turned on having more disconnects from the interenet lease not renewing.

I know this is not normally related SNR & return path are ok .

Its lease renew related .

Any advice appreciated or could it be related

Having to reboot STB to get lease

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

Can you document this, Steve, gimme times/dates of when you're unable to get a connection. It won't be proxy related.

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

And i will contact the Network lads for that area to see if there has been any other's reporting this. :)

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

Thanks guys its appreciated will up date you BB if you check the log remotely will give you times

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

in addition to above can you tell me why pages are taking ages to load here any help appreciated

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

was happening me the other night, web pages took ages to load and most just gave up... but no else had a problem... mines fine now but browsing is much slower since they turned these proxies on

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

Manchester proxies must have fell over tonight. I can't blame the modem or settings as none had been changed I was in MIRC using MSN and websites working on college course when I asked for another page I got the message I could still talk on MIRC and MSN but couldn't surf any website rebooted the PC and still unable to surf websitesyes MSN logged in and worked MIRC also logged in and worked, as quick as they died they worked was around 30mins downtime but why should we have them if they are not reliable and slow us down.

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

I think that considering the interenet experience at the moment, NTL need to fixthe fault up here in the North West

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

Ok i have checked with faults and the network guys. Total faults for middleton for the weekend was 3 all sacm related.

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

Did you ring ntl, & tell them that you were experiencing problems?

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

I have decided that the proxy problem in the North West will only be fixed when it is actually costing NTL money in lost customers or high calls to the call centre.

The one thing about this site is that people try to help NTL but no one listens

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

IF and i repeat IF there is a fault we need customers to phone in. How can we fix something if we dont have the info. This is not a NTL run site so is not the best way to raise a fault. You have to report them to NTL . :erm:. How can you say "people try to help NTL but no one listens" if you dont report the fault". :shocked:

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

I was going to call mine in but it was too late to call and was back within 30 mins but was down again early this morning acording to my daughter. Yet when I checked it was back up can't NTL set up an answermachine so when faults is closed we can log the problem that way they will have been alerted to the problem. If I call now they are only going to say it's working now call when its not..

You are caught between the devil and a hard place.....

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

Too true Kitty:). But i know some users are not reporting they have a fault, Then make very bold statments that we are not helping. Whats a guy to do :rolleyes:

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

Did some testing last night and if you do the proxy dance and specify the proxies. Instead of expecting the NTL load sensing software to work it works, am now getting a good connection have tried most proxies round the country last night.

Found one thats working so can keep changing it if needed, use Robins list.

I know it masks the problem but unless you spend hours on the phone to CS its a work round

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

A) You don't need to ring CS, you need to ring Tech Support. :angel:

B) By the time you had done the above, & made your posts, you could probably have spoken to TS. ;)

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

I have spoken to TS at length they say that they cant do anything about it,i did the right think specifying another proxy.

Its all part of the NTL experience for the BB customer :Yikes: improving his BB experience :rofl: :rofl:

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

yeah no point at all ringing NTL, simply because I and them see the fix as 2 different things, my fix is to disable the transperent proxies and make a proxy server available for customers to use should they choose to do so. Their fix is simply optimising the proxies which doesnt fix my problem.

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

Rubbish-they may not be able to do anything about it there & then, but they can pass the details of the dept than can do something about it.

Right for how long?

Is it improving then?

How can it improve when Tech Support tell you there's nothing they can do?

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

The more people that ring TS the more chance of the problems being sorted agree with NEIL

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

I had some of the the problems posted here, ie, to many downloads for my IP and Sites Instantly gone that used to work.
My first call was taken by a very helpful woman. She even referred to a second senior, and despite all attempts (reset modem, PC, try proxies etc) nothing worked. Perhaps that senior should have told her the root cause in the first place and saved a lot of time and money wasted. I finally resolved to completely reinstall as I was told there was nothing else to try.

As you expect, nothing had changed, so i called them back and a chap answered, who said the proxy was probably down for repair and was now active. Some questions were passed and his final thoughts were, that i either had to like it or lump it! Or, i could allways change ISP. Are NTL so well off they can afford to give people this choice?

Anyway, I did a search and found the threads here related to my problem. (Thanks guys!) I set a manual proxy on port 8080 and all is now well.

I see from this thread that such things are not the answer. Well, NTL's round the houses approach to my problem cost me a fair sum. Plus, I got cable because I do some software reviews and need to get large files. The proxy stopped that access and I am not paying for a service that prevents me from doing what I signed up for in the first place.
The "helpline" was a complete waste of time, and the second call, quite offensive.

My final thought... Why didn't they mass mail? They have no problem doing that when the time comes to take your money.

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

data welcome to Nthellworld.co.uk here are some high level contacts in NTL, if you note the North west one might be worth a call. If anyone is having similar problems please use the info

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

please post in this thread if you are having problems in the NW

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

A little bird has told me that the Manchester proxies have again been turned off...:rolleyes:

How's everybody's browsing now?

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

Mines OK now and you are right its proxy free, no proxy found by all net tools.

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

Mine showing as no proxy as well.

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

Yeah no more proxy!

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

if you was anything to do with it can't you get nottingham/leicester proxies turned of again neil :P

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

I am still showing as using proxy yet I keep getting emails saying I have had a dos attack from my proxy...

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

The Nottingham ones are very stable and rarely get turned off.

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

pem mine were off for over half a year, so they were off, also they are not stable atm

poor speeds (sub 30k/sec on many sites on my 1mbit connection)
out of date pages on frequently updated sites
some pages dont even load

all fixed when on my personal proxy server

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

Out of interest - what NTL proxy does this page show for you (when not using your own) ?

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

AllNetools shows no proxy, but that link appears to show one?

Also, the window in the sig on the post by Chrysalis is showing 62.252.192.12 which is not my IP.

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

Can anyone get the National Lottery site up? http://www.national-lottery.co.uk/

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

Comes up for me... All be it very very slowly :(

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

Tried via that link, got fed up of waiting after several minutes. Did a quick Ctrl + F5 and it loaded instantly.

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

I managed to get it up but it took 4 mins on a 1 mb service... has to be the proxies...........

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

It's always really really slow this time on a Saturday night with the likes of me who's forgotten to put the lottery on :rolleyes:

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

AllnetTools is faulty then, that is the IP of Manchester Cache 9 :)

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

Thank's Guys, trust me to leave it while the last minute. Look's like it could be the proxy i just tried specifying a proxy and it come up straight away.

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

The same thing is happening to me, Allnetools show no proxy, but that link shows the 62.252.192.12 address :shrug:

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

They are not fully turned off though in Manchester, I appear to be going through a transparant proxy. But I am not having the problems the other guys have reported within this thread.

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

Wonders why you have the best proxy care to share the IP number so we can all have a decent one then :D

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

As BBking said we tend not to go through or stick to one proxy. So far I have seen that I have been through cache10-mant.server.ntli.net and cache6-mant.server.ntli.net.

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

Perhaps the transparent proxies have become more ... er ... transparent :D ;)

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

heres the answer

cache9-mant.server.ntli.net (62.252.192.12)
62.252.192.0 - 62.252.223.255
NTL Internet
Manchester site

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

Weird I have the same one I have had since I first found out I was on proxies again even have a screen shot showing the ip number which didn't change even though I have been swapping cable modems around these last few weeks..


I am also getting DOS attacks from my my proxy according to the modem as its sent me emails saying I was under attack from the ip that is cache1.. The only one I have ever been on..... :shrug:

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

Erm - how is looking up the IP range for Manchester the answer to anything :confused:



Ignore them Kitty - it is just being over sensitive - I get them a few times a week - it is mis-interpreting real traffic.

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

Well what a revelation this thread is ;), I thought the proxies had been buried for ever, at least now I know why browsing has been hit and miss the last couple of days.

BBKing.
To help in your request for backing when you say there are problems I have just spoken to BB tech support to advise that I am having problems with intermittent outages.
Unfortunately I didn't get the guys name but 5 starts to him, very pleasant and helpful and none of the usual c**p about resetting the STB and PC.

If the top managers were forced to spend a month on front line support maybe NTL would fix things properly, or maybe they would just give up.
I feel sorry for TeleWest customers when the long standing rumours come to fruition.

Hope the proxies get fixed, or switched off again real soon.

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

62.252.192.12 is the only one I seem to be going through since they came back on, TBH I have had no real problems and noticed no degradation of service whatsoever.

AllNettools did show it at first but for some reason it now cannot detect it.

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

AllNettools can still detect my proxy might try yours :)

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

It shows its a cache

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

I think i should be upset :) I have not had any of the problems you all say your having. Why have i been left out its not fair :pp


I am on the south manchester cache here in warrington

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

Oh, ok, but then I had already said it was.

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

REMOTE_ADDR 62.254.0.38

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

LMFAO

sorry had to laugh

but seriously you dont pay for a 1mbit connection for sub 56k performance :(

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

So you are using exactly the same as the rest of us in Nottingham & surrounding areas - and they have been stable here for the last few months - very few problems.

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

pem you are saying these proxies have been on for last few months, this is simply not true for me, I maybe using the proxy servers in nottingham but I am not in nottingham so its quite easy my area was turned off, also I can repeat the proxy problems again and again and again. One click to turn of my proxy problem exists, another click to bypass ntl poroxy problem gone, its quite simple really one common factor in my problems and its the ntl trapserent proxy.

Tell me what you make of my report in the speedtest thread next to this, I posted the results.

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

Tracing route to cache9-nott.server.ntli.net [62.254.0.38]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 15 ms 15 ms 19 ms 10.146.151.254
2 70 ms 19 ms 19 ms leic-t2cam1-b-ge96.inet.ntl.com [80.7.30.145]
3 20 ms 19 ms 39 ms nott-t2core-b-ge-wan63.inet.ntl.com [80.1.79.197
]
4 110 ms 128 ms 130 ms cache9-nott.server.ntli.net [62.254.0.38]

Trace complete

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

It would seem the problem is with your UBR/gateway - is that a Shepshed area connection? Certainly my routeing seems cleaner:

Tracing route to cache9-nott.server.ntli.net [62.254.0.38]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 192.168.2.1
2 9 ms 13 ms 9 ms 10.145.***.***
3 9 ms 9 ms 9 ms nott-t2cam1-b-ge-wan53-137.inet.ntl.com [80.4.46
.193]
4 11 ms 9 ms 10 ms nott-t2core-b-ge-wan72.inet.ntl.com [80.1.79.189
]
5 10 ms 10 ms 11 ms cache9-nott.server.ntli.net [62.254.0.38]

Trace complete.

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

not sure what it is but it isnt my ubr, otherwise first hop would be high, I can also tracert to other locations fine with much lower pings then that, all I know is I get abysmal proxy performance on top of having problems with having to refresh pages, I keep going on about it because its annoying hearing again and again that the proxies are not to blame for people's problems.

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

I have just completed a tracert and will now do one a day for a week..

things working quite well today so suppose this will be a good one..

Will see how they change over a few weeks. I notice I havent been below 10ms so anyone with lower ms are on better proxies than me..

Why do I go to Oldham then back to Manchester...

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

OK.

Kitty just to remind you pings are nothing at all to do with proxies they deal exclusively with web traffic not ICMP. Also if you are using Windows 2000 it tends to report sub-10ms pings as 10ms.

Oldham them Manchester? Network segmentation and best practise, spreading of load in Manchester throughout core rather than shoving everyone through the same (slightly lower spec) t2cams then to the higher spec t2cores, could be other reasons as well, distance of fibre run, arrangement of metro-net, etc.

I think some massive confusion is here people are forgetting that there are two distinct sets of cache in Manchester, Manchester Central (I think ;) ) and Manchester Transit. One has 4 caches the other has 10, and it's perfectly possible that those on manc-t2cores have transparent caching disabled while those on mant-t2cores do not, and vice-versa.

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

Ok you have to know manchester to realise why I asked why Oldham.. To get to Oldham via road its a long way round as there is a river between my home and the shortest route to Oldham. All the roads round me are closer to Manchester so if all NTLs cables are laid via road I am diverted miles out to come back.....

There is a large country park with river medlock flowing through the shortest road I know hasn't got NTls cables along it as a friend who lives on the farm on it can't have NTL and there are only three homes along that road in the valley..

Correct me if I am wrong but if you are sent the longest way round will that not slow down your internet connection.

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

At the speed of light a few miles extra doesn't make much difference :)

Not really my thing but if I have time I'll test all 14 :erm: of them Monday morning using http://www.numion.org/YourSpeed/

Please note This is not a definitive bandwidth test, my own DSL at home doesn't get anywhere near 1Mbit on this test, but on their other Maxspeed test achieves 120+k/s! before a load of people begin running this religiously and then complain cos they are only getting 3 - 400kbit/s on it :p

For a raw speed test this is much more accurate: http://www.numion.org/MaxSpeed/index.html

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

I haven't had a great deal of probs either. Some sites haven't been responding but have when i specified a proxy, but there haven't been many. Just watch now i have said that something will happen. lol

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

Come on Bill C and Martin share your proxies with us so we can test them :D

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

My son is using fedora will treacert the proxy from his pc next time see if it comes below 10ms

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

The speed of light = 299,792,458 m / s

Also don't confuse latency with bandwidth, a few ms here and there won't make any difference to browsing or gaming. For gaming a steadier stable latency is much more important, for browsing a responsive and wide burst of bandwidth on demand.

I have to say I actually miss cable, web pages were pretty much universally instant - maybe I was one of the lucky ones :)

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

I just have auto detect proxy set honest :angel:

It was this last time i looked -----> cache2-bagu.server.ntli.net

You watch you all change to it and it will go slow :LOL:

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

Bill working up here allright now no problems whatsoever so am going to keep quiet.

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

:Yikes: Thats a first :D

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

JustAnotherN00b is giving sage advice... The ping times to my local proxy servers are very low but they run like slugs. The ping times to watford servers and other areas are very high but I get a faster connection from there. You cant tell the speed of the proxy from its ping times !

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

Honest:angel:

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

:LOL: knew you would tell me next time I get timed out I am jumping ship to yours bet its no further than Oldham for me.....

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

Oldham - Manchester - you can't tell much about the routes of the cables from the layer 3 information you pick up from a traceroute. The fibres themselves exist at level 1 and could go anywhere - I've seen fibre distances 3x the crow flies distance, and there will be two alternative fibres anyway going two different routes. The backbone fibres are nothing to do with the cable in the ground and won't follow the same routes.

Manchester got split into two halves for capacity reasons, with a new core site in Oldham serving north and east Manchester, which covers Ashton quite nicely. Oldham happens to be more-or-less in the middle of that area.

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

:lol: on a map yes but over country unless you have suspended cables over a country park, river and valley its a long way off..

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

I only seem to go through one of these two, since the proxies came on......

cache9-mant.server.ntli.net or
cache2-mant.server.ntli.net

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

How do you tell that?

Bill - don't put Automatically Detect Settings on in Internet Options - it doesn't do anything except slow your browser startup down. For transparent caching it's completely irrelevant.

Can I remind people that you don't get assigned a specific proxy by ntl, you go through a group of proxies one of which will respond to your request depending on the destination IP you are requesting data from. Thus requests to two different sites could well be fielded by two completely different servers. The only reason you may think you're on a specific proxy is that two visits to the *same* site are likely to be fielded by the *same* proxy.

Re: [Merged] Manchester Proxies.
 

I think what BBK is saying is that it's perfectly possible that there will be longer distances of fibre involved than the as the crow flies distance, this is for redundancies sake - there's no point in having two fibres run if they are both in the same ducting, it leaves a single point where fibre break takes service down.

As far as placement of Ashton and its' layer 1 routing, unless you know where the other set of cams are you can't say that that's close to your uBR than Oldham. From what BBK says this was done for load balancing purposes and seems to do that quite adequately - I really don't see what the issue is with going via Oldham, if you knew the sort of elongated routes DSL subscribers can take through BT's ATM cloud you may see things a bit differently!

What you see in your street is not the same as the fibre that connects uBRs to the rest of the network though, they are seperate networks.

However as I've already mentioned light travels at just under 300,000 km/second - London to Bristol in 1ms or so - it takes about 60ms to cross the Atlantic, going through the numerous repeaters on the way, I can't really see the extra length there making anything more than microseconds of difference and it certainly wouldn't affect services in any way shape or form.

11 26 ms 25 ms 25 ms mant-t2core-b-pos31.inet.ntl.com
12 27 ms 25 ms 27 ms oldh-t2cam1-b-ge-wan54.inet.ntl.com
13 26 ms 25 ms 27 ms ubr01asht.inet.ntl.com