Confused at how this Throttling works

Mauldor · 08-03-2008, 00:42

A Quote form the guide:

Quote:

L: If you download more than 800MB or upload more than 325MB between 4pm and 9pm your download speed will be dropped to 1Mb and Upload speed will be dropped to 128Kb for 5 hours

I had made sure that at bang on 4pm, any downloading I had on the go had stopped, I checked my Speed at 8pm and it was still 4mbit, checked again at 9pm (which s classed as the cut off time above) and no problems still - 4mbit on the nail. At 9:05pm, I resumed my downloads and by 9:30pm my internet come to a grinding halt. Checking Speeds and it showed quite clearly that I had 1mbit download and 100K Upload.

I want to know were I am going wrong - is the cut off 9pm or have they since extended this? Another question - it seems to me the second you hit either 800MB downloaded or 325MB upload - you are throttled, I thought it was the 3/5% of people ??

Just to add: Now 11:44PM and Im still capped - I fail to see what the point of this is..

webcrawler2050 · 08-03-2008, 01:33

Hi there,

I *think* the Traffic management is active for 5 hours after the offense... so if you download 800MB @ 9pm you will be throttled until 2AM and so on..

In your case, I guess you where just unlucky, the system *may* have still been active at 9PM / 9:05PM - thus the traffic management may have kicked in again!

Mauldor · 08-03-2008, 01:48

Thats fair enough, Im trying to work around the restrictions in place by making sure that ANY downloading is done during the day - keeping the line clear between 7pm and 9pm (when I actually get on) to do normal surfing, the only problem is when this kicks in - pages takes a Long time to load, this has probably to do with the Upload Speed more then anything else.

The only bits that confused me rally is that I would rather have a Hard cap between a certain time and then lifted - lets say 4pm to 11pm for example rather then hit the cap just after 9pm and be throttled all the way to 2am.

webcrawler2050 · 08-03-2008, 01:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mauldor

Thats fair enough, Im trying to work around the restrictions in place by making sure that ANY downloading is done during the day - keeping the line clear between 7pm and 9pm (when I actually get on) to do normal surfing, the only problem is when this kicks in - pages takes a Long time to load, this has probably to do with the Upload Speed more then anything else.

The only bits that confused me rally is that I would rather have a Hard cap between a certain time and then lifted - lets say 4pm to 11pm for example rather then hit the cap just after 9pm and be throttled all the way to 2am.

Yup I know exactly what you mean!!! It can be a pain in the rear end!

I always leave my downloading going through the night, get full potential and they can't throttle you that way - to a certain extent..

Maybe you could just stop downloads between the peek times?!

Mauldor · 08-03-2008, 23:02

Now this is getting Silly, I was not online at all (not even a computer switched on) and I only came online at 6pm, I downloaded the latest Safari Beta (Apple + PC) and a few program updates plus Vista Updates for my Virtual machine. I had no call to check my speed as was not on much after that.

I have a widget on the mac which shows you how much bandwidth you have used per day, as I had not long boot the iMac, this was about as true a reflection as you would ever get, probably got some Mac -> PC Network transfers in there as well - so the figures:

Downloaded: 264MB
Uploaded: 56MB

Its now 10pm and I am throttled once again - the only thing I can think of at this time is my Modem has been cloned, there is no other explanation for this whatsoever. What can I do about this state of Affairs because at the moment, I am basically been Capped every single night without even using the net much.

webcrawler2050 · 08-03-2008, 23:12

This could be possible..

I take it the modem is direct and no router/wireless router involved?

Your line could be faulty, you could ask for an engineer to visit i guess!?

Mauldor · 08-03-2008, 23:38

Just to update what has happened (and its a good thing) - I called tech Support and they got me to switch off my Modem for a long while while they did something - she asked a few times "Are you sure your modem is off as I can still see it" which I confirmed. She took my Mac address, made Some changes and told me to leave the modem off for 5 more minutes and retest.

I am now coming at at 13mbit (on a 4mbit service) and upload has hit 600K. She said if my speed (less me getting Capped by downloading too much of course) is still not good after another 5 days, I was to request a modem swap, as I have had this modem for about 9 Years now.

To Answer the question of my Set up:

SB4100 Connected to a Linksys WRG54GS (wireless switch off)
Connected to a Gigabit Switch and connects to:

iMac
Dell GX620 machine
Laptop

I had tested by direct connection from the router but basically I was been Capped at about 9pm or close to.

webcrawler2050 · 09-03-2008, 00:30

Hmm maybe your modem could be faulty then?

It sounds like its eating your limit / download speed

Least you got good speed now

Kymmy · 09-03-2008, 11:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mauldor

I called tech Support and they got me to switch off my Modem for a long while while they did something - she asked a few times "Are you sure your modem is off as I can still see it" which I confirmed.

Why when I look at the above quote I have in the back of my mind the term "cloned MAC" ???

If you turned off your modem and they could still see the MAC address then it's pretty obvious that there's a cloned modem out there using the same MAC address.

Kymmy

Mauldor · 09-03-2008, 17:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kymmy

Why when I look at the above quote I have in the back of my mind the term "cloned MAC" ???

If you turned off your modem and they could still see the MAC address then it's pretty obvious that there's a cloned modem out there using the same MAC address.

Kymmy

I have only read about this Cloning on here and not sure how widespread it is or even if it still exists - Myself personally, this was the only way I could explain myself getting Throttled when not even using the line bar browsing (which is why I called up Support in the end). It may have been an error on her behalf and maybe she was just checking that I had switched the modem off - I switched off when she asked me and went off to make a coffee while she did what she wanted to do on the computer.

It puts into light if this was the case that they should find a way to stop tis happening esp. now that they enforce these speed reductions. I would not have been so bothered if my web browsing was normal speed but it almost brought it to a halt - Lets hope they figure out a way to knock these cloners (if they exist) offline.

Actually....

Looking at my speed tests and from what I can see, I have not been upgraded to the upcoming 10mbit service but in fact been put on the 20mbit Service. My problem is that I was happy with the 4mbit as long as the Throttling never kicked in and if they have indeed changed my line speed to sort the problem - this begs the question of:

Was I given a Free (temp) upgrade to the 20mbit to fix the problem.
Will I be billed next month Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â£38 instead of Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â£25 for something I never asked for?
Is moving me to 20mbit not just masking the problem as this has a higher limit before Capping?

I will check my next Bill and will not be too happy if I was indeed upgraded to 20mbit for a higher monthly cost.