This Traffic Shaping Business

[LostintheNW]

Hello

Can anyone tell me when this is meant to kick in? I am in the Manchester area but served via Oldham.

I downloaded one sodding video from xbox live and was rammed on to the traffic shaping, the video in question was the new GOW2 gameplay video weighing in at what Virgin deem to be a hefty 144mb!

I downloaded the video on Saturday morning, way before the supposed times of this pathetic system they have in place.

I called Customer Services to complain seeing as I am on a 20 meg connection (been a customer for over 14 years etc) and don't see why I should be traffic shaped for downloading whats relatively a small amount compared to what some people appear to be downloading!

Customer Services have informed me that this system deals with the top 3% abusers of the system and that I am classed as one for downloading this file as the limit everyone is allowed to download before you are shaped is 120 meg!!

In the middle of looking for a new BB provider as I am far from happy about this.

Anyone got any suggestions on other ISP's?

God help anyone who goes for the 50meg service, that should be a laugh with a 120 meg limit

Originally Posted by LostintheNW

Hello

Can anyone tell me when this is meant to kick in? I am in the Manchester area but served via Oldham.

I downloaded one sodding video from xbox live and was rammed on to the traffic shaping, the video in question was the new GOW2 gameplay video weighing in at what Virgin deem to be a hefty 144mb!

I downloaded the video on Saturday morning, way before the supposed times of this pathetic system they have in place.

I called Customer Services to complain seeing as I am on a 20 meg connection (been a customer for over 14 years etc) and don't see why I should be traffic shaped for downloading whats relatively a small amount compared to what some people appear to be downloading!

Customer Services have informed me that this system deals with the top 3% abusers of the system and that I am classed as one for downloading this file as the limit everyone is allowed to download before you are shaped is 120 meg!!

In the middle of looking for a new BB provider as I am far from happy about this.

Anyone got any suggestions on other ISP's?

God help anyone who goes for the 50meg service, that should be a laugh with a 120 meg limit

If you have BT phone line then try BE* prices look good!

[Kymmy]

Hmmmmm.....

If you look at all the previous posts on STM you'll soon realise that ringing up Customer Services is useless as they know absolutely nothing about the problem...nor have any power to fix the problem.

Your best bet is Technical support newsgroups (if they're still running) or via the phone line (yes it's a premium rate number but you can get it refunded if it's thier fault)

Before you do this though go armed with figures from a download/upload metering software (I think DUmeter is VM's recommendation)

Kymmy

[ultimate]

I also found VM do not play by their own rules. I download a few large files just now, before 9am, and now my connection speed is way down to below 4mb.

I have never used the Technical Support Newsgroup before, nor have I used any news group at all. Can you show us how to use the newsgroup please. Thanks

[LostintheNW]

I refuse to call the premium rate number when I pay more than enough as it is, and considering they will just tell me the same as Customer Services I wont get a refund on the cost of the call.

I also spoke to retentions who confirmed the same thing as well.

It is true that this company are not playing by their own rules, they seem to make them up as they go along (have another issue with them regarding the VIP package and the fact they hadn't set this up correctly on our account but not going into that with this post)

I am finding that since VM took over what was NTL/Telewest the service has gone down hill. NTL were not that good, but they were better than these! and Nynex/C&W were fantastic, the people on the phone were always helpful and well mannered, not like this shower of *****e they have employed at the moment.

And its a bit hard to use DUmeter when I am downloading directly from my xbox as you cannot install anything like that on the machine (plus its not up to me to provide evidence I am a so called heavy downloader its up to them! and like I said 144mb is heavy?)

[ceedee]

Originally Posted by ultimate

I also found VM do not play by their own rules. I download a few large files just now, before 9am, and now my connection speed is way down to below 4mb.

I have never used the Technical Support Newsgroup before, nor have I used any news group at all. Can you show us how to use the newsgroup please. Thanks

If you believe that your connection has been Traffic Managed (also called STM, traffic throttling or shaping), check your *upload* speed -- if you're uploading faster than 128kbps (or 16kB/s) for M (2Mb) and L (4Mb) connections or 192kbps (or 24kB/s) for XL (20Mb) then the slow-down you are experiencing is almost certainly not due to being STM'd.

Need help getting onto VM's Tech Support newsgroup?

hth

[ultimate]

Thanks for the instructions for newsgroup, I'll give it a try.

As for upload speed, it is good, so I am not in the STM, the slow speed is probably caused by VM's usual uselessness.

[|Kippa|]

I have a cunning plan. Maybe we should downloadload an obscene ammount of stuff, then the traffic management might collapse under all the pressure of it all. On a more serious note, it is hard to keep up with all these new stm times. Sadly I am on the new stm trial in Blackpool. Fortunetly for me I am a bit of a nightowl and am up in the early hours of the morning and can download at full pelt from 9pm at night till 10am. It is 10am yes? Tis hard to keep fecking track.......

The ironic thing is that when I am 'allowed' to download on my 20mbit conneciton I get a near perfect 19mbit. Also when playing games I get a nice low ping. I know I am tempting fate, but how much worse can it really get? Do you think they might seriously go for 24 hour STM? Maybe I should stay positive, and maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel. Then again knowing my luck it is probably a train and the fecker will run over me. But seriously how much worse could it get?

[LostintheNW]

Seeing as I am traffic shaped at all times of the day for downloading tiny amounts, I wonder what would happen to those who are lucky not to be STM'd whenever some goon at VM decides to flick the switch if they were to download the whole of the internet non stop when the STM system is not meant to be running.

And 24 hour STM is no doubt on the plans as I wouldn't put anything past this company these days.

Anyone else got any suggestions on other ISP's ?

[ceedee]

Originally Posted by |Kippa|

The ironic thing is that when I am 'allowed' to download on my 20mbit conneciton I get a near perfect 19mbit. Also when playing games I get a nice low ping. I know I am tempting fate, but how much worse can it really get? Do you think they might seriously go for 24 hour STM?

I suspect before VM go for 24/7 STM, they'll first get STM to finish (or reset itself) at the end of every period, so that your download speed returns to normal at 9.01pm.
Then about a fortnight later they'll realise that everyone is starting their ("heavy") downloading at 8.30pm and slowing "normal" internet users' down, so they'll then extend the evening STM period to 10pm.

Don't forget there were rumours about application (or port) management a while ago -- I wouldn't be surprised if they announced 24/7 managed speeds on ftp, bittorrent and newsgroup downloads.

Enjoy your 19Mb/s download speed while you can...


---------- Post added at 21:45 ---------- Previous post was at 21:33 ----------

Originally Posted by LostintheNW

Seeing as I am traffic shaped at all times of the day for downloading tiny amounts, I wonder what would happen to those who are lucky not to be STM'd whenever some goon at VM decides to flick the switch if they were to download the whole of the internet non stop when the STM system is not meant to be running.

The next time you're STM'd 'out of hours' or for silly amounts, report it to the Tech Support newsgroup and they'll be able to confirm when it's due to finish. This should give you a better idea of what you are downloading that's pushing you over the limit.
Get a traffic monitor (eg. DU Meter, BitMeter) or even better check out the facilities your router has for recording throughput.

If you're sure you've not exceed VM's limits, insist that TS put in a request to Networks to check the settings on your UBR -- I've heard of two cases where it was suspected that STM had been setup incorrectly.

Anyone else got any suggestions on other ISP's ?

There aren't many ISPs that offer reasonably priced connections without similar restrictions to VM -- and I'll eat my hat if they can continue much longer without bringing them in!

Take a look at BeThere, or maybe you should consider adding dirt-cheap broadband to a Sky TV package?

[pip08456]

Originally Posted by LostintheNW

Seeing as I am traffic shaped at all times of the day for downloading tiny amounts, I wonder what would happen to those who are lucky not to be STM'd whenever some goon at VM decides to flick the switch if they were to download the whole of the internet non stop when the STM system is not meant to be running.

And 24 hour STM is no doubt on the plans as I wouldn't put anything past this company these days.

Anyone else got any suggestions on other ISP's ?

I'm off to Bethere with their Bepro package

Check it out, sounds better!

[LostintheNW]

ceedee cheers for your suggestions, it was just I was told I had hit the limit which no matter what package you are on is 120meg - if this is what Virgin are doing then I am off, sick to death of this company. Its getting as bad as Australia where they are limited on what they can download, although they have good reasons given the isolation of that continent!

The naff Sky package looks more attractive as the days go by, and this includes the tv side of things as well, as what I pay VM at the moment anyway I could have a lot more from Sky.

I'll have a look at this Bethere package, anything has to be better than this

In the meantime when I am out of the so called STM hours (although seems to be anytime for me) I am going to download anything and everything just for the fun of it, may even open up my wireless network and let the neighbours join in - if VM can break their own T&C's then I certainly can follow suit while I live out the so called notice period

[Robertus]

Sorry to sound like an idiot, but Virgin Media do not traffic shape

/runs

[LostintheNW]

Originally Posted by Robertus

Sorry to sound like an idiot, but Virgin Media do not traffic shape

/runs

Thanks for that helpful response, perhaps you can keep on running off the edge of a cliff?

[ceedee]

Originally Posted by LostintheNW

ceedee cheers for your suggestions, it was just I was told I had hit the limit which no matter what package you are on is 120meg - if this is what Virgin are doing then I am off, sick to death of this company.

Have a read of VM's Traffic Management page -- afaik, there's nothing in there about "120meg". I think you may be reacting to a Tech Support "mis-spoke".

The naff Sky package looks more attractive as the days go by, and this includes the tv side of things as well, as what I pay VM at the moment anyway I could have a lot more from Sky.

I'll have a look at this Bethere package, anything has to be better than this

And remember, they too can change their T&Cs, restrict download speeds and impose traffic limits if (or more likely, when) their network gets overloaded.

In the meantime when I am out of the so called STM hours (although seems to be anytime for me) I am going to download anything and everything just for the fun of it, may even open up my wireless network and let the neighbours join in - if VM can break their own T&C's then I certainly can follow suit while I live out the so called notice period

They've not broken their T&Cs as far as I can see.
If you download to the max all you'll be hurting are the download speeds of your neighbours. VM won't feel it.