Traffic Management Policy

[chambohambo]

Does this apply to all services 2MB, 10MB, 20MB, and the 50MB service?

http://shop.virginmedia.com/help/tra...nt-policy.html
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File sharing

We moderate the total volume of file sharing traffic on our network between 5pm and midnight on weekdays and midday and midnight on weekends. This policy is restricted to Peer to Peer ("P2P") applications and Newsgroups (which are commonly used to distribute large amounts of data)

This policy does not impact any applications other than Peer to Peer and Newsgroups, so things like watching iPlayer, online gaming, making calls via Skype, downloading music tracks from iTunes or streaming them from Spotify and sending an email or normal browsing are unaffected.

It's important to remember that these traffic management policies only apply at peak times when speeds are most likely to be affected by people using more than their fair share. Outside of peak times we do not manage traffic.

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by chambohambo

Does this apply to all services 2MB, 10MB, 20MB, and the 50MB service?

http://shop.virginmedia.com/help/tra...nt-policy.html
----

File sharing

We moderate the total volume of file sharing traffic on our network between 5pm and midnight on weekdays and midday and midnight on weekends. This policy is restricted to Peer to Peer ("P2P") applications and Newsgroups (which are commonly used to distribute large amounts of data)

This policy does not impact any applications other than Peer to Peer and Newsgroups, so things like watching iPlayer, online gaming, making calls via Skype, downloading music tracks from iTunes or streaming them from Spotify and sending an email or normal browsing are unaffected.

It's important to remember that these traffic management policies only apply at peak times when speeds are most likely to be affected by people using more than their fair share. Outside of peak times we do not manage traffic.

Pretty certain its everyone being hit by that. Pretty much every game of BC2 and MOH i have played today has been ruined by lag spikes. I have only been seeing these lag spikes during the time that the traffic shaping is in operation.

Makes we wonder if i should even think of playing the new cod game that is released tomorrow

[Taf]

Newsgroups plodded along at 60k this afternoon... just reading texts but it felt like dialup speeds...

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by Taf

Newsgroups plodded along at 60k this afternoon... just reading texts but it felt like dialup speeds...

Can you select SSL ?

[Gordon_30]

I was wondering why my newsgroups were crawling along all day yesterday even though I am on 50 mb and SSL doesn't seem to help

[chambohambo]

I heard if your usenet provider supports ssl and also supports port 443 then you will receive your full speed again.

[lordy]

So there is STM limits, FileSharing peak times and also AUP?

I've been getting really slow speeds to Astraweb, I'm on XL, I usually download at night.

However, today I started a download at 15:30 today, having not used the internet at all so far that day, and it was running at 260KB/s (~2Mbps). Speed test indicate my connection was not throttled (16-18Mbps).

So presumably this is the filesharing throttle? (I tried NNTP:1818 and SSL:443)

[Gordon_30]

Originally Posted by chambohambo

I heard if your usenet provider supports ssl and also supports port 443 then you will receive your full speed again.

Thanks

Works For Me

[watzizname]

So when you're throttled on newsgroups or P2P, are you supposed to be released from it's clutches at midnight, or is there a 5 or however many hours penalty (like STM) in affect from whatever time you triggered it?

I ask, because i've noticed a 70% to 80% reduction in speed using said apps within the allotted time frame, but full speed hasn't returned as expected at midnight, and has continued to be slowed down through the night, sometimes as late as 4.30 am.

I live in a rural area, and have always been able to max out my connection using newgroups prior to the upload increase, and when i hold off downloading till after midnight, i always get full speed straight off the bat, so i don't believe oversubscription in my area is responsible for this slowdown..

Originally Posted by watzizname

So when you're throttled on newsgroups or P2P, are you supposed to be released from it's clutches at midnight, or is there a 5 or however many hours penalty (like STM) in affect from whatever time you triggered it?

I ask, because i've noticed a 70% to 80% reduction in speed using said apps within the allotted time frame, but full speed hasn't returned as expected at midnight, and has continued to be slowed down through the night, sometimes as late as 4.30 am.

I live in a rural area, and have always been able to max out my connection using newgroups prior to the upload increase, and when i hold off downloading till after midnight, i always get full speed straight off the bat, so i don't believe oversubscription in my area is responsible for this slowdown..

Have you tried stopping any connections to your usenet providers server before midnight & then starting again after midnight - i.e. I don't think it 'automatically' stops throttling at the witching hour?

[watzizname]

Originally Posted by gazfan

Have you tried stopping any connections to your usenet providers server before midnight & then starting again after midnight - i.e. I don't think it 'automatically' stops throttling at the witching hour?

Yeah, tried that... Even went as far as to ditch the slow downloads, and try other files from other groups, in case it was a server issue, only to get exactly the same results.

For me the slowdown started the same day i got the upload increase, but as my area is still not listed on the completion page, i gave VM the benefit of the doubt, thinking how it might just be teething problems as they roll it out, but it's been set like this for weeks now, and seems more deliberate than not.

Anyways, i've well and truly accepted that if the penny pinchers at Virgin Media can see a way to save a buck somewhere, they will, regardless of what it might say on their site.

What i really want to know is if i start downloading at 21.01 pm, should i officially be off the hook by 00.01 am? or is there a penalty for having the cheek to trigger the throttle in the first place?

[broadbandking]

If you hit the STM limit then yes you will have to wait 5 hours until speed returns to normal, as for the traffic shaping this should end at midnight and your speed should return to normal.

[Lee]

The problem with this is that no-one knows what is really happening.

Could be a problem at your end, could be a problem at the newsgroup provider or could be the throttling.

This implementation is typical of the way VM have done this in the past. Poor (and confusing) communication and no way to check whether you are being throttled. I'd hate to work on VMs support desks whenever they roll out something new like this, as they must have no idea how to go about investigating a customers slow speed (other than perhaps saying "try again outside peak times").

VMs communication department really need firing, as they did the same with the STM implementation.

[Andrewcrawford23]

Originally Posted by Lee

The problem with this is that no-one knows what is really happening.

Could be a problem at your end, could be a problem at the newsgroup provider or could be the throttling.

This implementation is typical of the way VM have done this in the past. Poor (and confusing) communication and no way to check whether you are being throttled. I'd hate to work on VMs support desks whenever they roll out something new like this, as they must have no idea how to go about investigating a customers slow speed (other than perhaps saying "try again outside peak times").

VMs communication department really need firing, as they did the same with the STM implementation.

there is ways

firstly you can get them to download forma known source tha tisnt thorttle if tha tis ok then you can probally safely assume throttling

[Lee]

Originally Posted by Andrewcrawford23

there is ways

firstly you can get them to download forma known source tha tisnt thorttle if tha tis ok then you can probally safely assume throttling

If downloading from newsgroups is slow.. what known source would you use? Not much point comparing to a download from a HTTP source.