VM Throttling Usenet (Port 119, 1818, 23)

basil · 23-08-2011, 09:36

I'm a current subscriber to astraweb unlimited. I found that downloading through of any the ports supported by Astraweb would not go higher than 0.2mb and then the speed would gradually decrease to 0. This was outside peak hours, e.g. after 9pm and I have tried downloading at midnight just to be sure. This has only started happening within the past 3 days and wondering if VM is now throttling usenet?

Quote:

General Servers (Non SSL) on ports 119, 23, 1818 or 8080:
- news.astraweb.com
- eu.news.astraweb.com (European servers)
- us.news.astraweb.com (U.S. servers)

Secure Servers (SSL) on ports 443 or 563.
- ssl.astraweb.com
- ssl-eu.astraweb.com (European servers)
- ssl-us.astraweb.com (U.S. servers)

kwikbreaks · 23-08-2011, 09:59

They have been for months. Runs from 5pm to midnight weekdays and midday to midnight weekends.

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

If it was still slow after midnight then maybe some other problem?

Kymmy · 23-08-2011, 10:02

Try both SSL ports (your usenet software will have to support SSL) as you'll probably find that one gives better speeds than the other..

Walker Walker · 23-08-2011, 10:42

Are you downloading wired or wireless?

Rankrotten · 23-08-2011, 20:02

I use Giganews which comes with a VPN solution which works for me.

basil · 23-08-2011, 21:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by kwikbreaks

They have been for months. Runs from 5pm to midnight weekdays and midday to midnight weekends.

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

If it was still slow after midnight then maybe some other problem?

I have seen that table before and it doesn't state anywhere of traffic management from 5pm to midnight weekdays and midday to midnight weekends?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kymmy

Try both SSL ports (your usenet software will have to support SSL) as you'll probably find that one gives better speeds than the other..

Have tried ssl and I get this error message from sabnzbd: 502 Your per-user connection limit reached

Which is strange because im not sharing my astraweb account with anyone, will check this with astraweb support

Quote:

Originally Posted by Walker Walker

Are you downloading wired or wireless?

wireless. I have been downloading through wireless pefectly fine up until a couple of days ago.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rankrotten

I use Giganews which comes with a VPN solution which works for me.

Kymmy · 24-08-2011, 07:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by basil

Have tried ssl and I get this error message from sabnzbd: 502 Your per-user connection limit reached

Which is strange because im not sharing my astraweb account with anyone, will check this with astraweb support .

That's common when trying to use all the connections, the previous ones don't have time to log out before your news program creates new ones..

I'm on 10Mb and find that 6 connections will give me full speed. You should only ever use the minimum connections needed to get the speed you need as too many connections can slow you down as the connection gets overloaded.

Which VM BB service are you on?

kwikbreaks · 24-08-2011, 07:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by basil

I have seen that table before and it doesn't state anywhere of traffic management from 5pm to midnight weekdays and midday to midnight weekends?

Should've gone to SpecSavers ..

Quote:

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, which applies to all broadband packages, is restricted to Peer to Peer ("P2P") applications and Newsgroups (which are commonly used to distribute large amounts of data)

Kymmy · 24-08-2011, 07:37

Perhaps he should have read this post and used the method??

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/34202980-post297.html

kwikbreaks · 24-08-2011, 08:14

I don't use newsgroups but from what I've seen posted just using SSL bypasses the VM traffic management anyway. Seems they must only be using shallow packet inspection

General Maximus · 24-08-2011, 09:15

I have always used the VM newsgroups and as an example of traffic management, last night i tried to refresh a group and was only getting 120k/sec (about 23:30) and now I am blasting away at a solid 6mb/sec and it is 10:16. It is just choosing the right time of day dude.

Ignitionnet · 24-08-2011, 11:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by kwikbreaks

I don't use newsgroups but from what I've seen posted just using SSL bypasses the VM traffic management anyway. Seems they must only be using shallow packet inspection

It would kinda defeat the point of SSL/TLS if you could inspect what the payload is easily

kwikbreaks · 24-08-2011, 14:01

I doubt it takes much processing power to figure out what a direct SSL connection to an IP owned by one of the common news servers is carrying. If it was a private VPN then I guess that would be different.

Sirius · 24-08-2011, 16:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by kwikbreaks

I doubt it takes much processing power to figure out what a direct SSL connection to an IP owned by one of the common news servers is carrying. If it was a private VPN then I guess that would be different.

My VPN means i don't understand what Shaping is because i dont suffer from it

basil · 25-08-2011, 10:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kymmy

That's common when trying to use all the connections, the previous ones don't have time to log out before your news program creates new ones..

I'm on 10Mb and find that 6 connections will give me full speed. You should only ever use the minimum connections needed to get the speed you need as too many connections can slow you down as the connection gets overloaded.

Which VM BB service are you on?

I will give this a shot and let you know.

Quote:

Originally Posted by General Maximus

I have always used the VM newsgroups and as an example of traffic management, last night i tried to refresh a group and was only getting 120k/sec (about 23:30) and now I am blasting away at a solid 6mb/sec and it is 10:16. It is just choosing the right time of day dude.

Ah man I hope this isn't the case, but wouldn't surprise me if it is :S

Quote:

Originally Posted by kwikbreaks

I doubt it takes much processing power to figure out what a direct SSL connection to an IP owned by one of the common news servers is carrying. If it was a private VPN then I guess that would be different.

I think i remember reading a cf post somewhere that virgin media just simply monitors the volume of traffic going in and out and doesn't need to inpsect what the traffic is. So i don't think there is anyway to by pass their shaping policy..