Traffic Shaping Affecting All Tiers

Originally Posted by chamoan

I seen the news earlier that VM in the last 3months has lost 47,000 customers, ok not all these would be broadband users, but i bet a large amount was, and they still feel the need to traffic shape

Hmm, I think you will find that broadband custom was up by 88,000. So thats that line of attack out of the window .

[welwynrose]

Originally Posted by chamoan

I seen the news earlier that VM in the last 3months has lost 47,000 customers, ok not all these would be broadband users, but i bet a large amount was, and they still feel the need to traffic shape

if you look at the actually report the main lose was in telephone customers not BB customers

[ntl.wotcha]

I have to say I rarely get faster than 5mb on my "10MB" BB in anycase so ! lol , bovvered ?

I wonder about the environmental damage this will do. People will leave their PCs on all night and all day to download during the non-shaped hours now. That means more electricity used up.

[KaveMan]

Like all to often when I started suffering the drop from 10Mb to under 2Mb I wanted to go ranting & raving at someone for causing the problem. Being British I did the all to British thing where instead of complaining to the management I whinged in a forum to join in with the growing mob.

Truth is when I finally did contact VM-CS they did respond with an engineer visit the next business working day, I wasn't holding on the phone for longer than 5 minutes also.

I now am sure that I wasn't being capped due to my uploads never suffering the downgrade in speed plus my reduction was in effect for every minute of every day since Thursday evening.

One thing I have noticed after just checking the status of the new 255 modem is that it downstreams using QAM256 & I know the old Ambit 120 used QAM64. Fact is since the new modem yesterday moring I have consistantly been able to max out my 10Mb connection on every speed test I have tried day & night.

I have also had time to calm down on my stance with regards to being traffic managed, my first reaction was to grab a pitchfork & torch then go a hunting. When looking at the wording used though I realised I wouldn't have had a leg to stand on legaly thanks to two facts:

1. Upto 10Mb - This simply does not promise anything other than a connection of some unspecific speed upto 10Mb.
2. UNLIMITED Downloads - Even if being traffic managed down to a 100kps connection at least I still have a connection to download with, unless VM kill the connection completely.

I'm sure if this was the good ole USA though lawsuits would be flying all over the place by now.

With regards to VM loosing customers I suspect nearly of not all of those are from the TV service side of things. NTL lost me for the TV side of things a long time ago quite simply because Sky was cheaper.

[NTLVictim]

Originally Posted by mojo

I wonder about the environmental damage this will do. People will leave their PCs on all night and all day to download during the non-shaped hours now. That means more electricity used up.

Which makes a joke of Branson's environmental research pledge.

I am beginning to have doubts about this character.

Does anyone else think that the trigger limits have been set artificially low by VM, so that in a few weeks time they can say, "hey! we have listened to our customers concerns and decided to double the trigger limits to 700MB, 1.5GB & 6GB"?

That way they can be seen as a listening, caring company, while implimenting their original trigger limits, and at the same time, calming down many disgruntled customers.

Just a thought.

[popper]

Originally Posted by welwynrose

if you look at the actually report the main lose was in telephone customers not BB customers

which could be construde as these people getting ready to switch broadband on on their now active BT lines....

after all,what other reasonable reason could there be to for such a high % in such a short timeframe to just drop your VM phoneline and move over and re-activate the old BT line.. the clocks ticking.

[peanut]

Well here you have it, consistantly good speeds prior to 4pm. Then from there on it's downhill again till midnight I presume.

And traffic shaping only effects those going over a limit? Yeah right.

[popper]

Originally Posted by ahardie

Hmm, I think you will find that broadband custom was up by 88,000. So thats that line of attack out of the window .

and for that 88,000 amount of assumed new broadband customers, how many new UBR's and related kit were installed to cover this influx of cash, were any extra UBR's actually installed, or were these new users just stuffed on the already existing over subscribed kit...

[mertle]

I have been thinking is traffic shaping the actual issue to poor speeds for many users even those who not hit there download during this peak. What I mean is just seems its like a bloomin tap as soon as 4pm takes place things go pear shaped with my connection goes anybody else get this. Now surely the system would gradually slow down as more users access then ease slightly as some get throttled when there limit reached. It raises a massive Questions which has to be raised is accessing the net prior to 4pm being taken into account in VM shaping rules. Who do VM are targeting as a top 5% abuser is actually downloading GB on hours on end. I am starting to wonder if its not what you download its how long you access the network.

Soon as 4pm kicks in I have bad problems accessing sites and becoming a dog of a connection yet during the day its fine and even right upto 3.58 its fine. Its seems I am throttled immediately yet all I do is browse and watch a couple of little streams over the day likely would not even breach the 350meg rule.

[Asha'man Jay]

@ peanutkp

No doubt it'll get blamed on the slow servers you use or your router. Or maybe you'll get "Thats what happens when kiddies like you run p2p 24/7!!!"


I spoke to VM CS and the girl I got put through to kept rabbiting on about how the limit would only be enforced if I downloaded 1,400 mp3's

I don't wan't to DL mp3's I told her, I want to be able to use websites that have good quality video content and download some TV shows.

She said that if I was downloading TV shows like lost, heroes, etc this wouldn't count towards my download cap. When I told her an HD lost episode can be over 4gb she said "thats ok as long as you don't download more than 1,400 mp3's. Bloody screwball.

[Paul H]

Originally Posted by Asha'man Jay

I spoke to VM CS and the girl I got put through to kept rabbiting on about how the limit would only be enforced if I downloaded 1,400 mp3's

I don't wan't to DL mp3's I told her, I want to be able to use websites that have good quality video content and download some TV shows.

She said that if I was downloading TV shows like lost, heroes, etc this wouldn't count towards my download cap. When I told her an HD lost episode can be over 4gb she said "thats ok as long as you don't download more than 1,400 mp3's. Bloody screwball.

[Horace]

Originally Posted by mertle

Soon as 4pm kicks in I have bad problems accessing sites and becoming a dog of a connection yet during the day its fine and even right upto 3.58 its fine. Its seems I am throttled immediately yet all I do is browse and watch a couple of little streams over the day likely would not even breach the 350meg rule.

4pm is supposed to be the time that STM monitoring starts, not when your speed is chopped. Unless the software being used is buggy I'd consider blaming it on the usual traffic surges that happen around tea-time with children and adults arriving home.

I've just had a thought that a welcome knock-on effect of STM will be people actually noticing the amount of traffic leaving and entering their machines and maybe bothering to find the source. Hopefully a few bot-nets will take a hit in the coming weeks and months due to these measures.

[peanut]

Originally Posted by Horace

4pm is supposed to be the time that STM monitoring starts, not when your speed is chopped. Unless the software being used is buggy I'd consider blaming it on the usual traffic surges that happen around tea-time with children and adults arriving home.

Look at my post #759 and pic, note dead on 4pm. This ain't no world cup where everyone turns on their kettles at half time, this is bang on 4pm. Blaming a dead on 4pm hit by children and adults that's just so happens to all arrive home at the same time is just ludicrous don't you think.