Traffic Shaping Affecting All Tiers

[pedrohizzo]

No offence but did you even read what you just posted?

Do I have to let people know that I intend to record their telephone conversations with me?


No,

provided you are not intending to make the contents of the communication available to a third party

[epitaphic]

Ok so today's saga is quite interesting.

After being on the phone with VM since 9:30pm (which is when I noticed I got traffic shaped), all I could get out of the tech tier1 that spoke to a tech tier2 is that the limit for my 4MB line is: 3GB per day.

That's right. 3GB per 24hrs is what a tech2 told a tech1. And I have it on record. Of course my insistence that the actual published limit for a 4MB line should be 750mb between peak times got no where. Actually it got me transfered to a bemused billing dept bloke.

It is now past midnite, nothing is resolved. I'll try tomorrow to get them to explain to me how my 534,404,932 bytes downloaded since 4pm equates to being over the limit.

http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html...t/traffic.html

Will the thresholds change?

The way that our customers use their broadband is changing all the time, so it's possible that in the future we may increase or decrease the thresholds – don't worry though, we'll always let you know on our website if we're going to make any changes, and we don't expect the thresholds to change very often.

I don't suppose anyone knows if these 'thresholds' are consistent?
I'm currently sat at half my 4MB speed after downloading a 350MB avi at 22:30.
Haven't done anything before or after that.
Proper narked.

And my On Demand's kaput again. Only reason I downloaded the bloomin' avi to watch was because the On Demand wasn't working.

I wish things would go back to how they used to be - VM suck the big one these days.

[grabbi]

Shame we have to be noline at 2am to get something...

Ive noticed that Speedtest.net is a load of crap, especially after it gave me a result of 4Mb. So I went to this site: http://myspeed.visualware.com/uk/index.html

And look at my speed...

[PAYNEARDO]

I think shaping could be a good idea if done right, say like between 16:00-00:00

20Mb - download 20gig
10MB - download 10gig
4MB - download 4gig etc...

The majority of people would never get over this lmit, giving the heavy users traffice shaping & not the average user. Even when I batter my connection after 16:00 I prob download 10 gig Max, just a thought

also for a good speed test as well try the giganews site

http://www.giganews.com/performance.html

[wtaylor82]

Originally Posted by PAYNEARDO

I think shaping could be a good idea if done right, say like between 16:00-00:00

20Mb - download 20gig
10MB - download 10gig
4MB - download 4gig etc...

The majority of people would never get over this lmit, giving the heavy users traffice shaping & not the average user. Even when I batter my connection after 16:00 I prob download 10 gig Max, just a thought

also for a good speed test as well try the giganews site

http://www.giganews.com/performance.html

I am on 20mb and last month I downloaded a total of 15gb over the space of the month, yet my connection regularly runs at 2mb

It's all half-cocked anyway most of the time. With a shedload of bandwidth being used up by people with hacked modems and what-have-you. And in any case, if you open a port for NNTP and make a solid connection for a big file, you stay at one speed for the duration of the connection - regardless of the time of day. The second you disconnect and re-connect, your speed drops.
I don't see this getting any better to be honest - worse if anything.

[Incomplete]

That's a good speedtest site, thank you.

Download speed 14274 Kbps (socket test)
Upload speed 2091 Kbps (socket test)
Quality of service 94 %
Maximum pause 65 ms
Round trip time 7 ms

[epitaphic]

OK, have more info on the traffic management policies.

Just spoke to the technical supervisor at VM (and have on record) that the limits are in fact for the combined upload and download usage.

He states that the line in the T&C's that reads:

We found that this small minority of customers were actually downloading or uploading enough information to significantly affect the service for other customers' broadband service

Means that when they say:

during peak times, the top 5% on the Size: L package download at least 750MB of traffic each. Any users hitting this amount during peak times (4pm till midnight) will have their broadband speed temporarily traffic managed

they actually mean download AND upload.

He also stated that even though it can appear to be misleading, he actually has an internal memo stating that the limits are for both upload and download. Unfortunately he refused to forward me that part of the correct T&C's that he has.

I think it's all bogus and he's just coming to the conclusion that because they mention heavy users download and upload a lot, that the stated limits are for upload and downloading when the T&C's clearly state that the limits are for downloads only.

2 things are possible:

1. he's lying about having an internal memo stating that the 750MB limit on a 4MB line is for downloads and uploads

2. they changed the policies, didn't advise their customers that their T&Cs have been revised (isn't that legally required?) and never updated them on the site.

[Rik]

Originally Posted by XFS03

That's incorrect.


It is not illegal to record a phone conversation without letting the other party know if it's for your own use. However, you do have to let them know if you intend to allow that recording to be heard by a third party.

I cant be right all the time can I?

For you guys who get traffic shaped as soon as 4 hits the dot despite not going over your limit.

It's because your modem is cloned, and that person is using your limit.

i was told this by both CS staff and a few managers.

so now, you get traffic shaped, for someone else using an illegal service.

aint VM great?

I don't have a modem - I have an STB.
Could that be cloned too?
I can definitely say without a shadow of a doubt, I have been traffic managed on more than one occasion whilst I've done little more than send a few mails and look at a few sites. I put it down to my next door neighbour and the bloke 2 doors up being on Virgin too and literally download anything with a hyperlink.
"some guy at work" told one of them about torrents, apparently..

[epitaphic]

Originally Posted by TraxData

For you guys who get traffic shaped as soon as 4 hits the dot despite not going over your limit.

It's because your modem is cloned, and that person is using your limit.

Even if your modem is being cloned, you should only get shaped after the limit is crossed. If it's being shaped at 4:01pm then with or without cloning that is technically impossible.

Althought cloning is an issue, it don't expect it to be more than 0.0001% occurance so I doubt anyone's acutally being cloned here. Definitely here's not more than 1 person if any. If there are 2 or more of you I'd suggest playing the lotto cuz "luck" is on your side

Originally Posted by epitaphic

Even if your modem is being cloned, you should only get shaped after the limit is crossed. If it's being shaped at 4:01pm then with or without cloning that is technically impossible.

Althought cloning is an issue, it don't expect it to be more than 0.0001% occurance so I doubt anyone's acutally being cloned here. Definitely here's not more than 1 person if any. If there are 2 or more of you I'd suggest playing the lotto cuz "luck" is on your side

cloning is more widespread than you could believe, i mean you can buy cloned modems off ebay for £15, or from your local VM tech near your house.

and you can use ur limit in less than 20mins and look at right now, 4:21 and traffic shaping has kicked in, but i havent been downloading, so you explain that one?

i've just been talkin to a tech and even he says it's because modem is cloned and they've used the limit up, so it will affect both of you.!

Originally Posted by kryogenik

I don't have a modem - I have an STB.
Could that be cloned too?
I can definitely say without a shadow of a doubt, I have been traffic managed on more than one occasion whilst I've done little more than send a few mails and look at a few sites. I put it down to my next door neighbour and the bloke 2 doors up being on Virgin too and literally download anything with a hyperlink.
"some guy at work" told one of them about torrents, apparently..

STB modems cannot be cloned due to the way they are registered.