Traffic Shaping Affecting All Tiers

Xtinguish · 29-04-2007, 17:25

My 2mb package has been capped to 1mb for just over a week now from about 5pm each evening to early next morning. After speaking to Cust Services in India a few times, an engineer has been sent round who confirmed that the problem was their end and although traffic shaping is supposed to be on 10 mb only, it is currently affecting all broadband levels. They are trying to resolve the issue as soon as possible. Let's hope it's not too long before normal service returns as I've had NTL broadband and phone for many troublefree years now.

Toto · 29-04-2007, 17:33

Wow...so traffic shaping is affecting all areas, and they still sent out an engineer?

Bloody hell!

Xtinguish · 29-04-2007, 17:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toto

Wow...so traffic shaping is affecting all areas, and they still sent out an engineer?

Bloody hell!

The engineer that visited said that he had never had so many call outs with regards to low speed issues. After checking my modem config levels, he said that there was no problem at my end and the problem was on their side. He then telephoned back to his office before explaining to me that although the traffic shaping was only supposed to be on 10mb, it was currently impacting all broadband tiers and they were trying to resolve it asap. Let's hope they do.

foreverwar · 29-04-2007, 18:04

Is it affecting all user on all tiers, or heavy downloaders on all tiers?

Xtinguish · 29-04-2007, 18:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by foreverwar

Is it affecting all user on all tiers, or heavy downloaders on all tiers?

I think it's affecting users using torrents or Newsgroups (incl. NTL Newsgroup). I've just been capped to half speed at 6pm after downloading approx. 500 mb from NTL Newsgroup). I could hardly be called a heavy downloader. I seem to be capped after 4pm to half speed if I max out my 2 megabit connection for more than about 30 mins.

kar · 29-04-2007, 18:40

Has been happening to me since last week too.

Hex · 29-04-2007, 18:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xtinguish

although traffic shaping is supposed to be on 10 mb only, it is currently affecting all broadband levels.

Some people wont like me saying this, but good, why should only the top paying tier be shaped when those paying for a cheaper package blaze away untouched?

I'm talking more at the 4mb users mind, if left un-shaped, then 10mb users will be paying Â£12 more for only 1mb extra during peak hours, and some people wont be too happy about that. As far as I'm concerned it's shape all tiers, or shape none.

And before you ask, yes I am a semi-heavy downloader, but almost all after midnight.

Zee · 29-04-2007, 18:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hex

Some people wont like me saying this, but good, why should only the top paying tier be shaped when those paying for a cheaper package blaze away untouched?

I'm talking more at the 4mb users mind, if left un-shaped, then 10mb users will be paying Â£12 more for only 1mb extra during peak hours, and some people wont be too happy about that. As far as I'm concerned it's shape all tiers, or shape none.

And before you ask, yes I am a semi-heavy downloader, but almost all after midnight.

fully agree with you, tho im on 10Mb and not being shaped.

kar · 29-04-2007, 19:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hex

Some people wont like me saying this, but good, why should only the top paying tier be shaped when those paying for a cheaper package blaze away untouched?

I'm talking more at the 4mb users mind, if left un-shaped, then 10mb users will be paying Â£12 more for only 1mb extra during peak hours, and some people wont be too happy about that. As far as I'm concerned it's shape all tiers, or shape none.

And before you ask, yes I am a semi-heavy downloader, but almost all after midnight.

You don't get 1MB more during peak, you get 3 more, since 4MB goes to 2, 10MB to 5.

Hex · 29-04-2007, 19:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by kar

You don't get 1MB more during peak, you get 3 more, since 4MB goes to 2, 10MB to 5.

Read it again, that was an "If 4mb doesn't get shaped" comment.

kar · 29-04-2007, 19:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hex

Read it again, that was an "If 4mb doesn't get shaped" comment.

Oops sorry missed that part :-)

Rapid_UK · 29-04-2007, 20:52

bit of an update.

I was capped down to 2 meg (from 4 meg) at about 6pm or so.

But now its gone up and I'm now capped at 3 meg.

Don't think they can make thier mind up of how this shaping is working lol.

jcuk · 29-04-2007, 20:57

could be whats happening to me then, im on 4meg, its dropped to 2meg not long ago, but i started downloading some stuff from bit torrent today. never happened before tho, and there is an area issue according to faults front end?!

downloaded about 4-500megs

magpac · 29-04-2007, 20:59

I'm on a 4meg link, and I've been finding my upload is getting dropped by 80%-90%, not 50%. During the day I can u/l at around 37-38k/s, during the evening it drops to 6-8k/s.

But it only affects torrent traffic, speedtest still show 4M/400k.

Dawn Falcon · 29-04-2007, 21:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hex

Some people wont like me saying this, but good, why should only the top paying tier be shaped when those paying for a cheaper package blaze away untouched?

Why should they penalise all users for the actions of a few people who jam their connections open 24/7? Oh wait, THAT math dosn't add up - this move is purely because they can't support the bandwidth for the faster services to come without capping. So you need to go up a package to set the same service when people are actually using it.

That's called "overselling". It's a sign of a bad company.

(Got evidence otherwise? link.)