Traffic Management Enquiry

[bluecandylover]

Traffic Management Enquiry.

Yes believe it or not, I am making my way BACK to Virgin for internet services, but since leaving they imposed traffic management.

Now how does this work?

I heard you get for example 3gig limit on the highest package and lower limits on others, HOWEVER is this per day? or per month? for example if they impose the traffic limits will you be stuck at that speed ALL month or just the day or simply for that download?

If someone could point me in the right direction for this enquiry I will be very much grateful, and I apologize in advanced if this question has already cropped up and for my laziness for not searching.

Kind Regards.
Blue.

[TraxData]

HI, on the top tier, if you go over the "3gb" limit between 4pm-12pm you get shaped down to 5mbit (256k up i believe) for 4 hours, STM doesnt stop at 12 however, if you accidently pass the limit at 11:59pm you'll be shaped all the way till 4am.

My advice would be to stop with your current isp if you can.

i see your on sky max (connect) i'd stay with them if you get good speeds.

[bluecandylover]

HI, on the top tier, if you go over the "3gb" limit between 4pm-12pm you get shaped down to 5mbit (256k up i believe) for 4 hours, STM doesnt stop at 12 however, if you accidently pass the limit at 11:59pm you'll be shaped all the way till 4am.

My advice would be to stop with your current isp if you can.

i see your on sky max (connect) i'd stay with them if you get good speeds.


Hi.
Thank you!
I cancelled as I have rubbish service due to the fact I have a "long line".

Regards.
Blue.

[what?]

exactly as was said above with regards to what stm is.
there is diferent limits on all 3 packages. and when passing the limit you're speed will be halfed on 2/4 meg, or quartered on 20meg.
and as said is can kick in anytime between 4 and 12 and will last the full 4 hours no mater when that limit is passed.

[broadbandbug]

There is a new STM (Traffic Management) Policy on the way..

It has both a download and upload volume limit.

i.e. For 20Mb/s it will be 3GB download and 1.5GB upload. So if you hit either or both of these limits you will be throttled back to 5Mb/s down, 192Kb/s up.

However the hours that STM is active will be cut from 1600 - Midnight to 1600 - 2100, but the penalty increases from 4 hours to 5 hours.

What this means is that you can only be STM'd once in an evening and even if you tripped the limit at 2059 you would be out of STM at 0159.

[Sirius]

There is a new STM (Traffic Management) Policy on the way..

It has both a download and upload volume limit.

i.e. For 20Mb/s it will be 3GB download and 1.5GB upload. So if you hit either or both of these limits you will be throttled back to 5Mb/s down, 192Kb/s up.

However the hours that STM is active will be cut from 1600 - Midnight to 1600 - 2100, but the penalty increases from 4 hours to 5 hours.

What this means is that you can only be Stmfd once in an evening and even if you tripped the limit at 2059 you would be out of STM at 0159.

Any links to this information,

Lets be truthful here there seems to be all sorts of comments this weekend on what is and what is not going to happen. As of now i don't believe a word i see typed till i see a proven link to the information.

[TraxData]

Any links to this information,

Lets be truthful here there seems to be all sorts of comments this weekend on what is and what is not going to happen. As of now i don't believe a word i see typed till i see a proven link to the information.

All i can say is, it will happen, quite a few ppl in VM know about it now, it's also been bought up at digitalspy (by ex vm staff btw) amongst other *illegal* sites by even VM staff. (oh i wish bill was still here).

Just remember alot of us knew about STM along time before it arrived, and no one believed us then, either.

But that policy is coming, like it or not.

[dev]

There is a new STM (Traffic Management) Policy on the way..

It has both a download and upload volume limit.

i.e. For 20Mb/s it will be 3GB download and 1.5GB upload. So if you hit either or both of these limits you will be throttled back to 5Mb/s down, 192Kb/s up.

However the hours that STM is active will be cut from 1600 - Midnight to 1600 - 2100, but the penalty increases from 4 hours to 5 hours.

What this means is that you can only be STM'd once in an evening and even if you tripped the limit at 2059 you would be out of STM at 0159.

ok so 1.5gb upload in 5hours, well we can upload 1.65gb at 96k/s (768kbps ignoring any tcp overheads etc), so losing 150mb isn't exactly much of a limit now is it?

[slowcoach]

ok so 1.5gb upload in 5hours, well we can upload 1.65gb at 96k/s (768kbps ignoring any tcp overheads etc), so losing 150mb isn't exactly much of a limit now is it?
Can you work out how long it will take to upload 3gig now and after the STM is implemented.

[ECW_Original]

If worked it out that WHEN you are having your upload speed shaped(managed) the max upload speed is 16KiloBytes a second, that is well crap, could get much better on dial-up!

I so hate VM for this, and this is why I am going to call up tomorrow to tell them just what I think of them AFTER I have canceled all of my services with them!

I have been with NTL since 2001, and since 10Mb has been out, my speeds have been rubbish, thats over 18 months of rubbish service I have got.

Screw you VM right up your tight asses!!

[xspeedyx]

I think ecw is unhappy with vm lol

No I agree that is bad they need to stop doing this as they are ruining what was a great service I blame the top dogs of NTL as they are now running the company you can see why the top people are leaving

[Sirius]

I think ecw is unhappy with vm lol

No I agree that is bad they need to stop doing this as they are ruining what was a great service I blame the top dogs of NTL as they are now running the company you can see why the top people are leaving

funny you say that. The person i spoke to on Friday was saying it's Telewest bosses running the broadband and that's why all the testing is done on the Telewest platform.

[Mr Angry]

I heard bad boys did it....and ran away.

[Sirius]

I heard bad boys did it....and ran away.



So true :tu:

[dev]

Can you work out how long it will take to upload 3gig now and after the STM is implemented.

don't see why that matters, the fact is, people seem to be "fine" with an STM policy that kicks in after just 4% of the possible download (3gb out of 70gb possible in 4pm->midnight), but this new STM policy which allows:

6.8% download, 3gb out of 44gb 4pm->9pm
91% upload, 1.5gb out of 1.65gb 4pm->9pm

now hitting a limit that is using the connection at 90%+ of the possible speed (ignoring any tcp overheads) doesn't seem a problem to me, the equivalent download STM limit would be around 40gb in those 5 hours, not too shabby is it?

in terms of downloads the new policy is less restrictive as if you want to download massively you can start it 3hours earlier and it also increases the average speed you need to stay below to avoid triggering it. in terms of upload it is more restrictive, but tbh a "cap" that is 90%+ of the theoretical throughput is probably only go to catch those maxing their connection 100% of the time for those 5 hrs which imo would help a lot in areas that see crap speeds during those times.

for someone who thinks they'll trigger the upload stm (not the download), what are you using it on? if its torrents there are plenty of threads on here recommending to stay below 80% upload so that can't trigger it ;)

[slowcoach]

I was just trying to point out that to start uploading a large file during the curfew will take ages longer with the upload STM in place.
One thing we have seen is that the current download STM hasn't worked, struggling to get 1Mb tonight again, so why keep on along the same path.

VM has too many customers, the only metering which will work is to have alternative days access, odd or even dates depending on your account number, similar to road access during the petrol shortages, then everyone will leave and the problem will disappear, as it is people are only leaving in dribs and drabs so the current STM solution is going to take ages to be effective.

In the meantime at least they are bringing the price of XL BB down, so it's not all bad news. ;)

[Matth]

I seem to recall 1GB, not 1.5, being bandied around as the upload limit (on the 20Mb tier).

At one time, 300MB up on a congested UBR would gain unwanted attention, at least by common rumour.

If lower tiers take pro-rate levels of pain, upload limits could render them useless for anything other than plain browsing.

As I recall the current download limits, 350MB on 2Mbit, 700 on 4, or 3GB on 10/20 in the peak time (4PM to midnight) gets you a 4 hour penalty rate of 1Mbit, 2Mbit or 5Mbit, continuing for the whole 4 hours even if that is outside of peak time.

[bluecandylover]

Personally, I am all not to bothered about the traffic management, the 5Mbps is still faster than my 3Mbps on ADSL, as long as I can surf, MSN and go on Youtube etc I will be happy.

And I will make sure any high traffic applications (video chat rooms etc) is before/after the cut of point.

Kind Regards.
Blue.

[mojo]

[FONT=Comic Sans MS]Personally, I am all not to bothered about the traffic management, the 5Mbps is still faster than my 3Mbps on ADSL, as long as I can surf, MSN and go on Youtube etc I will be happy.

And I will make sure any high traffic applications (video chat rooms etc) is before/after the cut of point.

Believe me, you won't be able to use Youtube or even surf properly if your upload speed is capped at 128k. VOIP/Skype will fail too.

Lucky you can use your video chat rooms outside of peak times, sadly I have to work.

[dev]

Believe me, you won't be able to use Youtube or even surf properly if your upload speed is capped at 128k. VOIP/Skype will fail too.

Lucky you can use your video chat rooms outside of peak times, sadly I have to work.

don't talk rubbish, how did everyone manage on the 600/750k services with a 128k upload if you cant surf properly with that upload? skype/voip will be fine with a 96kbps stream and usually can take less than that.

[mojo]

dev, that was in the days of 600k, and even then it was too low. Most 512k ADSL services offered 256k up. 128kb is about 10kB/sec in practice, not enough to drive 5meg download speeds. There is no way you would realistically get 5meg down with 128k up, there just isn't the bandwidth for the TCP/IP control packets. 128k is about twice modem speed.

A lot of people who get 20 meg do so because they have more than one computer, more than one user. With a 128k upload, if one person decides to send and email, or downloads a file, or watches a YouTube video, it will kill the connection for everyone else.

Gaming will be impossible too. Many games require more than 10k/sec upload speed, for example BF2142, Unreal 2k5, World of Warcraft, Eve Online etc. At least now if you are throttled you can go play a game (with a slightly dodgy ping), but upload throttling will prevent even that.

As for VOIP, good luck getting a reliable 96kb/sec stream over a throttled 128k connection. I'm sure it would work fine it wasn't for those pesky TCP/IP overheads and the high latency.