Broadband Provider Policy on Peer 2 Peer?

[Guest weegirl]

I heard yesterday from a mobile sales rep that his Tiscali connection has slowed way down when he uses his file sharing program. The shop manager said that a lot of providers are going down the route of trying to block peer 2 peer file sharing.

 

Is this true? Or was he just talking nonsense (he was trying his hardest to sell my friend a talk talk package with her new phone contract - which she was having none of).

[moneyhelp]

Which file sharing P2P are they using?

[topCatDC]

Hi it's topcatdc

my conection goes realy slow when i use a p2p (Ares) i have tried others such as limewire but have had loads of problems with them

i might ask Virgin media if there are any issues with these

tc

[moneyhelp]

I think most ISPs are trying to cut down on this kind of illegal downloading - I wouldn't mention it to Virgin if I was you!

[topCatDC]

OK i will keep my mouth shut thanks

tc

[jmuggali]

I think most ISPs are trying to cut down on this kind of illegal downloading - I wouldn't mention it to Virgin if I was you!

 

I agree that most p2p is illegal downloading but not all of it is, some of us use it for work.

[Guest Pat Mustard]

Maybe I'm missing something here, but surely you'd expect your connection (I guess you mean the speed of other things, not the p2p app itself) to slow down when using p2p because they tend to be quite bandwidth intensive

[king100]

What you need to understand about P2P, is that generally your connection speed to them is not based on your download speed.

 

1.

 

You might be on an 8 meg connection. Which is essence means you should dl @ around 800k per second. But your upload speed is probably 1/10th of that.

 

So whoever you are downloading from might be on a 2 meg conection which means he can only upload to your computer @ 20k per second.

 

2.

 

I have never heard on isp providers operating a system where they change your speed in relation to what piece of software you are using.

 

You could be access archived files for work etc.

 

3.

 

Your contention ratio will also affect your dl speed.

 

Contention ratio - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

as will the time of day you dl stuff.

 

4. Test out the speed of your connection. Various online websites will do it for you.

 

Then test dl from a major site like microsoft, as they will give users high bw.

 

Hope this helps.

 

5. Dont forget most isps allow for fair usage policy which is extremely vague.

 

 

PS. Remember dl music films etc is illegal.

[Guest Pat Mustard]

You might be on an 8 meg connection. Which is essence means you should dl @ around 800k per second.

 

Actually, it should be nearer 1000Kbs

[king100]

Actually, it should be nearer 1000Kbs

 

hence my should be around that

 

if we are going that way then 1 meg = transfer rate of 1280 kbit/s downstream and 320 kbit/s upstream

 

so infact the dl rate is 10240 kbit/s so you are wrong

[Guest Pat Mustard]

if we are going that way then 1 meg = transfer rate of 1280 kbit/s downstream and 320 kbit/s upstream

 

No it doesn't, 1 Mb is 1 million bits. And 1 Mb download rate doesn't say anything about what the bandwidth in the opposite direction is

 

so infact the dl rate is 10240 kbit/s so you are wrong

 

No

[king100]

Average speeds will vary dependent upon: user hardware, data line condition,

ISP hardware, Internet traffic, interconnecting server loads, and target server load.

Average download times are usually longer due to general server loads and traffic.

 

Theoretical max only exists when all variables and conditions are aligned. Very few people, even with the best of hardware and line conditions, rarely achieve this max.

[Guest Pat Mustard]

You managed to fudge that nicely

[camdbug]

There is technology which is increasingly being used by providers to control downloads. "Packet Shaping" (google it - you'll find LOADS). Essentially it gives providers the ability to detect the type of traffic on your particular connection and - if they so desire - throttle your speeds when you use things like P2P.

 

It seems to be becoming quite a popular choice for ISPs and can essentially kill your "broad"band connection when it is activated.

 

There's a lot of controversy around it, especially as services such as 4OD (Channel 4 On Demand) and the still useless BBC equivalent use (bad implementations of) P2P under the hood.

 

Anecdotally, the only provider I've been told about (by friends - I'm not in the industry!) who definitely does NOT use it is certain services by Demon (that's my recollection - a few months old though). Anyway, I have seen some suspicious behaviour on my pipex connection.

 

Many of the P2P clients have FAQs on how to try to mitigate the effect of this, from using alternative ports to forcing encryption on ALL P2P packets - this seems to work for me as many other people are doing the same!

[t-star]

I have been using Virgin for Torrent file downloads without any issue. I think one of the main problems that you may be having is that Tiscalli use ADSL which is via a phone line. The only way you will get the true "UP TO *Meg" speed is to live in the phone exchange. The further you are from the exchange the more the signal degrades....

[MrShed]

Yes T Star, but hence the reason why the further from the exchange, the lower the advertised speed....

 

Worth noting I am on Tesco broadband, no P2P restrictions at all.

[Holdred]

If you're on the 20MB XL Broadband with Virgin Media then they will adjust your speeds if you download > 3GB between the hours of 16:00 - 00.00 down to 5MBPS/30KPBS. The cap stays enforced for four hours after the initial trigger

[witchwq]

If we're talking Tiscali - yes, they are throttling p2p. And p2p doesn't need to be illegal! Many linux distros (free of charge, full legal) are ready to download from p2p and this is not a crime. Even NASA had some software fro public for free relesed on p2p for faster spread. So p2p doesn't need to be illegal.

Back to Tiscali - if you will try to download something in their peak hours you will get FUP-ed. The 3-rd FUP means your connection in peak time is unusable. Internet messangers won't work, IRC won't work, online gaming won't work. You will have your broadband just for extremely slow browsing. But - grat news! When you get your 3-rd FUP warning, you can get away from all of this, even if your contract isn't at end. You can request a MAC code without any charge, and go to other provider, who can be not so strict in their FUP.

[Jim0203]

I've had direct experience of Virgin throttling P2P, so it does happen. A student of mine's husband is using P2P on his computer, and after he's been uploading/downloading for more than a few minutes the "down" speed automatically drops to 15kBps.

 

He is downloading copyrighted material, but so what? It's not the job of businesses to enforce the law.

[Rayne]

Actually I belive it DOES fall under the ISPs responsibility as their failure to do anything about it could lead rise to them being prosecuted.

[Holdred]

Actually I belive it DOES fall under the ISPs responsibility as their failure to do anything about it could lead rise to them being prosecuted.

 

The argument they use is that they are only 'conduits' and at present there is no onus on an ISP to enforce usage in such a way.

 

Bear in mind that P2P traffic does not automatically equate to copywrite infringement, it has varied legitimate uses also. VM shape the traffic of those who are using the service in such a way that may degrade the level of service to other users, whether this be via P2P or HTTP, FTP, NNTP etc etc..

[MATTYFEZ]

Yep, blaming an ISP for the actions of a customer would be like blaming peugeot for drink drivers.

 

Basicly what providers are doing is slowing conections if you exceed a certain ammount of downloads, and with many online products/activities now being very data-intensive, many people are finding thier service is being slowed through normal useage.

[joe1965]

Quite simply, the isp's block or throttle back connections through the ports used by your p2p software. Encryption can help to reduce the effect, but in many cases taking time to set up your p2p software properly can improve your connection speed.

[Rooster-UK]

I use AOL. Not the software, just the connection. I have four PCs networked and sharing the connection via a router.

I very rarely have any problems.

What is not generally realised is that the rate that you are uploading will affect the download rate.

 

Yes, I scoffed at that idea, as well, but we have proved it, by throttling the upload rate on Shareaza.

 

So many variables!