Official Bigpipe App and Mode Selector Beta Discussion thread

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Official Bigpipe App and Mode Selector Beta Discussion thread

BigPipeNZ

1170 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

BigPipe

#197973 20-Jun-2016 15:35

Hi Geekzoners

Big news today for Bigpipe. Today we launch into Beta testing our Bigpipe app.

We asked for volunteers a few weeks back and got a whole heap of people offering themselves up to be sacrificed at the altar of Bigpipe testing. Thanks for that.

Those of you who were selected will shortly be receiving an email with a bit more detail about the app and how to register.

(We’re limiting the numbers for now, so if you don’t receive an invite then you’ll have to wait, sorry.)

The beta will run for an undetermined amount of time, basically until we get a good amount of feedback, figure out various bugs, and know what we need to change.

In the meantime, here’s a bit more info for the rest of you to whet your appetite:

Bigpipe is launching a mobile app exclusive to Bigpipe customers, available on Android and iPhone (for now), that will do some pretty amazing things with your internet connection.

We’ve got a lot up our sleeve for later, but for now we’re starting with just a few key features, available in a Beta version for now.

Our biggest feature we’re calling MODE SELECTOR and it means you’ll be able to choose a mode for your Bigpipe connection to prioritise the types of internet traffic you prefer.

Other ISPs throttle traffic types and they get to decide how it works. But we figured, it's your connection - so you should be the one who determines what gets priority.

Want to get your game on? Activate Gaming mode!
Love Lightbox? Trigger Streaming mode!
Love downloading masses of Ubuntu iSOs? Initiate Downloading mode!

It’s your call.

It looks something like this:

The app will also allow you to pay an outstanding bill, refer your friends to Bigpipe with just a tap, and get quick access to our support centre.

We’re also building in push notifications so you can be up to date with planned maintenance and other things you might want to get notificed about.

Plenty of other features coming up, this is just the beginning :)

There will be a few of us here on geekzone to answer questions you might have, so this is the thread to ask :)

Find out more here about how it works pages.bigpipe.co.nz/app

bigpipe.co.nz
https://www.facebook.com/BigPipeNZ
https://twitter.com/BigPipeNZ

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | ... | 9

392 posts

Ultimate Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#1577205 20-Jun-2016 15:41

How does the priority work? Via QOS?

Quic Broadband

Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.

BigPipeNZ

1170 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

BigPipe

#1577208 20-Jun-2016 15:42

short answer: yes

for more description have a read of this http://pages.bigpipe.co.nz/app/ and hopefully that will answer your question.

bigpipe.co.nz
https://www.facebook.com/BigPipeNZ
https://twitter.com/BigPipeNZ

NzBeagle

961 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#1577212 20-Jun-2016 15:48

BigPipeNZ:

short answer: yes

for more description have a read of this http://pages.bigpipe.co.nz/app/ and hopefully that will answer your question.

The Mode Selector FAQ link just takes me back to the home page.

trig42

5791 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#1577213 20-Jun-2016 15:50

Cool, nice work.

Hope I'm a chosen one :)

BigPipeNZ

1170 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

BigPipe

#1577214 20-Jun-2016 15:51

NzBeagle:

BigPipeNZ:

short answer: yes

for more description have a read of this http://pages.bigpipe.co.nz/app/ and hopefully that will answer your question.

The Mode Selector FAQ link just takes me back to the home page.

wierd. works just fine for me.

You can achieve the same effect by simply scrolling down a bit (that's all the button does anyway)

bigpipe.co.nz
https://www.facebook.com/BigPipeNZ
https://twitter.com/BigPipeNZ

PhantomNVD

2619 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1577251 20-Jun-2016 16:34

Geekzone thread linked directly from your page (v cool!) but goes to your 'general' big pipe forum rather than this thread directly. Looks like a great idea though, good luck!

Brumfondl

1184 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1577256 20-Jun-2016 16:39

BigPipeNZ:

NzBeagle:

BigPipeNZ:

short answer: yes

for more description have a read of this http://pages.bigpipe.co.nz/app/ and hopefully that will answer your question.

The Mode Selector FAQ link just takes me back to the home page.

wierd. works just fine for me.

You can achieve the same effect by simply scrolling down a bit (that's all the button does anyway)

:)

The link that doesn't work is for the Mode Selector faq http://www.bigpipe.co.nz/app/#mode-selector-faqs which just ends up taking you to the front page after a quick trip to the faqs page.

Kraven

728 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1577271 20-Jun-2016 16:56

Brumfondl:

The link that doesn't work is for the Mode Selector faq http://www.bigpipe.co.nz/app/#mode-selector-faqs which just ends up taking you to the front page after a quick trip to the faqs page.

Link should be http://pages.bigpipe.co.nz/app/#mode-selector-faqs (note 'pages' not 'www').

Looking forward to testing, makes the whole (mostly useless) QoS function on consumer devices redundant if it works as intended.

BigPipeNZ

1170 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

BigPipe

#1577278 20-Jun-2016 17:03

Kraven:

Brumfondl:

The link that doesn't work is for the Mode Selector faq http://www.bigpipe.co.nz/app/#mode-selector-faqs which just ends up taking you to the front page after a quick trip to the faqs page.

Link should be http://pages.bigpipe.co.nz/app/#mode-selector-faqs (note 'pages' not 'www').

Looking forward to testing, makes the whole (mostly useless) QoS function on consumer devices redundant if it works as intended.

cheers - fixing that link now.

Our research showed us that not being able to manage traffic is a major pain point.

It's Jar-Jar Binks levels of annoying

See this scientific poll:

and yet.... virtually nobody uses the QoS functions on their router because it's such a massive PITA

so we've made it very simple - just a few modes.

Gaming, Streaming, Communications, Downloading, Browsing.

If you are the sort of person who has no trouble with using QoS on a router - then that will probably give you more functionality and allow you to target specific sites, devices etc.

But the reality is most people have absolutely no idea how to do it (even quite tech savvy people), so by keeping it simple we think it will be more appealing and still deliver almost all of the same benefits vs a more complex version.

bigpipe.co.nz
https://www.facebook.com/BigPipeNZ
https://twitter.com/BigPipeNZ

antoniosk

2357 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1577284 20-Jun-2016 17:12

Hmm, an impressive update especially if you can pair it with a customers Local network QOS. Managed Networks for the masses....

Where are the VOIP settings controlled? you're not dumping them into the real-time queue with streaming?

________

Antoniosk

BigPipeNZ

1170 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

BigPipe

#1577288 20-Jun-2016 17:19

antoniosk:

Hmm, an impressive update especially if you can pair it with a customers Local network QOS. Managed Networks for the masses....

Where are the VOIP settings controlled? you're not dumping them into the real-time queue with streaming?

1) it operates totally separately from whatever you do on your local network. It only kicks in when your pipe is 'full', so if your line isn't maxed out, it won't do anything at all.

2) VOIP traffic sits under 'communications'. Separate from streaming.

bigpipe.co.nz
https://www.facebook.com/BigPipeNZ
https://twitter.com/BigPipeNZ

robjg63

4076 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#1577291 20-Jun-2016 17:31

Nice. Probably not worried about the QOS function, but would be pretty useful on ADSL.

Like the idea of push notifications for network status etc and perhaps being able to log an incident. That would be useful - hopefully not too often though...

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

BigPipeNZ

1170 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

BigPipe

#1577315 20-Jun-2016 17:40

robjg63: Nice. Probably not worried about the QOS function, but would be pretty useful on ADSL.

Like the idea of push notifications for network status etc and perhaps being able to log an incident. That would be useful - hopefully not too often though...

We've found it very useful for ADSL. :)

Basically, the slower your line rate, the more useful this becomes.

I.e. it.s pretty difficult to max out a 200Mbps connection for most people, so QoS becomes pretty pointless, but it is VERY easy to max out a 5Mbps connection.

As a rule of thumb we've found significant benefits up to 10Mbps, pretty decent benefits up to 30Mbps, and marginal above that.

Of course, it also depends on what you're doing with your connection too. A single person with one laptop on a 5Mbps connection is probably less in need than a family with 6 teenagers on a 20Mbps connection.

bigpipe.co.nz
https://www.facebook.com/BigPipeNZ
https://twitter.com/BigPipeNZ

mdf

3487 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1577323 20-Jun-2016 17:50

BigPipeNZ:

robjg63: Nice. Probably not worried about the QOS function, but would be pretty useful on ADSL.

Like the idea of push notifications for network status etc and perhaps being able to log an incident. That would be useful - hopefully not too often though...

We've found it very useful for ADSL. :)

Basically, the slower your line rate, the more useful this becomes.

I.e. it.s pretty difficult to max out a 200Mbps connection for most people, so QoS becomes pretty pointless, but it is VERY easy to max out a 5Mbps connection.

As a rule of thumb we've found significant benefits up to 10Mbps, pretty decent benefits up to 30Mbps, and marginal above that.

Of course, it also depends on what you're doing with your connection too. A single person with one laptop on a 5Mbps connection is probably less in need than a family with 6 teenagers on a 20Mbps connection.

I don't understand. It's _cool_! What's actual practicality got to do with it?

hio77

'That VDSL Cat'
12999 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lizard Networks

Subscriber

#1577326 20-Jun-2016 17:56

Nice to see, QOS on the ISP side. hard to explain to many people why it is that QOS on the downstream is ineffective as your only means is to delay or drop packets to shape.

Ild love to know what queuing method exactly is in use, and more so if Codel is used to go with it. That technical detail isnt on the page at all as far as i can see.

#include <std_disclaimer>

Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | ... | 9