[WXC/VFX] The Torrent plan and what it's done...

Forums › One NZ (including Farmside) › [WXC/VFX] The Torrent plan and what it's done...

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | ... | 23

BDFL - Memuneh
80646 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 41029

Administrator

ID Verified

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#166822 24-Sep-2008 18:00

JayADee: Hey, I hadn't heard the usenet server idea before. That's a good one. That would solve a few problems I think. Certainly it would free up the international bandwidth. Shouldn't cost too much either, I wouldn't think.

Bad idea. The new Copyright law requires ISPs to remove material from their servers when they know they are illegaly hosted. This includes newsservers. This wouldn't last a second in the network.

Referral links: Quic Broadband (free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE) | Samsung | AliExpress | Wise | Sharesies

Support Geekzone by subscribing (browse ads-free), or making a one-off or recurring donation through PressPatron.

exportgoldman

1202 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3

Trusted

#166823 24-Sep-2008 18:07

I have found that XNET's peak time usage (evenings) is now very quick, I can stream youtube and www.thedailyshow.com full episodes and have no problems with caching/pausing.

Amusingly enough I have trouble browsing the net sometimes after midnight... Who would have thought! If I had to choose, I would choose to have it this way around, peak time excellent speeds, middle of the night, slow. Suits me fine.

I am suprised that they arn't doing something like deep queues, where you get allocated x bandwidth but can burst over that up to xMB to make things fairer. I know ISP's were playing around with this.

For example, each user is allocated x/kbps and they have a 4MB queue they can 'burst' to, much how JetStart, or the 3.5Mbit plans used to work, for web browsing it was really quick, but when downloading a large file, you would see the speed burst in the first minute then go under normal then back to your normal speed.

Also, I'm suprised XNET arn't putting in P2P acceleration and caching servers, such as that made by Oversi, CacheLogic and PeerApp.

Why use up international bandwidth when you can cache the content your users want in your local network and dish it out.

Anyways, I'm happy with what XNET is doing and my connection works sweet during the times I use it.

Tyler - Parnell Geek - iPhone 3G - Lenovo X301 - Kaseya - Great Western Steak House, these are some of my favourite things.

euanandrews

1528 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#166833 24-Sep-2008 18:34

Talkiet:
TheBartender: [snip] I still believe they provide a good service overall, and the Torrent plan in my mind is the best (price wise) on the market...so I still support WxC.

Hang tough WxC, you still have your fans.

Interesting comment, do you use the service for general web browsing after midnight? I know it still works well for torrenting at any time of day, but torrenting is very forgiving of slow per flow speeds, while browsing isn't.

Cheers - N

I use it for general web browsing 24/7...I am always online, except when at work (obviously), I work shifts (5am-2pm/1pm-10pm/9pm-6am) so depending on my shift, I use all hours of the day...and do my downloading during the Torrent hours of 12-8am.

Generally I have no issues with my connection and speed (other than the recent outages)

chriswiggins

413 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 5

#166840 24-Sep-2008 18:57

TheBartender:
Hang tough WxC, you still have your fans.

+1 to that! I am very happy with the Xnet service and am starting to get sick of the moaning going on here myself.

Xnet havn't really had a presence here for a while all because of the moaners and speeds.

Dont like the service? MOVE ISP! No contract so what the *** are you waiting for.

Hang in there xnet, as bartender said, you have your fans (such as myself)

exportgoldman

1202 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3

Trusted

#166861 24-Sep-2008 19:44

chrisjunkie:
TheBartender:
Hang tough WxC, you still have your fans.

+1 to that! I am very happy with the Xnet service and am starting to get sick of the moaning going on here myself.

Xnet havn't really had a presence here for a while all because of the moaners and speeds.

Dont like the service? MOVE ISP! No contract so what the *** are you waiting for.

Hang in there xnet, as bartender said, you have your fans (such as myself)

For real, I totally agree. I love the service I get from XNET, and having bounced around all of the tier1 and most of the tier2 providers in my life, I find that XNET is consistantly good, and also is open to how to resolve problems as they come up.

It's funny, no other industry has such high demands for such low cost products. I also wish the winers would go elsewhere we can get back to talking about real issues.

Tyler - Parnell Geek - iPhone 3G - Lenovo X301 - Kaseya - Great Western Steak House, these are some of my favourite things.

marmel

1924 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 226

ID Verified

Trusted

#166872 24-Sep-2008 20:11

exportgoldman:
chrisjunkie:
TheBartender:
Hang tough WxC, you still have your fans.

+1 to that! I am very happy with the Xnet service and am starting to get sick of the moaning going on here myself.

Xnet havn't really had a presence here for a while all because of the moaners and speeds.

Dont like the service? MOVE ISP! No contract so what the *** are you waiting for.

Hang in there xnet, as bartender said, you have your fans (such as myself)

For real, I totally agree. I love the service I get from XNET, and having bounced around all of the tier1 and most of the tier2 providers in my life, I find that XNET is consistantly good, and also is open to how to resolve problems as they come up.

It's funny, no other industry has such high demands for such low cost products. I also wish the winers would go elsewhere we can get back to talking about real issues.

Don't you think the usability of the network at peak times is a real issue?

My take on it is that either xnet are not charging enough for the level of service they are trying to provide or their reluctance to shape traffic is proving near impossible to implement and keep most of their customers happy.

I'm not suprised that xnet are sick of people moaning but for a problem that has been around now for so long what else would they expect?

Any telco's that participate in public forums get a thumbs up in my book but they have to expect that when things are not running smoothly they will get a lot of negative feedback, it's human nature. However, as has been pointed out earlier in this thread fronting up (on an ongoing basis as the problem continues) and admitting "yeah we've still got a bit of an issue but we are still trying to sort it out" would be what I expect of a top notch company providing top quality customer service.

I also recall that xnet staff were all to happy to post when people were raving about how great the company was. Gotta take the good with the bad I'm afraid.

Mighty Ape

Shop now at Mighty Ape (affiliate link).

JayADee

2233 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 478

#166875 24-Sep-2008 20:24

I'm really happy with the company still. I never use the net during the "problem" times though except just the once when I was sick and happened to be awake. And at that time I wanted to watch some streaming software demo videos and it was pretty much impossible so I gave up and ended up watching a dvd instead. So I can see what people are complaining about. I wouldn't like to be at home trying to surf during those hours if my experience was indicative.

And it's an interesting discussion because isps all over are having it, or have implemented solutions to deal with it.

I know for some people it isn't a good situation but for me personally what xnet is doing works.

marmel

1924 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 226

ID Verified

Trusted

#166878 24-Sep-2008 20:29

You make a good point about other isp's having issues as well, we all remember "go large".....

When I was with xnet I would have been happy to pay $2 per gig if I could have had a more reliable service. I only use 5-10gb per month so it wouldn't be a big cost for me. I wonder if they considered this type of option?

JayADee

2233 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 478

#166888 24-Sep-2008 20:50

The thing is, I've been with three other isps over the last six years and I'm far happier with xnet than I've ever been with any other. And two of them have been blimmin' aweful! I'm really happy with the speeds I get and the cost and also the friendly people I've talked to on here, via email and even on an occasion or two the tech desk (like when I switched to voip from flood). The switching to that plan really impressed me, too. It was really easy and hassle free and I had excellent communiction throughout the process. The downages have annoyed the spouse no end because he hates to be without the phone and he's not big on change but he's coped and really; stuff happens.

The whole industry is trying to figure out to do about these kinds of problems and they're tackling it in different ways. I'm pleased that xnet is willing to come up with and try their own ideas. So far what they're doing works for me. I do realize it doesn't work for everyone.

I know there are issues for some people and I won't be popular with them for saying it but I also don't want xnet screwing up what to me is a really good thing! I'm actually perfectly happy with what they're doing right now.

(I'm on the regular plan, not the torrent plan in case anyone is wondering. I don't game either. I'm probably a pretty average interneter and work regular 8-5 ish hours so I miss all those problem times because I'm tucked up in bed if not actually asleep then listening to books on my ipod. :P )

Ragnor

8279 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 585

Trusted

#166890 24-Sep-2008 20:53

Talkiet:
[snip]
What's so hard about a semi guaranteed/planned/expected minium speed with the max speed determined by bandwidth/active users? It doesn't appear to be rocket science!

It's easy, it's really, REALLY expensive... Unfortunately the numbers you bandy about in your post are so far outside what economically works for a consumer service it's not funny.

Cheers - N

However there are probably people right now getting 700 kbit/s torrenting on many ISP's, I'm talking about limiting those users to a fair share of the bandwidth and unchoking the legitimate users.

chriswiggins

413 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 5

#166891 24-Sep-2008 20:58

Ragnor:
However there are probably people right now getting 700 kbit/s torrenting on many ISP's, I'm talking about limiting those users to a fair share of the bandwidth and unchoking the legitimate users.

Whats not legitiment about torrenting? Sure you get the people who download movies, tv episodes (which are on free TV anyway) and applications but you cant stereotype people who torrent because people like myself use torrent services for Linux Distributions which is definately ligitimate in my books.

Stop moaning and move ISP if you are unhappy. End of story. PERIOD

Dyson

Shop now for Dyson appliances (affiliate link).

Ragnor

8279 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 585

Trusted

#166897 24-Sep-2008 21:16

I don't think anyone can take that "linux iso's" comment seriously, there are local ftp mirrors of most major linux distros. It's pretty well established that bittorrent traffic is mostly tv shows, movies and music.

I left xnet well over 4 months ago when it was obvious this plan was going to be a disaster for legitimate late night users.

Why is someone pointing our some ideas and examples of how things could be (and are overseas) managed better so threatening to you?

linw

2893 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1205

#166916 24-Sep-2008 22:55

I am totally mystified how a few say they have no problem streaming, say, youtube in the evenings (see exportgoldman for example). How is it that a very few have no problem when most of us jsut find it impossible? Just now, for example, YT is buffering every 3 sec or so. LA speedtest 399kbps. This is true for me every evening.

Is there an answer to this?

insane

3324 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1006

ID Verified

Trusted

2degrees

Subscriber

#166923 25-Sep-2008 00:22

Yes there certainly are ways to combat the issues they are experiencing, and throwing more and more bandwidth at the problem is not going to work.

I've watched International traffic graphs right when more bandwidth is added, its quite dissheartening to watch it all get eaten up very quickly.

If every user is starving for more bandwidth, adding more bandwidth will simply get used up near instantly by torrent downloaders and normal http, ftp, email etc will end up taking a back seat once again.

DPI and QoS seems to get a lot of negative rep as many ISPs jump into DPI as a cost saving mechanism and not a network performance enhancer. Its far easier to get a financial manager to spend the $75K+ on a pair of Cisco CSE's when they'rs showed the financial savings than when you show them that it will improve network performance for customers but produce no ROI.

While downloading a torrent I certainly dont mind my connection to be 'managed' for several seconds while another users wants to view a webpage which when compared to the size of the average torrent is tiny! Properly configured QoS really is the way to go when combined with carefully thought after plans to average out network load and reduce the 'peaks'

I have to be critical of Xnet to some degree as they refuse to 'manage' their bandwidth and as predicted by Network admins from other ISPs the all out fight for bandwidth has run out.

I see someone threw up the numbers of 420kbps per DSL customer... well thats wishfull thinking, under 'normal usage' each user only needs/gets somewhere from 12 to 20kbps assigned to them by NZ ISPs.

At the end of the day, most xnet users are perhaps getting the cheapest prices in the industry, when you buy a Dihatsu you cant expect ferarri performance.

Opportunity for xnet to launch lowish capped plans with $2/gb with seporated bandwidth with the ability to also use any spare from the normal pool?

Simonm

181 posts

Master Geek

#167071 25-Sep-2008 14:55

Ragnor:
Whats not legitiment about torrenting? Sure you get the people who download movies, tv episodes (which are on free TV anyway) and applications but you cant stereotype people who torrent because people like myself use torrent services for Linux Distributions which is definately ligitimate in my books.

Sure torrenting is a legit distribution method. But im yet to find anyone that can justify 40-50+ GB on downloading linux ISOs all month.

I would quite happily pay a few dollars a GB to get good speeds.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | ... | 23