[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 | ... | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23

4819 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3934

Trusted

#174937 31-Oct-2008 17:21

attilathegorilla: Guys just ignore Talkiet, he`s so one-eyed it`s not funny. He says the Torrent plan brought the system to its knees. He keeps forgetting the fact that the Torrent plan was created because the system was already brought to its knees. Extremely poor international speeds during peak times. The only reason was Xnet`s pathetic contention ratios compared to decent ISP`s. The torrent plan was introduced, and things got much better. But now thanks to a couple of night-owls like Talkiet, all the customers of the Torrent plan have been screwed over with this pooling rubbish. I suggest everyone going back to the regular plan and do our heavy downloading at peak times, just for the way we were treated.

BS. I was (and still am) with Xnet and I didn't notice any bad slowdowns until after the torrent plan was put in place. I have now noticed a return to the previous levels now that they have done some thing to manage the torrent users.

I would respectfulyl submit that it's the users that feel they are entitled to abuse a service, then whinge when they can't get FAR FAR more than they deserve that should shut up and be ignored.

Anyway - I'm thrilled the service has been somewhat restored - I guess putting up the the whinging of a few torrent users that don't like it is a small price to pay :-)

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

burtz

170 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 15

#174949 31-Oct-2008 18:06

Yes Talkiet your're happy because you didn't switch, but when big downloaders were offered a reasonable alternative that could benefit everyone in shifting high usage to the wee hours we thought why not. But the fact that torrent didn't work and was abused by the multiple pipe users meant we all suffered after midnight. The concern is that we are all here expressing our frustration and what was a great company that communicated well (and I have been with them since vfx voice started) has failed abysmally at admitting that the TORRENT plan is a failure. They have stopped posting here, have not admitted congestion on their network status, and have actively lied to customers who have called to make a query about what is happening. The excuse that the negativity is preventing communication is a cop-out and they will suffer accordingly.

Obviously xnet's profit motives, shareholder imperatives and way of doing business has changed. Love it or leave it we are all consumers with choice. I used to be a vocal advocate of voip and worldexchange - no longer - and the deafening silence here, on their website, and even a courtesy email to loyal customers is absent.l How hard is it to admit they may have over-reached? Come-on xnet we want you to succeed but why treat us like this??

Talkiet

4819 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3934

Trusted

#174965 31-Oct-2008 19:57

burtz: Yes Talkiet your're happy because you didn't switch, but when big downloaders were offered a reasonable alternative that could benefit everyone in shifting high usage to the wee hours we thought why not. But the fact that torrent didn't work and was abused by the multiple pipe users meant we all suffered after midnight. The concern is that we are all here expressing our frustration and what was a great company that communicated well (and I have been with them since vfx voice started) has failed abysmally at admitting that the TORRENT plan is a failure. They have stopped posting here, have not admitted congestion on their network status, and have actively lied to customers who have called to make a query about what is happening. The excuse that the negativity is preventing communication is a cop-out and they will suffer accordingly.

Obviously xnet's profit motives, shareholder imperatives and way of doing business has changed. Love it or leave it we are all consumers with choice. I used to be a vocal advocate of voip and worldexchange - no longer - and the deafening silence here, on their website, and even a courtesy email to loyal customers is absent.l How hard is it to admit they may have over-reached? Come-on xnet we want you to succeed but why treat us like this??

This is a pretty well reasoned and clear precis.. The fact is they did stuff up with the values (time of free window, amount of traffic) and it generated too much demand. It would be _nice_ if they stood up and admitted this, but I think it's unrealistic to expect this - at least now.

They have admitted the plan isn't suitable for surfing or gaming after midnight at least on their website, which is something.

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

Prime

49 posts

Geek

#174970 31-Oct-2008 20:14

Talkiet:
burtz: Yes Talkiet your're happy because you didn't switch, but when big downloaders were offered a reasonable alternative that could benefit everyone in shifting high usage to the wee hours we thought why not. But the fact that torrent didn't work and was abused by the multiple pipe users meant we all suffered after midnight. The concern is that we are all here expressing our frustration and what was a great company that communicated well (and I have been with them since vfx voice started) has failed abysmally at admitting that the TORRENT plan is a failure. They have stopped posting here, have not admitted congestion on their network status, and have actively lied to customers who have called to make a query about what is happening. The excuse that the negativity is preventing communication is a cop-out and they will suffer accordingly.

Obviously xnet's profit motives, shareholder imperatives and way of doing business has changed. Love it or leave it we are all consumers with choice. I used to be a vocal advocate of voip and worldexchange - no longer - and the deafening silence here, on their website, and even a courtesy email to loyal customers is absent.l How hard is it to admit they may have over-reached? Come-on xnet we want you to succeed but why treat us like this??

This is a pretty well reasoned and clear precis.. The fact is they did stuff up with the values (time of free window, amount of traffic) and it generated too much demand. It would be _nice_ if they stood up and admitted this, but I think it's unrealistic to expect this - at least now.

They have admitted the plan isn't suitable for surfing or gaming after midnight at least on their website, which is something.

Cheers - N

Yeah but Xnet didnt say this when the plan came out, people like myself who download around 30 gig a month jumped at the chance to save a few dollars, and to make up for it our peak time price was added on to....I couldnt give a toss if the price is cheap compared to elsewhere, this is the way Xnet wants to run,

Regardless of it all, we are paying for a service that is not working well and people have a right to complain. And I ahve no doubts people are leaving Xnet, and Id guess that that heavy torrenters probably arent leaving in droves as they still get what they want, free downloads, its the average joe who are fed up with the speeds.

JUPITER2K

131 posts

Master Geek

#174971 31-Oct-2008 20:21

Perhaps it's the high uptake of broadband in NZ (has been confirm by OECD ranking ?) it was in the news a week or two ago.
so most smaller ISP has too much new users and purchasing new bandwidth may take 6 to 8 weeks downtime ?

Hence the slow connection speed for us all especially at peak time !
This is the only reason I can think of other than greed. remember the exchange rate is less favorable now.
I am not surprised a price increase may be coming soon !

attilathegorilla

213 posts

Master Geek

#174975 31-Oct-2008 20:25

Talkiet:
BS. I was (and still am) with Xnet and I didn't notice any bad slowdowns until after the torrent plan was put in place.

Hmmm that must have been in another life, on another planet. The very reason the Torrent plan was started was because these forums were absolutely jampacked with complaint after complaint about Xnet`s peak time international speeds. The Torrent plan did well to combat this. And then when they saw it was successful, they mucked it up entirely, instead of decreasing the free period and the amount of free data but still keeping it usable. That was dumb and it`s gonna bring them back to where they started.

If honest work and justice are not enough - we'll get a lawyer.

Quic Broadband

Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE. Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.

Blaze

11 posts

Geek

#174992 31-Oct-2008 21:51

Just thought I would post my speedtest results.

These where taken on 31st October at 9:50pm

I'm on the fusion with torrential data.

New Zealand
[

Tunk

35 posts

Geek

#174995 31-Oct-2008 22:08

I think its time I switched to kiwi online

Let us pick up our pitchforks, grab some torches and start a x-plan hunt on your favourite ISP!

attilathegorilla

213 posts

Master Geek

#174999 31-Oct-2008 22:52

Hehehe great post, Tunk :). Dial-up is about as fast with free data all day.

If honest work and justice are not enough - we'll get a lawyer.

cafeg

697 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 33

Trusted

#175020 1-Nov-2008 08:34

I'm also on the torrent plan and have noticed the slow speeds from midnight to 8am

Just as a test I let the torrents I was downloading this morning keep going.

7.30am speed was 60 k/bs
7.45am speed started picking up to around 70-80 k/bs
7.55am speed was 150k/bs
8.01am speed was 470k/bs

Just like some flicked a switch at 8.00am or everyone stopped downloading at that time would be closer to the mark..

So if we switch off the torrent plan do we get full speed 24/7 ?

Baboon

386 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 35

#175021 1-Nov-2008 08:44

cafeg:
So if we switch off the torrent plan do we get full speed 24/7 ?

No, it still sucks during off-peak on the pay as you go plan. It just sucks less and the 'net becomes usable again.

"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us."

- Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson)

Geekzone

Want to support Geekzone and browse the site without the ads? Subscribe to Geekzone now (monthly, annual and lifetime options).

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 9996

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#175022 1-Nov-2008 08:59

attilathegorilla: Guys just ignore Talkiet, he`s so one-eyed it`s not funny. He says the Torrent plan brought the system to its knees.

I disagree entirely. The torrent plan managed to do one thing - it literally solved the speed issues for every other ISP in the country as every P2P leacher moved to WxC. WxC did have speed issues before this and the torrent plan fixed those issues, unfortunately it created an even worse problem in that WxC got hammered by a small minority of hardcore P2P users who simply swap from ISP to ISP causing issues as they go.

People have to realise that torrent users are the problem. I have the opinion that all internet traffic should be treated equally and that it's an end users right to use their own bandwidth as they so choose but the reality is P2P traffic is hammering the internet and causing massive issues for every ISP, not just those in NZ. Sure P2P traffic has legitimate uses - I am not denying that, but the reality is probably 99% of P2P traffic is torrent downloads, most of which is pirated or copyrighted content. Should those people unfairly hamper internet access for users who are simply wanting to go about their every day business?

People seem to think they are being hard done by in NZ and paying too much for internet access and getting low speeds and caps. The reality is you aren't. Prices here in NZ are better than many people are paying in Aussie and speed issues are something affecting everybody.

Traffic management is going to become a reality as ISP's don't really face any other choices. P2P will bring the internet to a griding halt long before the shortage of IPV4 IP's does.

There is a reason why WxC still face speed issues at present but I'm not going to talk about that here as it's something WxC could choose to discuss if they want. They are transferring an insane amount of traffic even compared to other ISP's and have faced a big hurdle that will be overcome with new equipment.

attilathegorilla

213 posts

Master Geek

#175039 1-Nov-2008 10:06

sbiddle:
WxC did have speed issues before this and the torrent plan fixed those issues, unfortunately it created an even worse problem in that WxC got hammered by a small minority of hardcore P2P users

That is correct. But the people who regularly browse and play games during the night is an even smaller minority. If they wanted to make happy as many customers as they could, then they should have just decreased the free period and data, and increase the price of day-time data to 2 bucks, just to make sure torrenters do stay out of the way of regular users. I`m back on the Pay per Meg plan now, and at night my downloads are flying. A waste of bandwidth that the Torrent plan could use.

If honest work and justice are not enough - we'll get a lawyer.

chriswiggins

413 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 5

#175129 1-Nov-2008 18:36

I have decided that this torrent issue is a massive problem and from now on will not torrent stuff unless I need to (latest distro's etc)

Normally after 12am my linux torrents go on full seed and I transfer about 5gb a night (upload). I am going to move from the torrent plan to the normal plan and I think that many users should look at their data usage and wonder if it is really worth just having torrents go for the sake of it. I know that I was a culprit of this.

Maybe XNet's solution would be to just charge less in non-peak times as suggested before (something like 50c a mb) so that downloads were incouraged to be done in non-peak hours.

Cheers
Chris

euanandrews

1528 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#175141 1-Nov-2008 18:59

Yawn.

You guys still debating this?

Its simple guys...
Xnet made a mistake with the Torrent plan , just as Xtra did with Go-Large, and Woosh with Orbit Flatrate...
They promised something they cannot continue to provide at a level of service on par with other plans.

So guys, your options are simple really...

Either:
1) Change plan or ISP
or
2) Put up with it until it improves or gets canned alltogether...

If you go with option #1, no doubt your browsing and download speeds will improve dramatically...

If you go with option #2, you can take the punt that it will improve, but I doubt it...
You can take the punt that you may get a refund or something later on, but I doubt it...
You could also take the punt that the plan will be grandfathered, and once enough people leave, it will improve...but I doubt it.

All I say, is why put yaself through the hassle, being annoyed with speeds, the inconvenience and the aggravation...its just not worth it.

I personally went with option #1...but if you guys wanna keep wasting your time debating this issue, knock yourself out.

1 | ... | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23