[WXC/VFX] Xnet + P2P??

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majinbk

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# 19198 8-Feb-2008 23:21

Hoping someone can help me -
I joined Xnet yesterday, and though my browsing speeds are fine, I am having problems downloading anything via Bit Torrent. Though I suspect this is intentional, I cannot find anything on the net about whether Xnet manage traffic, and if so, what types. I have done a couple of searches and found references to customer's being disconnected for using p2p, but am unable to find anything stating the exact policy (I read the T&C/acceptable use policy, it doesn't go into specifics or detailed consequences). Can someone please explain, or possibly point me in the right direction?

Cheers,
Jamie

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# 109382 8-Feb-2008 23:59

As far as I'm aware WorldXchange do not shape or 'manage' (in the comcast sense which involves tampering with packets) peer to peer traffic. Your speeds are going to vary a lot, depending on the popularity of the torrent and the ratio of seeds to leechers.

Your speeds will be influenced by your ability to accept connections, so if you haven't set your router up, you may wish to do so. Additionally capping your upload speeds can also affect your downloads.

The account suspensions that you are referring to, were concerning WorldxChange customers who had decided to download pirated material without the consent of the copyright owner, who had employed a monitoring service for peer to peer traffic. This monitoring service no doubt contacted the provider with the details and the provider acted on it.

I'd rather not go into further details, but my observations indicate that copyright and piracy are two misunderstood topics on many a forum with often misleading understanding what is considered legit and what isn't. Additionally its against many a providers terms of service which provides them with the grounds to cut ones tubes should he is found to be doing naughty things to it (a sticky thread can be found here).

Though I must say its quite amusing seeing urban legends about 'piracy is ok if you are only using it for personal or home use'..... yeah right!

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Satyr

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# 109391 9-Feb-2008 00:38

Im on xnet and can download off bittorrent fine. I usually average my speed out at around 300kB/s

You sure you have your ports fowarded properly? and that the torrent that your trying to download has a decent amount of seederS?

majinbk

7 posts

Wannabe Geek

# 109396 9-Feb-2008 01:41

Thank you for the replies. I should have mentioned I am fairly experienced with torrents and this is not a config issue. These are torrents I download weekly (you can probably guess) and have done for some time. It just seems extremely odd that the day I switched from Xtra my torrent speeds dropped from 200-500kB/s to around 10-30kB/s. I can say with full confidence that my ports and settings along with the seed/peer ratio are fine.

Can anyone from WXC confirm/deny/explain traffic management please?

Fraktul

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# 109399 9-Feb-2008 02:46

cokemaster:

The account suspensions that you are referring to, were concerning WorldxChange customers who had decided to download pirated material without the consent of the copyright owner, who had employed a monitoring service for peer to peer traffic. This monitoring service no doubt contacted the provider with the details and the provider acted on it.

I think the term you are missing there is alleged Coke

Anyhow I digress, the thread lock stick should be waived on this topic (account suspension) as it only leads to no good.

cokemaster

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# 109414 9-Feb-2008 09:18

Fraktul:
I think the term you are missing there is alleged Coke

Anyhow I digress, the thread lock stick should be waived on this topic (account suspension) as it only leads to no good.

Yes. I agree. Knew I missed something :)

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majinbk

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# 109473 9-Feb-2008 13:18

Before the mods consider locking this topic, I would like to point out that I did not ask about account suspension/piracy etc.

My question is simple (though the answer is hard to find) - Is P2P traffic on Xnet managed in any way?

This is info that should be easily accessible to customers, to help them make the decision on an appropriate ISP.

Niel

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# 109479 9-Feb-2008 13:33

Long ago I've read in the terms & conditions that they have a fair use policy and that heavy use might get managed. It's been a long time, but by recollection is that it can get shaped when you go over 50GB. Agree, one wants a know before signing up so hopefully we can get a straight answer from WxC. I believe their pricing structure is such that if you get to 50GB on an XNet account then you will pay more than with other ISPs and so you are still "entitled" to good speeds. But if the network performance is compromised, guess who/what will get shaped first. It probably falls into the same category as getting a static IP, it is not for running a heavy use mail server etc. from home.

There is actually traffic management that everyone knows about, but nothing you should worry about. Known traffic management is in the form of QoS to give priority to VFX packets.

You can never have enough Volvos!

grant_k

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# 109482 9-Feb-2008 13:45

Niel: Long ago I've read in the terms & conditions that they have a fair use policy and that heavy use might get managed. It's been a long time, but by recollection is that it can get shaped when you go over 50GB.

IIRC, that was back in the days when Xnet offered an "Unlimited National" plan. There was a case where somebody had been doing a lot of P2P downloads from NZ servers and repeatedly used between 60GB and 110GB per month. That particular user had his connection throttled when usage exceeded 50GB (or something like that...).

Xnet don't offer plans with free National Traffic anymore. Everything is charged @ $1.02 per GB so it is no longer an issue.

Why would Xnet want to restrict your usage when they are charging you for it?
Doesn't make any sense with the current plans they have available.

I seem to remember Maverick stating on more than one occasion, that there is no throttling of any kind of traffic on Xnet unless you choose to have a Data Cap -- in which case it gets throttled back to 64kbps when the cap is exceeded.

majinbk

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Wannabe Geek

# 109507 9-Feb-2008 15:48

I seem to remember Maverick stating on more than one occasion, that there is no throttling of any kind of traffic on Xnet unless you choose to have a Data Cap -- in which case it gets throttled back to 64kbps when the cap is exceeded.

Great to know, thanks. :)

insane

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# 109558 9-Feb-2008 22:40

That cant be right. I notice a remarkable difference at exactly 1;05 am and traffic grafs show this everytime. There must be some sort of management/priorizization going on despite what they say..... there is simply no ways that the network would coupe smoothly without it. Things would simply get chocked.

Detruire

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# 109579 10-Feb-2008 01:28

insane: That cant be right. I notice a remarkable difference at exactly 1;05 am and traffic grafs show this everytime. There must be some sort of management/priorizization going on despite what they say.....

The speed of my entire connection quadruples around 1AM.

insane: there is simply no ways that the network would coupe smoothly without it. Things would simply get chocked.

If they actually bought enough bandwidth, it wouldn't be a problem.

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dnb4life

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# 109716 10-Feb-2008 18:46

Detruire:
insane: That cant be right. I notice a remarkable difference at exactly 1;05 am and traffic grafs show this everytime. There must be some sort of management/priorizization going on despite what they say.....

The speed of my entire connection quadruples around 1AM.

this will be because 1am is pretty much the start of off-peak time. between 5pm and 1am is usually the peak period where a lot more people are using the internet, so they'll either be shaping it so web browsing and email take priority bandwidth over bit torrent or it'll be because the amount of users online as it hits 1am will drop dramatically i expect.

grant_k

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# 109719 10-Feb-2008 18:52

Detruire: The speed of my entire connection quadruples around 1AM.

Is it your National Speed which quadruples or your International Speed as measured using Speedtest.net?

Detruire

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# 109730 10-Feb-2008 19:25

grant_k:
Detruire: The speed of my entire connection quadruples around 1AM.

Is it your National Speed which quadruples or your International Speed as measured using Speedtest.net?

International measured by a speedtest or two, and downloading off Download.com and a mate's dedicated.

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grant_k

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# 109732 10-Feb-2008 19:35

Detruire:
grant_k:
Detruire: The speed of my entire connection quadruples around 1AM.

Is it your National Speed which quadruples or your International Speed as measured using Speedtest.net?

International measured by a speedtest or two, and downloading off Download.com and a mate's dedicated.

Well, I would have to agree with you David. Because your National Speed doesn't change (or at least not significantly so), it does point to a lack of adequate International Bandwidth

Interesting, I thought that problem had been solved

Last time I tested around 2 weeks ago, I was getting this kind of speed to LA:

Just tested again now, and I would have to agree that the speed is not looking too flash:

It would be interesting to see what Maverick has to say about this???

From an outside perspective, it does appear that Xnet's International Bandwidth is still not adequate. Which could be caused by many factors such as Asianet.com being overloaded, congestion issues at the termination point in the US, etc, etc...

insane: That cant be right. I notice a remarkable difference at exactly 1;05 am and traffic grafs show this everytime. There must be some sort of management/priorizization going on despite what they say..... there is simply no ways that the network would coupe smoothly without it. Things would simply get chocked.

I don't agree with the logic here. If the International Bandwidth is insufficient, it would affect all kinds of traffic equally, which is what appears to be happening.

Whereas if "Management/Prioritisation" is going on; it wouldn't affect Speedtest.net results because these are using HTTP, the same as web browsing, which is usually given the highest priority.

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