[WXC/VFX] Xnet International Issue

Forums › Vodafone New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › [WXC/VFX] Xnet International Issue

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73 posts

Master Geek

#127737 1-May-2008 22:38

Is xnet going to reply, or are the going to be closed in a few months because they have no customers!

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grant_k

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#127751 1-May-2008 23:22

modcar: Is xnet going to reply, or are the going to be closed in a few months because they have no customers!

Well, I think it's High Time that Xnet FIXED this issue, rather than just posting a reply, although at least that would be a start.

I tried to watch some YouTube clips earlier tonight and gave up in disgust. Speedtest reckons I am getting 417kbps to LA (like WOW!!!) but watching DU Meter's rolling chart display while YouTube is trying to load the clips shows that I would be lucky to get 100kbps on average.

Currently my son is getting only 10kB/s (80kbps) on an HTTP download from Germany

This is really not good enough and is definitely NOT the level of service we are paying for. It has been going on for far too long now with no resolution in sight. I just spotted this on another forum:

"Thank you for your email regarding your connection with Orcon.

From your email I understand that you have recently encountered issues with your international connection.

This is an issue that Orcon has encountered recently that has been affecting some of our customers. We are currently looking into the issue and hope to have it resolved soon. There is currently an upgrade being performed on the network which should take place towards the end of the week and in addition Orcon is purchasing more international bandwidth tomorrow to improve international connections for our customers.

I hope that this has been helpful, If these measures do not alleviate your international connection issue do not hesitate to inform me and I can look into your connection. Alternatively you can contact our help desk staff who would be happy to assist you over the phone.
Kindest Regards,"

I have no way of proving that it's genuine, but all the same, have no reason to doubt it. The contrast is quite stark between Xnet's recent lack of communication on this issue, and Orcon's supposed e-mail above.

My question is:

- If Orcon can purchase more international bandwidth tomorrow why can't Xnet?

Orcon with their LLU roll-out are looking better and better from where I'm sitting. Juha has written an article about the quality of their service in the latest PC World and basically gave them the big thumbs up. His only reservation was that the price is still a little bit expensive.

The way I see it is:

- Currently paying $85 per month for Telecom Landline + Xnet Xtream (10GB/2M/128k) plan

- When our Blockhouse Bay exchange is unbundled later this month we can get FS/FS/10GB for $79.95 per month and use VFX for our phone service @ $11.25 per month. Total cost $91.20 or a paltry $6.20 per month more than I am paying now. What's more, we are only 1.3km from the exchange and can expect download speeds in excess of 15Mbps with upload speed of 1Mbps if Juha's experience is anything to go by.

I have been an Xnet customer for over 3 years now, but have to ask myself:

- Why should we continue to put up with a level of service that barely equates to Dial-up so far as International Connections are concerned during Peak Hours?

It simply is not good enough, and unless something pretty significant is done pretty damned quickly I will be jumping ship.

Those purple patches on Orcon's coverage map are getting closer every time I look

http://www.orcon.net.nz/coverage/

Detruire

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#127756 1-May-2008 23:27

Are you sure you want to switch to Orcon?

rm *

grant_k

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#127759 1-May-2008 23:35

Detruire: Are you sure you want to switch to Orcon?

Yeah, I saw that thread too David, but at least Orcon seem to be doing something about it.

Do you have a better suggestion than Orcon?
If so, I would be interested to hear it.

It seems as though various ISPs have their issues at the moment, but I attach quite a lot of weight to Juha's opinion as I know he doesn't do things in a half-arsed manner when he reviews something as important as NZ's first commercially-available LLU broadband offering. He would have done some pretty thorough testing at varied times using various methods of data transfer before giving his verdict.

hpj2007

117 posts

Master Geek
Inactive user

#127760 1-May-2008 23:43

hrm, how long is this so called solution that Xnet discussed at the pizza night going live. The max I am waiting is probably a week or two more then I will change. Even non-NZ webpages are loading slowly. I have given up streaming youtube "live" long ago, now if i want to watch a video i open it in a tab and let it buffer to the end before watching.

grant_k

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#127762 1-May-2008 23:56

hpj2007: hrm, how long is this so called solution that Xnet discussed at the pizza night going live. The max I am waiting is probably a week or two more then I will change.

That's pretty much my thoughts too HPJ.

From what has been posted in other threads regarding discussions held at the Pizza night it seems likely to me that some sort of carrot will be dangled in front of heavy torrent users to entice them to switch their downloads to off-peak times. The rationale being that it's better to do that than to keep chucking money at the problem in the form of more international bandwidth which lies idle for much of the day.

Or maybe I have interpreted it wrongly and maybe it won't be like that at all...

Or maybe WxC will try a combination of the 2 i.e. some additional International Bandwidth and some migration of heavy downloads outside of peak times.

The cynic in me cannot help wondering if this approach to the problem is not merely re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic...

Whatever they do, I hope it works and works quickly because light users such as ourselves are being heavily penalised here. We only ever use 10 to 12GB or so of data per month and that's not a lot to ask. But when we want to use some, we want it to be delivered at a decent rate, not at something which is barely above dialup speed. It's like turning on your tap and finding the water dribbling out like treacle rather than gushing out like water

I rest my case.

Mono

73 posts

Master Geek

#127763 1-May-2008 23:57

It's very frustrating that I sometimes need to move quite large amounts of data (500mb - 1gb) quickly and at short notice. If I do it in the morning, as I did this morning, I moved 1.5gb in about an hour, which is perfectly acceptable.

Tonight, from the EXACT SAME SERVER, a matter of twelve hours later, I was moving 2 500mb files. Three hours into the transfer, it dropped the non-resumable files at around 80% done.

That is extremely annoying.

insane

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#127768 2-May-2008 01:21

grant_k:
hpj2007: hrm, how long is this so called solution that Xnet discussed at the pizza night going live. The max I am waiting is probably a week or two more then I will change.

That's pretty much my thoughts too HPJ.

From what has been posted in other threads regarding discussions held at the Pizza night it seems likely to me that some sort of carrot will be dangled in front of heavy torrent users to entice them to switch their downloads to off-peak times. The rationale being that it's better to do that than to keep chucking money at the problem in the form of more international bandwidth which lies idle for much of the day.

Or maybe I have interpreted it wrongly and maybe it won't be like that at all...

Or maybe WxC will try a combination of the 2 i.e. some additional International Bandwidth and some migration of heavy downloads outside of peak times.

The cynic in me cannot help wondering if this approach to the problem is not merely re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic...

Whatever they do, I hope it works and works quickly because light users such as ourselves are being heavily penalised here. We only ever use 10 to 12GB or so of data per month and that's not a lot to ask. But when we want to use some, we want it to be delivered at a decent rate, not at something which is barely above dialup speed. It's like turning on your tap and finding the water dribbling out like treacle rather than gushing out like water

I rest my case.

At this point I'd even be happy with a system that gives me my first 0-10GB quickly unthrottled and then prioritises my remaining data thereafter. that way light users like ourselves get to actually use the internet, and those heavy users can leave their torrents overnight.

exportgoldman

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#127769 2-May-2008 01:53

insane: At this point I'd even be happy with a system that gives me my first 0-10GB quickly unthrottled and then prioritises my remaining data thereafter. that way light users like ourselves get to actually use the internet, and those heavy users can leave their torrents overnight.

Funny enough, even though I download a lot of torrents, I too want some sort of managed system where I can get good speeds for web/utube during the evenings, and I don't mind paying less and having my torrents slowed on a DIFFERENT plan.

I think though the problem is also that the web is moving multimedia, and not just torrents, from the stats I saw in America the torrent traffic is now making up only 20% of all traffic, and other multimedia (utube etc) is making up more and more of that traffic, so the issue becomes more pronounced because you can't just throttle the torrents as more and more 'normal' people expect to be able to use hugely bandwidth intensive apps during prime time, and are screaming murder when they arn't.

It will be interesting to see how XNET handle this. I think the long term solution is a massive upgrade of bandwidth, and not just XNET, but for NZ in general. The second fiber cable to Australia will help a lot as well.

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Ragnor

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#127770 2-May-2008 02:44

Xnet have lost their mojo, 3 months+ with major problems and not even an official statement on their website or via email.

It's so bad it's driving people to consider changing to providers that are $10 more expensive, have inflexible data caps and that have 12 month contracts.

How did it all go wrong?

Also I keep hearing people on the 58.x.x range with static ip's are not having significant problems.

freitasm

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#127808 2-May-2008 09:29

mch_nz:
Shash: I get this off-peak Hrs
Off peak isn't a problem., off peak speeds are great.

The issue is during peak hours it slows to around 90kbps to around 300kbps.

I want to ask a few questions but I will pose these in another discussion. Please answer this discussion even if you don't have problems with speed.

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Shash

157 posts

Master Geek

#127822 2-May-2008 10:04

From Last Night's experience I’ve made a decision...... and made the call to Telecom this morning!

Porting back 2 of my numbers to Telecom and getting TCNZ Broadband Pro! Had enough with FUSION. being said that I will be still WXC's customer for VFX services on my home line which is great.

Now I have a Spare SPA2102 for sale anyone interested all boxed with manuals etc used only for 4 months

linw

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#127926 2-May-2008 14:47

Like many of you, I am ready to jump. Only problem is that I don't know where to jump! I wish there was some ISP ranking list. But Xnet were great when I moved last year so it is pretty hopeless, really. Makes me laugh when the pollies are talking of the 'great leap ahead' with fibre to the door!! Then what? A 300kbps link to the world?

I just feel really hurt and insulted by this treatment. I feel so bad that I am still paying for a service I am not getting. I don't ask much. I don't need blinding speed. I only use around 2GB/mth. Like most, I could be understanding of a particular problem if we were told about it but this silence is just one arrogant insult too many. And, yes, they won't even reply to emails.

mch_nz

53 posts

Master Geek

#127928 2-May-2008 15:10

Took some doing and a lot of persistence but I finally got some decent dialog by email an phone going. I think that I understand the problem (P2P abuse) and understand their proposed solution (new plans to change behaviour). Nothing new here.

But I don't think this goes far enough. They should be actively dealing with the individual users that are causing the problem. Either directly by managing the account to isolating them from the rest. Or by throttling P2P services. But it seems that they are not prepared to do this.

So I've decided to vote with my feet....

brucie44

178 posts

Master Geek

#127943 2-May-2008 15:40

Sadly said goodbye to Xnet.
Always appreiciatted Mavericks and other staff help.

But if only to receive a reduced speed, feel a more budget pricing makes sense.
Do not fully understand the problem, so no idea if the solution). Pondered on phone growth at the cost of internet, and preserving phone bandwisth by sacrficing internet users. Also why voip phones with other companies suffer peak hour blues.

never-the-less wish Xnet staff and management well.

best regards,
                    Bruce.

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