Geekzone: technology news, blogs, forums
Guest
Welcome Guest.
You haven't logged in yet. If you don't have an account you can register now.


DeanJones

2 posts

Wannabe Geek


#21812 7-May-2008 15:06
Send private message

After reading previous complaints on other forums relating to XNet's recent bout of international bandwidth congestion during peak times, I decided to email them asking for an update on a proposed solution.

In my eyes they appear to be on the right track. Here is their response from my tech support query anyway, decide for yourself and remember when posting comments to this that there are no silver bullets to an issue like this as ISP's will always to a certain degree be at the mercy of their customers in terms of the demands on their various services (no I do not work for Xnet, I'm just an objective realist in regard to issues such as this).

"Hi there,

Xnet has been diligently buying additional International capacity as the
customer base grows in an effort to ensure that there is plenty of
plumbing to support all of our subscribers. Generally this has ensured
that our customers get a good experience that meets their needs.
Unfortunately the usage patterns of some clients have gone through the
roof and regardless of how much bandwidth we make available, the network
runs at capacity during peak hours. After midnight, we see overall usage
drop to a trickle.

Think of it like a highway. If we all come to and leave work at the same
time, everything slows down. As the population grows the motorway just
gets worse. The good news is that we can add lanes to the motorway and
will continue to do so. The reality is that there are users out there
are trying to use the whole highway at once.

Some customers have asked why we don’t simply throttle peer to peer and
torrent traffic across the board. While this seems to be a logical
answer, Xnet is concerned that doing so will have a negative impact on
real time activity such as gaming, pc to pc video conferencing and
viewing YouTube videos because in order to throttle a specific type of
transaction, we must conduct deep packet inspection to ascertain the
content type; potentially slowing all traffic.

As it turns out the answer is not a technical one. It is a matter of
promoting customers to change their usage patterns for non real time
critical downloads. So Xnet will be launching a new pricing option that
will encourage people who download excessive amounts of data to do so
during off peak periods and relieve congestion the rest of the time.
Heavy users who modify their behavior will actually save money and
everyone will get a better experience during peak usage periods. The
pricing option that will be available by mid May will offer subscribers
completely free and unlimited data usage from midnight to eight in the
morning, seven days per week. From eight AM to midnight, they will pay
$1.54 per gigabyte rather than the normal $1.02 per gig.

As the peer to peer community changes their torrenting software to limit
full speed downloading of content to off peak times, we expect to see a
very quick improvement in everyone’s speeds during the day.

We assure you that we are dedicated to providing the best service
possible and will continue to evolve, adapt and invest in the best
people and technology.

Best regards,

Xnet Internet Support
WorldxChange Communications
0800 14 XNET

Create new topic
freitasm
BDFL - Memuneh
79265 posts

Uber Geek

Administrator
ID Verified
Trusted
Geekzone
Lifetime subscriber

  #129132 7-May-2008 15:07
Send private message

Thanks for the e-mail transcription.

There's a discussions about this plan on a previous thread.




Please support Geekzone by subscribing, or using one of our referral links: Samsung | AliExpress | Wise | Sharesies | Hatch | GoodSyncBackblaze backup


Create new topic





News and reviews »

Air New Zealand Starts AI adoption with OpenAI
Posted 24-Jul-2025 16:00


eero Pro 7 Review
Posted 23-Jul-2025 12:07


BeeStation Plus Review
Posted 21-Jul-2025 14:21


eero Unveils New Wi-Fi 7 Products in New Zealand
Posted 21-Jul-2025 00:01


WiZ Introduces HDMI Sync Box and other Light Devices
Posted 20-Jul-2025 17:32


RedShield Enhances DDoS and Bot Attack Protection
Posted 20-Jul-2025 17:26


Seagate Ships 30TB Drives
Posted 17-Jul-2025 11:24


Oclean AirPump A10 Water Flosser Review
Posted 13-Jul-2025 11:05


Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7: Raising the Bar for Smartphones
Posted 10-Jul-2025 02:01


Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 Brings New Edge-To-Edge FlexWindow
Posted 10-Jul-2025 02:01


Epson Launches New AM-C550Z WorkForce Enterprise printer
Posted 9-Jul-2025 18:22


Samsung Releases Smart Monitor M9
Posted 9-Jul-2025 17:46


Nearly Half of Older Kiwis Still Write their Passwords on Paper
Posted 9-Jul-2025 08:42


D-Link 4G+ Cat6 Wi-Fi 6 DWR-933M Mobile Hotspot Review
Posted 1-Jul-2025 11:34


Oppo A5 Series Launches With New Levels of Durability
Posted 30-Jun-2025 10:15



Geekzone Live »

Try automatic live updates from Geekzone directly in your browser, without refreshing the page, with Geekzone Live now.



Are you subscribed to our RSS feed? You can download the latest headlines and summaries from our stories directly to your computer or smartphone by using a feed reader.