[WXC/VFX] Xnet's new 2am to 8am free 75GB download time slot start from 31 Dec 08

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › [WXC/VFX] Xnet's new 2am to 8am free 75GB download time slot start from 31 Dec 08

app

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Geek

#29144 25-Dec-2008 21:33

I'm just wondering have anyone notice xnet's new rules?

Copied from xnet's site.

"After significant feedback from our customers, from 31st December WorldxChange will change the hours in which you can transfer up to 75Gigabytes at no additional charge from the current Midnight to 8am window, to a later start time of 2am. All other aspects of the service remain the same."

What are your views on those new rules? I personally don't like the new 2am free download starting time.

I think xnet should send notification to all their customers for rule changes...
[Edit: disconnection fee issue had perviously discussed]

X---and disconnection fee now apply...

"As of November 1 2008 there is a $99 disconnection fee if a customer cancels their service within the first 12 months. This fee reduces by $8.25 for each month your service is active with WorldxChange (ie: after 6 months the disconnection fee will be $49.50). When joining from another provider, a churn fee of $25 is applicable. Connection and Wiring costs $149 on top of a provisioning fee, and is where a technician will visit your house. A Connection and Wiring Cost is normally required where you have 4 or more phone jacks in use or a monitored alarm. All prices include GST." ---X

X---and no disconnection fee is what the xnet help desk told me before I sign up, will this new disconnection fee apply to all old customers? ---X

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#186100 25-Dec-2008 22:44

It's been there for a while. The disconnection fee has been discussed a number of times. It does not apply to existing customers, but it does apply if you make significant changes to your account or if you switch away and then switch back to XNet (i.e. does not take into account previous customer status). Also if you downgrade to an e-mail only (i.e. dialup) account because you are say overseas for a couple of months and then want to upgrade to ADSL again.

You can never have enough Volvos!

Dratsab

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#186103 25-Dec-2008 22:57

As noted by Niel, the "early disconnection fee" clause has been previously discussed. A two page thread here will probably answer your questions.

app

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#186112 26-Dec-2008 01:56

Thanks for the info and link.

I'm still not happy about them pushing back the starting time of the 'free download' period. I'm not a heavy BT user but sometime I download free iTune TV shows during the free 75G download time slot, very soon I'll need to stay up at 2 am to start my downloads....

aw

286 posts

Ultimate Geek

#186136 26-Dec-2008 11:27

Personally, I like the change.

When I signed up with Xnet two years ago, back when I actively recommended the service to others, the only data plan was the $1/GB option.

I thought this was excellent, you got what you paid for - light data users paid little, heavy data users paid more, and peak traffic was fast - I figured this was good as it would have fully funded Xnet's upstream links should they need more data.

I believe the Torrent plans have completely undermined the best part of Xnet.

Personally, I'd prefer that the $1/GB users were shielded from the torrent users so we could have some of our international bandwidth back.

Or even better, end the torrent plans, and everybody pays their fair share.

JMHO.

Andrew

jermsie

302 posts

Ultimate Geek

#186140 26-Dec-2008 11:48

app: Thanks for the info and link.
I'm still not happy about them pushing back the starting time of the 'free download' period. I'm not a heavy BT user but sometime I download free iTune TV shows during the free 75G download time slot, very soon I'll need to stay up at 2 am to start my downloads....

iTunes uses Akamai. Akamai = local traffic.

– J

marmel

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#186142 26-Dec-2008 11:51

I think it would only be a small percentage of users who have complained about the speed after midnight (other than the torrent users). Most on here anyway have complained abot international speeds from 6pm onwards. Not sure if this change will have any positive impact at all for the majority of xnet's customers.

There must be some underlying issues here though with the int speeds. From the outset the cost per gb was $1. One would have to assume that there is a profit margin in that which then would lead one to assume that the more customers use the more profit xnet would have to purchase int bandwidth.

Something went wrong though when the int speeds went down the gurgler. Maybe large costs in other areas diverted some of the revenue that could have been used to purchase the required bandwidth.

Xnet tried to fix the issue with the torrent plan which has only made things worse, now they are pushing back the torrent plan start time which I don't think will do anything for the bulk of their customers and has the potential to make things worse for the torrent users who now have a narrow window in which to try and download their 75gb.

You can't get blood out of a stone so if the money isn't there to purchase the bandwidth required to provide an adequate level of performance foe the customers then the business plan is flawed and needs to be changed.

Personally I would have been happy to pay $1.50 per gb when I was with xnet for better performance because the other services that were supplied with vfx were pretty good for the price.

raytaylor

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#186285 27-Dec-2008 18:22

jermsie:
app: Thanks for the info and link.
I'm still not happy about them pushing back the starting time of the 'free download' period. I'm not a heavy BT user but sometime I download free iTune TV shows during the free 75G download time slot, very soon I'll need to stay up at 2 am to start my downloads....

iTunes uses Akamai. Akamai = local traffic.

Also you can use windows scheduler to start a program at 2am.
I have my pc in the office up the other end of the house set in the bios to boot up at 1am if its not already switched on, and then at 1.15 the windows scheduler starts azureus, or in your case itunes.

Most modern pc's can be set to turn on at a specific time by going into the bios setup by pressing f1, esc or del when you first switch it on.

Ray Taylor

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exportgoldman

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#186361 28-Dec-2008 12:47

jermsie:
app: Thanks for the info and link.
I'm still not happy about them pushing back the starting time of the 'free download' period. I'm not a heavy BT user but sometime I download free iTune TV shows during the free 75G download time slot, very soon I'll need to stay up at 2 am to start my downloads....

iTunes uses Akamai. Akamai = local traffic.

local traffic = free 24/7 = iTunes traffic free :-)

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

Dratsab

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#186421 28-Dec-2008 20:57

jermsie: iTunes uses Akamai. Akamai = local traffic.

Interesting, I didn't know that.

My partner often tries to download movies via iTunes in the evening, despite me telling her repeatedly not too because it can take 3-4 hours to download a ~1gb file. The same file will come down happily in under 30 minutes during the morning.

When I queried Xnet about the download speeds they merely said international speeds cannot be guaranteed. Which, of course, implies that iTunes traffic is not local...

jermsie

302 posts

Ultimate Geek

#186438 28-Dec-2008 22:07

Dratsab:
jermsie: iTunes uses Akamai. Akamai = local traffic.

Interesting, I didn't know that.

My partner often tries to download movies via iTunes in the evening, despite me telling her repeatedly not too because it can take 3-4 hours to download a ~1gb file. The same file will come down happily in under 30 minutes during the morning.

When I queried Xnet about the download speeds they merely said international speeds cannot be guaranteed. Which, of course, implies that iTunes traffic is not local...

The data may take a different path during different times. I experience fast podcast downloads from the morning til about 4pm for example, then I get a dramatic slow down.

It is my understanding that they have a connection to the akamai cache so this is classed as local traffic, since there's minimal costs to xnet (or someone correct me). Apple use Akamai Technologies to quickly deliver content worldwide.

– J

kerrin

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#186443 29-Dec-2008 00:21

I've read before that Akamai by design only caches what is popular - therefore I'd doubt itunes content could be completely cached.

After 4pm international tends to slow on xnet due to peak usage.

Dratsab

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#186460 29-Dec-2008 09:28

OK - I'll come back on topic now...

I don't actually care about these changes to the terms and conditions (T&C's) as I don't use Torrents. Even if I did, I would have been using scheduling software as I work during the day so don't want to be up all night, and a simple adjustment would take care of the changes.

However, I would probably have been a bit unhappy about the further download restrictions. But I also think Xnet seem to be quite generous towards Torrent users with the amount of traffic they allow them to download (free for the first 75gb) although this may be a perceptional thing and I'm quite happy to be corrected on it. I'm not experienced with other ISP's - do any of them offer their customers a deal like this?

I also agree with the thrust of other posters: these changes will not produce any peak time benefit, which is the main gripe directed at Xnet. We'll just have to wait and see what the future (not too distant I hope) brings in terms of alleviating or resolving this.

In respect of the notification to users about changes to the T&C's - absolutely agree. A broadcast email to all Xnet email addressess advising of changes and providing a link to the T&C's would be a very simple thing to implement. Having said that, I can't honestly say Xnet didn't do it.

Being a minor Xnet user, an email of that nature would have been skimmed over, deleted and promptly forgotten about :-) However, I'm sure Torrent users would remember if such an email had been posted.

exportgoldman

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#186585 29-Dec-2008 21:17

kerrin: I've read before that Akamai by design only caches what is popular - therefore I'd doubt itunes content could be completely cached.

After 4pm international tends to slow on xnet due to peak usage.

Your right that Akamai only caches what is popular, but you still contact the local Akamai cache machine (still local traffic) to get a file, regardless of if it is cached or not.
There was a discussion you can search for in this forum which confirms this, but basically if you download something which isn't cached already from the local Akamai cache, the download will run slower as the local Akamai machine on your behalf downloads it from a upstream cache and streams it to you. This is why some downloads from Akamai run with full line speed, and others are 10 times slower.
So, in summary all Akamai cache = Free traffic on XNET.

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

jermsie

302 posts

Ultimate Geek

#186615 30-Dec-2008 00:02

exportgoldman:
kerrin: I've read before that Akamai by design only caches what is popular - therefore I'd doubt itunes content could be completely cached.

After 4pm international tends to slow on xnet due to peak usage.

Your right that Akamai only caches what is popular, but you still contact the local Akamai cache machine (still local traffic) to get a file, regardless of if it is cached or not.
There was a discussion you can search for in this forum which confirms this, but basically if you download something which isn't cached already from the local Akamai cache, the download will run slower as the local Akamai machine on your behalf downloads it from a upstream cache and streams it to you. This is why some downloads from Akamai run with full line speed, and others are 10 times slower.
So, in summary all Akamai cache = Free traffic on XNET.

Good to know!

– J

app

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Geek

#186763 30-Dec-2008 23:00

BTW, do anyone know why the xnet start the new timetable at 31st of Dec not 1st of Jan? Why start the new timetable at the last day of the December billing period?

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