[WXC/VFX] Usage Meter again!

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › [WXC/VFX] Usage Meter again!

BlakJak

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#29271 31-Dec-2008 15:47

Well i'm spending my first day EVER rate limited today.

Why? Cap exceeded.

Why? Because the usage meter has been sitting there saying (80-83%) for the last few days.

So adding to my recent beefs with WorldxChange:

- Usage Meter is a waste of space. Over the last 3 days it's moved from 80 to 83% and yet I overnight received (to my xnet email address, which I dont check more than once every few weeks) a 'you're over your limit' notice. I don't understand how one system can work and the other is so rediculously out. (I buy $20GB/month. I figured I had nearly 4GB free. Sigh.)

- Rate Limiting is terrible. I'd not have left my downloads running overnight if I was going to exceed my limit; thats' fine. Rate limiting to 64k, however, has an unexpected side effect: as soon as the 64k threshold is reached latencies spike through the roof - 25 seconds?! It's enough that trying to load a second web page while the first one loads results in DNS failures, which translates to 'impossible'. Even dialup manages to perform more logical queueing of traffic.

- Helpdesk. I gave up after 21 minutes on hold at shortly after 9am this morning. Good grief.

The cumulation of unreliable service and some just plain annoying side effects of their broken usage meter are just about to break the proverbial camels back.

I'm glad I still have Mobile Broadband as a secondary option, but it's a littl e harder to share that across my LAN...

/rant

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TameIti

97 posts

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#186845 31-Dec-2008 17:28

Just add another 200mb to your cap if it's that necessary - it's only for another 7 hours. Also, it was said on another forum that hold times were exceeding 40min because so many people are ringing for trivial things such as the usage meter. The meter is not designed to be precise, it's there to give a general idea. If you want more precise readings, log into the accounts section on the xnet site. This meter is running off a different server and is always up to date.

BlakJak

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#186849 31-Dec-2008 17:46

Ok so you're telling me that the usage meter offered for download from the Xnet front page is a waste of time?

We're talking about being out here by as much as 4 Gigabytes out of a 20Gig cap. I'm not sure that 'precise' even begins to cover that sorta error margin.

I applaud Xnets helpful attitude but a line has to be drawn. Their efforts to help people with non-Xnet-related-faults (such as home system faults) need to be weighed against the number of people waiting for assistance. I've worked on helpdesks myself, either they need to be more aggressive about pursuing call-duration and call-wait times or they need to put more staff on. 40+ minute wait times are just going to cause people to go find helpdesks that are actually responsive.

Heck even at my most recent phone-support job (3rd tier at Telecom/Xtra) a wait time in excess of 10 minutes was VERY exceptional. Average wait time was targetted at no more than 30 seconds and was met for a significant number of calls. The other thing monitored was average call duration; if you're on the same call for more than about 10 minutes you need to be asking why. Faults beyond the ISPs sphere of influence should definately be referred elsewhere if you're going 'beyond the call of duty' to a degree where other paying customers are waiting for such stupid lengths of time.

Xnet's helpdesk are there to provide tech support for well, Xnet. If they offer their usage meter as a service to their customers then they shouldn't be seeing it as 'trivial' - they should be prepared to back up their system with support as required (or they need to make it a hellovalot clearer than is currently done, that it's indicative only.

Put it this way, if what i'm seeing here is typical, i'm going to remove the application from all of my systems as an utter waste of space.

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TameIti

97 posts

Master Geek

#186851 31-Dec-2008 18:28

The system that handles the desktop meter and the firefox meter has been playing up for the last month or two. It often runs at 100% cpu usage trying to catch up. If you check when it was last updated it was recently at Xmas day - it seems to have rectified it's self now. Again, if you want more accurate and up to date metering, use the online meter in the xnet accounts section.

With rate capping, I know what you mean. 64k is rather awful and sites lag a lot. Nothing much you can do about it.

The help desk is usually very quick, but when a fault occurs many people dont realize that Xnet knows it too. When a server soils itself, the techs get instant texts/email notification. It means that 50+ people call within 5 minutes of an outage ranting on about "best service" yada yada. When stuff is working as it should, you will find that your calls get answered within a minute or so.

Niel

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#186861 31-Dec-2008 20:55

Many customers are on holiday while XNet staff are still working, so you can expect today to have a similar wait time as peak times (i.e. after hours).

The usage meter also tells you when it last updated. It has been said before that the on-line meter is up to date, where as the Firefox plug-in needs data from a number of "boxes" to be synchronised before it will show correctly and is there only as a tool to assist people.

With other ISPs where you buy data blocks it is vital that such usage meter is up to date, but with XNet you only pay for what you use and setting a limit is only a safeguard so your kids or a virus (same thing?) does not put say $100 on your account. It takes seconds to change the cap up or down without phoning then, just log into your account.

So I would agree with your concerns/complaints if you were buying data blocks.

You can never have enough Volvos!

kerrin

165 posts

Master Geek

#186868 31-Dec-2008 21:53

XNet customers are still buying data. Its not in 'blocks', but why should that matter? At the end of the month you still get charged for what you've used.

It's really prepay vs on-account.

The firefox and desktop apps are offered as tools to manage usage, and clearly you can't trust them. Logging onto the account web page is a real pain.

Not being able to see accurate data makes the tools on offer next to useless, and in my view should be withdrawn - or at least come with a warning.

I can't understand why the applet tools can't use the same data source as the web account page??

TameIti

97 posts

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#186875 1-Jan-2009 01:53

could just add to much strain to the server.

BlakJak

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#186878 1-Jan-2009 03:11

Niel: Many customers are on holiday while XNet staff are still working, so you can expect today to have a similar wait time as peak times (i.e. after hours).

Oh, ok, so was something broken this morning at 9am which saturated their helpdesk... ?

The usage meter also tells you when it last updated. It has been said before that the on-line meter is up to date, where as the Firefox plug-in needs data from a number of "boxes" to be synchronised before it will show correctly and is there only as a tool to assist people.

It claimed to be up to date as of 31 December. Thats crap, because an email generated on 27 december showed 9% more utilisation than the meter claimed. (I just didnt get the email until yesterday.)

With other ISPs where you buy data blocks it is vital that such usage meter is up to date, but with XNet you only pay for what you use and setting a limit is only a safeguard so your kids or a virus (same thing?) does not put say $100 on your account. It takes seconds to change the cap up or down without phoning then, just log into your account.

So I would agree with your concerns/complaints if you were buying data blocks.

I'm paying for a set amount of data. The downloads I was doing weren't critical, i'd have left them a coupla days except that I figured I had capacity left, and it'd be smart to use it before the month ended.
Working on tht assumption I expected to have full speed service through to the end of the month.

Sorry, I come back to one of my key points; the usage meter is either usable or it's not. If it's not, it should be adequately explained as being a waste of time and people should be discouraged from relying on it. What's the point?

(I don't see what's so complex about rendering a number; obviously the system which is used to enforce data caps for rate limiting purposes is keeping up fine. Whilst i'm sure theres other mechanics at play (there always is) I come back to the point that the usage meter is either useful, or it's not, but it shouldn't be sold as one thing and actually be another.)

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BlakJak

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#186880 1-Jan-2009 03:30

Oh, Happy New Year. after 3am on 1/1/09 and i'm still rate limited. Funny, usage meter shows 0% and a new month. Magically accurate now? So why'm I still rate limited?

(No response to the email I sent XNet Helpdesk this morning beyond the autoresponder. I've fired them back a further query. Given it's now holidays for a coupla days, what's the bet i'm stuck with lame internet until January 5th? :-()

PS: Yes I rebooted my router.

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BlakJak

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#186881 1-Jan-2009 04:22

Hmm. I see. 0420 or so i'm kicked off, and have come back at full speed.

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