Xtra new broadband plans from 26 October.

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#46854 26-Sep-2006 10:20

Interesting news. Once again, going on these prices i'm expected to pay quite a bit more for not much more.

I'm interested to see what Ihug offer a bit later on, I wonder it will spell the death of the dreaded on/off peak plans. Looking for a Telecom plan of equivalent, i'd have to shell out $30/month more for 10GB less. Also I doubt i'd be able to get much more than 3.5megabits down, the upload speed may slightly increase.

What do they mean by 'manage'? Is this throttle during busy times?

nzbnw

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Spark NZ

#46857 26-Sep-2006 10:45

And it's official;

New Xtra Broadband Plans

Plan name: Basic
Monthly price*: $29.95
Monthly data cap: 200MB
Additional data usage: 2c per MB
Connection speed (down/up): Max/128 kbps

Plan name: Go
Monthly price*: $39.95
Monthly data cap: 1GB
Additional data usage: Slowed to dial-up
Connection speed (down/up): Max/128 kbps

Plan name: Go Large
Monthly price*: $49.95
Monthly data cap: Unlimited. Fair use policy and traffic management
applies
Additional data usage: Unlimited. Fair use policy and traffic management
applies
Connection speed (down/up): Max/128 kbps

Plan name: Go Express
Monthly price*: $49.95
Monthly data cap: 2GB
Additional data usage: Slowed to dial-up
Connection speed (down/up): Max/Max

Plan name: Pro
Monthly price*: $79.95
Monthly data cap: 15GB
Additional data usage: 2c per MB
Connection speed (down/up): Max/Max

Plan name: Pro Advanced
Monthly price*: $99.95
Monthly data cap: 30GB
Additional data usage: 2c per MB
Connection speed (down/up): Max/Max

Plan name: Pro Ultra
Monthly price*: $149.95
Monthly data cap: 50GB
Additional data usage: 2c per MB
Connection speed (down/up): Max/Max

Click here for the full Telecom Media Release

geekiegeek

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#46858 26-Sep-2006 11:02

I have to agree with allstarnz, these are just to expensive to make me want to move from ihug.

bonkiebonks

389 posts

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#46859 26-Sep-2006 11:07

I'm actually quite impressed with the Traffic Management and Fair Use Policy terms. I'd definitely give it a go when it's released. :)

Felix

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#46860 26-Sep-2006 11:31

well I'm totally unimpressed... I don't trust xtra / jetstream to manage anything... from the site

"So if you are using the Go Large plan and run peer-to-peer applications during busy periods, we will manage the peer-to-peer and other ‘non sensitive’ traffic to limit the congestion it causes for other users.

Put another way, it means the majority of our customers – who want to surf the web or send email – will get priority during busy times. "

is the list of "managed applications"... i don't see skype on it yet... yet...

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HOTLINE

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Ben

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Vend

#46882 26-Sep-2006 13:36

So in other words 'manage' == 'throttle your P2P traffic such that the unlimited data cap is irrelevant'?

Nice one. I wonder how many people they will get to sign up hoping to do large-scale P2P who don't read that detail.

geekiegeek

2513 posts

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#46887 26-Sep-2006 14:00

Yes but can they pick up encrypted P2P traffic or P2P traffic that is using a well known port - i.e. 80 or 25

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sbiddle

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#46890 26-Sep-2006 14:20

Felix: is the list of "managed applications"... i don't see skype on it yet... yet

Or SIP & RTSP which is good.

sbiddle

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#46891 26-Sep-2006 14:21

It will be very interesting to see what changes TCL make to cable plans..

Goten475

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Inactive user

#46909 26-Sep-2006 17:10

If you use port forwarding to a really random port im bitcomet or something, will they still be able to detect it as p2p traffic?

JForce

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

#46910 26-Sep-2006 17:13

Anyone got a link to exchange locations?

I'm on the North Shore and would be interested to see how well I'll do from the "max" speed. I guess as it's distance dependant (other than peak usage etc) it would be cool to see A) where the exchanges are and B) Know how to tell what exchange I'm hooked up to

Felix

344 posts

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#46911 26-Sep-2006 17:22

well I'm in Khandallah, and xtra sent me a letter saying I will only ever be able to get 1.9MB and I could go to a 256 plan or cancel the service!! IfI didn't get it free I would quit xtra completely!

kingzzz

7 posts

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Inactive user

#46916 26-Sep-2006 20:27

from the gist of it i gather they are only throttling p2p and applying the fair use agreement during the peak hours of 4-12. on a side note anyone using xtra and spiking alot lately? myc s pings go from 80 to 500+ every few secs and webrowing sometimes lags to the max. only started a few days ago

Fraktul

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#46925 26-Sep-2006 23:20

Port is not relevant as most ISPs who are serious about traffic shaping implement layer 7 identification. If your p2p program supports encryption this will probably fool any traffic identification as it would most likely have to be based on shaping all unknown or encrypted traffic or be based on more intensive traffic behavior analysis which is probably computationally beyond most shaping devices currently.

Lewisham

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#46941 27-Sep-2006 09:20

Fraktul: Port is not relevant as most ISPs who are serious about traffic shaping implement layer 7 identification. If your p2p program supports encryption this will probably fool any traffic identification as it would most likely have to be based on shaping all unknown or encrypted traffic or be based on more intensive traffic behavior analysis which is probably computationally beyond most shaping devices currently.

Yeah, it's simply not possible at a packet level to identify BitTorrent traffic. It would be pretty easy to spot at a higher level (I don't know the technicalities of the layers, so you'll have to get by ;) ) by seeing the behaviour of the number of connections being opened and kept alive; all sending encrypted payloads. But, like you say, that's far too computationally expensive. A worked with the networking guys at a university; who knew BitTorrent was screwing them, but the best they could do was throttle either the port, or any non-standard port. The latter was out, because that involves almost full-time management of the firewall rules, so they did the first. You would be surprised how much that helps.

The only thing of concern in these new packages is that Go Express tops out at 2GB. Who is going to sign up for that? That's less than 4 demos off of Xbox Live. It's a lot of money for just web surfing; so everyone is going to go into the pool and have to fight it out for themselves, including myself. :/

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