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Port throttling?

Throttling

I would also be happy with a capped service and clearer guidlines as to what is Fair Use.

Having spoken to CS, I have been told that I am not what they class as a heavy user and certainly download an acceptable amount. It just so happens that I use BT to do it and now I am unable to do that effectively.

The way that Pipex did this was within their T&C's, but it was still underhand and sneaky.

By offering 2mb at the same price as the 1mb Solo service, they tied people into a 12 month contract and THEN restricted the service.

I am now tied to Pipex for 12 months with a service which is almost useless to me. :crap:
 
It's blatently obvious to me that they have introduced port throttling on bittorrent and other p2p clients.

I used to be able to get the following speeds on torrents (if speeds were avail):
Down: 110kbs
Up: 26 kbs

Now the appauling speeds are more similar to:
Down: 20kbs
Up: 12kbs

Oh well...I'm currently shopping for a new provider.
 
I am now furious with Pipex! My torrents are being throttled at 20-25kbps, with no notification from them. Surely, this is breaking the terms of the contract? I am paying for an unlimited service, and paying above average for a 1Mb connection as well, at £23.44 per month. I do not expect to be penalised for the actions of other people who take the p*** out of the fair use policy. I download an approximate average of 600Mb by torrents, per week, often less, so I fail to see why I shouldn't get full speeds. Why can't they just limit the people who are the most heavy users? I suspect, having spoken to a girl this afternoon who claimed to have never heard of Bit Torrents, that this is probably beyond their technical capabilities.

Worse still, even though I have been with them for three years, because I moved house last September, and reinstated with Pipex, this apparently constitutes a new contract, and I am now tied to them for another six bloody months. They would not budge an inch on the termination fee.

I wonder if there's any sort of legal challenge which can be made against the port throttling? Those who are affected, are not getting the, as advertised, 'unlimited' service they are paying for. Would Trading Standards be of any use? I do realise, however, that any course of action might open up another can of worms, regarding file sharing, but there has to be something we can do.

I spoke to Namesco today, and the guy there assured me that no port throttling was taking place with them. They are also cheaper than Pipex, answer the phone and e-mails quicker, and seem to know what they are talking about. It's just a shame I now have to wait 6 months, or cough up a £58.75 termination fee to Pipex, in order to change providers.
 
on the solo 250k connection. last november phoned up pipex to request mac code to move to a faster service with another isp for the same £14.99 unlimited per month (girlfriend is spanish and watches streaming live spanish tv). was advised to phone back in spring when i had been with pipex for 12 months and could leave anytime...did that today and after being shunted from pillar to post and spending large amounts of time on hold, eventually one of the customer service advisers offered me a deal of a 2mb connection with a 15gb usage allownace for £14.99 which proves that they don't listen to a word you say as I had stressed several times that i wanted an uncapped service....

anyway looking at DMC dial who are offering a 1mb connection uncapped for £14.99 with 3 month contract (migration and speed upgrade free) and was wondering if anyone has any experience of this isp? are they reliable?
 
Yes - they're placing limits on download speeds. Definitely.

I've been watching my BitTorrent traffic very closely, and over the last month or so my speeds have dropped dramatically. I'm on the 1 Mb package, and I used to be able to get full speed at all times, which usually translated to around 105-ish kB/s.

By the way, I have 'xtreme2' in my Pipex login name - someone suggested that 'xtreme4' users were being targeted as well.

I'm downloading a torrent with uTorrent at this very moment, which has 36 seeds and around 20 fellow-downloaders (half of whom are almost at completion) and I'm getting 21 to 24 kB/s.

I've experimented by adding other well-seeded torrents to my queue (in addition to ones already running) and the traffic simply adjusts itself, by reducing speeds to the old torrents, to eventually end up with what I've come to call "the magic number" ....... "25"! It NEVER goes above that.

I'm not a particularly heavy user - I've certainly never received any communication from Pipex telling me I am.

It's time to shape THEIR traffic by telling them to p1ss off, I think.
 
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My sentiments precisely, Pipeless. I e-mailed them about this, and after the madatory 3 days, I received this reply, which I don't see a problem in reproducing, as it seems pretty general:-

Dear Sir

Thank you for your email regarding [‘peer to peer’ and traffic management.]

In July last year PIPEX amended its Terms and Conditions (Ts &Cs), Acceptable Usage Policy (AUP) and introduced improved network traffic management measures to help meet the challenge of continuing to provide a fair service on our network. A challenge born from the way a tiny minority of customers use their connections.

Although these ‘heavy users’ represent a tiny fraction of our customer base, the usage patterns and activities of these types of users can have an extremely detrimental impact on the connection performance of the vast majority; especially during the busiest periods on our network.

PIPEX introduced Network Management in an open and transparent manner. From the outset, we clearly stated in our FAQs on the subject, that Network Traffic Management can take many forms. Including measures such as reduced connection speed, restriction of 'peer to peer' downloading or imposing specific usage limits. These could be, for example, applied on a time of day basis or at a single or multiple customer level.

So does PIPEX manage traffic on its network? The answer is an emphatic yes: it would be irresponsible of us not to. Given ADSL broadband is a contended service and our commitment to provide the best commercial network available, we regard effective traffic management as essential. Does this mean PIPEX manages p2p traffic? The answer is yes we do. So if you are using a peer to peer application you may not achieve your full line speed.

In cases where traffic management applies specifically to your account and is not part of a network wide implementation, you will be notified by email prior to deployment.

Are we blocking 2p2 traffic? The answer is no. We haven’t introduced a hidden cap either. For the time being, PIPEX still allows customers who have the unusual requirement to download quantities of data that are way beyond the scope of a residential or home office service, to do so.

Looking forward, the next generation of broadband connection speeds are now upon us. With them come new possibilities and applications which will see the online world continue to become an even greater part of everyday life. Many of the new potential applications, such as TV-over-Broadband and Video-on-Demand give rise to new network challenges if these services are to be delivered reliably and to the kind of high standards PIPEX customers will expect. Deploying the latest network traffic management technologies along side rigorous planning and management will play a huge part in PIPEX’s ability to meet the demands of these and future innovations.

If you wish to review our Acceptable Use Policy or read our frequently asked questions (FAQs), please find a link below that will take you to the relevant online page.

http://www.pipex.net/legal/changes-faq.php
 
Simon01 said:
My sentiments precisely, Pipeless. I e-mailed them about this, and after the madatory 3 days, I received this reply, which I don't see a problem in reproducing, as it seems pretty general:-

-- Snip --

Heh! What a bunch of corporate guff, eh? Quite funny, though. Particularly when you break it up like this (direct quotes from your letter) :

(1) From the outset, we clearly stated in our FAQs on the subject, that Network Traffic Management can take many forms. Including measures such as reduced connection speed, restriction of 'peer to peer' downloading or imposing specific usage limits.

(2) So does PIPEX manage traffic on its network? The answer is an emphatic yes.

(3) Does this mean PIPEX manages p2p traffic? The answer is yes we do.

(4) So if you are using a peer to peer application you may not achieve your full line speed.

(5) Are we blocking 2p2 traffic? The answer is no.

(6) We haven’t introduced a hidden cap either.

=====================================

Yep ....... these people have no soul. I was most intrigued by this statement :

"In cases where traffic management applies specifically to your account and is not part of a network wide implementation, you will be notified by email prior to deployment."

In my case, as I never received any email (thus they didn't think my account justified " traffic management"), doesn't that mean that this reduction in speed is "part of a network wide implementation"?

Erm ...... God ........ I think I'm beginning to confuse myself, now! This legal stuff .............. uungh!!!

;)
 
Well, this is precisely my point. I can understand them limiting individuals who take the pi$$, but it's hardly fair to limit speeds across the board. Why should I be penalised for the actions of a 'tiny minority'? They (Pipex) should just tell the minority who abuse the system to get on their bikes, and let the rest of us receive the service we are paying for.
 
Folks in the ADSL Guide forums are reporting that accounts on the xtreme5 realm are now being throttled.
Which suggests that it won't be long before all Pipex users will only be able to download via torrents at 25kB/s regardless of the overall level of their usage.

Switching to uTorrent or Azureus and enabling encryption should improve the performance until Pipex figure how to 'crack' it.
But the only real solution is to dump Pipex as soon as feasible.
 
heavylight said:
Which suggests that it won't be long before all Pipex users will only be able to download via torrents at 25kB/s regardless of the overall level of their usage.

My own reading of the situation across all the websites dealing with Pipex is that the 'capping' is now universal.

Switching to uTorrent or Azureus and enabling encryption should improve the performance until Pipex figure how to 'crack' it.

I know ;)

I've just enabled Protocol Encryption in uTorrent 1.5 and it's helped enormously!!!. Heh!

But the only real solution is to dump Pipex as soon as feasible.

I intend to.
 
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Simon01 said:
Ditto - all of the above. :) Shame I have to wait until September, or write off £58.75. :(

As a (very!) heavy torrent user, I'm *so* glad I moved flats last November and switched from Pipex 1Mb to Telewest 4Mb for just £1.50/mth more...

Given the opportunity, I now wouldn't touch Pipex with a very long barge-pole!
 
Thought this might be useful:-
ADSL broadband, in common with almost every other part of the Internet, is a contended service. In other words it is a shared service. This section summarises the simple step customers that download many gigabytes of data a month can take to use their broadband connections on a shared network.

If you routinely transfer large amounts of data you can minimise the impact of this on other customers by making one very simple change to the way you use your computer. Simply, schedule prolonged, large scale downloading activity to off-peak hours when other customers are less likely to be using the network. This especially applies when making several simultaneous large downloads.

Currently the best time to schedule these types of downloads is between midnight to 6am, 7 days a week.

By scheduling your prolonged, large scale downloading activity during these periods you can still transfer huge amounts of data (hundreds of Gigabytes a month), but in a way that doesn't adversely affect other customers sharing the network.

It is important to point out that PIPEX is not forbidding or blocking anyone from downloading during peak periods. If you want to continue making large scale, prolonged downloads during peak hours, you are of course free to do so. However, this may mean that PIPEX has to manage your connection during these times in the interest of providing a fair service.

If you are someone who has the unusual requirement to download many 10s or even 100s of gigabytes of data on a monthly basis, please take into account that ADSL broadband is a shared or "contended" service. If you schedule your downloads accordingly other customers can use the network fairly during peak periods and you can still retain the ability to download vast quantities of data.

Please remember everyone's obligations to fully comply with all conditions of the PIPEX Acceptable Use Policy, including compliance with copyright and intellectual property laws. Some file downloads, uploads and file sharing activities may contravene these laws. It is your responsibility to ensure your Internet activity does not infringe any applicable laws.

Finally, PIPEX Solo services are designed for residential broadband applications and not for business use. If you are conducting legitimate commercial activities which require you to transfer 10s or 100s of gigabytes of data a month you need a more appropriate PIPEX business service if you are using a Solo service for this purpose.
http://www.pipex.net/legal/heavy-usage.php
 
Strange but true

Hi All

I have been a Pipex Extreme Solo user for over a year with very few problems until recently. Over the last month my download speed has dropped to around 20 to 30K on a 2meg connection when downloading torrents. I can download files directly from the internet at normal speeds of up to 198k and higher.
Also I have been interested in moving up to 8mb connection but Pipex is not currently offering this service to existing customers. It seems that if you sign up you can have it straight away. So it would appear that Pipex is more interested in pulling in new customers rather than rewarding loyal existing customers. Not nice.
I phoned up to get a mac code to migrate to Zen and was told that I would recieve an email within 48 to 72 hours with the code (nice). That was at 1730. I sat down and had my dinner then returned to my computer 20 minutes later to find torrent files coming down between 60 and 70k.
Strange but true.
Not sure I understand what port throttling is but it definitely bears some thought, does'nt it?

Swampy
 
What irks me is that it's a "contended" connection that we're all paying for - so why not just leave the fighting over the bandwidth down to contention management?!?! That is, say we're on a 2mbit connection at 50:1 - then that simply means that they have to have a 2 mbit connection that can be shared between 50 people. At the times where more than 1 person is actively using that connection then the ISP's routers, etc should be able to simply timeslice the bandwidth fairly between the contending customers. When there's no-one else actively using it then the person who is should be able to get the full 2Mbit to themselves - as the rest of the bandwidth needs to be there anyway incase someone else wants it... If all 50 customers are downloading, non-stop via BT then so be it - they'll end up with a lot of contention over the bandwidth. This is (I believe) similar to what Namesco do - except they shunt the higher usage customers all into the same contention group as opposed to just leaving the contention sort itself out automatically over the whole of the network.

I really don't see why they need to implement port blocking and traffic shaping. Just sort out proper contention handling - all problems would then be solved - and it can't be *that* hard to do - can it?

Anyway - rant over - I'm sure that I must be missing something as if it was as simple as I've said above then surely they'd be implementing that already...
 
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Hax said:
What irks me is that it's a "contended" connection that we're all paying for - so why not just leave the fighting over the bandwidth down to contention management?!?! That is, say we're on a 2mbit connection at 50:1 - then that simply means that they have to have a 2 mbit connection that can be shared between 50 people. At the times where more than 1 person is actively using that connection then the ISP's routers, etc should be able to simply timeslice the bandwidth fairly between the contending customers. When there's no-one else actively using it then the person who is should be able to get the full 2Mbit to themselves - as the rest of the bandwidth needs to be there anyway incase someone else wants it... If all 50 customers are downloading, non-stop via BT then so be it - they'll end up with a lot of contention over the bandwidth. This is (I believe) similar to what Namesco do - except they shunt the higher usage customers all into the same contention group as opposed to just leaving the contention sort itself out automatically over the whole of the network.

I really don't see why they need to implement port blocking and traffic shaping. Just sort out proper contention handling - all problems would then be solved - and it can't be *that* hard to do - can it?

Anyway - rant over - I'm sure that I must be missing something as if it was as simple as I've said above then surely they'd be implementing that already...
The level of technical expertise I have experienced from Pipex could probably be contested by a six year old. My website is hosted with Web Fusion, their sister company, and the best any of their so called technicians can seem to manage, in the event of problems, is to reboot the server. When I rang to ask about the port throttling issue, the girl on the phone didn't even know what P2P was, so how in hell they are supposed to run a network is beyond me.

Interesting what you said about Namesco, as they are currently at the top of my list to migrate to in September. Would you be so kind as to expand on your comment:- "they shunt the higher usage customers all into the same contention group"? Is this a good or bad thing for 'average' P2P users? When I rang them, they clearly stated that no port throttling was taking place, or is likely to in the foreseeable future. I download an average of 5Gb per month, so I would be easily within their 10Gb limit, but would I be constituted as a high user, and thus face a higher contention ratio?
 
Taken from Namesco's website (clicky-clicky) the relevant bits are:

All ADSL Broadband services from Namesco are sold based on fair usage. You can use your ADSL broadband connection as much as you like, all we ask is you are fair in your usage, ADSL is a service this is contended with other users (bandwidth is not dedicated to your connection alone instead it is theoretically shared in 50 users blocks) and if one person is using up all the bandwidth constantly then under the definition of the product it means that 49 other people have no bandwidth at all. In reality this is not quite the case, however all we ask is you are fair in your bandwidth usage.

This "fair usage policy" is here to give us an option that if your usage is excessive over a period of time to the point it is impacting on other users then we reserve the right to ask you to reduce your broadband usage. If you need a 1:1 service and exclusive access to your bandwidth then you need a leased line, all the time you are using a contended service then you need to play fair with other users.

Generally, we would view data transfer of 60GB or more per month (as is a common limit with other ISPs) to be excessive and reserve the right to discuss this usage with the user concerned.

And:

What happens if your usage exceeds the Fair Usage Policy guidelines?

If your usage exceeds the Fair Usage Policy by an excessive amount, not just a few GB over but reasonably over, then we will contact you by email and request that you reduce your usage.

Namesco will not impose a usage cap on your connection, however, if your usage continues to remain high over the weeks following the first email we have sent to you, then your connection will be contended with other users of a similar usage pattern to yours. The contention will apply upto the advertised level for your product, either 50:1 or 20:1. You can still continue to download as much as you wish, however you will however have contention on the service -noticeable mainly at peak times.

If you usage then tails back down to a more reasonable level then the extra contention applied to your account will be removed. At no stage will an upper download limit on usage be imposed on any account.

Note that this is in relation to their "unlimited" service. So, in effect, they're saying that you can have a 60 Gig limit for "unlimited" usage without being grouped with other high bandwidth users - otherwise, you get grouped with them and have more people more regularly contending for the same bit of bandwidth.

I would say that your 5 gig wouldn't even be noticed by them. Especially as you'd probably go for their 10 gig capped service.

Namesco are currently in my shortlist of people to jump ship to - but I'm going to wait at least another month - probably two to see what's going on with adsl max with other suppliers. I just know that I dislike the way Pipex treat it's existing customers by firstly imposing restrictions such as they have and then secondly by introducing new packages that offer similar (or even better features) than existing ones, but without automatically reducing the price being paid by their existing customers.
 
Hax said:
I just know that I dislike the way Pipex treat it's existing customers by firstly imposing restrictions such as they have and then secondly by introducing new packages that offer similar (or even better features) than existing ones, but without automatically reducing the price being paid by their existing customers.
Yes, that's another thing. Very annoying and disrespectful to existing customers. Thanks for the info. I had read that before, but it confirmed we are talking about the same thing.
 
Originally Posted by Hax
I just know that I dislike the way Pipex treat it's existing customers by firstly imposing restrictions such as they have and then secondly by introducing new packages that offer similar (or even better features) than existing ones, but without automatically reducing the price being paid by their existing customers.

I don't know of any ISP that automatically reduce the customer to a new package its upto the customer to monitor the packages once they are out of contract and ask to be moved onto a new package if it suits their need.

I have read where one person was 2yrs out of contract and paying £10 m ore than all the others but to change contracts meant a new contract and caps. Think the customer would be happy being moved without asking to be moved?
 
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