Discussion:
P2P on unleashed Orcon Avanced 40 Plans
Raimund Eimann
2006-11-29 05:55:11 UTC
Permalink
Hi,

did someone of those who are lucky to get full speed with their "Advanced 40"
256/128kbits plans notice that P2P traffic is extremely slow lately, or is
that only the case for me? My P2P client has been running at 2.5 - 3.5 KBytes
for >2 weeks now.

I have a feeling that they apply the "Layer 7" packet header checking that
they use for their ZeroShock plans.

Cheers,
Raimund


Today's wisdom:
24. Diplomacy - the art of letting someone have your way.
--
This message is part of the NZ ADSL mailing list.
see http://unixathome.org/adsl/ for archives, FAQ,
and various documents.
To unsubscribe: send mail to ***@lists.unixathome.org
with "unsubscribe adsl" in the body of the message
Mark Foster
2006-11-29 06:45:11 UTC
Permalink
Dija ask their helpdesk what was going on?

And if so what did they say?

And if not, why not?
Post by Raimund Eimann
Hi,
did someone of those who are lucky to get full speed with their "Advanced 40"
256/128kbits plans notice that P2P traffic is extremely slow lately, or is
that only the case for me? My P2P client has been running at 2.5 - 3.5 KBytes
for >2 weeks now.
I have a feeling that they apply the "Layer 7" packet header checking that
they use for their ZeroShock plans.
Cheers,
Raimund
24. Diplomacy - the art of letting someone have your way.
--
This message is part of the NZ ADSL mailing list.
see http://unixathome.org/adsl/ for archives, FAQ,
and various documents.
with "unsubscribe adsl" in the body of the message
--
This message is part of the NZ ADSL mailing list.
see http://unixathome.org/adsl/ for archives, FAQ,
and various documents.
To unsubscribe: send mail to ***@lists.unixathome.org
with "unsubscribe adsl" in the body of the message
r***@xtra.co.nz
2006-11-29 23:26:09 UTC
Permalink
since I have been on the new plans my P2P has stopped. I'm on Orcons Full/Full 15 gb plan. I can get full speed up on P2P but nothing down.
Also Latency in on line games has shot up since the new plans.
I am thinking of switching ISPs.

Orcons have this to say.
What has essentially happened here is that when the new plans were released, the ability of some customers (the ones close to their phone exchanges) to use bandwidth has increased considerably while the amount of bandwidth available has only increased by roughly 25% which you can read about here: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&ObjectID=10411499, as a result there are various problems on the network and Currently we are working with our suppliers to solve this, however when the LLU comes into effect we will have much more direct control over issues like this.
Post by Raimund Eimann
Hi,
did someone of those who are lucky to get full speed with their "Advanced 40"
256/128kbits plans notice that P2P traffic is extremely slow lately, or is
that only the case for me? My P2P client has been running at 2.5 - 3.5 KBytes
for >2 weeks now.
I have a feeling that they apply the "Layer 7" packet header checking that
they use for their ZeroShock plans.
Cheers,
Raimund
24. Diplomacy - the art of letting someone have your way.
--
This message is part of the NZ ADSL mailing list.
see http://unixathome.org/adsl/ for archives, FAQ,
and various documents.
with "unsubscribe adsl" in the body of the message
--
This message is part of the NZ ADSL mailing list.
see http://unixathome.org/adsl/ for archives, FAQ,
and various documents.
To unsubscribe: send mail to ***@lists.unixathome.org
with "unsubscribe adsl" in the body of the message
Jamie Dobbs
2006-11-30 01:08:46 UTC
Permalink
Post by r***@xtra.co.nz
since I have been on the new plans my P2P has stopped. I'm on Orcons
Full/Full 15 gb plan. I can get full speed up on P2P but nothing down.
Also Latency in on line games has shot up since the new plans.
I am thinking of switching ISPs.
Changing ISPs will have no effect since the issue is almost always with
Telecom and their network not having enough capacity, I regularly only get
sub 1000kb/s connections and it is due to my telephone exhange being over
subscribed.
Post by r***@xtra.co.nz
Orcons have this to say.
What has essentially happened here is that when the new plans were
released, the ability of some customers (the ones close to their phone
exchanges) to use bandwidth has increased considerably while the amount of
bandwidth available has only increased by roughly 25% which you can read
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&ObjectID=10411499, as a
result there are various problems on the network and Currently we are
working with our suppliers to solve this, however when the LLU comes into
effect we will have much more direct control over issues like this.
This does not address the issue of traffic shapping which is what is more
than likely happening. _ALL_ ISPs are traffic shapping to some extent and
fully admit that they do so, they do it more during peak usage times to
ensure that "high priority" traffic ie. HTTP/SMTP/POP have the most
bandwidth, everything else is sent down to a low priority queue - and
changing the ports you use for P2P will have little effect as they are
more than likely doing this shapping at Layer 7 rather than the lower
layers.

--
This message is part of the NZ ADSL mailing list.
see http://unixathome.org/adsl/ for archives, FAQ,
and various documents.
To unsubscribe: send mail to ***@lists.unixathome.org
with "unsubscribe adsl" in the body of the message
Michael Newbery
2006-11-30 03:28:13 UTC
Permalink
Post by Jamie Dobbs
This does not address the issue of traffic shapping which is what is more
than likely happening. _ALL_ ISPs are traffic shapping to some extent and
We don't traffic shape Internet.
--
Michael Newbery IP Architect TelstraClear Limited


--
This message is part of the NZ ADSL mailing list.
see http://unixathome.org/adsl/ for archives, FAQ,
and various documents.
To unsubscribe: send mail to ***@lists.unixathome.org
with "unsubscribe adsl" in the body of the message
Raimund Eimann
2006-11-30 03:55:33 UTC
Permalink
Called Orcon today. I got the following answers:

- Official statment: Everuthing's wonderful. There's no problem.
- Unofficial statement: They are getting shitloads of calls from people that
report pretty much exactly the same as I did. So they are in fact aware of
the problem.

I was told to watch the news on their website and wait...

Great.

Cheers,
Raimund
Post by Jamie Dobbs
Post by r***@xtra.co.nz
since I have been on the new plans my P2P has stopped. I'm on Orcons
Full/Full 15 gb plan. I can get full speed up on P2P but nothing down.
Also Latency in on line games has shot up since the new plans.
I am thinking of switching ISPs.
Changing ISPs will have no effect since the issue is almost always with
Telecom and their network not having enough capacity, I regularly only get
sub 1000kb/s connections and it is due to my telephone exhange being over
subscribed.
Post by r***@xtra.co.nz
Orcons have this to say.
What has essentially happened here is that when the new plans were
released, the ability of some customers (the ones close to their phone
exchanges) to use bandwidth has increased considerably while the amount
of bandwidth available has only increased by roughly 25% which you can
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&ObjectID=10411499, as
a result there are various problems on the network and Currently we are
working with our suppliers to solve this, however when the LLU comes into
effect we will have much more direct control over issues like this.
This does not address the issue of traffic shapping which is what is more
than likely happening. _ALL_ ISPs are traffic shapping to some extent and
fully admit that they do so, they do it more during peak usage times to
ensure that "high priority" traffic ie. HTTP/SMTP/POP have the most
bandwidth, everything else is sent down to a low priority queue - and
changing the ports you use for P2P will have little effect as they are
more than likely doing this shapping at Layer 7 rather than the lower
layers.
--
This message is part of the NZ ADSL mailing list.
see http://unixathome.org/adsl/ for archives, FAQ,
and various documents.
with "unsubscribe adsl" in the body of the message
--
Raimund Eimann
Department of Computer Science
University of Auckland, Tamaki Campus, 731.334
Ph. +64 9 373 7599 x85288, Skype: eimann, ICQ: 210376863


Today's wisdom:
RAM disk is *not* an installation procedure.
--
This message is part of the NZ ADSL mailing list.
see http://unixathome.org/adsl/ for archives, FAQ,
and various documents.
To unsubscribe: send mail to ***@lists.unixathome.org
with "unsubscribe adsl" in the body of the message
LEE Tet Yoon
2006-11-30 09:23:25 UTC
Permalink
Post by Raimund Eimann
- Official statment: Everuthing's wonderful. There's no problem.
- Unofficial statement: They are getting shitloads of calls from people that
report pretty much exactly the same as I did. So they are in fact aware of
the problem.
I was told to watch the news on their website and wait...
Ihug are layer 7 traffic shaping FTP. They were/are also blocking P2P by detecting a port that was used for incoming P2P via layer 7 and then blocking that port for an indeterminate period. They've been doing this for quite a while even thought their plans are all data charged and this blocking/shaping seems to still be quite heavy at offpeak times. A number of customers contacted them a while back but they always denied they were doing it and/or blamed it on upstream providers. However they have since changed their T&C to make it clear it's allowed. I don't know if they are still denying they do it.
--
This message is part of the NZ ADSL mailing list.
see http://unixathome.org/adsl/ for archives, FAQ,
and various documents.
To unsubscribe: send mail to ***@lists.unixathome.org
with "unsubscribe adsl" in the body of the message
Simon Green
2006-11-30 19:34:45 UTC
Permalink
Post by LEE Tet Yoon
Ihug are layer 7 traffic shaping FTP. They were/are also blocking P2P by detecting a port that was used for incoming P2P via layer 7 and then blocking that port for an indeterminate period. They've been doing this for quite a while even thought their plans are all data charged and this blocking/shaping seems to still be quite heavy at offpeak times. A number of customers contacted them a while back but they always denied they were doing it and/or blamed it on upstream providers. However they have since changed their T&C to make it clear it's allowed. I don't know if they are still denying they do it.
Ihug are open about P2P shaping. As you mentioned, they changed their
T&Cs to let customers know that they do it, and also made a press
release earlier in the week, see
http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/3A00BBEEB022934ACC25722E007E4C37?Opendocument

The definitely weren't blocking P2P. When I was using them, my P2P
client was humming a long quite nicely.

-- simon
--
This message is part of the NZ ADSL mailing list.
see http://unixathome.org/adsl/ for archives, FAQ,
and various documents.
To unsubscribe: send mail to ***@lists.unixathome.org
with "unsubscribe adsl" in the body of the message
Nathan Legg
2006-11-30 23:01:11 UTC
Permalink
Post by Simon Green
Post by LEE Tet Yoon
Ihug are layer 7 traffic shaping FTP. They were/are also blocking P2P
by detecting a port that was used for incoming P2P via layer 7 and
then blocking that port for an indeterminate period. They've been
doing this for quite a while even thought their plans are all data
charged and this blocking/shaping seems to still be quite heavy at
offpeak times. A number of customers contacted them a while back but
they always denied they were doing it and/or blamed it on upstream
providers. However they have since changed their T&C to make it clear
it's allowed. I don't know if they are still denying they do it.
Ihug are open about P2P shaping. As you mentioned, they changed their
T&Cs to let customers know that they do it, and also made a press
release earlier in the week, see
http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/3A00BBEEB022934ACC25722E007E4C37?Opendocument
That article or the statements within are clearly flawed.

I can't get much more than a few kb/s via p2p, and that includes popular
torrents of the legal type. Asianetcom can have PL of 20% or more.
Whilst it responds otherwise fine with tracerts (losses aside) real
traffic using that route is _*bad*_. Typically traffic sits at 500ms,
which is acceptable (not what the article states), but otherwise can sit
on 1000ms, then hitting twice that for 10 minutes at a time.

There are dozens of online-community places around the net full of
people repeating my experiences - the ihug newsgroup is one, and dozens
of forums and other mailing lists also.
Post by Simon Green
The definitely weren't blocking P2P. When I was using them, my P2P
client was humming a long quite nicely.
This begs the question - why are some fine yet many others not?

Another curious thing: after shifting house and getting a 3.5mbit plan,
my speeds were flawless. Peak, off peak, all good. Youtube always
loaded and started playing videos straight away. After about a month
and a half I'd be getting 800kb/s to 2mbit max. The performance of the
'net (namely webbrowsing) was just crap. Of course, complaining to the
isp and trying to find a solution gets you nowhere. You're always told
the age old stories of congestion, no control over the internet outside
our network etc etc etc.



But here's the thing: Online I upgraded my account to the best plan
just before 2pm. Come 2:30pm, that's half an hour later I'm getting 6mbit.

Go figgure that one. Why couldn't I have had 3.5 when I was on the
3.5meg plan?
Post by Simon Green
-- simon
--
This message is part of the NZ ADSL mailing list.
see http://unixathome.org/adsl/ for archives, FAQ,
and various documents.
with "unsubscribe adsl" in the body of the message
(apologies to simon for direct-replying)
--
This message is part of the NZ ADSL mailing list.
see http://unixathome.org/adsl/ for archives, FAQ,
and various documents.
To unsubscribe: send mail to ***@lists.unixathome.org
with "unsubscribe adsl" in the body of the message
Raimund Eimann
2006-12-11 01:08:18 UTC
Permalink
Hi,

here's a little history of what happened lately:

I called Orcon on Firday again, complaining that they've obviously changed
my "Advanced 40" plan into a ZeroShock plan without my consent.

The issue was escalated at low priority to one of their techies.

Today everything is still the same, so I called again in the morning, asking
about the status of my ticket. The reply I got was that a technician looked
at the problem and came to the conclusion that there is no problem!

Slowly getting angry, I told the support person I had on the phone that I'm
getting 400 kbytes/s out of a plan that is supposed to be limited to 256
kbits/s and that this should be sufficient indication that most certainly
something is wrong.

Seems he didn't believe me. So he asked me to run a speedtest for him at
los.co.nz. I got 3.12 Mbits/s which is fairly near to the 400 kbytes/s I
claimed before.

He escalated it again. And yes: again at low prio.

Twenty minutes I called them again.

No news at this stage. At least I got the prio increased after telling them I
might close the account altogether, because I can have as many http,ftp, and
rsync downloads at university anyway (for free!).

When I log into the Orcon website and check my plan's details, it clearly
reads "Advanced 40". Apparently they've changed to content of their product,
keeping the label the same, and it goes without saying that all this happened
without my consent.

My feeling is that they deliberately ignore the case. Maybe I'm not paying
enough for the 40GB I tend to use fully each month and they feel I'm a
uncomfortable customer (those who pay for 40 GBytes and use only 5 GBytes of
them are probably more welcome).

I'm wondering whether I should take this to Disputes Tribunal?
Post by Jamie Dobbs
Changing ISPs will have no effect since the issue is almost always with
Telecom and their network not having enough capacity, I regularly only
get sub 1000kb/s connections and it is due to my telephone exhange being
over subscribed.
The thing is: I'm not asking for more than 256kbits/s

Cheers,
Raimund
Alastair Johnson
2006-12-11 03:02:43 UTC
Permalink
[mouse attacked me; forgive a blank post]
Post by Raimund Eimann
Hi,
I called Orcon on Firday again, complaining that they've obviously changed
my "Advanced 40" plan into a ZeroShock plan without my consent.
The issue was escalated at low priority to one of their techies.
Today everything is still the same, so I called again in the morning, asking
about the status of my ticket. The reply I got was that a technician looked
at the problem and came to the conclusion that there is no problem!
Slowly getting angry, I told the support person I had on the phone that I'm
getting 400 kbytes/s out of a plan that is supposed to be limited to 256
kbits/s and that this should be sufficient indication that most certainly
something is wrong.
[...]
Post by Raimund Eimann
I'm wondering whether I should take this to Disputes Tribunal?
You're complaining because you're getting a better service than you're
paying for?

aj
paul warner
2006-12-11 05:00:36 UTC
Permalink
Post by Alastair Johnson
[mouse attacked me; forgive a blank post]
Post by Raimund Eimann
Hi,
I called Orcon on Firday again, complaining that they've obviously changed
my "Advanced 40" plan into a ZeroShock plan without my consent.
The issue was escalated at low priority to one of their techies.
Today everything is still the same, so I called again in the
morning, asking
Post by Raimund Eimann
about the status of my ticket. The reply I got was that a
technician looked
Post by Raimund Eimann
at the problem and came to the conclusion that there is no problem!
Slowly getting angry, I told the support person I had on the
phone that I'm
Post by Raimund Eimann
getting 400 kbytes/s out of a plan that is supposed to be limited to 256
kbits/s and that this should be sufficient indication that most certainly
something is wrong.
[...]
Post by Raimund Eimann
I'm wondering whether I should take this to Disputes Tribunal?
You're complaining because you're getting a better service than you're
paying for?
What he is complaining about is that his old plan had a 40Gig
allowance but the new one has 20Gig. If you exceed that 20Gig
Orcon will suggest you go on a higher Gig plan i.e. 30 or 100Gig


Regards,

Paul Warner

***@bigfoot.com

DVD spelt backwards is DVD
Raimund Eimann
2006-12-11 05:22:47 UTC
Permalink
Hi,
Post by paul warner
Post by Alastair Johnson
You're complaining because you're getting a better service than you're
paying for?
What he is complaining about is that his old plan had a 40Gig
allowance but the new one has 20Gig. If you exceed that 20Gig
Orcon will suggest you go on a higher Gig plan i.e. 30 or 100Gig
Close, but not quite.

The product I have now is still called "Advanced 40". So I can use 40GB
without getting hassled. My point is: 8 weeks ago I was able to receive ~35GB
of the 40GB from P2P networks. Now, only HTTP & Co. downloads are possible,
so that most of the available volume is effectively useless to me.

Cheers,
Raimund
Bart Hanson
2006-12-11 10:59:29 UTC
Permalink
Hi,

Orcon -are- traffic shaping.. The helpdesk swept it under the carpet
when I asked, saying it was just a poor P2P service.
but I get consistently faster results using a P2P client app that (I
suspect) is not on their banned list (yet).

On the 27th of November Orcon post the following
The ZeroShock plan is designed to give the fastest speeds for web and
email, so peer to peer (P2P) is restricted. This means you can use
P2P applications with this plan, but they may go more slowly than on
other plans. This is so we can make sure that the things that most
people like to do online like web and email are as fast as they can be.
http://www.orcon.net.nz/faqs/residential_broadband_faq/
how_do_you_manage_the_traffic_on_the_zeroshock_plan/

Then on 5th of December Orcon post the following:
We do not rate shape, block, or change the prioritisation of peer to
peer (P2P) traffic on our non-ZeroShock data plans.
http://www.orcon.net.nz/orcon_blog/orcon_broadband/
go_large_goes_nowhere_fast_why_is_broadband_faster_with_orcon.../

Maybe it is Orcon who is using confusion as its chief marketing tool
now?
It looks like you (and I) need a non-ZeroShock data plan.
Of course they are still able to point the finger back at Telecom.
How the hell does Telecom resist putting Skype on the banned list?,
oh yes, they did try increasing latency recently.
Big business continues to do what it wants, communications
commissioner or not.

Happy Christmas anyway, I might go to the beach a bit more!

Bart Hanson.
Post by Raimund Eimann
Hi,
Post by paul warner
Post by Alastair Johnson
You're complaining because you're getting a better service than you're
paying for?
What he is complaining about is that his old plan had a 40Gig
allowance but the new one has 20Gig. If you exceed that 20Gig
Orcon will suggest you go on a higher Gig plan i.e. 30 or 100Gig
Close, but not quite.
The product I have now is still called "Advanced 40". So I can use 40GB
without getting hassled. My point is: 8 weeks ago I was able to receive ~35GB
of the 40GB from P2P networks. Now, only HTTP & Co. downloads are possible,
so that most of the available volume is effectively useless to me.
Cheers,
Raimund
Craig Whitmore
2006-12-11 11:13:44 UTC
Permalink
Post by Bart Hanson
oh yes, they did try increasing latency recently.
When? Proof?

Thanks
Talking for Myself
LEE Tet Yoon
2006-12-11 15:52:59 UTC
Permalink
Post by Bart Hanson
Hi,
Orcon -are- traffic shaping.. The helpdesk swept it under the carpet
when I asked, saying it was just a poor P2P service.
but I get consistently faster results using a P2P client app that (I
suspect) is not on their banned list (yet).
On the 27th of November Orcon post the following
The ZeroShock plan is designed to give the fastest speeds for web and
email, so peer to peer (P2P) is restricted. This means you can use
P2P applications with this plan, but they may go more slowly than on
other plans. This is so we can make sure that the things that most
people like to do online like web and email are as fast as they can be.
http://www.orcon.net.nz/faqs/residential_broadband_faq/
how_do_you_manage_the_traffic_on_the_zeroshock_plan/
We do not rate shape, block, or change the prioritisation of peer to
peer (P2P) traffic on our non-ZeroShock data plans.
http://www.orcon.net.nz/orcon_blog/orcon_broadband/
go_large_goes_nowhere_fast_why_is_broadband_faster_with_orcon.../
Maybe it is Orcon who is using confusion as its chief marketing tool
now?
It looks like you (and I) need a non-ZeroShock data plan.
Of course they are still able to point the finger back at Telecom.
How the hell does Telecom resist putting Skype on the banned list?,
oh yes, they did try increasing latency recently.
Big business continues to do what it wants, communications
commissioner or not.
Happy Christmas anyway, I might go to the beach a bit more!
Bart Hanson.
You mentioned the disputes tribunal. You can go to them if you wish but in any case, you might also want to complain to the Commerce Commision. Although they don't arbitrate AFAIK they do take complaints on board and may act against companies who are behaving badly... I believe someone else e-mailed them a while back and did get a response (check the archives).

Cheers
Raimund Eimann
2006-12-11 03:26:19 UTC
Permalink
Hi,
Post by Alastair Johnson
Post by Raimund Eimann
I'm wondering whether I should take this to Disputes Tribunal?
You're complaining because you're getting a better service than you're
paying for?
Concerning the service I want, I'm hardly getting any service! I got this
plan, because I wanted to use it for P2P, and that's how it was used for
about 2 years now. 4-6 weeks ago somebody changed the plan to the equivalent
of "Orcon ZeroShock" (though it's still called the same as before: "Advanced
40"). On the ZeroShock plan P2P effectively does not work at all.

I have unlimited conventional (http,ftp,rsync,...) downloads at university.
P2P is banned from the uni network, so I got the residential connection
almost exclusively for P2P.

When I buy a jar of Nutella, I expect to find Nutella in the jar and nothing
else. Here, the Orcon silently changed the "contents" of their "Advanced 40"
product, not informing me and not even changing the product's label.

Cheers,
Raimund
Mark Thompson
2006-12-11 05:07:33 UTC
Permalink
Post by Raimund Eimann
Hi,
I called Orcon on Firday again, complaining that they've obviously changed
my "Advanced 40" plan into a ZeroShock plan without my consent.
The issue was escalated at low priority to one of their techies.
Today everything is still the same, so I called again in the morning, asking
about the status of my ticket. The reply I got was that a technician looked
at the problem and came to the conclusion that there is no problem!
Slowly getting angry, I told the support person I had on the phone that I'm
getting 400 kbytes/s out of a plan that is supposed to be limited to 256
kbits/s and that this should be sufficient indication that most certainly
something is wrong.
Seems he didn't believe me. So he asked me to run a speedtest for him at
los.co.nz. I got 3.12 Mbits/s which is fairly near to the 400 kbytes/s I
claimed before.
He escalated it again. And yes: again at low prio.
Twenty minutes I called them again.
No news at this stage. At least I got the prio increased after telling them I
might close the account altogether, because I can have as many http,ftp, and
rsync downloads at university anyway (for free!).
When I log into the Orcon website and check my plan's details, it clearly
reads "Advanced 40". Apparently they've changed to content of their product,
keeping the label the same, and it goes without saying that all this happened
without my consent.
My feeling is that they deliberately ignore the case. Maybe I'm not paying
enough for the 40GB I tend to use fully each month and they feel I'm a
uncomfortable customer (those who pay for 40 GBytes and use only 5 GBytes of
them are probably more welcome).
I'm wondering whether I should take this to Disputes Tribunal?
Post by Jamie Dobbs
Changing ISPs will have no effect since the issue is almost always with
Telecom and their network not having enough capacity, I regularly only
get sub 1000kb/s connections and it is due to my telephone exhange being
over subscribed.
The thing is: I'm not asking for more than 256kbits/s
Cheers,
Raimund
I'm seeing the same thing. However Im not going to complain about the
increased level of service. What will be interesting is if they ever
try and charge me for it, I will dispute it, because well I never
received notification of a plan change.

If I was in your shoes, I'd recommend ignoring it. I know you've
attempted to resolve the issue with no success (and this is sadly where
Orcon's Customer Service really does suck). Just record the times and
dates of the calls. Also try and get the ticket number of the
escalation, as well. I think Orcon claim they 'Record calls for
training purposes' so ask for copies of those calls.

The fact of the matter is if you read the T&C's Orcon have to advise you
of a plan change. Until such time as they do, I say milk it for all its
worth.

Mark
Raimund Eimann
2006-12-11 03:29:51 UTC
Permalink
Hi,
have you considered moving to another ISP?
Yes, but are there any better ones? When I have to pay $100/month just to get
P2P working, I rather forget about a residential Internet connection
altogether.

Currently I get 40GB for $49.95 (with "Orcon Tolls").

WorldNet wants $60 for 30GB, if you subscribe now Orcon even wants $70 for the
very same thing (30GB, line rate down,128kbits up).

The only halfway reasonable offer I can find is NZnet (www.nznet.co.nz). They
offer unlimited traffic for $59.95 (I'm in progress of checking what the
catch might be with that one...

Cheers,
Raimund
Raimund Eimann
2006-12-11 05:01:01 UTC
Permalink
Hi,
I'm not 100% sure, and Orcon may be able to confirm, but my
understanding is that the Advance 40 plan was not exempt from traffic
shaping.
* until 4-5 weeks ago, my Advanced 40 plan was working nicely with P2P.

* P2P performance then suddenly degraded from 32kbytes/s to 2kbytes/s.

* the machine which runs the P2P client has neither been reconfigured nor
switched off. Therefore I strongly assume something changed on the remote
side.

* At the same time, my connection suddenly was switched to line rate so that
now I can download files via HTTP & Co. with 400 kbytes/s. This circumstance
reinforced my suspicion that something has changed on the remote side.

* To clarify: I wouldn't mind the highspeed HTTP & Co. if it wouldn't go hand
in hand with impaired P2P.
It may simply be that Orcon have got extremely aggressive with
their peer-to-peer shaping across all plans now.
Orcon denies having made any changes to the traffic shaping for the Advanced
40 plan.
I'd be surprised if the Disputes Tribunal accepted the case though; it'd
be a pretty interesting argument.
Yeah, maybe it's normal here and I shouldn't bother. Maybe next time Telecom
will decide to change existing residential phone plans without informing
their customers: Then it might be possible to get CD-quality on overseas
calls, but local calls are suddenly so impaired that nothing can be
understood. On complaining to them, one might get the answer that there is
absolutely no problem and that my phone must be broken. When describing the
situation on a mailing list, people might react with lack of understanding,
because hey, I should really appreciate being able to talk to all my friends
in Europe, America, Asia and Africa in CD-quality now... after all it costs
nothing extra.
I've left the list out of the cc list since you did not include the list
in your reply to me; so I assume you don't want this on-list.
No, that was by accident, because I simply clicked "reply" and my mail client
wasn't aware that this mail actually belongs to a mailing list.
You might
want to clarify your actual issue because both myself and another list
participant couldn't figure out what the actual issue was.
Ok, again:

8 weeks ago:
I'm on an "Advanced 40" plan with Orcon. The service is limited to 256kbit/s
and that's it: HTTP,SMTP,POP and various P2P protocols share this 256kbit
channel. While other applications are inactive, P2P occupies the entire
channel, when anything else is active, P2P gets whatever is left.

Typical usage/month: 39.9GB out of 40GB


Today:
I'm still on an "Advanced 40" plan with Orcon. The service is line rate (down)
for HTTP,SMTP,POP & Co. P2P protocols are "managed" and run at 2kbytes/s.
While other applications are inactive, the channel is 94% unused.

Typical usage/month: (estimated) 8GB out of 40GB. The remaining (for me no
longer usable) 31.9GB/month account to files that are exclusively available
from P2P. If one measures the use of the connection by received bytes, that's
a 80% drop.

Cheers,
Raimund
paul warner
2006-12-11 18:30:37 UTC
Permalink
Post by Raimund Eimann
Hi,
I called Orcon on Firday again, complaining that they've obviously changed
my "Advanced 40" plan into a ZeroShock plan without my consent.
The issue was escalated at low priority to one of their techies.
Today everything is still the same, so I called again in the morning, asking
about the status of my ticket. The reply I got was that a technician looked
at the problem and came to the conclusion that there is no problem!
Slowly getting angry, I told the support person I had on the phone that I'm
getting 400 kbytes/s out of a plan that is supposed to be limited to 256
kbits/s and that this should be sufficient indication that most certainly
something is wrong.
Seems he didn't believe me. So he asked me to run a speedtest for him at
los.co.nz. I got 3.12 Mbits/s which is fairly near to the 400 kbytes/s I
claimed before.
I just did this test from my Orcon account. This site is a joke?? I
did their speed test 9.26Megbits??? My router says Downstream
3024. nzdsl.co.nz says 2696.. Some one clarify??


Regards,

Paul Warner

***@bigfoot.com

DVD spelt backwards is DVD
Keith & Deby
2006-12-11 19:03:25 UTC
Permalink
I just did this test from my Orcon account. This site is a joke?? I
did their speed test 9.26Megbits??? My router says Downstream
3024. nzdsl.co.nz says 2696.. Some one clarify??

I have a question on the back of my mind for a while......
I get 2000 to 2900 consistanly and 500 to 650 up on an XTra pro a/c, on peak off peak from the Manurewa. exchange a little over 1km away. Latency varies between 50 and 150ms no packet loss (used to be 40 to 42 before telecom readjusted some time ago.
Mangere gets about the same
Kawakawa bay gets 4.5 meg to 5.5 meg.
Some yrs ago I had a contact who would change our connection at the exchange and we would get 7/8 meg off MS downloading the Age of Kings demo. This was for weekend LANS.
Therefore I know this
1/I can get full speed
or
2/ any upgrades made to exchanges/lines since then have not enhanced but limited ADSL.

Back then the DSlams had either 2 or 4 phone lines /unit....not long after telecom upgraded the DSlams to nokias (???) with 8 lines per DSlam...

I rem the guy saying at the time something along the lines of "when we finally get full speed, and the DSlams get full there with be no way anyone will get full speed, and if one is unlucky enough to share a DSlam with high usage users, one would be lucky to get 2meg."

If this is right, all this stuff /propaganda about distance from exchange, qualty of lines etc is all BS from Telecom...
The Commission, Gov has put a lot of pressure on telecom resently...has telecom once again come to the party, but knowingly cant supply full speed to most users, because of previous exchange upgrades?
Surely this is (again by telecom) false advertising?
Is the Commision/Gov aware of this issue?

I am not a techie nor do I have a full understanding of DSlams and such....so stand to be corrected in my assumption


Have a Nice Day
Keith & Deby
Our Website
www.kakariki.net
----- Original Message -----
From: paul warner
To: ***@lists.unixathome.org
Sent: Tuesday, December 12, 2006 7:30 AM
Subject: Re: [adsl] P2P on unleashed Orcon Avanced 40 Plans
LEE Tet Yoon
2006-12-11 18:58:24 UTC
Permalink
Post by paul warner
I just did this test from my Orcon account. This site is a joke?? I
did their speed test 9.26Megbits??? My router says Downstream
3024. nzdsl.co.nz says 2696.. Some one clarify??
Not sure if this is what your asking but here goes. 3024k is the speed your ADSL CPE negotiated with the Dslam. It's the max your 'line' is able to handle (actually depends on your modem and the Dslam and everything in between although the actual line is obviously the biggest variable). Because of overheads, especially the ATM overheads you'll lose about 15% IIRC from your line speed. (I believe I posted the calculations a while back, search through the archives.) So the 2696k seems quite good. 2696k is the speed between you and the site your testing. It'll depend on everything between and including your computer and the nzdsl.co.nz server. You'll probably get a different speed if you do the test again and you may find it'll be slower at peak times if the local links are congested or the nzdsl server's link is saturated.

As to the Orcon speed, I don't know what's up with it. It could be a cache issue but it'll usually be a lot higher if it were. It may have just been a browser issue (remember it depends on your browser accurately recording the length of time taken to transfer a set amount of data). Did you try it multiple times or only once?

Also bear in mind some braindead websites think 1mbit/sec=1024kbits/sec=1024x1024bits/sec.

Cheers

Loading...