Neowin.net - More ISP Confess: We Throttle P2P Traffic

More ISP Confess: We Throttle P2P Traffic

Posted by EL1TE on 12 November 2007 - 10:11 · 22 comments & 14920 views

Adding itself to the small-but-growing list of ISPs that admit to traffic shaping, Canada-based Bell Simpatico has confessed to using “traffic management” on heavy users “during peak hours.”

“We are now using a Internet Traffic Management to restrict accounts,” wrote an unnamed forum administrator on Bell Simpatico’s support forums. According to the administrator, Bell Simpatico’s traffic shaping affects an unmentioned number of applications and protocols, including BitTorrent, Gnutella, Limewire, Kazaa, eDonkey, eMule and WinMX. A Bell Simpatico Manager chimed in immediately afterwards, explaining that “there continues to be phenomenal growth of consumer Internet traffic throughout the world” and that “Bell is using Internet Traffic Management to ensure we deliver bandwidth fairly to our customers during peak Internet usage.”

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#1 Posted by mrmckeb on 12 Nov 2007 - 10:25: Try "More ISPs Confess"... and yes. It's bull that they can do that.

(1 reply) #2 Posted by gigapixels on 12 Nov 2007 - 10:31: I'll be happy as long as Verizon stays off that list.

#3 Posted by joeydoo on 12 Nov 2007 - 10:58: Bell Simpatico aren't very "simpatico" to the needs of users then.

#4 Posted by cragdoo on 12 Nov 2007 - 11:05: I don't get it , people are paying for a service (internet connectivity) but companies are restricting people from using the service they are paying for when the company can't adequately provide the service that people are paying for ???

(1 reply) #5 Posted by Notum on 12 Nov 2007 - 11:24: Seems to me like the ISPs should either upgrade their capacity or stop selling plans that they can not fulfill. If I pay for a 24Mb connection I expect to be able to use that connection to it's full capacity, and not have it suddenly downgraded to a 1Mb connection (or whatever the case may be).
Luckily it seems that our ISPs here in Sweden can actually provide what they promise. It seems kind of weird to sell a product that you can not provide... no?

(1 reply) #6 Posted by mlauzon76 on 12 Nov 2007 - 13:15: Can we get that fixed please...it's not 'Simpatico', it is Sympatico.

#7 Posted by Malbojia on 12 Nov 2007 - 13:31: Heres the new changes with Bell Sympatico.

At around 5pm in certain areas of traffic they'll throttle back on torrents, emule maybe a few more protocols till 2 am around.

Constant 30Kb/sec speeds. After that time the restriction is removed.

Now for another kick to some users going over around 200 gigs. They'll get a letter telling them to cut back on consumption and to make sure they do. For the following 30 days they'll stick the dsl profile to 512/512 kilobits.

If you do manage to get over it a few more times they'll cut you off from their service and blacklist your place of residence from getting any dsl no matter the 3rd party. We'll they put a lock on your line card.

So your left with dial up, possibly cable depending on the province which has the throttling caps. Except for quebecs videotron as of now.

#8 Posted by X'tyfe on 12 Nov 2007 - 14:25: im a rogers user

its the best ISP in my area, theres nothing i can do about it
either i use this or nothing at all

they even refuse to fix a problem they created when they installed my service
making my net go down 5+ times a day

canada is a third world country as far as the internet and isps
you guys really should be ashamed

(2 replies) #9 Posted by +rm20010 on 12 Nov 2007 - 16:47: I'm with Rogers for the past year and 8 months. Service has been pretty reliable and I've had two speed bumps along the way. For Sympatico they had to put me on a lower speed profile due to the quality of our phone line.

Good thing is that for now, I get decent service though Rogers does throttle traffic. On the other hand I have no other alternatives: third party DSL ISPs are out of the question if our line is poor, and Rogers has monopolized cable in Toronto.

#10 Posted by qdave on 12 Nov 2007 - 20:38: actually Sympatico service has grown a bit better. they have finally upped the speed.

(1 reply) #11 Posted by Regression_88 on 13 Nov 2007 - 02:34: Isn't there some phrasing in most providers' T.O.S. about operating servers?

So

... you operate a computer that 'serves' files to the Internet...
... serving files means you're "in violation" of your ISP's TOS ...
... and they let you do it anyways ...
... and they throttle your bandwidth ....
... and you complain about the throttling of bandwidth ...
... and you complain about them violating your TOS ...
... and you violated to TOS first?

Or did I miss something?

I think transferring something from my laptop to my home computer, or vice-versa, should be exempt, but when you operate a server for 'others' to access, the ISP has EVERY RIGHT IN THE WORLD, to limit your bandwidth... or charge you accordingly for 'out of band' access.

You have the 'right' to access the Internet, but the Internet does not have the 'right' to access you.

So, **** on me.

And, by the way...
you dropped your spleen.

Last edited by Regression_88 on 13 Nov 2007 - 02:42

#12 Posted by spetz on 13 Nov 2007 - 03:52: Well my sympatico connection is stuck at 170kb/s they havent moved me up from a 1.5mbit profile for a long time.

Never experienced capping though

#13 Posted by chaicka on 13 Nov 2007 - 15:14: If someone actually scans through the Press Releases of major Traffic Shaping equipment vendors, it's not difficult to find more ISPs who are the customers of these Traffic Shaping equipment vendors, thus adding to the list (http://www.azureuswiki.com/index.php/Bad_ISPs).

SingNet, subsidiary of SingTel, a customer of P-Cube. Reference: http://www.p-cube.com/doc_root/news/Press_...P2P_EU_Eng.html

StarHub, a customer of Sandvine. Reference: http://www.sandvine.com/news/pr_detail.asp?ID=100

7 of top 20 US Broadband Providers, customers of Sandvine. Reference: http://www.sandvine.com/news/pr_detail.asp?ID=118

Liwest Kabelmedien GmbH, second largest cable operator in Austria, a customer of Sandvine. Reference: http://www.sandvine.com/news/pr_detail.asp?ID=114

Gigared, a leading Argentinean broadband provider, a customer of Sandvine. Reference: http://www.sandvine.com/news/pr_detail.asp?ID=109

#14 Posted by chaicka on 13 Nov 2007 - 15:20: Spirit Telecom, a broadband provider in the US South East, a customer of Sandvine. Reference: http://www.sandvine.com/news/pr_detail.asp?ID=97

Adelphia Communications Corporation, the fifth-largest cable television company in the US, a customer of Sandvine. Reference: http://www.sandvine.com/news/pr_detail.asp?ID=93

#15 Posted by _dandy_ on 14 Nov 2007 - 03:11: I've just made the switch from a Sympatico residential account to Bell Business (same company, managed by different units--I had no choice in the matter, as I can't get cable). I had an "unlimited" usage account, which Sympatico has since stopped offering.

They sent me a nasty letter and throttled my bandwidth down to 50KB/s, from maybe 360KB/s. I work from home and VPN into the office--I'll use whatever bandwidth I need to do my job, no matter what, and their customer support representative had no other suggestion than to try a business account instead (he himself wasn't sure of the terms, as they're two completely separate units playing by different rules).

The kicker is that their letter tells you to reduce your bandwidth during peak hours, but they don't define:

a) what the peak hours are
b) what their target is, so how can I tell whether I'm still under the acceptable limit

Turns out, whether I reduce my downloads or not during peak hours, the support rep told me that was irrelevant--since they only look at the total bandwidth utilization at the end of the month.

"Funny" thing is that there's still a separate page on their site (the residential one, that is) saying you can have unlimited bandwidth if you tack on an extra $25/month on top of your 'regular' bill for a capped account. I enquired specifically about that--the same limit still applies, only they never tell you.

The rep working for the business unit however assured me that no such limits exists.

[edit]
I should add that I don't use any P2P app. My total monthly upstream bandwidth has never been above 2.5% of my downstream bandwidth. In fact on average it's less 1.75%.
[/edit]

Last edited by _dandy_ on 14 Nov 2007 - 03:17

#16 Posted by MvT Cracker on 25 Nov 2007 - 13:19: The problem with this is skype and joost use p2p.....p2p is not just for pirates......and for the last several months I have noticed skype call quality getting worse because of this.....

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