NTL/Chorus (UPC) Traffic Shaping on Torrents?

mik_da_man

Hi,

I have just moved to cork and got the 3MB BB from Chorus.
When I do a speed test i get between 2MB and 3MB but torrrents are only going @ around 30 kB/s Max.

I was using the same site on eircom 2MB in Dublin recently and was getting up to 200 kB/s

Anything I'm missing here??...

Mik

christophicus

While there is no official word on this . I believe that Chorus/NTL are implementing some form of throttleing limiting broadband speeds on torrents.

mik_da_man

It does seem like it all right... feckers..

Any way around it??

cheers

Mik

christophicus

Not that I have found, there are many people that were reporting the same problems here before . Although some people were saying they were not haveing any problems. Some people suggest using encryption but if anything that makes the speed worse as you will only be able get torrents off of people who are also using as encrypted client as far as I know.

CuLT

Solution: get a linux server abroad, install a torrent client on it, and FTP/SFTP/SCP/Download the files from it to your machine

This requires no small level of cop with linux though. And money of course.

Colonel Sanders

downloaded a torrent tonight for the first time in yonks. Slow as a funeral (I'm with magnet). Was getting speeds above 200 kb/s not so long ago.

mik_da_man

CuLT wrote:

Solution: get a linux server abroad, install a torrent client on it, and FTP/SFTP/SCP/Download the files from it to your machine

This requires no small level of cop with linux though. And money of course.

you don't happen to have one handy??...;)

carbsy

CuLT wrote:

Solution: get a linux server abroad, install a torrent client on it, and FTP/SFTP/SCP/Download the files from it to your machine

This requires no small level of cop with linux though. And money of course.

Add to that a symmetrical line abroad too with handy upstream... money money money

mik_da_man

OK - this really leads me to the Question
Are they allowed to do this..

They offer 'High' Speed broadband while limiting access to certain aspects of it.
I know this is prob to limit the strain on their network but if they really do limit torrents and the like then this should be clearly stated.

What do people think?..

Mik

dub45

mik_da_man wrote:

OK - this really leads me to the Question
Are they allowed to do this..

They offer 'High' Speed broadband while limiting access to certain aspects of it.
I know this is prob to limit the strain on their network but if they really do limit torrents and the like then this should be clearly stated.

What do people think?..

Mik

Have you checked their terms and conditions and other policies?

Cabaal

CuLT wrote:

Solution: get a linux server abroad, install a torrent client on it, and FTP/SFTP/SCP/Download the files from it to your machine

This requires no small level of cop with linux though. And money of course.

It doesn't require much Linux knowledge, I did it with pretty much no knowledge and it took me about 2hrs to iron out the bugs and get everything running

Torrentflux is a nice little client imho,

The benefit with a dedicated Linux box is even if NTL/Chorus or whoever throttle the hell our or bittorrent they won't throttle http/ftp traffic so you can pull down things at full speed from your Linux box, also saves having a box turned on all the time at home

christophicus

Well when I signed up there was no mention of throttleing or any traffic shaping type features. I dont know about now though.

I would have thought its illegal, false advertising and whatnot, But there is not really any way you can prove that NTL are doing this, and who are you supposed to go to Comreg????? pfffft.

thebman

I'm with IBB and they seem to traffic shape on common bittorrent ports.

I changed mine to port 80 and encrypted the connection and have had no problems since.

Worth a shot.

----
Torrentflux officially has the worst website I've ever seen. I think I've gone blind!

h8red

uTorrent has an option to encrypt traffic.

Click on Options -> Speed Guide.

This statement is beside the "Enable Encryption" check box:

"Some internet providers block uTorrent's communication to limit download speed. Enble encryption if you experience slow speed."

What client are you using?

edit: I always leave this option turned on and I always get full speed when there are enough seeds/peers

BKtje

I assume that it's not just a case of too many peers and not enough seeders?

DemonOfTheFall

Just get a newsgroup account... Really, you'll never look back. Forget paying a fortune for a server abroad with root access and the threat of legal action.

mik_da_man

B-K-DzR wrote:

I assume that it's not just a case of too many peers and not enough seeders?

Nope afraid not

mik_da_man

h8red wrote:

uTorrent has an option to encrypt traffic.

Click on Options -> Speed Guide.

This statement is beside the "Enable Encryption" check box:

"Some internet providers block uTorrent's communication to limit download speed. Enble encryption if you experience slow speed."

What client are you using?

edit: I always leave this option turned on and I always get full speed when there are enough seeds/peers

I'm using Utorrent and tried that with no difference - are you using Chorus?

00sully

what newsgroup would you recomment Demon? I've looked into a few but can never decide if its worth it or not!!

mik_da_man

brim4brim wrote:

I'm with IBB and they seem to traffic shape on common bittorrent ports.

I changed mine to port 80 and encrypted the connection and have had no problems since.

Worth a shot.

Cheers - wil give that a shot

thebman

h8red wrote:

uTorrent has an option to encrypt traffic.

Click on Options -> Speed Guide.

This statement is beside the "Enable Encryption" check box:

"Some internet providers block uTorrent's communication to limit download speed. Enble encryption if you experience slow speed."

What client are you using?

edit: I always leave this option turned on and I always get full speed when there are enough seeds/peers

I use Utorrent on port 80 with encrypted conection. Works fine and seems to get round any restrictions that IBB have put on torrents.

Cabaal

00sully wrote:

what newsgroup would you recomment Demon? I've looked into a few but can never decide if its worth it or not!!

I have no problem with people discussing using bittorrent and usenet and configuration of usenet and bittorrent clients.

But I don't want to see anyone recommending questionable websites or newsgroups, if people do I will be handing out bans

christophicus

What are newsgroups?? I have heard mention of them before when torrents are mentioned , but from their name it sounds like they just give you the latest news , so why are they mentioned in context with torrents?

Cabaal

christophicus wrote:

What are newsgroups?? I have heard mention of them before when torrents are mentioned , but from their name it sounds like they just give you the latest news , so why are they mentioned in context with torrents?

You can use binary newsgroups to download legal and illegal content, however they can also be used to discuss anything from using Apple Macs to how much you might hate Barney....imagine boards.ie but much much older and every topic under the sun covered (with loads of spam messages).

More info on wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet

eoinok

I have to laugh at people questioning here whether what Chorus is doing (torrent throttling) is legal or not?

And you think bittorrent is legal yea?

Lads, ye haven't a leg to stand on and I fully support any ISP who throttles any sort of p2p stuff if it means that there will be more bandwidth available to "normal" users.

mik_da_man

So What's your definition of a "Normal" user?
Somone who just goes on to check mails, some browsing and post on some boards?

What's the need for 3MB connection than @ alll??...

Mik

aoc

Newsgroups are an old forum-type technology that predates (by many, many years) the likes of torrents and even the WWW.
As the name suggests, they were (and still are) used to carry "articles" (posts). Unlike a Web forum like boards.ie, you can download the articles for offline reading (mind you, in the dial-up era this was a huge convenience) and read the posts offline. Outlook Express and Thunderbird both incluse a news client, and you need a news server to fetch the articles from.
In more recent times, the "download and read later" technology intrinsic in NGs has been exploited to facilitate download of files. "Binary" newsgroups (such as alt.binaries) are places where someone uploads a file (in chunks, due to limitations of the NNTP protocol) and someone else downloads the chunks, reassembles the original file and off you go.
Some news servers on the Internet offer a service that allows you to access these newsgroups and download what's on offer (be it legal material or not, if you know what I mean). Since newsgroups can and are used on a daily basis for legitimate posts, providers don't usually shape NNTP traffic, and you get to download stuff from a single server instead of relying on a peer to peer architecture, much like downloading a file from the Web.

aoc

nuada

eoinok wrote:

And you think bittorrent is legal yea?

There's nothing illegal about bittorrent, some people just use it to distribute copywrited material

Cabaal

eoinok wrote:

I have to laugh at people questioning here whether what Chorus is doing (torrent throttling) is legal or not?

And you think bittorrent is legal yea?

Lads, ye haven't a leg to stand on and I fully support any ISP who throttles any sort of p2p stuff if it means that there will be more bandwidth available to "normal" users.

The use of bittorrent is perfectly legal under every law I'm aware of,

Its what you download that makes it illegal, the fact I can goto a warez website and download copyright software using a http connection, should that make http (port 80) illegal?...no of course not that would be just bloody stupid

At the end of the day bittorrent has many legal applications in relation to releasing large files/content to the masses, bittorrent.com for example now offers legal tv/games/movie downloads in the US and its 100% legal.

The reason ISP's throttle bittorrent/P2P traffic is nothing to do with the legality of it and is more to do with the bandwidth it uses.

While NTL do impose a CAP on there products they do not stipulate any kind of Fair Usage Policy on there Terms & Conditions and as such they might be unfairly throttling ports that are used by common P2P protocols such as bittorrent, if they are doing this without informing customers then people do have a leg to stand on

If a bittorrent/P2P user is within there CAP for the product they signed up to then I fail to see how there doing anything illegal both in the eyes of the law and in relation to the Terms & Conditions of the product and/or service they signed up to, if I have a 40GB cap and I decided to download 35GB of it via bittorrent I'm simpling making use of the product they have supplied to me.

However if your downloading 100GB a month and your service/product has a 30GB CAP then your breaking the Conditions of your service and NTL in this case are well within there rights to follow there own Terms & Conditions and either force you to upgrade to a higher product, warn or terminate your account...that I won't argue with.

Additionally if NTL want to introduce a Fair Usage Policy and block ports I won't argue with that, however they should make there actions clear to customers so customers can make an informed decision relation to which ISP they wish to sign up to based on there needs.

Its obvious you don't understand exactly what bittorrent (applications and protocol) are, I suggest you read up on it and post again when your more informed instead of posting such wild comments.

christophicus

Hear Hear Cabaal , great post.

Thanks guys for explaining newsgroups to me. For most ot them do you need an account?? Or do you have to pay in some way?

CuLT

Cabaal wrote:

It doesn't require much Linux knowledge, I did it with pretty much no knowledge and it took me about 2hrs to iron out the bugs and get everything running

Torrentflux is a nice little client imho,

The benefit with a dedicated Linux box is even if NTL/Chorus or whoever throttle the hell our or bittorrent they won't throttle http/ftp traffic so you can pull down things at full speed from your Linux box, also saves having a box turned on all the time at home

Heh, give me your box's IP and we'll see just how well you've set it up

Just pointing out that it requires a bit of cop. Following how-to guides is all well and good until you're getting DDoS'd or accidentally lock yourself out.
Not to mention if you want to get the best performance. rTorrent and Torrget are fantastic combination that basically automates the entire process. I'm sure we could have a great thread about the best tools... but is is indeed another thread