Utv broadband throttling

tfitzgerald

On Sunday night my Internet stopped I rang on Monday and they told me that I was using BitTorrent on Sunday and uploaded 3 g/b of data so according to ther new rules the turned off my net. I am unlimited downloads with them I up / down about 28 gb a month the told me if I use BitTorrent it has to be off peak hours which according to them is 12 midnight to 10 am. Any idea what I can do

PogMoThoin

tfitzgerald wrote: »

Any idea what I can do

Stop using BitTorrent.....

Harry Deerpark

Detonate a car bomb outside their headquarters. That'll show 'em.

tfitzgerald

Great advice. Thanks

Xcellor

New rules? Is this a change in terms and conditions. If it is and you are in contract then this could be considered reason enough to leave the contract without penalty and move to another provider.

Move to vodafone, if you are lucky you will get a decent service and 350 gigs of usage. I do a lot of downloading and don't even get close to 100 gigs.

Harry Deerpark

tfitzgerald wrote: »

Great advice. Thanks

You got stupid answers because the question is stupid. The simple answer is to change providers.

I'm with Eircom and I use uTorrent 24/7. Never have I once seen my speeds throttled. In fact, I rang technical support one day and asked them how to port forward my router and configure it with my torrent client, he was more than happy to oblige. He even said "happy torrenting" or something like that after the conversation finished.

Most Eircom packages are unlimited, I rarely go over 100GB a month anyway despite leaving uTorrent on day and night.

AntiRip

tfitzgerald wrote: »

On Sunday night my Internet stopped I rang on Monday and they told me that I was using BitTorrent on Sunday and uploaded 3 g/b of data so according to ther new rules the turned off my net. I am unlimited downloads with them I up / down about 28 gb a month the told me if I use BitTorrent it has to be off peak hours which according to them is 12 midnight to 10 am. Any idea what I can do

Never heard of these new rules either. I'm only getting between 1 and 2mbps the last few evenings between around 9pm and 12pm on 7mb package. Am with them a few years and the majority of the time was great. May ring them tomorrow and see what the story is.

AntiRip

Xcellor wrote: »

New rules? Is this a change in terms and conditions. If it is and you are in contract then this could be considered reason enough to leave the contract without penalty and move to another provider.

Move to vodafone, if you are lucky you will get a decent service and 350 gigs of usage. I do a lot of downloading and don't even get close to 100 gigs.

The reason I haven't considered Vodafone yet are some of the horror stories, although the same can be said about utvinternet. How is your experience with them?

Xcellor

AntiRip wrote: »

The reason I haven't considered Vodafone yet are some of the horror stories, although the same can be said about utvinternet. How is your experience with them?

I have 24 mb with them and i get around 17, about 1.4mB per sec. For 52 euro i get 350 gigs and download all i want, stream hd, download games, xbox, home office.


Few issues. Nothing major. Was with utv before i switched would not give me package at the best price so i left... not regretted it tbh

AntiRip

Xcellor wrote: »

I have 24 mb with them and i get around 17, about 1.4mB per sec. For 52 euro i get 350 gigs and download all i want, stream hd, download games, xbox, home office.


Few issues. Nothing major. Was with utv before i switched would not give me package at the best price so i left... not regretted it tbh

Was looking at the Vodafone site and it said if your line doesn't support their enhanced broadband you only get 3mb. My line is only capable of 6mb or so. So not sure what I can get off them

Harry Deerpark

Harry Deerpark wrote: »

You got stupid answers because the question is stupid. The simple answer is to change providers.

I'm with Eircom and I use uTorrent 24/7. Never have I once seen my speeds throttled. In fact, I rang technical support one day and asked them how to port forward my router and configure it with my torrent client, he was more than happy to oblige. He even said "happy torrenting" or something like that after the conversation finished.

Most Eircom packages are unlimited, I rarely go over 100GB a month anyway despite leaving uTorrent on day and night.

I mean, I rarely go over 200 GB a month.

tfitzgerald

Thanks for all the replays lads. I couldn't believe it when tech support told me they slowed mt Internet because I uploaded 3 gb on Sunday and then kept going on about fair usage. I only download / upload about 30 gb a month and I am on unlimited useage. It was an Indian chap I was talking to and he sounded new and a bit unsure of himself so maybe he told me things he should not have even thou he said the new rules are on there website

AntiRip

tfitzgerald wrote: »

Thanks for all the replays lads. I couldn't believe it when tech support told me they slowed mt Internet because I uploaded 3 gb on Sunday and then kept going on about fair usage. I only download / upload about 30 gb a month and I am on unlimited useage. It was an Indian chap I was talking to and he sounded new and a bit unsure of himself so maybe he told me things he should not have even thou he said the new rules are on there website

This is the only policy I can find on their website. It states that you will be contacted by email 3 times before you are restricted/throttled

http://www.utvinternet.com/pdfs/NI_ADSL_FUP_May_07.pdf

If you don't use Peer to Peer or file sharing software it is unlikely you will ever be affected by this Fair
Usage Policy. If you do use Peer to Peer or file sharing software, all we ask is that you use this software
considerately and send and receive large files outside of peak hours.

If you are affected, we will contact you by email to let you know that your usage at peak hours is
excessive and is affecting other customers.

If your usage is still excessive, we will contact you again by email to ask you to reduce your sending and
receiving of large files during peak hours. If your usage still remains excessive during peak hours, we
will contact you a third time to advise you that we will be restricting your bandwidth during peak hours
for the good of all other customers.

tfitzgerald

Thanks Antirip. I read their terms as well. I have my file shareing turned off every night between 7 and 1. The teck guy told me their peak usage times was 10 am to twelve midnight. Not 6 pm to midnight. Also and I have checked. I got no email whatsoever of utv. I also pay extra for unlimited usage. I don't think 30 gb over a month for all my Internet in unfair

runawaybishop

tfitzgerald wrote: »

they told me that I was using BitTorrent on Sunday and uploaded 3 g/b of data so according to ther new rules the turned off my net.

WTF is wrong with using bittorrent? There are tons of legitimate uses.

Edit: did they just mean using peer to peer? Do UTV now now allow you to download WoW without throttling you, which uses p2p for example.

tfitzgerald

He specifically mentioned BitTorrent and said under there new rules if I use it again I will be slowed down to nothing

runawaybishop

How are they detecting the software you are using? Bittorrent is just a client. I assume he actually meant peer to peer, which is in no way illegal. I would drop them myself for such incompetence and poor customer service. You should first check out your contract to see if it mentions anything about "bitorrent".

AntiRip

tfitzgerald wrote: »

He specifically mentioned BitTorrent and said under there new rules if I use it again I will be slowed down to nothing

I'm just off the phone there to them. He said there was nothing wrong with my line. I asked if I was being throttled and he said only bittorrent traffic would be throttled at peak hours. I said I used it and he said just use it during off-peak hours, before 5pm and after midnight and I'll be fine.

I asked why I was only getting 1-1.5mbps in the evenings and he said 'maybe contention' and he could do nothing. I'm on the 12:1 contention so it shouldn't be dropping by 4/5!

runawaybishop

AntiRip wrote: »

I asked if I was being throttled and he said only bittorrent traffic would be throttled at peak hours.

Did you ask him what he meant by bittorent traffic? Surely they mean peer to peer, which is bull****. Change providers imo if at all possible. There are tons of legit uses for p2p traffic. Many games nowadays deliver updates via p2p (though you can often turn that off).

AntiRip

runawaybishop wrote: »

Did you ask him what he meant by bittorent traffic? Surely they mean peer to peer, which is bull****. Change providers imo if at all possible. There are tons of legit uses for p2p traffic. Many games nowadays deliver updates via p2p (though you can often turn that off).

Sure BitTorrent is P2P. I told him I used uTorrent and he said that should be fine as long as you shut it down during peak hours.

Am only getting 0.7mbps now out of 6mbps and they say they can't so anything about it. What's changed over the last week as its been almost perfect for 2 years

Think ill have to ring them again tomorrow. Can't use Netflix or YT so I might as well have nothing

tfitzgerald

Let us know how you get on Antirip. I have had utv for nearly 6 years And never had a problem with them. But lately my speeds have dropped way down

AntiRip

tfitzgerald wrote: »

Let us know how you get on Antirip. I have had utv for nearly 6 years And never had a problem with them. But lately my speeds have dropped way down

Will do, but the fact he said there was nothing they can do is weird. He said you have to allow for contention but not this much. If I was getting 5mb out of the 6mb that would be fine. It's mad stuff to have 6mb now never mind 0.7mb in this day and age isn't it, and were supposed to be the Internet hub of Europe

12 o clock and back up to 6mb again, amazing timing again!

DECEiFER

I used to be a UTV customer for many years and this rule of theirs about P2Ping during the small hours was not a rule at all but merely a request for consideration to other users. The fact is, unless they've changed the terms and had you agree to them, they have no right to throttle your connection. My suggestion is to carefully read the pertinent sections of the T&C and FUP on their website to give you the facts.

EDIT: Right on the top of the FUP, I found the section pertaining to peer-to-peer.

http://www.utvinternet.com/pdfs/ROI_DSL_Res_FUP_27_Jan_06_onwards.pdf:

A very small number of customers use Peer to Peer or file sharing software, which constantly sends and receives video and other very large files, throughout the day. This type of activity uses a lot of bandwidth and can significantly reduce the speed at which other customers can access the internet during peak hours. Approximately 1% of customers use more than 30% of the available bandwidth during peak hours. We don't believe this is fair to the vast majority of our customers. This fair usage policy automatically identifies the very small number of extremely heavy users and we reserve the right to manage their bandwidth only during peak hours (6pm to 11pm Monday to Sunday), to protect the service for all our other customers. Outside peak hours, the use of the internet by these heavy users is unaffected.

You know Virgin Media in the UK had/have traffic management rules which were/are well publicized on their website? Depending on what package you were on, you'd be allowed to download only a certain amount in a certain space of time of the day during certain hours. Go over the limit, you get throttled for a number of hours (but not cut off and by how much depended again on your package) and by the time the off-peak section of the day came around, at the latest, you'd be released back to your regular speeds. Again, I'm not sure of their current policies, I'm sure they've been changed over the years. If they're still doing it, their website will have it documented for full transparency. So if you do become a customer of theirs, there's no excuse for being ignorant of the policy. Since unless UTV have advertised their traffic policy to support the action they've taken on you (on their website, T&C, AUP/FUP, etc.), they are not out of bounds to throttle your connection during the remaining of the peak hours (which as you can see are not 10am to 12am, but 6pm to 11pm) but disconnecting you or keeping your connection throttled past the off-peak hour of 11pm is unacceptable. What's written in their legal documentation is gospel, they have to abide by their rules just like you do. If an agent says anything different to what's written, you can tell him or her where to go.

swampyk08

I left UTV last year after 10+years with them. They had serious speed issues in the evening that they couldnt resolve.
Switched to Eircom and have a consistent line since.

Heres the thread:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=81103402

DECEiFER

swampyk08 wrote: »

I left UTV last year after 10+years with them. They had serious speed issues in the evening that they couldnt resolve.
Switched to Eircom and have a consistent line since.

Heres the thread:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=81103402

I bet they blamed Eircom? Always had serious speed issues with them during the evenings (5pm-12am) from July to January every year when I was living in Trelee on the Killerisk exchange. They wouldn't do a thing for me and always, always, blamed Eircom and when I suggested it was over-subscription on the exchange in general, they didn't deny it, but I half suspect it was just a fob-off.

UTV are notorious for blaming Eircom even when problems are their own fault. Whether my past problems were Eircom's or their fault, we'll never know for sure, but I do remember one January morning when the DSL sync was down completely. I went to work an hour later and by lunch time it was back up. After that, no more problems in the evenings (until July, of course!). That's the only evidence I have that points the finger at Eircom.

dub45

DECEiFER wrote: »

I bet they blamed Eircom? Always had serious speed issues with them during the evenings (5pm-12am) from July to January every year when I was living in Trelee on the Killerisk exchange. They wouldn't do a thing for me and always, always, blamed Eircom and when I suggested it was over-subscription on the exchange in general, they didn't deny it, but I half suspect it was just a fob-off.

UTV are notorious for blaming Eircom even when problems are their own fault. Whether my past problems were Eircom's or their fault, we'll never know for sure, but I do remember one January morning when the DSL sync was down completely. I went to work an hour later and by lunch time it was back up. After that, no more problems in the evenings (until July, of course!). That's the only evidence I have that points the finger at Eircom.

Sadly it has always been reflex for UTV to blame Eircom irrespective of the issue. I once had a UTV rep blame Eircom for a billing issue!!! That's not to say that there are issues caused by Eircom but they are not responsible for everything.

As I often write its hard to believe now that UTV were once the darling of boards for innovative products and remarkable customer service then sadly cute hoorism set in.

shug02

Folks, I've been troubleshooting low peak time download speeds with UTV for the past 6 months. I've recorded my speeds here

Note that the issues seemed unsolvable back in Nov so getting frustrated I asked Eircom to transfer the service. The day after the transfer was ordered the probelm went away and it stayed away until Eircom gave back the line rental at the end of DEcember.

Immediately on returning the line rental to UTV the issue reappeared with crap peak-time download speeds.

I should say that UTV have been emailing me consistently with updates - but no progress unfortunately since the line went back to them

Are Eircom deliberately giving UTV customers poor speeds to encourage them back to Eircom? Is that even possible?

AntiRip

shug02 wrote: »

Folks, I've been troubleshooting low peak time download speeds with UTV for the past 6 months. I've recorded my speeds here

Note that the issues seemed unsolvable back in Nov so getting frustrated I asked Eircom to transfer the service. The day after the transfer was ordered the probelm went away and it stayed away until Eircom gave back the line rental at the end of DEcember.

Immediately on returning the line rental to UTV the issue reappeared with crap peak-time download speeds.

I should say that UTV have been emailing me consistently with updates - but no progress unfortunately since the line went back to them

Are Eircom deliberately giving UTV customers poor speeds to encourage them back to Eircom? Is that even possible?

I've been with UTV Internet for the last couple of years and had no trouble with them. Actually the best ISP I ever had. No contention and consistent speeds. The last few weeks they've instruduced some sort of traffic management. Between 6pm to 8pm and 12am its restricted to 1-2mb. I don't really mind as it doesn't seem to affect Netflix. YouTube etc. I download outside these hours also. I guess it takes pressure off the network during peak hours.

DHFrame

shug02 wrote: »

Folks, I've been troubleshooting low peak time download speeds with UTV for the past 6 months. I've recorded my speeds here

Note that the issues seemed unsolvable back in Nov so getting frustrated I asked Eircom to transfer the service. The day after the transfer was ordered the problem went away and it stayed away until Eircom gave back the line rental at the end of DEcember.

Immediately on returning the line rental to UTV the issue reappeared with crap peak-time download speeds.

I should say that UTV have been emailing me consistently with updates - but no progress unfortunately since the line went back to them

Are Eircom deliberately giving UTV customers poor speeds to encourage them back to Eircom? Is that even possible?

Eircom can't throttle or control another providers service. That would be like having a tap in your house going through next doors house first, and they choose when you can have water and how much.

I was having the very same issues. Try removing the telephone adsl filter and plug the modem straight into the phone line. Now if you have any Monitored alarms in the house it might be worth checking if you have a adsl filter on the actual alarm, as plugging in the modem directly into the phone line will scramble the monitoring signal/server from contact the alarm, resulting in an error.

I had a vast, vast improvement with UTV by removing this filter. I have made sure that any file sharing software can only operate between 1am and 8am, obeying the fair usage policy.

Now the only problems I have at the moment is streaming bbc iplayer stuff in the evenings. I don't know if it's a bbc, itv, youtube demand problem, or it could be the unblock us service causing slow downs, it could be a number of things. It could be the Humax box, PS3, everything always seems very good on my Windows PC regardless of time. I get a constant 7000kbps from UTV even when I have streaming service issues. Which would suggest, it's not UTV. But I am 50% on that. I need to do a bit more testing.

Hope this helps. Report back on the ADSL filter thing.

tfitzgerald

I only download after midnight as well and I have had no problems with speed since. I was going to go to sky BB but from reading other treads here that seems to be a nightmare.

P s. I did have a problem with the Internet dropping for a while but they seem to have sorted it

DHFrame

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Stop using BitTorrent.....

Nah u dont need to stop using it. At the end of the day using bit torrent can cause users to slow down. They are giving you an option and you should take advantage of it. Schedule bit torrent to only work between the hours of 1am and 8am. I did it the other night and managed to download 8 gigs of stuff. If you need more than that a night, then u have issues because it would take u a week to watch 8 gigs worth of stuff. You don't need bit torrent 24/7. That's greed. And if you do then u are just hoarding stuff like so many users do. Personally I think it's great that they are throttling people who abuse the system especially when they are giving you an option to do it when people are in bed.