Exchange Status

How come this hasn't been updated for ages, the record last updated always seems to be 15 Oct 07?.
http://usertools.plus.net/exchanges/

Edited by deleted (Thu 08-Nov-07 14:31:57)

Hi there,

http://usertools.plus.net/exchanges/?exchange=Sheffield%20Cutler&exact=882&plugin=vp

It's showing as being the 22nd on my exchange.

Not very quick though considering its suppose to be weekly, i need to know what my exchange is like and i cant as the data is so outdated.

Edited by deleted (Thu 08-Nov-07 14:57:41)

I don't mean this in a rude sense, but are you actually a customer of ours?

I've had a chat with Phil, who looks after the checker and he's trying to look into ways of automating it as it is all manual currently.

Why do you need it updating so urgently?

No i'm not a customer of yours but my dad is who lives in the same house, well the reason for it is i'm getting slow downs in the evening and i need to know if its exchange related or not, do you know when he's going to be updating it next?.

No, that's perfectly understandable. I was just asking in case you were a customer and if there was anything else that I could have looked into for you.

If you could let me know your Dad's username then I can see if there is any reason from this end why the slowdowns are occurring.

You are probably right though, it is quite likely to be down to the exchange.

According to Phil, we haven't actually received an update from BT since the 22nd, but expect the next 1 to 5 days.

I'll have to get my dads username off him later as i dont know it, he should find a way of making it all automatic then he wouldn't have to spend time doing it all the while so thats a good idea of his, i'll keep my eye on the exchange checker then and hopefully mine will be updated in the next 1 to 5 days.

> I don't mean this in a rude sense, but are you actually a customer of ours?

Probably a better way of handling this question on this thread would have been to ask him to send his username via PM then any potential rudeness could have been avoided.

P.S Didn't Spurs do well today against the Israeli based opposition?? <grin>

Edited by caesar_salad (Thu 08-Nov-07 21:57:35)

Well my exchange has gone to green now so it seems to have been updated, but the list still says status: 15 Oct 07 how come it dont say 08th november if its been updated?.

Hi there,

The updates that BT ship out are generally from about a week in the past. The next update that Phil was expecting was from the 26th. I have to admit that I am not sure why the date is still showing the same as what it was doing previously if the colour of the exchange has changed.

Yes very weird, i think Phil needs to get upto date with this or kick BT into action as i need the status of atleast the first week in november.

It's just the way that they send out the updates really. they send them out for (roughly) the week prior. I'll ask Phil what's going on

Edit: When he gets in that is.

Edited by deleted (Fri 09-Nov-07 10:19:08)

Thanks, update me here when you have info from Phil, i've also heard that Zen have had to take theres down cause of a BT request, so i'm surprised actually you still have yours on the website or even that they are still giving you updates for it.

Edited by deleted (Fri 09-Nov-07 11:16:03)

>> Not very quick though considering its suppose to be weekly, i need to know what my exchange is like and i cant as the data is so outdated.

>>> i think Phil needs to get upto date with this or kick BT into action


Ermm

I don't know if you know this but the exchange checker on Usertools is actually part of the Plusnet UserGroup.

ie - all the tools and tutorials on there were written by Customers of Plusnet

None of the members of PUG get paid or get any recompense for the work they do. Phil wrote the exchange checker as a customer of PN and did this in his own free time several years ago.. long before he worked at Plusnet.

Although he may now work at Plusnet, its still nothing to do with the job he does at PN and he continues to maintain the checker is his own spare time and doesnt get paid to do so.


The list provided by BT is often several weeks out of date - thats not his fault thats but down to reporting by BT and its always been like that. Different exchanges quite often show a different last updated date than some others... it depends on any status changes at a particular exchange.
The checker is and always has been dependant upon information supplied by BT.

In the past Ive noticed that BT wont mark a VP as red until speeds drop down to under 1Mb for a couple of weeks.

>>> Not very quick though considering its suppose to be weekly, i need to know what my exchange is like and i cant as the data is so outdated

Think you will struggle to find information anywhere that is more updated than the one on UserTools.

As an aside - the exchange checker wont help find out why your nttp speeds with UKO are slow.
The fact that youre also getting high latency would also seem to indicate the problem may lie elsewhere.

Ive experienced severe exchange contention several times, but latency is still fine. Even when we had 30+ users on our exchange reporting speeds down to 100-200 kbps - not a single person was seeing any problems with latency.
In all the times that Ive users reporting slow speeds through exchange contention on these and other forums theres only ever been one person whom I've seen it affected his latency.. but his exchange does seem to be problematic no matter which IPStream provider/ service he uses.


>> so i'm surprised actually you still have yours on the website

Its NOT "Plusnets"!

But BT did have a problem with some sites and the information they gave out - the main culprit irrc was the prodigy one - which you could actually work out information about the specific dslams.
Shame it had to go

Hi Tommy,

Just to confirm what Kitz has said. The Usertools Exchange Checker isn't actually owned by PlusNet. It is something that our customers developed (Phil used to be a customer). It is something that he does update in primarily his spare time and it is also something that should only ever be used as a guide and not as a rule of thumb.

Edited by deleted (Fri 09-Nov-07 15:38:18)

Typical Plusnet cop out. What's the point in having that information only to disown it. Honestly you've just lost some unpaid work today with that attitude. If that's the way Sourceforge projects were run, they'd all be late to some degree.

err just in case to avoid misunderstandings: I was being tongue in cheek

Edited by onestar (Fri 09-Nov-07 14:47:20)

Hi Onestar,

I promise you that I didn't mean it like that at all

I think it's great that Phil continues to update the exchange checker since he's been employed here and I reckon he does a pretty nifty job!

In reply to:

---

As an aside - the exchange checker wont help find out why your nttp speeds with UKO are slow.
The fact that youre also getting high latency would also seem to indicate the problem may lie elsewhere.

---

Well this is what happens, the ping goes from about 14ms to 20ms, and my speeds drop from full speed to around half the speed, so i'm guessing that this is exchange contention?.

Edited by deleted (Fri 09-Nov-07 19:19:55)

James will have a job speaking to me, seeing as I am on holiday (fine holiday this is, sitting on a couch replying to you guys )

Updates tend to be released around 2 to 3 weeks after the date on the update file. This has always been the case, with exception of a variable period over a year ago when the data was shall we say, inconsistently relesed.

I have been slowly automating the update process, as I have less spare time these days to update it manually.

I have just checked an confirm the information on the checker is the latest.

In reply to:

---

Typical Plusnet cop out. What's the point in having that information only to disown it.

Honestly you've just lost some unpaid work today with that attitude. If that's the way Sourceforge projects were run, they'd all be late to some degree.

---

rofl

Makes you wonder doesnt it?

>> seeing as I am on holiday

ahhhhh holiday...
so that means that you must now have some time to code something which automatically updates it.

/me runs and hides.




Seriously phil - some of us do appreciate the effort that you put into it.. and I hope you have a good hol

In reply to:

---

Updates tend to be released around 2 to 3 weeks after the date on the update file.

---

Should be expecting an update on my exchange pretty soon then, as the last update was the 22nd Oct, its almost 3 weeks now, and i do appreciate the hard work you do, its just i need an upto date exchange checker to see if its contention i'm getting or not.

Two updates have been applied today and I have found out why they are so delayed.

Turns out they have changed the format of the filename on the download, which has prevented a download taking place.

This is yet another hurdle in fully automarting it.

I will will, I wont give them a chance to beat me.

Why is my exchange still showing as green then if the last info was for the 29th and thats on red, also thanks for the update?.
http://usertools.plus.net/exchanges/?exchange=Lowestoft&exact=628&plugin=vp

Edited by deleted (Sun 18-Nov-07 06:15:32)

Maybe BT have added extra capacity?

Erm, nope, the 29th is not the last update according to your exchange.

The Red item you refer to us under the historical data. The most recent item is the headline item on the page linked.

It should the exchange as Green and the last update being the 5th November.

Oh right so if i'm right in what i'm sayin then from the 05th of november my exchange is green, so now i've gotta wait until the next update to see if its still green as its now the 20th?.

And as of today, your exchange is now Red, with an ETA of the 29th for a fix.

So what does that exactly mean for me then, does the ETA mean it will be fixed on that day or there abouts, when is the next update after the 29th so i can see if they have done it on time?.

It means good luck and maybe it will be fixed by then.

My local exchange was red for months (I think it was about 10 in total) before going back to green. ETA after ETA went by without a change. This doesn't mean work wasn't done though. A red exchange may only be red on one of its VPs but go red on another before the ETA to sort the original one. also it is possble the upgrade just isn't enough so although work has been done to sort the issue, it still remains as all extra capacity get eaten up straight away

What i cant understand is how many times can these exchanges get upgraded, i mean there must be a better way than all this congestion and upgrading all the time.

I am afraid its called the internet.

Everyone wants it, ain't you heard