Infinity and traffic shapping

I am currently with a very slow (1M) ADSL connection with plusnet, but finally my local cabinet is upgraded with FTTC. The BT wholesale checker shows 34.5M estimated speed!

So the question is what FTTC provider to move to.

I have been looking at plus net offering and they are very clear what traffic shapping they offer:
http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/speed_guide/do...

The question is does something similar exist for Infinity or are BT not as open as Plus net in terms of how the traffic shapping works?

BT does not publish anything like the detail Plusnet publishes.

Though to date very few reports of management being apparent on the Infinity network, probably because it was built to take lots of customers, and has not filled up yet

The shaping is very light on infinity.

The only thing I've seen it used on (occasionally mind) is torrents. Often these run close to full speed too though.

If you look in Orly's sig at the bottom of his reply, there is a link to his FTTC supplier comparison spreadsheet. Excellent! Though it doesn't cover traffic management.

Thanks for the replies.

Good to know the service is not traffic shapped yet, but of course how it looks in 18 months time with more people on board no one knows.

I had already seen the excellent spreadsheet on the various options. Very helpful.

At the moment my thinking is to go with BT Option1 and see how the bandwidth goes. If I see myself needing more then I can just upgrade to Option2. (I checked with BT and they said this was possible, even when inside the 18 month contract window.)

There are reports of P2P throttling, but possibly still faster than ADSLx, and probably depending on location.

P2P is definitely throttled for me during peak times on my infinity connection.

I'm lucky to see 100kb/s with torrents/soulseek of an evening. Off peak it runs full speed.

All P2P is shaped during peak. (BitTorrent, Hamachi, Spotify, etc)

BT will definitely allow you to upgrade at any time (normally without penalty) - but you start a new contract term when you do ...

In reply to a post by TheMarf:

P2P is definitely throttled for me during peak times on my infinity connection.

I'm lucky to see 100kb/s with torrents/soulseek of an evening. Off peak it runs full speed.

Do you really mean 100kb/s = 100k bits, or 100kB/s = 100k Bytes = 800kb/s? It sounds like nitpicking to ask, as both are low, but possibly important to the OP.

100 Kilobytes per second

I prefer to use kilobytes and megabytes for tx speeds as they represent real world values that you'd see in the OS.

Edited by deleted (Wed 19-Oct-11 11:35:52)

If you used kBps and MBps everyone would know what you meant . Small "b" is definitely "bits" not Bytes.

In reply to a post by TheMarf:

100 Kilobytes per second

I prefer to use kilobytes and megabytes for tx speeds as they represent real world values that you'd see in the OS.

Rubbish ... data speeds in the real world have always been in bits unless you use a parallel interface which DSL services are not. Just becasue your OS tells you it has downloaded a file of a specific size (in Bytes) in a certain period does change it.

In reply to a post by MHC:

In reply to a post by TheMarf:

100 Kilobytes per second

I prefer to use kilobytes and megabytes for tx speeds as they represent real world values that you'd see in the OS.

Rubbish ... data speeds in the real world have always been in bits unless you use a parallel interface which DSL services are not. Just becasue your OS tells you it has downloaded a file of a specific size (in Bytes) in a certain period does change it.

I guess it depends what you mean by real world

If I go to a website which has a file I'd like to download, it'll report the size to me in kilobytes or megabytes, not kilobits and megabits.

Ergo knowing how fast my connection is in megabytes per second or kilobytes per second tells me how long that file will take to download, without having to factor in conversion factors from bits to bytes.

My Infinity maxes at 1.8-1.9 megabytes per second. So I know that I can download 1gb in approximately 9 minutes, assuming a maxed connection

So, "Rubbish"? No, just a matter of interpretative pedantry.

Edited by deleted (Wed 19-Oct-11 12:54:59)

In reply to a post by TheMarf:

In reply to a post by MHC:

In reply to a post by TheMarf:

100 Kilobytes per second

I prefer to use kilobytes and megabytes for tx speeds as they represent real world values that you'd see in the OS.

Rubbish ... data speeds in the real world have always been in bits unless you use a parallel interface which DSL services are not. Just becasue your OS tells you it has downloaded a file of a specific size (in Bytes) in a certain period does change it.

I guess it depends what you mean by real world

If I go to a website which has a file I'd like to download, it'll report the size to me in kilobytes or megabytes, not kilobits and megabits.

Ergo knowing how fast my connection is in megabytes per second or kilobytes per second tells me how long that file will take to download, without having to factor in conversion factors from bits to bytes.

My Infinity maxes at 1.8-1.9 megabytes per second. So I know that I can download 1gb in approximately 9 minutes, assuming a maxed connection

So, "Rubbish"? No, just a matter of interpretative pedantry.

How big is a byte? As it is can vary in size , it can never be an accurate measure.


And is using the correct format of b for bit, B for Byte, m for milli and M for Mega pedantry ? No, it is ensuring that others know what you are talking about.

A kilobyte is a variable amount of data is it? What about a megabyte or a gigabyte? If so could you please tell my hard drive that its variable? I could use some more space

Either way, I've clarified what I meant by my mistaken useage of kb/s and why I prefer to use Kilobytes/megabytes per second to describe throughput.

So please MHC, accept my most sincere and heartfelt apologies for making the grave error of confusing bits and bytes, and giving you the sh-ts and shytes.

Regardless, I'm sure you'll continue with your short sharp snarky comments which is entirely your prerogative. Feel free to continue, I've made my point in reference to the question asked by Robertos and I hope that he now understands what I intended to say.

Adieu

Edited by deleted (Wed 19-Oct-11 13:54:00)

Post deleted by johnmiller

Not all Bytes are 8 bit in size, now it is become the accepted norm, but anyone used to comms will know 9 bit Bytes (i.e. a stop bit included for every 8 bit character)

Generally I stick to Bytes if describing the size of a file, but if discussing the rate of something I talk in bits

On the harddrive example, are you sure the manufacturer is using kilo = 1000 or kilo = 1024 ?

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Not all Bytes are 8 bit in size, now it is become the accepted norm, but anyone used to comms will know 9 bit Bytes (i.e. a stop bit included for every 8 bit character)

True enough, but when talking about file sizes in a consumer operating system its pretty safe, normal and accepted to assume 8bits is a byte.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Generally I stick to Bytes if describing the size of a file, but if discussing the rate of something I talk in bits

To me it seems like mixing apples and oranges, but I guess its just down to personal preference.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

On the harddrive example, are you sure the manufacturer is using kilo = 1000 or kilo = 1024 ?

I was being facetious

Oh dear ... .

All that's needed is the capital "B". The rest is flim-flam and there are irrelevant entrenched views about it. If the units used are clear, it mattereth not.

The point is that without them being clear, someone asking a speed question, (the OP in this case), can be greatly misled.

Note that the download speed quoted in "real world" downloads using byte values use "B".

You're talking [censored]. You can keep trying to push this but you don't even use the service.

I find it's simplest to write bits or bytes in the first place, as any attempt at economy of characters is always lost when we end up with yet another thread trying to explain the difference or correct an error !

I was being facetious

Anyone know what makes 'facetious' and 1 other word in the dictionary unique ?

It has all the vowels in alphabetical order? More than one other word with the same thing, though...

I can find abstemious, abstentious, adventitious, aerious, annelidous, arsenious, arterious, and caesious on a quick Google.

Just to be somewhat facetious...

How is it unique if one other word has the same characteristics?

It is idiots like you that confuse everyone else by not staying with conventions. Anyone with comms knowledge,, which you obviously lack, knows that serial data rates are in bits (with prefix if required) and that bits uses a small b. File sizes are in Bytes with a big B.

A bytes can be any size and I have worked with 7,8,9,16,18,24,32 or 36 bits in a Byte.

Just look at the confusion in adverts where who, like you, do not understand the subject and ignore convention, write speeds of 40MB per second or 40mbps or data allowance of 40Gb.

Conventions are there for a reason.

Real World using speeds of megabytes - you are talking out of your rectum. Have a close look at how Microsoft indicate the connection speeds - in every version of Windows I can see from here (98, XP, Vista and 7) it tells me the connection is either 100Mbps or 1000Mbps - that is bits.

Get it right.

Thats better than the 10 you see on adsl max

In reply to a post by Zadeks:

All P2P is shaped during peak. (BitTorrent, Hamachi, Spotify, etc)

Good - keeps all the bandwidth bandits off of my "network" and on someone else's

In reply to a post by zebedeeeeee:

A bytes can be any size and I have worked with 7,8,9,16,18,24,32 or 36 bits in a Byte.

I doubt they were all called Byte; the larger ones would've probably been called Word.

F-ck me I have created Nerdmageddon!

In reply to a post by zebedeeeeee:

Real World using speeds of megabytes - you are talking out of your rectum. Have a close look at how Microsoft indicate the connection speeds - in every version of Windows I can see from here (98, XP, Vista and 7) it tells me the connection is either 100Mbps or 1000Mbps - that is bits.

Get it right.

Sure, network connection speeds are given in megabits, but transfer speeds as reported by browsers? Nope!

http://i602.photobucket.com/albums/tt105/MrMarf/spee...

That is what I mean by real world, as I've been alluding to, its all about interpretation.

There really is no need to resort to calling me an idiot zebedeeeeee.

Wait, silly me, what am I saying?! Forums these days are all about point scoring and slagging people off. :/

Meanwhile I'll happily continue to ignore convention and use megabytes per second to describe my infinity transfer speeds, as it is an easy way to estimate out how long a file will take to download.

Marf
BT Infinity - 1.8 megabytes per second transfer speed

Edited by deleted (Thu 20-Oct-11 09:51:27)

Will close the thread before mud slinging starts. I think most posted in a good humoured way.

Also swearing is not allowed on the forum and gets a post removed, not just edited.