OMG Winmax still around ? ! That was something special time back. Winmax could find some rare stuff & at a high bit rate.

Thanks for the tips general tips. I'm definitely going to look into the VPN root for the sake of general overall privacy & security. The money im going to save with TT will go towards VPN which works out quite well.

Little surprised to see that p2p gets throttles right back to 2kb/s rates. Would have though 200-300kbs would have been enough of a hit. I mean people streaming HD movies from legit sources are potentially hitting 500kb/s+.

yep winmx (not winmax) still going, but is struggling at present due to attacks on the protocols. A new client is being written from scratch, but the old client needs a patch to connect http://patch.winmxconex.com/

been looking at VPNs and I see now it just streams to and from your IP, so the clients would be local. I don't know if the VPN protocols/ports are throttled or even given priority by TT etc, or if VPNs have different priority on the TT business connections.

VOIP and port 80 are prioritised AFAIK so that accounts for most streaming.

I know there are many decent VPN providers out there but the one i would highly recommend is overplay.net Not the cheapest ($10 a month) but their vpn servers run at full (line) speeds and they also offer fantastic support. They also sell customized DD-WRT VPN routers so no need to faff around with VPN software on your pc. You'll be refunded if you sign up and decide its not for you after a few days

Yep its Winmx. I will be keeping eye on developments too.

I don't know if the VPN protocols/ports are throttled or even given priority by TT etc, or if VPNs have different priority on the TT business connections.

VPN throttling would completely put me off TT if VPN is throttled in any way.
According to TT's Traffic Management Info page they only manage p2p ports.

http://www.talktalk.co.uk/legal/broadband-traffic-ma...

Really could do with confirmation from TT member on VPN throttling policy.

In reply to a post by archy121:

Really could do with confirmation from TT member on VPN throttling policy.

99% sure they don't throttle VPN traffic. Just try out a VPN service (eg overplay) which offers a trial period so nothing to lose

Myth are you on TT adsl or fibre?

I just asked talktalk sales advisor on chat about p2p throttling on fibre and got this answer:

Chat Transcript
info: Please wait for a site operator to respond.
info: You are now chatting with 'Samantha'
Samantha: Welcome to TalkTalk. Home of UK's best value TV, broadband and phone. I am Samantha, how may I help you today?
you: hi, just wondering why on the "Your basket" part it does not mention the 9 month half price essentials offer in the prices
Samantha: The terms are generic however the promotion will reflect in your welcome pack and your bills.
you: ok, do you know what speed p2p traffic gets throttled to at peak times?
Samantha: It would be at the lowest estimate that is quoted on your basket page.
you: well my estimated download is 60Mb ...but i dont see how that shows what your traffic shaping will be on peer to peer apllications
Samantha: Your Fibre speeds are not affected, just the ADSL connection.
you: you are saying that you dont slow down or throttle peer to peer traffic on fibre connections?
Samantha: It is not affected as much as an ADSL connection.
Samantha: If you have 60MB on Fibre, this will be your speed most of the day and if it does drop it should be a meg or 2 down, it is not a massive drop.
you: even when downloading a torrent at peak times it would only drop to around 58Mb?
Samantha: That would be the approximate speeds.
you: ok thanks for the info
Samantha: You welcome.
Samantha: Thank you for chatting with us. We value your feedback. Please click the 'Close' button at top right to answer a few short questions about your experience with us today.
Samantha: Have a good weekend.

Is this lies? i thought talktalk also throttled on fibre as well?
if anyone is on talktalk fibre can you do a torrent test at peak time and say what speed you get.
http://releases.ubuntu.com/12.10/ubuntu-12.10-deskto... is a good one to test with.

thanks

very interesting. I'm on ADSL, long line about 50db attn,

If P2P throttling is just knocking 2-3% off the line speed, then no point running it really.
The difference between essentials and plus is meant to be that the plus is less effected by the P2P throttling.

As for the comments - take them with a pinch of salt. They are carefully chosen words to make a product sell well, but probably just within what they can get away with, i.e. what any sales person would do

We have Talktalk fibre and it's useless.

Our speed before fibre activation, 1.5 - 2.0 Mbps

Our speed the day of activation 5.0 Mbps

Speed for the last 3 weeks 1.8 Mbps

Talktalk customer service is as always useless, their technical support is nonexistent and they always take what BT Openreach say exactly at face value.

In reply to a post by The_Don_Wales:

Talktalk customer service is as always useless, their technical support is nonexistent and they always take what BT Openreach say exactly at face value.

Care to explain ?