Vivaciti Broadband Complete - Severe Throttling

Just joined Vivaciti 24Mb Broadband Complete after seeing recommendations
on some forums. Very early days but it looks like yet another mistake.

Although speed tests show a reasonable speed [1], the network is being
severely throttled during peak times. For example my shiny new "upto 24Mb"
line delivers just 35-40 KBytes/s NNTP traffic, BBC IPlayer is also being
choked.

BBC IPlayer speedtest (best of half a dozen):
Download speed: 10998 kbps
Streaming Speed 1: 257 kbps
Streaming Speed 2: 273 kbps
Streaming Speed 3: 258 kbps

Off peak speed is limited, not as much, but it is still there. NNTP has
risen to a consistent 180-200 KBytes/s and IPlayer is over a tenth of the
attainable download speed.
BBC IPlayer speedtest:
Download speed: 11034 kbps
Streaming Speed 1: 1691 kbps
Streaming Speed 2: 1501 kbps
Streaming Speed 3: 728 kbps

There will no doubt be a long list of undesirable protocols similarly
affected by this management.

Peak time throttling to 35-40 KBytes/s on a line that can sustain a
download at well over 1 MByte/s is bad enough but the "unmanaged" off
peak speeds that could be thrashed by a cheap 2Mb service are an outrage.

The most infuriating thing about this is that not one word detailing the
reality of traffic management is to be found on the Vivaciti website. I
feel like I've been cheated, again.

Looking on the bright side, at least I can download zillions of speedtest
png's at full speed.


Martin.

1. http://www.speedtest.net/result/1071674978.png

What makes you think it's throttling and not your router having problems?

The fact that streaming protocols are much, much slower for him than "normal" downloads, perchance? I wouldn't have thought a router problem could discriminate by protocol and cause iPlayer to slow down, but allow a speed test to run at full whack...

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

What makes you think it's throttling and not your router having problems?

A direct quote from a Vivaciti support email yesterday:
"We are very open about all aspects of our broadband services. During office hours from 8am - 7:30pm weekdays only, p2p and newsgroup downlaods have a lower traffic priority, this includes streaming sites. All other services are unafected."

So far unable to find details on the Vivaciti site and I've asked for pointers to the appropriate page but as yet nothing has been forthcoming. The low priority reference is rather misleading too, it isn't a fluctuating speed adapting to network load, it is fixed. Plus after 1930 throttling was relaxed a little but not removed.

The router itself was fine with sky and I can download at reasonable speed via http.

curl http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.... 2 > linux-2.6.36.2.tar.bz2
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
100 66.9M 100 66.9M 0 0 1398k 0 0:00:49 0:00:49 --:--:-- 1414k

So 1398 KBytes/s average just now but NNTP throttled back to a steady 35 KByes/s.
iPlayer has been choked back again fot the rest of the day

BBC IPlayer speedtest (few minutes ago):
Download speed: 11348 kbps
Streaming Speed 1: 239 kbps
Streaming Speed 2: 257 kbps
Streaming Speed 3: 252 kbps

25KBytes/s ish, fixed for the day. Quite a difference.

Ripped off again <sigh>

Martin.

Does a VPN make a difference?

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

Does a VPN make a difference?

We're thinking along similar lines, I hope it's possible. A stunnel/ssh link should work with the NNTP provider at least.

Received a further email from Vivaciti, the gist of which is, we don't have to detail throttling on the website but we'll tell you if you ask!

Martin.

yeah it's deffo throttling - saw the same on surfwise variety, seemed to kick in a couple days after being connected. you can pay an extra £20/month for it to be unmanaged/unlimited, or an encrypted tunnel will do the trick. personally was using a ipv6 tunnel which was getting near linespeed throughout the day.

Hi.
I went through the same 'discovery' process as you are doing.

See my post here

The speed test results you are seeing are pretty much the same as I was getting.
Someone on the Vivaciti forums did manage to get the management removed after 7.30pm (For Iplayer anyway) after raising it with them. I did notice that streaming speeds were much higher at the weekend.

One option is to purchase the file sharing addon as I have done if you can stretch to it. An extra £15+vat a month. (Not the £19.99 I quote in the link above)
This removes all the management and also the 100GB FUP (As far as I have been able to tell anyway)
I believe it is the QOS3 service referred to on this page.

Gary

Edit I type too slow

Edited by deleted (Thu 16-Dec-10 12:52:27)

All hail the wondrous port 443.

Crypto tunnels do the job very nicely. It's surprising how many sites, a well known British Broadcasting Corporation "player" included, that are ssl capable.

I am curious to know when/if throttling is actually being disabled. Weekdays after 1930 are certainly squeezed though not as much as peak time, maybe the weekend will be full speed ahead.

Wonder if anyone could have a quick look at my line stats (we're half a mile from the exchange).
What sort of speed should I be able to get?

(Number pairs are downstream upstream)
Mode: ADSL2+
Line Coding: Trellis On
Status: No Defect
Link Power State: L0

SNR Margin (dB): 10.6 11.9
Attenuation (dB): 19.0 7.5
Output Power (dBm): 12.8 0.0
Attainable Rate (Kbps): 15440 1012

Rate (Kbps): 13559 1016
MSGc (number of bytes in overhead channel message): 105 10
B (number of bytes in Mux Data Frame): 246 47
M (number of Mux Data Frames in FEC Data Frame): 1 4
T (Mux Data Frames over sync bytes): 1 3
R (number of check bytes in FEC Data Frame): 8 6
S (ratio of FEC over PMD Data Frame length): 0.5805 6.0000
L (number of bits in PMD Data Frame): 3514 264
D (interleaver depth): 64 4
Delay (msec): 9 6


Martin.

Try the ISNR6 profile and if that is stable, then try the FSNR6

They should both give you a little more.

Matt