So, does Neotel support P2P or what?

[Snatch]

Ok, Neotel is up and running and some got it and some is sticking with Hellkom. :p

Thus what I wanna know, is P2P supported on the so called unshaped offering from Neotel, and if so, how does one go about in setting up ports etc?

[Robocop]

I was just gonna start a post about this. I've got the Neotell Unlimited package. Now my understanding was that it is unshaped. I've been trying to set it up for p2p for the past 2 days, and came to the conclusion that Neotell is throttling p2p at 5-10 kbps. UTorrent, Limewire, Bitlord, edonkey Bittorrent etc. shows blocked ports and and firewall problems. I've even tried switching of my Windows firewall completely.....same problem. I've contacted their technical support, but according to them there is nothing crippled on their side. It has been escalated to a higher level, and they will report back to me.

[HavocXphere]

I was just gonna start a post about this. I've got the Neotell Unlimited package. Now my understanding was that it is unshaped. I've been trying to set it up for p2p for the past 2 days, and came to the conclusion that Neotell is throttling p2p at 5-10 kbps. UTorrent, Limewire, Bitlord, edonkey Bittorrent etc. shows blocked ports and and firewall problems. I've even tried switching of my Windows firewall completely.....same problem. I've contacted their technical support, but according to them there is nothing crippled on their side. It has been escalated to a higher level, and they will report back to me.
Have you made sure your selecting torrents with enough seeders(20+)?


UTorrent, Limewire, Bitlord, edonkey Bittorrent etc. shows blocked ports and and firewall problems.
That sounds like a problem with the device itself, not the network. What config options are available for the neotel device?

[Robocop]

There is no config options for the Neotel device. You can just put in your username & password. Had someone who knows his way around p2p have a look at my settings, he recons the problem's on their side.
I'm downloading from http sites at 100-180 kBps (with 2 bar signal strenght), it's just the torrents that won't download at that speed.

[Zyzzyva]

It may still be a better bet to get a giganews acount in the long run, not to say this must not be fixed in the short term.

[boramk]

N00b question: are news servers p2p?

[pierrehugo]

the problem, it seams, does not lie with shaping, rather lack of port forwarding

[Garyvdh]

N00b question: are news servers p2p?

Not strictly speaking. News Servers were actually designed for bulletin board type posting and discussion. The posting of binaries was a secondary function and a later development... although downloading binaries from the USEnet is almost as old as the internet itself. It cannot strictly be called P2P though as there is no reciprocal sharing.

[HavocXphere]

Even without port forwarding, you should still get speeds higher than those listed...assuming that you are using a properly seeded torrent.

[Highflyer_GP]

By definition unshaped means equal access to all protocols.

[Zyzzyva]

N00b question: are news servers p2p?

Look at p2p as users sending files between users. The users are the delivery platform.

Usenet can be looked at as simply downloading from a server.

So under that definition, no usenet is not p2p. Although, i'm not sure if isp's would view it as such.

[Ekhaatvensters]

RPM posted saying that they do. He tried it out himself, but also found it to be a bit slow.

This is probably to do with not being able to forward ports on the device. Does anyone know if you can achieve this somehow?

[Highflyer_GP]

Usenet uses the NNTP protocol, not P2P.

[Robocop]

RPM posted saying that they do. He tried it out himself, but also found it to be a bit slow.

This is probably to do with not being able to forward ports on the device. Does anyone know if you can achieve this somehow?

Someone mentioned sitting up a proxy server. Will a software proxy server help, and how do you set it up ?

[Glordit]

They are probably shaping it a bit during the day, just becasue they "enable" p2p does not mean that you will be getting full speed. :(

Perhaps let it run through the night and see how it goes then?

Or, just ask em' for IE proxy settings and push the p2p through that port ;)

[RichardG]

This is to confirm that P2P works on Neotel, downloading at approx me around 100 - 200 kbs on a single torrent with around 30 seeds.....

[PeterCH]

is that kiloBits per sec or kiloBytes per sec?

[RichardG]

200 KB/S

[PeterCH]

I want :)

I live in an suburb with LOS view of an iBurst tower and a vodacom/mtn tower,
atop a big seaside apartment block. Everyone here could so easily have Neotel,
but NO, have to wait.... stupid Neotel.

[RichardG]

I came up with the solution to help all who are having that Not Connectable issue with Neotel Device. On Utorrents, Limewire etc.
Download a product called : IP forward Wizard, works for around 5-minutes or so, please tell me if it makes a difference ;)

[pieterb2020]

Hi all.

I got myself the the Neotel light uncapped package about a week ago.
Here is my experience:

If I do a broadband speed test or download from HTTP, I get a sustained speed of 17 Kb's per second, the moment I run Utorent my overal download speed on everything including HTTP drops to about 5 Kb's.

Utorent shows that I am connectable, and the local torrent sites also list me as connectable.

Why the speed drop, anybody have a clue ?:(

[pieterb2020]

Hi

After my last post I asked Neotel the same question.
I was phoned bacl today to tell me that all ports for my connection has now been opened, and low and behold Utorent shows a green light all the time.

BUT, I still have the problem of my total connection spped dropping.

ANY, advice, suggestions ?:eek:

[Robocop]

I phoned them today to ask to open my incoming ports. The guy on the helpline didn't have a clue what I was talking about, stating that he is on the tehnical team, and Neoterl does'nt support p2p downloading.
Who do I speak to now ......?:eek::(

[pieterb2020]

I originaly got the same reply. (We do not support P2P).
I gave the guy on the line of lot of crap stating that they say there is no shaping, then he tried to tell me it is 2 different matters. After some harsh words he got a REAL technician on the line (this was in the evening and the technician said only the day time staff could do this, and he would log a call requesting for my ports to be opened.) I got a call the next day and they did open all ports.

Just don't give up, we are the customers and the customer is always right.;)

[Morgoth]

hmm now to yell at telkom for giving us uncapped lines! peter your my man!

[Neotel]

I phoned them today to ask to open my incoming ports. The guy on the helpline didn't have a clue what I was talking about, stating that he is on the tehnical team, and Neotel does'nt support p2p downloading.
Who do I speak to now ......?:eek::(

I suggest you e-mail consumers@neotel.co.za or submit the query via the consumer page on the web site - that should clear up any confusion.

Please send me a private message so that I can give feedback to the contact centre - also a call reference number or time if you can.

[Balstrome]

Usenet uses the NNTP protocol, not P2P.

nit picking, but I dont think that p2p is actually a protocol ??

[PeteGT]

So Got Neotel today.
My browsing speed is fast enough.
I'm using Azureus for Torrents and I dont think the port I specify is of any relevance.
I've got yellow faces, ie: I'm connected to peers but dont have a remote connection. I do a NAT test and the Port is not open.
I sent a mail to consumers@neotel.co.za to open my incoming ports. We'll see what happens.
Torrents are running at 10-12kB/s

[Lord Anubis]

Slower than isdn?

[PeteGT]

Ports are open, torrents running fine, at 100-200kB/s.

[sunsoffun]

Someone mentioned sitting up a proxy server. Will a software proxy server help, and how do you set it up ?

I prefer my proxy lying down....;)

[limnos]

I laugh they start shaping P2P like iBurst did 4 months after their launch!

[jackyt]

Hi, i tried to run my torrent (ares) and it didnt connect, i thought maybe it was my new pc (vista). can someone please explain to me whats the opening of incoming ports? so i can call in and ask them to open my ports?

thanks :)

[Chevron]

so i can call in and ask them to open my ports?


Yes.

[porchrat]

can someone please explain to me whats the opening of incoming ports?

thanks :)

Ports are kind of like different channels that programs use for the various types of data connections.

Like for example a normal HTTP connection (such as normal web browsing) would use port 80. Your email uses SMTP (for outgoing) on port 25 and POP3 (for incoming) on port 110. FTP (file transfer protocol) traditionally uses ports 20 and 21 (although people usually open more than that for the actual data transfer).

Your torrent clients normally uses port 6881 (BitTorrent uses 6881-6999).

Be aware though that opening a ton of ports does leave your machine a little more vulnerable so you need to have a firewall in place (that is setup to let your torrent ports through) as well as a virus checker. You can never be too careful.

Either that or only ask them to open the incoming ports that the torrent client uses, won't make you invulnerable, but it will make it a little safer at least. Then allow those ports (or that particular program) through your firewall.

[lenw54]

Ports are kind of like different channels that programs use for the various types of data connections.

Like for example a normal HTTP connection (such as normal web browsing) would use port 80. Your email uses SMTP (for outgoing) on port 25 and POP3 (for incoming) on port 110. FTP (file transfer protocol) traditionally uses ports 20 and 21 (although people usually open more than that for the actual data transfer).

Your torrent clients normally uses port 6881 (BitTorrent uses 6881-6999).

Be aware though that opening a ton of ports does leave your machine a little more vulnerable so you need to have a firewall in place (that is setup to let your torrent ports through) as well as a virus checker. You can never be too careful.

Either that or only ask them to open the incoming ports that the torrent client uses, won't make you invulnerable, but it will make it a little safer at least. Then allow those ports (or that particular program) through your firewall.
Please excuse my port ignorance.
If there a way to test to see which port/s the torrent software is using? I'm using BitComet

[jarrodr]

Im using uTorrent and get cr*p speeds, I called Neotel to tell them to unblock my ports and speeds are still low

[porchrat]

Im using uTorrent and get cr*p speeds, I called Neotel to tell them to unblock my ports and speeds are still low

If you were getting speeds AT ALL then you never needed your ports open in the first place.

If the port required by your application is closed then your application will not transfer data at all, forget slowly.

[porchrat]

Please excuse my port ignorance.
If there a way to test to see which port/s the torrent software is using? I'm using BitComet

Sorry this reply is so late but the default port for BitComet is port 3979.

Which means that is the only port you will need opened by Neotel. Only opening this port will not make you invulnerable, but it will make it harder for people to gain access to your system than if you had all ports open.

[BioVolt]

I get disconnected every time I try to download a torrent.

I hate Telkom but neotel started to suck on day 2

What to do I do not want to support telkom, Neotel does not work, I do not have sentech signal and 3G is way to expensive

[greonie007]

Ok your main problem is not so much that neotel is blocking P2p networkings sites and sites so much as bit torrent.It is more the nature of the network you see neotel used a kind of cellphone signal to get your connectivity on you phone...its like cellphone signal expect it runs on a different frequency namely 800mhz this echnology is called CDMA.

Now CDMA doesnt provide you with a static ip adress.It works on a dynamic IP adress principal this means that programs cant log onto a P2P connection because you ip adress changes the whole time.

To rectify this you have to call the neotel call center on 0800 333 636 and ask them to put in request that they setup as static ip adress for your unit.

Hope this helps
MC

[greonie007]

Or if that doesnt work consider using "tor" to hide your ip adress from neotel worked wonders with our local ISP.Even though they Have a program that seeks out P2p connections and closes them

[Syndyre]

Ok your main problem is not so much that neotel is blocking P2p networkings sites and sites so much as bit torrent.It is more the nature of the network you see neotel used a kind of cellphone signal to get your connectivity on you phone...its like cellphone signal expect it runs on a different frequency namely 800mhz this echnology is called CDMA.

Now CDMA doesnt provide you with a static ip adress.It works on a dynamic IP adress principal this means that programs cant log onto a P2P connection because you ip adress changes the whole time.

To rectify this you have to call the neotel call center on 0800 333 636 and ask them to put in request that they setup as static ip adress for your unit.

Hope this helps
MC

If you have a dynamic IP it should only change when you disconnect and reconnect, which wouldn't be an issue. This is also independent of the last mile technology used e.g. CDMA

[K3NS31]

To all the people asking about speed problems on P2P - the point is if they're selling you an unshaped connection, that means no throttling of any protocols.
In other words, they could say the bittorrent ports are open, for example, and you do get a connection, but it's slow. This is very likely because they're throttling the port. That's not unshaped. In fact, that's the meaning of shaped. Some ports are slower.
A good test is to compare to http download speeds. You should get a similar speed for a recent torrent with lots of seeds and peers (say a popular TV show uploaded within the last week, for testing purposes).
So you download something from a fast website, say a nice big file from Microsoft, for example, as their download servers are very fast.
Then you torrent a popular file - if your speeds aren't similar, you're probably being shaped/throttled. Then call Neotel and ask why they're throttling your unshaped account.
And those of you getting 10-12KB/s torrent speeds, I can tell you, unless you're downloading a torrent with very few seeds, you're almost definitely being throttled.

[orin76]

So you download something from a fast website, say a nice big file from Microsoft, for example, as their download servers are very fast.
Then you torrent a popular file - if your speeds aren't similar, you're probably being shaped/throttled. Then call Neotel and ask why they're throttling your unshaped account.
And those of you getting 10-12KB/s torrent speeds, I can tell you, unless you're downloading a torrent with very few seeds, you're almost definitely being throttled.

Doesn't upload speed also play a role in torrent speeds. It might be worth remembering that for those on NeoConnect Prime, max uploads is only about 60kbps. To a torrent tracker (or whatever you call them), a neotel user might look like a leecher (200kB/s down, 5kB/s up).

[K3NS31]

nah, I've gotten great download speeds despite throttling my upload speed, although that might differ depending which software you're using. I use uTorrent.