sybawoods
Expert Member
After a few ADSL helpdesk complaints about latency to a particular server in the UK on the unshaped network, I was eventually put onto a conference call yesterday with two SAIX engineers regarding my complaint.
The issue: I connect regularly to about 5 international servers where latency is extremely important to me, which is why I upgraded to unshaped ADSL. About 2 weeks ago, latency to two of these servers deteriorated by about 100ms. In fact, the round-trips were probably identical to those on a normal shaped account. On the other 3 servers, they were still very fast.
Anyway, the network engineers were very helpful, and did quite a bit of testing, traceroutes etc at their end. Eventually - the conference call was held to make it clear to me that they took my complaint seriously, and to try and find a resolution. They explained that SAIX had negotiated new (cheaper) peering arrangements in Europe on some routes, which affected latency to these two servers. There was very little they could do about it, until new peering arrangements were negotiated.
I then went on to complain that at least with ISDN, I could shop around between ISP's, and find one that had a peering arrangement that suited my latency needs e.g. there's a big difference in latency between Storm ISDN and for e.g. MWEB ISDN, because of different peering agreements the 2 ISP's have. With ADSL, I have no such freedom, since all ISP's are subject to the agreements SAIX negotiated.
Then came the interesting bit... which I'm sure some of you may have some inside info on - but they claim that all of this will change shortly (this side of X-mas), and that tests and negotiations are virtually complete, which will allow ISP's to run their own ADSL infrastructure. If I understood them correctly, they explained that just like with ISDN, in the near future you will be able to shop around between ISP's to find one that gives you the best ADSL experience. So instead of a "one size fits all ADSL", an ISP that is able to negotiate better international peering arrangements, could in fact give you better performance than one running on the SAIX network, or who simply has poor peering arrangements.
Maybe those more in the know can comment about whether this all makes sense? That was certainly the impression I was given in my discussions with them, but may have misinterpreted some of the technicalities.
The issue: I connect regularly to about 5 international servers where latency is extremely important to me, which is why I upgraded to unshaped ADSL. About 2 weeks ago, latency to two of these servers deteriorated by about 100ms. In fact, the round-trips were probably identical to those on a normal shaped account. On the other 3 servers, they were still very fast.
Anyway, the network engineers were very helpful, and did quite a bit of testing, traceroutes etc at their end. Eventually - the conference call was held to make it clear to me that they took my complaint seriously, and to try and find a resolution. They explained that SAIX had negotiated new (cheaper) peering arrangements in Europe on some routes, which affected latency to these two servers. There was very little they could do about it, until new peering arrangements were negotiated.
I then went on to complain that at least with ISDN, I could shop around between ISP's, and find one that had a peering arrangement that suited my latency needs e.g. there's a big difference in latency between Storm ISDN and for e.g. MWEB ISDN, because of different peering agreements the 2 ISP's have. With ADSL, I have no such freedom, since all ISP's are subject to the agreements SAIX negotiated.
Then came the interesting bit... which I'm sure some of you may have some inside info on - but they claim that all of this will change shortly (this side of X-mas), and that tests and negotiations are virtually complete, which will allow ISP's to run their own ADSL infrastructure. If I understood them correctly, they explained that just like with ISDN, in the near future you will be able to shop around between ISP's to find one that gives you the best ADSL experience. So instead of a "one size fits all ADSL", an ISP that is able to negotiate better international peering arrangements, could in fact give you better performance than one running on the SAIX network, or who simply has poor peering arrangements.
Maybe those more in the know can comment about whether this all makes sense? That was certainly the impression I was given in my discussions with them, but may have misinterpreted some of the technicalities.
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