Grounds for false advertising ?
Things are looking pretty grim for Axxess's Uncapped shaped account holders. I am piggy-backing off of my brother's connect at the moment which has been moved from express+ to this "thing". My complaint is as follows :-
" Pros
1. No contracts. (Month-to-Month Billing)
2. Instant Signup - No forms / No faxing / No Credit Checks
3. Full 24/7 Tech Support
4. International bandwidth is supplied via Fibre.
5. No Rolling Thresholds / No rate limiting.
6. Unlimited Data.
7. Can use the IS SMTP server. (smtp.isdsl.net)
8. Uncapped Traffic allows for "always on" internet access. Your ADSL account will not be terminated regardless of your usage (within the limits set out in the AUP)
9. Quick & Easy. Switch to this service in minimal time with minimal effort. You just change your Username and Password.
10. Fixed Monthly Fee.
11. No set up fee. " - Quote from the axxess website (4:15pm, 8 April 2010) -
http://www.axxess.co.za/uncapped.php
Please note the following "5. No Rolling Thresholds / No rate limiting."
Definition of "Rate Limiting" -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rate_limiting
"In computer networks, rate limiting is used to control the rate of traffic sent or received on a network interface. Traffic that is less than or equal to the specified rate is sent, whereas traffic that exceeds the rate is dropped or delayed. A device that performs rate limiting is a rate limiter.
Rate limiting is performed by policing (discarding excess packets), queuing (delaying packets in transit) or congestion control (manipulating the protocol’s congestion mechanism). Policing and queuing can be applied to any network protocol. Congestion control can only be applied to protocols with congestion control mechanisms, such as the transmission control protocol (TCP)."
Definition of "Traffic / Packet Shaping" -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_shaping
"Traffic shaping (also known as "packet shaping" or ITMPs: Internet Traffic Management Practices) is the control of computer network traffic in order to optimize or guarantee performance, increase latency {decrease perhaps?}, and/or increase usable bandwidth by delaying packets that meet certain criteria.[1] More specifically, traffic shaping is any action on a set of packets (often called a stream or a flow) which imposes additional delay on those packets such that they conform to some predetermined constraint (a contract or traffic profile).[2] Traffic shaping provides a means to control the volume of traffic being sent into a network in a specified period (bandwidth throttling), or the maximum rate at which the traffic is sent (rate limiting), or more complex criteria such as GCRA. This control can be accomplished in many ways and for many reasons; however traffic shaping is always achieved by delaying packets. Traffic shaping is commonly applied at the network edges to control traffic entering the network, but can also be applied by the traffic source (for example, computer or network card[3]) or by an element in the network. Traffic policing is the distinct but related practice of packet dropping and packet marking.[4]"
Due to the fact that this account does not use "rate limiting", my torrents should not be limited 24/7 to a max of about 50kb/s. I would like access to my 4mb line AS ADVERTISED Axxess.
So who has sent a complaint to the ASA yet ?
Here's another interesting quote from the wiki
" At peak times when sensitive traffic is at its height, download speeds will decrease. However, since P2P downloads are often background activities, it affects the subscriber experience little, so long as the download speeds increase to their full potential when all other subscribers hang up their VoIP phones"
This is the industry standard, this is how it should be done. What burns me is that the traffic on express downloads happily at LINE SPEED, yet this account does not, and Axxess claims not to use rate limiting. Rubbish.