best uncapped options....(384K compare)

[fz1]

Hi All

Just a quick confirmation on the shaped vs. unshaped offerings.

I see that on the 384kbps IS Express, it is: "p2p/torrents: work hours - 128K / after hours *128K or 384K" even though it is a shaped account.

I have always been under the impression that shaped accounts would be absolutely crap and completely unusable for P2P. The above would imply that it is shaped or limited to 384Kbps (while not "thresholded") so for anyone using anything faster than DSL384, it would be less than full speed. Given that I am getting DSL 384, it seems like I should theoretically be able to "max out" my bandwidth on P2P.

Thoughts? (Thanks in advance).

 

[fz1]

Seeing as I got no responses to my question, I will answer it myself (based on my experiences over the last 3 days with my DSL384 line and an IS Uncapped Express 512k package - I think that's the best combination because when I am thresholded, I should still get 256k speeds)...

The IS Uncapped Express works great for P2P after hours (and during the entire weekend) that is: 35kB/sec average download speed.

Today was the first 'business day' with my account and I remotely monitored my P2P client. My download speed was averaging about 11kB/sec - in line with the original poster's 128kb download limit for P2P during work hours. Slightly disappointing, but considering my original 'requirement' was that my downloads be at least as fast as the ISDN128k I was upgrading from, it is acceptable.

So, my impression that shaped accounts are crap is unfounded with the IS Uncapped Express offering. A better way to explain it is that it is throttled during the day to 128k. I noticed the huge speed drop around 7am, but the full speed was restored at approximately 5pm.

On the other hand, I tried 1GB of shaped prepaid bandwidth (which uses SAIX / fibre) and I really love how 'responsive' that feels in comparison (due to much lower latencies). BUT, it was completely useless for P2P - I was averaging less than 2kB/sec during business hours. BUT, after hours my speeds picked up to 35kB/sec which is fantastic!

Lastly, the same 1GB prepaid, but unshaped, yielded an average of 35kB/sec during ALL hours. I loved it - until I hit my cap after just 6 or so hours

I'm happy to answer any questions that other people have out there about the various offerings (having tried the most 'common' ones, above).

 

[fz1]

My apologies to those that read my post above (good news though!): it turns out that the throttling period does end at 5pm! (updated my post above)

Some bad news too: my throttled period was painfully slow today - not the 11kB/sec I was getting yesterday (though it may have been the poorly seeded torrent itself). I averaged closer to about 7kB/sec. Hopefully, on an ongoing basis, it is normally as fast as it was yesterday...