FNB Connect Uncapped ADSL Feedback

cbrunsdonza said:
Restricted, more like non existent. And I am aware of their statement and was not bothered as I expected them to take the same approach as all the other ISPs with P2P during business hours.

Not everything I download is from P2P. I support HumbleBundle and seeding is important to assist others (all legal content).

But it was not for me.
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Is p2p completely blocked? I must concur "restricted" doesn't mean blocked, so I understand restricted to be throttled.
 
re·strict·ed
/riˈstriktid/
Adjective
Limited in extent, number, scope, or action: "restricted access to the site".
(of a document or information) For limited circulation and not to be revealed to the public for reasons of national security.
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To me that mean, limited in such a way that only certain people/accounts have access to it. Eg. it would sound like uncapped accounts are denied p2p access, where-as capped accounts wouldn't be. This is how I understand reading the above definition, doesn't compute that you would get a throttled speed at all, just a access denied to p2p on uncapped.
 
Ok well instead of debating what "restricted" means in this particular scenario, I just asked RBJacobs on Facebook.

My question
...I wanted to know whether P2P traffic is totally blocked/unusable on your Uncapped DSL accounts or if it's just throttled to be slower but still usable?...
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Response
Hi Michael,

Torrents and P2P downloads are restricted, which means that they don't get priority.

Regards, RB Jacobs
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Ok well thats fine then to clarify as to what they want to tell clients, and as such no point in debating the semantics of what "restricted p2p" means.

I would rather want to hear what one of the actual FNB Connect network engineers have to say in a non-official statement, which will obviously be vastly different from the official responses you get from RBJacobs.
 
Have been testing with an FNB uncapped account and torrents are super ****ty - spikes constantly and averages out pretty much non existent. So clearly their "priority" is about 0.1% - other than that it's fine for streaming / netflix. Not really worth my time as I do still use torrents for a few things.
 
i can test both but only after December then i will be at level 4 discount , at least i saw i got my overdraft points this month also :)
 
i started in may-june ,level 4 will be after December and level 5 after Jan if spend a bit more , need make up a total of 300 points somewhere in next coming months to be at level 5 after JAN.

Atm i get 1800 points a month , being with fnb for 3 years or more and the linked fluid account is the ones i am not getting. ( i only get a 100 a month spend on cheque card , still using the credit card to get the R50 discount on my smart device)

Being new to fnb also got the 5k starting bonus.
 
hereticangel said:
i started in may-june ,level 4 will be after December and level 5 after Jan if spend a bit more , need make up a total of 300 points somewhere in next coming months to be at level 5 after JAN.

Atm i get 1800 points a month , being with fnb for 3 years or more and the linked fluid account is the ones i am not getting. ( i only get a 100 a month spend on cheque card , still using the credit card to get the R50 discount on my smart device)

Being new to fnb also got the 5k starting bonus.
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I get about the same points as you per month, except I get 1900 points per month. Also can't get the 300 points for the linked Fluid account. As I don't have kids, and don't plan on any soon, that is 300 points I will have to live without.

So my points come down to this from the eBucks website:

n overdraft facility of R500 or more where you use at least 10% - 300
Having an active FNB Credit card 100
Having an active Savings Pocket with a minimum balance of R2 000 and Bank Your Change facility 300
Having an active Smart Device Tablet, Smartphone or Laptop contract 300
Having an insurance product like Optional Debt Protection, Smart Device Insurance and Roadside Assistance 100
Receiving monthly Email statements only 100
Keeping your account open and active for three years or more 100
Not transacting at an FNB branch (you used FNB's electronic channels instead) 100
Using your FNB Cheque Account to shop online 100
The value of your monthly Cash@Till withdrawals exceeding the value of your monthly ATM withdrawals 300
Shopping with your FNB Cheque Card 100

Total 1900

Ive been with FNB since I was a student, but never gained points on my cheque account, was mostly using the credit card the past few years, where I am on level 4, so this is kinda a mission for me to get my level up on the cheque acccont now. Still on level 2, but as you can see, getting 1900 points a month I will reach level 5 1st quarter 2014.

So I also still do all my spend on the credit card, which is where I earn 90% of my ebucks currently, and I use that as the discount level on the ebucks shop.
 
I have an fnb uncapped account as of yesterday. Everything except p2p is good. P2P is completely non existent. its taken me now exactly 24 hrs to download one torrent 236mb file and its still sitting at 93%. During the day there is literally no p2p downloads, it only started downloading at 10pm last night and its stopped completely now. Never mind the other 3 torrents which haven't even seen a single byte of downloading. :cry: Not cool FNB!!
 
I was browsing the forum to find out what ISP I should move to because I am very unhappy with FNB and I am cancelling my FNB account this month. I thought I would share my experience.

Initially it was great, I use the 4mb uncapped service on my 4mb line. I signed up the day they launched. I could stream Netflix and Hulu properly, I could download torrents after hours and I got a reliable 4mb speeds.

Then about 2 weeks in things got really bad in terms of speed and ping, I would get extremely poor (0.5mbps download, almost non-existent upload) in the evening. Time and time again this was attributed to "degraded network performance due to iOS7 roll out" even before and long after iOS7 had gone out. It got to the point where I would have to dial in my Afrihost capped or Telkom capped accounts just so I could use the internet AT ALL, let alone play online games. All this while torrents would download just fine during the late night (I have my torrents run at 1am to 6am). I am not a heavy downloader - Netflix, Twitch.tv, Reddit and online games are my major usage in my household.

Well, torrents COMPLETELY STOPPED working Monday 14 October. The weekend before that I downloaded torrents just fine. Since that Monday I have not had a single percent in movement on any of my torrents lined up. I feel this is a deal breaker, I was completely fine with having torrents throttled, hell if they sit and download at 100k during the late night I don't even mind, I just want to be able to torrent the odd few items when the need arises. That's why I initially stayed with FNBConnect after the first month (even though the speeds had been up and down).

Now I am going to move, torrents are COMPLETELY BLOCKED 24/7, Netflix struggles to buffer, youtube struggles to buffer on 360p and latency to game servers in Europe are about 50ms higher than Afrihost or Telkom.

TL;DR:

Web/Surfing: Speeds are sometimes poor
Youtube: Not great, but not terrible
International ping: Between 30ms and 50ms higher than other ISPs (World of Tanks and League of Legends)
Torrents: Initially worked, now completely blocked at all times.
Netflix: Poor performance, can't stream without it buffering
Twitch: Can watch streams on the lowest setting with stuttering now and then

EDIT: I would like to clarify that when I switch to any other capped account I do not have the same issues so my line is not at fault.
 
Thanks Apoc, does seem like the FNB uncapped is quite a fail, from my experience too. Guess it's uncapped as long as all you do is email, IM and browse - not stream/p2p
 
blunt said:
Thanks Apoc, does seem like the FNB uncapped is quite a fail, from my experience too. Guess it's uncapped as long as all you do is email, IM and browse - not stream/p2p
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LOL - FNB / MWEB sound the same ... do ANYTHING you want except what your ISP doesn't want??? :whistle:
 
At least FNB don't throttle. P2P is shaped to death, but browsing flies. Will have a look at youtube streaming etc over the weekend. Don't really game online though.
 
I find it quite amusing - FNB wants to be an ISP, but they are a bank. Woolworths wants to be a bank, but they are a retailer. Avis wants to be retailer but they are a hire service??

I think, thanks to the pioneers on this thread, - I will keep FNB as my bank, and OW as my ISP.
 
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