Sign up with GoogleUH OH, it seems that WBS is back to their old tricks again, actually I'm not sure they ever stopped. See the reason WBS can get away with doing this month after month is because they just plead ignorance, they pretend its a network problem, something wrong with the throttle system that they just can't put thier fingers on and therefor can't fix... but now I have proof that they are cutting people off on purpose.
Now before I get to the good stuff I need to say that I don't know the criteria for getting cut off, I don't know if they count previous months usage and have a list of abusers or if it is accross the board but if you are cut off you'll know about it.
The way they cut people off is to activly block ALL priority ports, this means pop3, smtp, http, https, vpn ports, you name it... they cut it off. There seems to be 2 flavours of cut off action from WBS, the first is noticable when you've gone over your 3GB or 9GB, lots of document contains no data messages in firefox etc, this lets us know that the server got our request but no data was sent back. The second flavour is a bit more hectic it happens when you hit 20.00GB usage EXACTLY, I mean right on the dot, once that happens you don't get document contains no data messages, instead you get nothing, firefox pretends to load for a bit and stops.
I examined the headers and saw that the server closed the connection everytime I made a request, this means the server didn't get the request like before and a server in between the client (you) and the server (the site you're visiting) closes the connection.
Here's the thing, it happens once you hit 20.00GB exactly, now call me strange but I don't ussually find errors happening on such nice round numbers.. but wait I have more proof. You see if this was all some big bug in the throttle system then presumably all internal IPs would still be accessible, that is to say, all IPs on the iburst network, BUT it isn't like that at all, the allowed list of servers includes secure.wbs.co.za, helpdesk.wbs.co.za and www.iburst.co.za. However there are internal IPs you cannot access when cut off either, www.wbs.co.za, smtp.wbs.co.za (and of course all external IPs)
That clearly shows there are rules being made for IPs/hostnames to be excempt from the cut off on certain occasions. If it were the throttle system on the frits then only everything outside of the gateway would be blocked... but it clearly isn't.
I setup a proxy on port 80 (HTTP) on one of my servers wbs doesnt know about, i then attempted to use it, I couldnt reach it at all, when I checked the logs on the server NO connection attempts were logged, that means the server never got the request, it was lost somewhere between my iburst connection and the server, when I put SSH up on port 80 very much the same thing happened except it allowed be to request a key... and then froze. So its pretty obvious they just block port 80 once you're cut off no matter what traffic you use.
Other non priority protocols work, you can irc, instant message etc but you cannot surf/check mail/ftp AT ALL... even in certain cases when say ftp is on another port or http is on another port you cannot use it, this leads me to believe they block priority ports and then have packet inspection rules to block certain protocols no matter what port they are on.
Here's my problem, I have 9GB to start every month, then I buy another 9GB of extra bvandwidth (thats the limit you cant buy more than that) then I expect the rest of the month at 64kbit, but instead i got 2Gb at 64kbit and cut off, now I have no choice but to use labourious workarounds because I have no option to buy more bandwidth which I honestly would if I had the chance.
So the warning is out there.. don't hit 20.00GB or else WBS will break the contractual agreement you have with them and cut you off from all priority protocols.
Now before I get to the good stuff I need to say that I don't know the criteria for getting cut off, I don't know if they count previous months usage and have a list of abusers or if it is accross the board but if you are cut off you'll know about it.
The way they cut people off is to activly block ALL priority ports, this means pop3, smtp, http, https, vpn ports, you name it... they cut it off. There seems to be 2 flavours of cut off action from WBS, the first is noticable when you've gone over your 3GB or 9GB, lots of document contains no data messages in firefox etc, this lets us know that the server got our request but no data was sent back. The second flavour is a bit more hectic it happens when you hit 20.00GB usage EXACTLY, I mean right on the dot, once that happens you don't get document contains no data messages, instead you get nothing, firefox pretends to load for a bit and stops.
I examined the headers and saw that the server closed the connection everytime I made a request, this means the server didn't get the request like before and a server in between the client (you) and the server (the site you're visiting) closes the connection.
Here's the thing, it happens once you hit 20.00GB exactly, now call me strange but I don't ussually find errors happening on such nice round numbers.. but wait I have more proof. You see if this was all some big bug in the throttle system then presumably all internal IPs would still be accessible, that is to say, all IPs on the iburst network, BUT it isn't like that at all, the allowed list of servers includes secure.wbs.co.za, helpdesk.wbs.co.za and www.iburst.co.za. However there are internal IPs you cannot access when cut off either, www.wbs.co.za, smtp.wbs.co.za (and of course all external IPs)
That clearly shows there are rules being made for IPs/hostnames to be excempt from the cut off on certain occasions. If it were the throttle system on the frits then only everything outside of the gateway would be blocked... but it clearly isn't.
I setup a proxy on port 80 (HTTP) on one of my servers wbs doesnt know about, i then attempted to use it, I couldnt reach it at all, when I checked the logs on the server NO connection attempts were logged, that means the server never got the request, it was lost somewhere between my iburst connection and the server, when I put SSH up on port 80 very much the same thing happened except it allowed be to request a key... and then froze. So its pretty obvious they just block port 80 once you're cut off no matter what traffic you use.
Other non priority protocols work, you can irc, instant message etc but you cannot surf/check mail/ftp AT ALL... even in certain cases when say ftp is on another port or http is on another port you cannot use it, this leads me to believe they block priority ports and then have packet inspection rules to block certain protocols no matter what port they are on.
Here's my problem, I have 9GB to start every month, then I buy another 9GB of extra bvandwidth (thats the limit you cant buy more than that) then I expect the rest of the month at 64kbit, but instead i got 2Gb at 64kbit and cut off, now I have no choice but to use labourious workarounds because I have no option to buy more bandwidth which I honestly would if I had the chance.
So the warning is out there.. don't hit 20.00GB or else WBS will break the contractual agreement you have with them and cut you off from all priority protocols.
