MWEB - Message from CEO - Acceptable Use Policy

[Necuno]

I was talking about someone not on the forum dude. I don't suppose you are Marko from the Mweb wall?

interesting so according to madam we can insult/attack people not on the forum, but on the forum it is wrong . no i am not marko, but you might not be a madam and actually gian, right

 

[Tanya35]

interesting so according to madam we can insult/attack people not on the forum, but on the forum it is wrong . no i am not marko, but you might not be a madam and actually gian, right

Yes, that's how it is. No I'm not Gian or his wife.

 

[Necuno]

Yes, that's how it is. No I'm not Gian or his wife.

girlfriend or boyfriend ?, maybe your are dean from long lost ODS.... *shrugs*

 

[SlowHands]

I STILL wanna know why I'm only pulling between 50-60kb/s this time of the morning (nzb's)

http://www.techcentral.co.za/qa-with-mweb-ceo-rudi-jansen/13461/
"We have no intention of shaping bandwidth more than is necessary in peak network conditions. It’s not dramatic shaping at all, and it’s only in peak hours."

The big boss man himself said this...and it's currently 01h50 so it IS NOT PEAK HOURS!!!!!!!!! Can someone at MWEB please tell me why I'm only getting 60kb/s on a line that can do 420kb/s???????

Please Mr MWEB Operations I'm asking nicely can someone help me with this?

 

[Kosmik]

Just a thought.......but if Mweb is bitching and moaning about abusers and heavy downloaders, how come they didnt cater for this when they launched this product? By this I mean having a proper infrastructure in place because surely they knew if the prices drop, their clientele would skyrocket, meaning huge amounts of bandwith.

Also, I feel it is a bit contradictory to their marketing campaign if users are being constantly policed and feeling fear ( on an uncapped account of all things ).....yet they call it "Free the web" and advertised as "unlimited data all the time"?

Surely they could have predicted this because Mweb has been around for a good couple of years, they must have had existing users doing heavy downloads already.

Regardless, Im still going to sign with them though. I think Mweb should just "chillax". Sure new clients download alot at the beginning, but they will see the amount of data they download will be less and less over a period of time.

Your missing the point. It's the folks attempting to bypass shaping that are being targeted not those who download large amounts normally.

 

[Necuno]

Please Mr MWEB Operations I'm asking nicely can someone help me with this?

maybe it is time to log a call so someone can properly diagnose and assist ?

 

[Chevron]

My uploads were higher than my downloads as well late last night and early this morning. I'm not gonna do anything till seacom is back up.

 

[Osiris85]

Your missing the point. It's the folks attempting to bypass shaping that are being targeted not those who download large amounts normally.

Ya I understand that, but what gets me is that you constantly have the feeling "ok maybe they are going to call me today", and the fact that they do call you to say "you're doing too much bandwidth".

Mweb clamping down on people who bypass the shaping <---- I do agree with that as it is clearly stipulated that this is not allowed

 

[SlowHands]

Well 1 thing I do know is that there is nothing wrong with the line, getting about 3.6mpbs down (can't remember up) when doing speedtest.

As far as I understand it, shaping is enforced on p2p traffic, so I would like to quote Mr Rudi Jansen again...

"We have no intention of shaping bandwidth more than is necessary in peak network conditions. It’s not dramatic shaping at all, and it’s only in peak hours."

I honestly don't mind shaping but when I look at my downloads at almost 2 in the morning and I see that my nzb's are coming down at average 60kb/s where the line capacity is roughly 420kb/s...I have a BIG problem with that...so it means that my p2p traffic is being throttled and I'm losing about 86% of my line speed...that seems a bit harsh...

So again...(and yeah I will log a call with MWEB) I would like Mr MWEB Operations to explain this to me.

 

[Chevron]

Well 1 thing I do know is that there is nothing wrong with the line, getting about 3.6mpbs down (can't remember up) when doing speedtest.

As far as I understand it, shaping is enforced on p2p traffic, so I would like to quote Mr Rudi Jansen again...

"We have no intention of shaping bandwidth more than is necessary in peak network conditions. It’s not dramatic shaping at all, and it’s only in peak hours."

I honestly don't mind shaping but when I look at my downloads at almost 2 in the morning and I see that my nzb's are coming down at average 60kb/s where the line capacity is roughly 420kb/s...I have a BIG problem with that...so it means that my p2p traffic is being throttled and I'm losing about 86% of my line speed...that seems a bit harsh...

So again...(and yeah I will log a call with MWEB) I would like Mr MWEB Operations to explain this to me.

I say wait till Seacom is backup.

 

[Kosmik]

Ya I understand that, but what gets me is that you constantly have the feeling "ok maybe they are going to call me today", and the fact that they do call you to say "you're doing too much bandwidth".

Where did you hear that? All the accounts I 've heard about the calls are due to folks who have been bypassing the shaping. I wouldn't be feeling guilty as long as I haven't been deliberately bypassing their shaping.

 

[Necuno]

Well 1 thing I do know is that there is nothing wrong with the line, getting about 3.6mpbs down (can't remember up) when doing speedtest.

As far as I understand it, shaping is enforced on p2p traffic, so I would like to quote Mr Rudi Jansen again...

"We have no intention of shaping bandwidth more than is necessary in peak network conditions. It’s not dramatic shaping at all, and it’s only in peak hours."

I honestly don't mind shaping but when I look at my downloads at almost 2 in the morning and I see that my nzb's are coming down at average 60kb/s where the line capacity is roughly 420kb/s...I have a BIG problem with that...so it means that my p2p traffic is being throttled and I'm losing about 86% of my line speed...that seems a bit harsh...

So again...(and yeah I will log a call with MWEB) I would like Mr MWEB Operations to explain this to me.

maybe you and 100 other was peaking the traffic at 2am

I say wait till Seacom is backup.

good luck getting some to remember that we are actually on backup bandwidth...

 

[Osiris85]

Where did you hear that? All the accounts I 've heard about the calls are due to folks who have been bypassing the shaping. I wouldn't be feeling guilty as long as I haven't been deliberately bypassing their shaping.

I think I read it a few pages back in this forum.

Someone getting a call and Mweb suggesting they upgrade to the Internet addict account?

 

[SlowHands]

I actually did a test this morning (at about 2am) and downloaded normally on HTTP some graphics drivers and stuff, and pretty much got full speed (400+kb/s) so what difference does it make what I download (HTTP or p2p), the international bandwidth was certainly available, and that is why I'm upset about the heavy shaping that time of the morning when CLEARLY the big boss man himself said it won't happen.

 

[Chevron]

Usually they "switch on" p2p at night. They haven't been lately. Probably waiting for seacom to come up again.

 

[Kosmik]

I think I read it a few pages back in this forum.

Someone getting a call and Mweb suggesting they upgrade to the Internet addict account?

Nope. The ones getting the calls are the bypassers, haven't seen a statement otherwise yet.

 

[Tanya35]

maybe you and 100 other was peaking the traffic at 2am

good luck getting some to remember that we are actually on backup bandwidth...

Bandwidth is at full strength according to their senior managers when asked this question.

 

[Necuno]

Bandwidth is at full strength according to their senior managers when asked this question.

seacom is still not reconnected, it's not something that happens in a jiffy.

International Outage - Seacom - IS ADSL Accounts
2010/07/19 11:50:43
SEACOM has continued to work closely with its partners to
roll-out the repair work programme and restoration alternatives necessary to maintain adequate connectivity during this process.

The designated ship has been deployed to the location of the fault where it will proceed to locate the cable on the seabed. This will take place within an extended perimeter as the cable will have moved around the seabed from where the installation ship dropped it over a year ago.
This is normal and caused by the natural sea bed movements and strong submarine currents in that area.

Once located with the help of cable station staff and specialised
equipment, the cable will be picked up before being brought onboard the ship to undergo the necessary repair. This will include cutting the cable to remove the affected portion, reviewing the physical integrity of the
cable before proceeding with the initial splicing of the spare cable segment which has been be tested and prepared while in transit onboard the ship. When the final splicing is completed, the entire system will be thoroughly tested before the cable is lowered back in the water.
Part of this process will entail the reconfiguration of the power supply to shut down and isolate the affected portion of the cable. This will only have a minimal effect on the intra-African services which remained unaffected by this outage.

 

[Osiris85]

Nope. The ones getting the calls are the bypassers, haven't seen a statement otherwise yet.

oohhh ok....my bad

( Gets up and makes his 4th cup of coffee )

 

[MWEBHelp]

Thanks for your response.

I think the question is:

If a person who downloads x GB while NOT on a VPN is NOT considered ABUSING the service,
will a person who downloads the same x GB while ON a VPN be considered ABUSING the service?
Note that the x in this question is an amount one could comfortably download either way without
24/7 downloading.

I don't speak of maximal usage here. I speak of say
A. You do 60GB/mo normally (your normal activity) without privacy.
B. You do 60GB/mo with privacy (normal activity).

B is therefore considered abusive?

i.e. Not VPN use to increase total throughput but VPN use for privacy keeping the total usage the same (i.e. person on VPN may end up downloading for a shorter period of time).

Hence my question of usage limits.

I think all VPNs have "acceptable usage policies" too and they are almost all against mass downloads
of copyrighted material to cover themselves. There are a variety of VPN services around, some are quite cheap while others are pretty expensive. The more expensive ones have servers in a variety of countries.

Otherwise the person who wants to use a VPN for anonymity must curb total download or not download at all - because who knows how much is considered abusive?

I am not a paranoid privacy nut but there are plenty of times when having a connection in a distant country is helpful, especially if you buy content in that country and would be blocked otherwise for geographical reasons.

Another question is - does MWEB subscribe to NET Neutrality. Say I want to purchase content from overseas TV broadcasters in a foreign language - I've seen that you don't shape this content yet, will you embark on shaping that too keeping in mind that DSTV downloads are not shaped?

Hi Peter

As you stated most vpn's have a usage policy of their own. To me it's highly unlikely that someone would go to all the trouble and additional expense of subscribing to a service that permitted the type of downloading which could set off the alarm bells and then not use it to it's full extent.
I really think that these are scenarios that we, as the service provider, can address on a case by case with the customer should they arise.

In terms of your second question, our shaping policies and traffic prioritization rules are determined based on sound network management principles and industry standards. There is no roadmap, or agenda other than this in the consideration of adjustments which are made.

Kind Regards
Mweb Operations (Tech Manager)