New Telkom stats incorrect

rpm · Oct 31, 2003

Hi guys

I just checked the great new tracker stats from Telkom, and can now prove conclusively that their tracking software is not accurate, and ‘bill’ you for bandwidth not used. I was away for a few days, and all my machines were switched off (I even switched off the electricity in the office to limit the chances of electrical faults/fires). My usage for some of these days were as follows: Up: 2.9605 MB, 5.4096 MB, 14.0572 MB || Down 0.9556 MB, 1.0652 MB, 3.5346 MB.

I will inform you about action taken to remedy this soon. Any suggestions and similar observations will be great.

Regards,

RPM
[email protected]

Tharaxis · Oct 31, 2003

While it sucks that this happens, it was inevitable that it would, and I don't see much happening to change this. There's just no way that Telkom can actively determine whether traffic is intentional or not, and as such, background noise, port scans, trojans, whatever can easily add to your cap.

Hell, anyone malicious doesn't even have to connect to your machine, as long as the bytes they're sending end up on your side of the connection (whether a firewall bounces them or not) they will get added to the total as "downloaded" (ie. from the internet->you) data.

Lets take an example, someone decides to (heaven forbid!) DoS your ADSL connection (Denial of Service - the action of congesting a line or crashing a server so as to cause a service to be unavailable) by using multiple machines that are sending a few 100MB a second, if you've got a good enough firewall, you won't notice much of a difference security-wise (other than your internet browsing being pretty slow, seeing your actual downstream bandwidth will be maxed out), but those 100MB's add up, and you'll be none the wiser, Telkom's servers will keep on tallying up the 100's upon 100's of MB's coming down to your connection as "downloaded bytes" and you'll be sitting there saying "Telkom is slow again today, arg!", then that night you take a look at your tracker to realise that you've suddenly used all 3GB of your cap, and all in one day (when clearly YOU hadn't, it was some dumbass DoS'ing you). The only way Telkom is going to properly get rid of this problem is to remove the cap... until this happens people will keep getting unsolicited data, whether they use it or not, and it'll keep on counting to your downloads for the month.

Tharaxis · Oct 31, 2003

OK yes, I didn't see that rpm had switched off the power, etc. and that he was now for all purposes disconnected from the net, if this is indeed so (and someone didn't inadvertedly turn tbe power back on), then there's definately something wrong.

As for static IP's, they have many uses, a household no longer has an "internet connection" for usage merely by users, the household then has access for itself. Individuals can check up on the house from any location (as it's always connected at the same address), people can host their own websites, etc. (a far cheaper solution than having to get ahold of extra hosting), etc.

Anyway, whether you have a dynamic IP or a static one, security should be on the forefront of your mind with ADSL, because it matters not one bit whether you have a dynamic IP or not, people will find you regardless.

rpm · Oct 31, 2003

Hi Tharaxis

Thanks for the posting.

It might be true that one can only gain certain accuracy with the tracking software, but then I expect Telkom to compensate for this problem. If the software is known to produce results where users are billed an extra amount per day, we should be credited with this amount. If the upper limit of the fault is 10M per day, for example, we should get 3.3G per month. If the inaccuracy of the measuring equipment becomes an acceptable excuse, we are doomed.

Regards,

RPM
[email protected]

rpm · Oct 31, 2003

Hi Gamos and Tharaxis

Interesting question indeed. I can confirm that I only switch on the electricity after my return. I think this is conclusive empirical proof that the system is not accurate. I am certain if you guys do a similar test the results will be the same.

I contacted Telkom Internet, but as usual I am awaiting a call from some manager. They promised an answer before 4 pm today…I am not too surprised that I received nothing. I also contacted the Dept of Communications and the SA consumer council regarding the matter, and hope to hear from them soon. This is a something where Telkom is clearly guilty, and I think these organizations can therefore have a case against them.

Regards,

RPM
[email protected]

VQuest · Oct 31, 2003

I plan on doing a little test of my own when I go away next month, so I am looking forward to seeing the results. I also look forward to hearing Telkom's explanation, so please let us know if/when the so called manager does call you RPM.

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United we stand!
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Flippit · Oct 31, 2003

Can't vouch for being away, coz I haven't been away for a while, but on the monthly graph I see days where it says I haven't downloaded anything, when I actually did! If it can make mistakes like this, it can surely make others!

Flippit

VQuest · Oct 31, 2003

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Flippit
 Can't vouch for being away, coz I haven't been away for a while, but on the monthly graph I see days where it says I haven't downloaded anything, when I actually did! If it can make mistakes like this, it can surely make others!
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

I noticed that as well. I would be interested in hearing from someone at Telkom to explain exactly how this works.

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United we stand!
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Mux · Oct 31, 2003

What would also be interesting rpm, is if you can find out if your account was used during this period at all.

alex · Nov 2, 2003

they deffintly can , they got logs of that stuff and this wierd stuff with the tracker also happens to me , its very wierd stuff , and i am shure how this system works cant just be explained just like that , i am 100% this is a pretty complex system . and has been thought out so that it would be almost impossible to avoid it .

Flippit · Nov 2, 2003

Complex system? Maybe that is the problem. THe way I see it, you count the amount of bytes going in and the amount of bytes going out, add them together, and there you go! Simple

Flippit

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New Telkom stats incorrect

rpm

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Tharaxis

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rpm

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VQuest

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Flippit

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VQuest

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