Packet Loss (BitTorrent Protocol)

Roger Communications (Canada) throttling World of Warcraft players
http://www.itworld.com/internet/141632/rogers-communications-throttling-world-warcraft-players
Over the weekend Canadian gamers, at least those who play World of Warcraft, took another blow when a story hit claiming that Rogers Communications has been deliberately throttling the bandwidth of WoW players. Rogers says this is a response to WoW publisher Blizzard Entertainment's decision to use bit-torrent as a game update technology. Blizzard supplies players with a Blizzard Update utility that, behind the scenes, uses bit-torrent. Most Blizzard customers probably aren't even aware of the technology behind the updater.

This time, ironically, it was the CRTC who came to the aid of WoW players, or at least exposed the issue. They sent an inquiry to Rogers basically urging them to be more transparent about what's going on. While this didn't help WoW players it as least prompted Rogers to inform them that they wouldn't be throttled if they didn't use the official Blizzard Updater (there are web sites that host patches so alternatives are available, if less convenient).
Click to expand...
 
P2P, Steam and other in-game issues

I've send this email off to iBurst, after I've spend many hours trying to figure out in-game issues (especially in Civ 5 mods and multiplayer)

Hi,

Name:###########
Username: #########
ID: ##############

I need clear and precise feedback on the following issue:

I recently started using Steam services for gaming (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_(software)).
I had lots of connection problems which I narrowed down to being an iBurst limitation.

I use a bittorrent client to download files (I restrict my downloads to our local WiFi network aka www.ptawug.co.za, as I do not want to use my cap). However it still makes a "P2P" connection over the internet.
When I exit all P2P applications, my Steam services login first time every time. If I keep my bittorrent client open, it refuses to login to my steam account.

So, it is clear that you limit the number of P2P connections. This is now an issue, as certain in game functions require a P2P connection, and since steam has already taken that "one" P2P connection, these functions are not working.

Please tell me if I'm wrong but do not waste my time with half an answer.
Also tell me if it is possible to remove this limitation so that I can experience the internet as it is suppose to be experienced.

Otherwise, consider this email my request to cancel my monthly service.
(Copy of this email can be found on www.mybroadband.co.za forums)

Regards,

Louis

###############
 
Just some future advice, your email has tints of rudeness to it and will not get the attention you think it deserves because of the rudeness.

To answer your questions with my own experience:
Torrents and steam do no work well together but only when steam is connecting.
Turn off torrents. Connect to steam, start your game (because steam still downloads/uploads entering and exiting games). Turn on torrents.

As for p2p games... no clue, maybe r00i might be kind enough to help answer your question.
 
Yes, peer to peer is heavily shaped on iBurst, except between 2am and 6am.

The reason it is done is to maintain an overall quality of service for the majority of subscribers who use other services that are less resource intensive than peer to peer and would be adversely affected if it was laissez-faire.

Peer to peer is the 800 pound gorilla in wireless networks and would also account for the large amount of bitching on some uncapped solutions out there as well. Speed and price does not determine the cost of a wireless network (no matter how what the incumbents say in their propoganda). Resource utilization is effected more by packet size and connection count but that is a diifcult metric to charge.

The advice from @eltherza above on how to use it is good and acceptable.
 
Thx for the replies.

I am using the workaround as suggested by eltherza, that is how I was able to debug the problem to start with. Having had the experience of setting up our own wireless network I have a fairly good idea of how difficult it is to guarantee quality of service whilst entertaining P2P load.

I'm hoping for a two fold answer:

1.) Am I on the right track in terms of identifying the problem that is leading to me experiencing issues when playing certain games? (Remember that because Steam needs to run whilst playing Steam games, Steam games itself can not make P2P connections)

2.) Is there anyway that iBurst can help me solve this problem?

Then, if not, (and I guess this is where I might be slightly rude) I would like to cancel my service with iBurst.
 
louisp said:
Thx for the replies.

I am using the workaround as suggested by eltherza, that is how I was able to debug the problem to start with. Having had the experience of setting up our own wireless network I have a fairly good idea of how difficult it is to guarantee quality of service whilst entertaining P2P load.

I'm hoping for a two fold answer:

1.) Am I on the right track in terms of identifying the problem that is leading to me experiencing issues when playing certain games? (Remember that because Steam needs to run whilst playing Steam games, Steam games itself can not make P2P connections)

2.) Is there anyway that iBurst can help me solve this problem?

Then, if not, (and I guess this is where I might be slightly rude) I would like to cancel my service with iBurst.
Click to expand...


I am not aware of any in game functions not working (can you post an example?)
 
louisp said:
1.) Am I on the right track in terms of identifying the problem that is leading to me experiencing issues when playing certain games? (Remember that because Steam needs to run whilst playing Steam games, Steam games itself can not make P2P connections)
Click to expand...

Here is another work around, so download your game and start it in steam, then exit the game [make sure that you've played a steam game at least once while in "online" mode].
Now, click "Steam -> Go offline".
Next time you start steam choose "Start in offline mode", this will make steam start without using internet at all and you can play your games fine too (provide you played it in online mode at least once). You wont have steam chat though but you should be able to start steam games while torrents are running.

Again, p2p in games is a bit foreign in my experience, only game I know that uses p2p is C&C3.
 
HoN uses p2p and when I used to play that I never had any problems. Likewise, I've never had any problems with steam or torrents.
 
louisp said:
The latest issue I have is with tihs service, did some more debugging.

I'm unable to get the list of mods for Civ 5 from Firaxis (http://civ5.sake.gamespy.com/SakeStorageServer/FiraxisServices.asmx?WSDL)

It is a webservice, the game makes a list of about 50 concurrent connections, which all come back bad http request. I've disabled firewalls, but still the same problem.
Click to expand...

Webservices are not p2p, they are HTTP requests. I've done a lot of WSDL testing on iburst (it's how I test our public IPs are correct) and have never had troubles, I'll test the webservice from this line in 15mins and see if WSDL is correct
 
eltherza said:
[I replied to the previous thread the merge didnt bring my post across? I also don't think this merge was to a correct place but anyway]
Click to expand...
Bug in vBulletin; if you are typing a reply while I do a thread merge your post ends up in never-never land, but I can still recover it using 'Find latest posts' from your profile page.
PM me about the correct place to merge.
 
iburst + torrent = 0?

Hi everyone out there, I have been with iburst for more than 5 years now, and watch the iburst grow and fail even since.

However, the recent new package upgrade seems to bring everyone down, me included.
Before i upgrade to 25+ and 2mb modem, everything is still "acceptable", but now.......

So, here is what I’m experiencing so far, browsing on my side are good, video stream not so good however, YouTube need to pause and buffer, was never smooth from the first day. HTTP download during day time is 40-80kb/s, torrent however, only 0-10kb/s.

Anyone else having the same problem?

Location: near silverlakes
Modem: 2Mb iburst
signal: 80-95%

p.s. I think its my area, my friend near willowridge has a 1mb modem, downloading faster than me, YouTube very smooth.

Location: near silverlakes
Modem: 2Mb iburst
signal : 80-95%

p.s. I think its my area, my friend near willowridge has a 1mb modem, downloading faster than me, youtube very smooth.
 
torrents are heavy shapped during the day, and video streaming i dont know have the same stupid problem of constant lag
 
chou56929 said:
Hi everyone out there, I have been with iburst for more than 5 years now, and watch the iburst grow and fail even since.

However, the recent new package upgrade seems to bring everyone down, me included.
Before i upgrade to 25+ and 2mb modem, everything is still "acceptable", but now.......

So, here is what I’m experiencing so far, browsing on my side are good, video stream not so good however, YouTube need to pause and buffer, was never smooth from the first day. HTTP download during day time is 40-80kb/s, torrent however, only 0-10kb/s.

Anyone else having the same problem?

Location: near silverlakes
Modem: 2Mb iburst
signal: 80-95%

p.s. I think its my area, my friend near willowridge has a 1mb modem, downloading faster than me, YouTube very smooth.

Location: near silverlakes
Modem: 2Mb iburst
signal : 80-95%

p.s. I think its my area, my friend near willowridge has a 1mb modem, downloading faster than me, youtube very smooth.
Click to expand...

There is maintenance work ongoing in the Pretoria area which will be concluded by 14th December.
 
iBurst / Bittorrent

HiBursters, (sorry, couldn't resist)

How are bittorrent downloads working for the rest of you on your iBurst connections? I've been having funnies for the past month or two whereby everything will be zipping along happily, but as soon as I fire up a bittorrent download my whole connection grinds to a screaming halt (going down to < 1 KB/s for *everything*). Kill bittorrent, normal service resumes after a few moments. I quickly scanned the last few pages worth of posts and didn't see anybody else complaining.

Previous to this, bittorrent downloads would run happily at up to 90 KB/s, and for normal surfing I could just throttle them back a bit. Has a new, more aggressive shaping algorithm been applied? Is there a way for bittorrent and iBurst to play happily together? I certainly don't want to make my nearest tower unusable for other users, but find now that I'm carrying over most of my cap. Cape Town CBD area/50 GB package if it's relevant.

Thanks for any advice :).
 
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Iburst and torrents

Hmmm.. not sure if I can ask this. But can any one else download using torrents?

My downloads have been dead for the last 3 weeks.
It seems as if the torrent connects to the peers but only 2 and nothing else happens. Every now and then maybe one torrent will connect to a hand full of seeders but that is if I'm lucky.
I'm using Utorrent. If I run the test I get a red x for the bandwidth test and a check for the network test.

This have happened before but usually for only a couple of days.

To be honest if I can't use iBurst for this then I might just cancel it.
 
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