RPM please help me!!----- IBURST

[craigsa]

Hi RPM and others.
I have this huge problem and request some help.
We all know that WBS is stealing bandwidth from the IBURST users every month and i have just proved it once again for the third month in a row.

Last month i e mailed them and got no response as i was short almost 1gig.
I even posted it under their threads page.
They didnt even bother to get back to me even though i e mailed and threatened them many times by e mail. (which i still have copies of)

Today i get my usage report which is now comming throug every day (surprise)and it says i have used more than my 3 gigs. I informed WBS that i would be monitoring my usage with "Netmeter" as of last month and that if there was a problem i would take it up with them as their monitor system is obviously not working or working to well for them.

I know look at my usage according to my meter and it says i have over 500mb left. I a just e mailed WBS and sent a pic with my totals as well.
Problem is i doubt if they will even get back to me at all.
Last night i actually switched off my modem as i do almost every night now.
My net meter starts ecvery time windows starts and therefore constantly monitors the status of my connection.

I am sure many people are having this problem as well. WBS just doesnt care as there are no qualified people who will or who want to help.
Please can you help me/us as you are obviously a force to be reckoned with ?

Thanks
Craig
(Not sure if this is the right place to post this but i would like everyone to see it -thanks)

 

[LoneGunman]

Craig - as a thought - what about laying a charge of theft, at IBurst?

It might be a good precendent to set - even if it ultimately goes nowhere - the fact that a user has laid a charge at IBurst, might well catch the interest of the Media - and its a rather embaressing and awkward thing for Iburst to have to deal with. Especially if and or when your actual job description is mentioned

Yeah it'll be fiddly as hell to 'prove' - but in effect, that's what's happening to you,
quantities of data services are being stolen from you, and the company concerned
isnt attending to the matter.
Lay a charge of theft, as if they're any other kind of company - and its any other kind of ongoing theft situation..?

 

[craigsa]

I am seriously now considering small claims court. They just dont give a damn.
Last month , i lost over 1GB of bandwidth and after many e mails , they just didnt even get back to me. The main problem is that after reaching your cap you are redirected to a throttle service at 64k. The issue is that if this is 64k then my name is Nelson Mandela.
Its slower than a dial up modem.
I do not abuse the service and i think the most i have ever used is 5 Gigs since last year.

Thanks for the input LG i appreciate all the response.

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=25503

 

[rpm]

Hi Craigsa

Please mail all the details to me/cara. We will contact them and see what we can figure out...

Regards,

RPM

 

[craigsa]

Thanks i have also just lodged a complaint to ICASA.

 

[RVFmal]

Whilst I agree that one should ahve proof of complaints sent to companies concerned I know of many companies who will not respond as the persons recieving the mails ignore them and do not pass them on to the relevant people who could and should help.

The most efficient way to deal with problems like this is to collate your proof, call and make an appointment to see the relevant person/s and lay it out on the table. It is easy for them not to respond when you are not in their office.

When you are in their face, attitudes can and generally do change.

 

[slimothy]

lol this is a joke, WBS dont steal massive amounts of bandwidth and even if they did theres nothign RPM can do about it.

The shortages come about because theres no distinct type of traffic counted towards your bandwidth allocation every month, so everything that leaves the switch, whether it be UDP traffic or TCP, whether its something sent once or a thousand times its all counted.

Look I'm all for sticking it to the man, you just need proof and in this situation you can't get proof, you can't get proof because its after the fact AND more importantly because you can only count the bulk of data you recieve which DOES NOT equal the bulk of data you requested. The only way to have proof is to sit at WBS HQ and count data per username leaving the switch. For instance when i requested this webpage all i know is that its small and that eventually I got it, but I don't know how much data left WBS and failed to make it to my PC, I have no idea what UDP/ICMP traffic is hitting my modem right now.... so basically you cant prove a thing and RPM cant do anything abotu it.

RPM can get heard.. sure, he could probably go to WBS, get a few handshakes, exchange a smile or two... but thats as far as his influence goes, a free cup of coffee. If you're serious that you think you've been done wrong here you just simply go to a lawyer and preferably take evidence.

Lets say you have UDP TV stream that you're watching, and lets say its 500MB in length, the nature of UDP is that packets will be dropped.. that is to say you wont get all the data you request and not all in the same order you requested it in. Most of the data lost will be lost between WBS and your modem.. so that means that all 500MB of data is leaving WBS' switch and is therefor counted, but in the end only say 250MB will hit your PC, thats just the way it is when you count data at the switch for wireless internet.

I think its far more likely your data was lost with non TCP protocols and perhaps even zombie bots, too many people run a bunch of virus/adware/spyware apps thinking that makes em safe but zombie bots dont get detected by these apps unless they're really popular (million hits or more) and each zombie bot (aka drone) is custom compiled and these chew up ALOT of udp traffic, so you wont even notice it half the time, and we know theres a bunch of em on the iburst network because we all get attempted attacks logged on our firewalls from iburst ips and yet nobody thinks they're infected

 

[TheRoDent]

What a mouthful. Of utter nonsense.

 

[slimothy]

im saying they have nothing to gain for gippoing the bandwidth data, infact it involves more work for them than to have an automated system.

Im saying that calculations might allow for a little gap, maybe 200MB or something out of every 3Gb, perhaps a little more, but come on, theres no way they just pick random people and remove a GB from thier usage and if you suspect em of doing that you go talk to a lawyer or file a charge at a police station (craig is a cop so its not that hard) but remember they record your entire session and keep the logs so they can probably account for every byte but without evidence on the users side you cant do anything.

The fact they count data at the switch means even if they did take data off your account (ok its a stretch but lets assume they are) the burden of proof is on you to prove they arent managing the data correctly and you cant do that because all you can attempt to prove is how much data was recieved by you, not how much data was requested but never reached your modem.

Basically im saying its doubtfull they remove a gb from random accounts, im sure there are gaps but less so and you cant do anythign about it without access to thier internal system and logs

 

[Glipsie]

Unfortunately Slim is right - to prove this will take a miracle. Also, I've noticed that Netlimeter doesn't take into consideration all traffic (DNS is an example). A gig sounds a bit excessive but you could easily be skipping 200-500MB

 

[werner]

so then, doesnt this boil down to the terms of your contract with them...

are you paying them for you to receive 3gb from them, or are you paying them to send 3gb to you?

If the former, then craigsa has a case...if the latter, then slim is on the money.

 

[regardtv]

Just a correction .. it's not taken at a "switch" ..

AFAIK this accounting is normally done by LNS server it send accounting data to the radius servers....

 

[craigsa]

Slim sorry but that the biggest bunch of utter crap i have heard you say. I am monitoring what i am using and it does not add up.

As for RPM , he has a huge voice and yes people do listen to him and "myadsl".
WBS is fraudulantly taking off bandwidth either knowingly or not and i dont really care either way.

People need to know

 

[craigsa]

I promise you i have better things to do with my time than argue with WBS and ICASA. But anyway i have lodged a complaint with them and will wait to see. Byu the way WBS never even responded to my e mail.

 

[slimothy]

craig, how did you monitor udp traffic sent from the wbs switch? its just you're saying im talking crap and when i last spoke to you you had no idea what udp was.

im not calling you a liar, im saying

#1. suck it up you cant do anything about it, you dont have access to th switch
#2. rpm cant do jack, they *might* give him a smile and a coffee
#3. if you have evidence and are a police officer why not open a case

 

[craigsa]

Slim ithere cannot be a difference of 500mg or more. I am using netmeter to monitor it.
How can there be such a huge difference. Surely there must be something wrong on WBS' side if this happens all the time and if there is such a difference.

Slim i am entitled as are all of us , to 3gigs. That means 3gigs of stuff i send and receive combined. Correct ?
If their switch is doing things it shoudnt do and escalating the ammount for whatever reason its not my problem.

My monitor says thats what i have used and therefore they must now explain what has happened.
Whats udp got to do with it anyway ?

 

[craigsa]

My modem has sent and received a certain ammount of information. Thats what i am entitled to. So because of udp then i may lose 2 gigs every month ? thats absurd. Whats lost is lost.
Correct me if i am wrong to you and anyone else here.

 

[slimothy]

My modem has sent and received a certain ammount of information. Thats what i am entitled to. So because of udp then i may lose 2 gigs every month ? thats absurd. Whats lost is lost.
Correct me if i am wrong to you and anyone else here.

yeah.. totally, im agreeing 100% with that, i mean you want what you paid for, but the way WBS have thier setup my personal opinion is we cant do anything.

Lets say you were robbed of a GB bandwidth by WBS, thats a 3rd of your total monthly bandwidth so its pretty significant, but even with that significant amount of bandwidth missing WBS could easily turn around and say, "well we've counted 3GB that was sent on its way to craig.." and blame it on lost packets.

Or maybe it was really lost packets, we have no way of telling because we aren't at thier HQ.

I have noticed some difference sometimes in what DU Meter says and what WBS' bandwidth monitor says, sometimes its less and sometimes its more, but my thinking is that they count bandwidth at a central place and all users bandwidth in say JHB will be counted in one way at one place, so if there are errors in the way it is counting data it would affect all of us rather than just you.

But what you're saying, that lost packets shouldnt count etc etc I agree with fully (BTW I'm not saying you had 1GB of lost packets, I'm saying they *could* say that, personally i dont know where the data was lost)

 

[craigsa]

Ok i hear you and agree with what you are saying however i think in a court of law , WBS would retain responsiblity as if their network cannot offer what they have contractually agreed upon then they cannot offer it to the public as a product or they have to reimburse the customers.
Sorry if i went mad at you but i am just so sick of being ripped off.
Last month it was 1gig or so and now 500mg.

 

[slimothy]

surely you know a good lawyer or two though, being a cop