Splitting Traffic Question

[Anscenic]

Hello.

On the 1st of September I couldn't log onto any international websites. I came here and I saw that YouTube works on local cap and I was quite happy with that

I got quite frustrated towards the end of the day because I really had to check my email and I dialled through to Telkom and I could log onto Gmail and websites which I couldn't access due to being "capped" (Twitter, Facebook though as I have read here it can be accessed when capped as well I just can't get that to work).

For the past five days I have been able to browse YouTube using local cap. When I needed to check my email or anything else, I would dial through to Telkom, check, log out and resume my YouTube browsing. I haven't ever been able to do this before so I found it all quite odd.

Though a few minutes ago, my brother said that he could no longer connect to MXit. I checked on my computer as well, it didn't work. We couldn't go on YouTube either. Logging into the Telkom ADSL account worked fine - I could browse normally. When I logged out, I couldn't access anything. It was as if the modem was turned off.

We resetted the modem and now even if we don't log in, we are able to browse as if we have logged into Telkom (like we have had it for the past 3 years).

My question is: How and why did my traffic get split in that way and how can I make it go back to doing that?

If someone can help, I would appreciate that very much.

Thank you

 

[fragtion]

If you get capped before the end of the month on a Telkom account, you'll remain on the Capped IP Range (ie: you'll only be able to access local sites - 30GB worth before they bill you per GB) until you get a new IP (on the non-capped range), which you can do by re-dialing the PPPoE session. If you route through your ADSL modem/router, then power-cycling (rebooting) your modem should do it. If you connect (dial-up) from your own PC, just reconnect in the new month to get International. Did I get your question correctly? Hope this helps

 

[Srack0verflow]

and shout at the dog that thinks it must pull out your broken rj connecter press--tick jobbie every month

 

[davemc]

We resetted the modem and now even if we don't log in, we are able to browse as if we have logged into Telkom

Your modem logs in all by itself.

How and why did my traffic get split in that way

When you were logged in on your computer using your dial-up connection, you were using your dial up connection, and not the modem's connection anymore.

and how can I make it go back to doing that?

Consider revising this question so that I know what "that" is.

 

[Pada]

Here's a link for general Traffic Splitting info (which includes links to basically all the different platforms on which traffic splitting can be done): http://developers.locality.co.za/splitting

The Telkom ADSL account exploit (that Fragtion posted above) only works at the end of the month / start of new month AND it requires a very stable ADSL connection which doesn't drop!
You can also get like 10GB IS local only for R70 and then you don't have to have a very stable line to do traffic splitting across the Telkom + IS accounts.
There's also an exploit with the IS local only accounts, where you get full international access until you reconnect (which can be caused by an unstable line)

If you modify your hosts file for accessing FaceBook, YouTube and Google services on local cap + do traffic splitting you should be able to get quite far without much extra cost.

I find it quite odd that there has been numerous traffic splitting posts the past couple of days while this topic has been quiet for a couple of weeks now...

 

[Anscenic]

If you get capped before the end of the month on a Telkom account, you'll remain on the Capped IP Range (ie: you'll only be able to access local sites - 30GB worth before they bill you per GB) until you get a new IP (on the non-capped range), which you can do by re-dialing the PPPoE session. If you route through your ADSL modem/router, then power-cycling (rebooting) your modem should do it. If you connect (dial-up) from your own PC, just reconnect in the new month to get International. Did I get your question correctly? Hope this helps

Sort of

What I was asking is how can I keep the modem/router on the capped IP range.

With the first modem we got 3 years ago, we all had to dial through to Telkom ADSL otherwise we couldn't access the internet. When we got our new modem after the old one was fried by lightning, it required the internet account to be setup on the actual modem and from then on I didn't need to actually dial through to Telkom if I wanted to go online. I am still able to dial through to Telkom (at the beginning of the year I had to do this if I wanted to play DotA otherwise at 22 min in the game the connection timed out or something to that effect) and I sometimes use my dad's ADSL account if mine is capped.

Usually the cap comes back at 00:00 in the new month without me having to restart the modem or my computer or even log into the Telkom account so I found it odd that this didn't happen this month haha.

Thank you for your reply though.

and shout at the dog that thinks it must pull out your broken rj connecter press--tick jobbie every month

I have no idea what that means sorry!

Your modem logs in all by itself.

I understand that it logs in all by itself and that it refreshes the connection for the new cap, I just don't understand why it didn't refresh this month and I would like to know if I would be able to keep the modem using the local cap only since my family tends to watch a huge amount of YouTube videos (especially my brother).

When you were logged in on your computer using your dial-up connection, you were using your dial up connection, and not the modem's connection anymore.

I understand that as well. What I don't understand is how the modem was using local cap when the credentials are the same as the one I dial through to Telkom with.

I mean, I literally logged in to Telkom, checked my email on the "international" cap, logged out and I was back on the local only cap and it does reflect in the account usage email that I get everyday.

Consider revising this question so that I know what "that" is.

That = I use local cap if I have not dialled through and only use international cap when I dial through to the ADSL account manually.

Sorry if my question was unclear. Thank you for replying.

Here's a link for general Traffic Splitting info (which includes links to basically all the different platforms on which traffic splitting can be done): http://developers.locality.co.za/splitting

The Telkom ADSL account exploit (that Fragtion posted above) only works at the end of the month / start of new month AND it requires a very stable ADSL connection which doesn't drop!

I will give this a try when I am at home

You can also get like 10GB IS local only for R70 and then you don't have to have a very stable line to do traffic splitting across the Telkom + IS accounts.
There's also an exploit with the IS local only accounts, where you get full international access until you reconnect (which can be caused by an unstable line)

I've heard of this before and I am considering getting this if I can't convince my mom to get uncapped. Her laptop from work has been configured in such a way that you can't turn off automatic updating from Windows, Anti-Virus, Programs etc. so that nom noms a lot of our cap. She also likes to watch stuff on YouTube as well as my brother so that gets a bit much too. I don't use YouTube a lot (I only started to really use it when I realised that it can be accessed when capped) so I am not too fussed about that, I just want to be able to split the traffic so that people in the house don't use international cap on unecessary things.

If you modify your hosts file for accessing FaceBook, YouTube and Google services on local cap + do traffic splitting you should be able to get quite far without much extra cost.

I find it quite odd that there has been numerous traffic splitting posts the past couple of days while this topic has been quiet for a couple of weeks now...

I will modify the host file like you told me to
So basically I will use international cap for Facebook, YouTube and Google until my international cap finishes and once that is done, the modified host file allows me to browse these websites on the local cap. Correct?

It is quite odd. I read about the traffic splitting a while ago and I didn't think much of it at the time but now I am curious

Thank you for your reply.

 

[Pada]

I understand that as well. What I don't understand is how the modem was using local cap when the credentials are the same as the one I dial through to Telkom with.

I mean, I literally logged in to Telkom, checked my email on the "international" cap, logged out and I was back on the local only cap and it does reflect in the account usage email that I get everyday.

Seems like you can actually make use of that exploit if you haven't restarted your router / disconnected the router's connection

Thats the whole point of the exploit: that you use the same credentials twice! 1 connection which has local only and another one which has international + local access.
If the connection on your router has only local, and you can get international by dialing the same account, then it simply means that your router dialed the account when you had only local cap left.

Windows updates is downloaded locally as well.

In your kind of setup, it would be best if you can get a separate broadband (non ADSL) router to do the traffic splitting for you, so that your family can also benefit from it.
The Telkom account would allow only 4 concurrent connections, so everyone of you won't be able to split traffic separately.
One of the best routers for this job is the MikroTik RB750, since its cheap (R450 ex VAT) and you can override DNS entries with it too (like what you're doing with the hosts file, which has only an effect on that PC alone).
When overriding the DNS entries with the router, everyone will benefit from it

Alternatively: stop bothering with Telkom ADSL and just get Mweb uncapped instead.

 

[Anscenic]

Seems like you can actually make use of that exploit if you haven't restarted your router / disconnected the router's connection

Thats the whole point of the exploit: that you use the same credentials twice! 1 connection which has local only and another one which has international + local access.
If the connection on your router has only local, and you can get international by dialing the same account, then it simply means that your router dialed the account when you had only local cap left.

I used to switch the modem off every night because there was very high usage on days when I didn't even use the computer so I thought that someone might be using the Wireless (I have a very strong password and I even disabled the Wireless but for some reason it kept switching back on which was very frustrating).

I stopped switching it off in about August because both my brother and I have iTouches and I use MXit on it before I go to bed (my phone is messed up, that's another long story altogether) so I decided to just leave the modem on all the time.

So I guess since we got capped very close to 00:00, the connection may not have refreshed properly and it got stuck in capped mode which goes with what you are saying.

Windows updates is downloaded locally as well.

In your kind of setup, it would be best if you can get a separate broadband (non ADSL) router to do the traffic splitting for you, so that your family can also benefit from it.
The Telkom account would allow only 4 concurrent connections, so everyone of you won't be able to split traffic separately.
One of the best routers for this job is the MikroTik RB750, since its cheap (R450 ex VAT) and you can override DNS entries with it too (like what you're doing with the hosts file, which has only an effect on that PC alone).
When overriding the DNS entries with the router, everyone will benefit from it

Alternatively: stop bothering with Telkom ADSL and just get Mweb uncapped instead.

Thank you for putting up with all the questions that I asked and all the things that I wrote
I didn't know Windows Updates were downloaded locally you learn something new everyday haha.

I got quite fed up yesterday afternoon so I asked my mom for the breakdown of our phone bill for the ADSL and it turns out that to get uncapped would be about +-R90 more.

My mom's issue for the past what, 3 or 4 months? (whenever uncapped came out) was the fact that we are "renting" the modem from Telkom in the sense that it comes with the contract (like a cellphone comes with the contract) and when she spoke to Telkom they told that the modem falls under the cap and not the line lease so if we change service providers we have to pay R1200 for the modem.

When I called yesterday, the lady I spoke to told me that the modem actually falls under the line lease and not the cap, and that our 24 month contract ends this month. She explained to me that the modem is ours, the only time we'd have to pay a penalty fee is if we were to cancel the contract prior to the 24 months which makes sense of course.

I told this to my mom and my mom was suprised because she was told otherwise when we got the modem (we had to collect it at Eastgate). She was then VERY excited because of Skype. The rest of my family lives overseas and we sometimes Skype with them and we haven't been able to use Skype because every month we get capped lol.

So we will see how things go. She said that towards the end of the month we must call both MWeb and Telkom to sort it out so let's hope that my brother doesn't annoy my mom because he is also a problem factor since he plays too many online games :/

Otherwise I will just do what you said and bother you with more questions if I have to go that route

 

[WatchMan]

Wifi Question

Hi. How do I use this traffic splitting app in conjuction with my wifi router so that devices that connect wirelessly to the net can have traffic routed like this? TIA.

 

[Pada]

WatchMan:
Sharing and splitting traffic with a Windows machine isn't an easy task!
Windows can only share 2 connections, so you have to have a router capable of half-bridge mode to share the connection and split the traffic at the same time.

Here is what you need to do:
1) Dial 1 PPPoE connection from the router and the other one from your PC and get the traffic splitting going on your PC
2) Now share your PPPoE connection that you've configured on your PC (the sharing is a tab under the adapter's properties). Sharing the PPPoE connection, would change the IP address of your LAN/WiFi connection (whichever is connected to the ADSL router).
If it provides a dropdown listbox, you have to select the one that is connected to the router.
3) Now add the IP address and subnet mask to the LAN/WiFI connection that the router used to give you under the TCP/IP v4's Advanced settings, such that it will list both the 192.168.137.1,255.255.255.0 and your usual IP address,subnet mask.
You'll also have to add the router's IP address as the default gateway.
4) Now disable DHCP on the router and let the other PC's detect their IP addresses again.
5) The traffic splitting should now be in working order
You can do trace routes to different sites to see if the traffic gets split correctly on the other PC's, OR you can visit like http://www.whatsmyip.co.za and http://www.whatismyip.com if you're splitting local & international traffic.

So ja, I'd actually recommend that you get a proper broadband (not ADSL) router to do the traffic splitter, because then you can split traffic across multiple accounts (more than just 2) and then you don't have to keep your PC switched on 24/7.

 

[WatchMan]

Hey Pada. Really cool bra, you're always willing to help out super noobies. Seriously appreciate it. A few questions as well ;D

1. Since my router is able to be put in half-bridge mode, how many devices could have their traffic split with your app via my wifi router?
2. If my one pc is the traffic splitting one, what do I have to do if this pc is restarted?
3. If I decide on the broadband router, will I no longer be using your app for traffic splitting?
4. Re: 'proper broadband router', any suggestions? (I'm cheap btw )

Big love man.

 

[Pada]

1. Since my router is able to be put in half-bridge mode, how many devices could have their traffic split with your app via my wifi router?

There is no limit that I know of, so you should be able to split traffic for at least 254 PC's.
The only limit that you will have if you're splitting the traffic for other PC's using Internet Connection Sharing on your PC would be that you can only split it across 2 accounts and no more.

2. If my one pc is the traffic splitting one, what do I have to do if this pc is restarted?

If you're using ICS to split the traffic and you restart it, then the other PC's won't have Internet access at all, until that PC is up and running again. As soon as that PC has started up in Windows and loaded its network, then the other PC's would have Internet connectivity again.
For this reason, it would be advisable to get a broadband router for traffic splitting.

3. If I decide on the broadband router, will I no longer be using your app for traffic splitting?

Nope. Then you won't have to use my application any more.

4. Re: 'proper broadband router', any suggestions? (I'm cheap btw )

MikroTik RB750 (5x 100Mbps LAN) / RB750G (5x 1Gbps LAN)
TP-Link WR1043ND (5x 1Gbps LAN + Wireless N + USB) with DD-WRT firmware (an extra R50 to have it installed by Uniterm Direct so that you can keep the warranty)

The RB750 is by far the cheapest one that I know of, and the TP-Link one is quite expensive at ~R700.
I have a RB750 at my parent's home which splits the traffic across like 4 WAN interfaces: Mweb ADSL (384kbps), University SDSL (1.5Mbps), WUG & VPN to University via WUG (20Mbps)

 

[WatchMan]

Awesome mate. Thanks alot.

 

[Pada]

Gnome actually suggested that you should go for the Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH router instead of the TP-Link WR1043ND if you were considering a router with 802.1n + USB + 5x Gigabit LAN.
It is more expensive, but it could work much better.

Oh, and PostmanPot just mentioned that consumers can buy directly from Scoop Distributions too, but they don't get dealer discounts and they cannot pre-order either.