List of Bad ISPs

spektr

http://www.azureuswiki.com/index.php/Bad_ISPs
Would it be a great idea for someone to include Ireland in that lovely page and make it sticky in this forum?

ntlbell

Finding one good one would be the problem.

Freddie59

spektr wrote: »

http://www.azureuswiki.com/index.php/Bad_ISPs
Would it be a great idea for someone to include Ireland in that lovely page and make it sticky in this forum?

So what they are sayimng is that the ISP is bad because it blocks Torrents? Never having used Torrent sites, can someone enlighten me as to what they (Torrents) are used to download (primarily)? Is it the whole Kazaa/Napster/Morpheus thing (i.e. totally illegal) again?

spektr

The aim of that list is to show "bad" ISPs in terms of traffic shaping only, which is in my opinion one of the main issues of all ISPs at the moment. There are useful columns like "limits bandwidth for accounts with a high traffic volume" too.
I just hope there is anyone on this forum (especially among mods) who have more or less good knowledge of all of our ISPs to include it in that list.

watty

torrents is a peer to peer distribution method (P2P). Like a hammer, it can be used to legally (nails) or illegally (smashing windscreens).

BBC & Sky etc use a P2P like torrents with client called Kontiki for downloads. To an ISP, kontiki P2P and bittorrent P2P looks the same. Linux ISO and VMWare virtualmachine ISOs distribution is almost always legal but uses bittorrent also to reduce server load.

The current Internet/ISP structure is not really designed for torrents (assymetrical downloads is x8 upload, for lots of P2P, the ration needs to be closer to x2). The backhaul or last mile cable/Wireless bandwidth assumes non-torrent use.

If everyone used torrents 24x7 then internet would have to cost x5 as much. As it is the fairest thing is invoking cap or Fair use policy and throttle somehow. There are three approaches to throttling:
1) Simply try and throttle torrents all the time. Traffic Shaping. The ISP is not giving you a neutral pipe. Some Shaping methods are worse than others and may affect non-torrent traffic. You are not exactly getting what you paid for.

2) Rolling cap. Only when you cap is used up (any last 30 days) all your traffic is throttled. This allows people with "adjusted" torrents" to run a small amount full speed or allows you lots of torrents full speed part of the time. No traffic shaping at all. you are getting exactly what you paid for with no ISP interference.

3) Monthly cap. You mostly get what you paid for, but even the non-torrent users and torrent users suffer severe contention at start of month. People get less average speed than what the network could do.

Some companies implement Cap on calendar month. which is silly. Everyone suffers at start of month when cap is reset and traffic demand exceeds backhaul / contention high, also suffer at end of month as users try to use up "unused Cap". The Rolling cap results in sligthly more cost for ISP as the total traffic is higher (backhaul /contention not maxed-out at start of month) and results in a better more consistent contention for all users. (spread across the month).

1) Results in periods of bad contention and erratic torrent performance.
2) Best use of available bandwidth. No bad Contention periods.
3) Poor use of bandwidth. Bad congestion at start of month till torrents use up the users Cap.

ISPs that do nothing result in bad contention all the time. You tend to get 1/3rd to 1/2 of your speed.