Nildram/Pipex Problems with P2P

RoachycaL

RoachycaL

RoachycaL

Soldato
Joined
2 Jan 2006
Posts
3,152
Location
Newcastle Upon Tyne
Hey guys,

Recently Ive been having some big problems with downloading torrents, I'm on Nildram and have been for the past couple of years and to be honest I'm really not happy with the service but I cant do anything about it as I'm 18 and living at home etc (dont have the power to change the isp :p)

Basically Im looking to find out if nildram/pipex block ports? If so which ones? I did hear that they were one of the first ISP's in the UK to start capping P2P speeds and blocking ports if they find out their customers are downloading torrents etc.

I also get quite high latency when playing games (usually 50-60 from UK servers) however my mates living in the same city as me usually get around 30 ping. Is that anything to do with how far away from my local exchange I am?

How are other people finding nildram for downloading torrents and gaming etc? I know pipex took them over a good few years ago and they just seem to be going down the drain.

Are there any online tests I can do, or any tests with my router to post on here for people to tell me if my connection is healthy? Same with my phone line? (I live in an old area of Newcastle)

For instance right now I'm downloading a 3Gb torrent from a public tracker, utorrent tells me that my ports are forwarded fine as my pc has a static IP and my router is portforwarded, I check the peers tab and there are people downloading at like 400/700Kb a sec whereas I am downloading at 40Kb/sec!!

My line speed also seems to fluctuate a lot!!

Some help and advice needed - thanks
 
Your latency is probably down to the exchange distance, use samknows to look it up.

As for the download speeds, you are almost certainly getting throttled, I'm with pipex and exactly the same thing has happened to me, even though I've pretty much thrashed my connection for the last 3 years it's only just started to happen.

My best guess is that Tiscali, who bought Pipex, have started clamping down on heavy users. I've now just scheduled any downloads to only run between midnight and 4pm and I've not had any problems since. I know it's not ideal but my contract is up in a couple of months and then I am offski to Be.

I can only suggest you do what I've done and schedule downloads outside of ISP's naughty hours, or beg your parents to change ISP.
 
Try a download from somewhere which is isn't extremely variable - here would be a start.

My line speed also seems to fluctuate a lot!!
Click to expand...

You mean what your modem reports?
It's got nothing to do with Nildram, but if it's fluctuating much it'll drag down your IP profile, which will also slow down your downloads.
 
tolien said:
Try a download from somewhere which is isn't extremely variable - here would be a start.



You mean what your modem reports?
It's got nothing to do with Nildram, but if it's fluctuating much it'll drag down your IP profile, which will also slow down your downloads.
Click to expand...

No sorry I mean when I run speed tests, my speed will sometimes be 3000 - sometimes 6000... it seems to vary greatly. I got roughly 560kb's on that site on the 100mb file (I'm paying for 6.5meg apparently)

And @ Little_Crow, what are the ISP's naughty hours? I wouldn't really call myself a heavy user, I only download one tv show a week and possibly a few other small ish torrents throughout the week... but I cant help but get the feeling that now because its tiscali they are throttling for definate! :(
 
Speedtests aren't that useful because there's a huge amount of error involved, and so many variables that it's impossible to draw any real conclusion.

560kB/s = 4480kbps, so you're not that far off 6.5Mbps. What's your modem connected at, and what does the BT Speedtest (instructions in sticky) say your IP profile is?
 
I've had a search on pipex's Acceptable and Fair Use Policies and all I can find is that big downloads should be avoided at 'peak hours', no definition of peak hours is actually made. But I think it's safe to assume that between 5pm and midnight weekdays (not sure about weekends) are an ISP's peak period.

It sounds like you shouldn't be affected by this, but the only way you can be sure is to phone them and ask.

Also, make sure if you're using a wireless router that it is secured with a decent password, don't want some pesky neightbour thrashing your broadband connection and you reaping the punishment.
 
tolien said:
Speedtests aren't that useful because there's a huge amount of error involved, and so many variables that it's impossible to draw any real conclusion.

560kB/s = 4480kbps, so you're not that far off 6.5Mbps. What's your modem connected at, and what does the BT Speedtest (instructions in sticky) say your IP profile is?
Click to expand...

I dont suppose you could link me to this speedtest could you? Ive done it before but I cant locate it in your sticky :(

@ Littlecrow - Im using a wireless router and its all passworded so thats not the problem, I do however feel as though Im running on a degraded line :p

So basically nildram/pipex/tiscali arent all that bad? We dont really know if they throttle p2p but I do know for a fact that at peek times the internet is definitely slowed down.

Do be* throttle anything? Ive heard nothing but good stuff about them but surely lots of people switching to them will cause them to start throttling stuff?
 
It's in this post, which links here and here. You can expect a degradation at peak times with any ISP - that's the wonders of using a shared service.

Be don't throttle anything, but my experience with their CS has been...subpar.
 
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