So Tiscali have put me on the heavy users list...

Phalanx · 15 Apr 2006 at 13:50

Which means that in peak times, i share my internet with all the other heavy users.
This is really annoying me, I jumped for joy the day I realised Tiscali had upgraded my internet package to unlimited broadband. And since its the school holidays i'd thought i'd start doing some heavy torrent downloading.
What I want to know is:
Is life really that bad for a heavy user?
Should I changed? (they practically offered to change me)

Thanks

(my package is 17.99 2mb ADSL)

Vertigo · 15 Apr 2006 at 14:36

I take it you've fallen foul of their usage policy for heavy usage during peak hours? If so then why?

Rather than introduce simple caps, a lot of providers are now choosing to use traffic shaping and monitoring during peak evening hours to ensure heavy users don't affect the system for others. Frankly I think this is perfectly reasonable. If you have huge downloads or want to use P2P software then do it during the day when most people are at work or overnight when they're all asleep. Don't do it during the evening when everyone else is trying to use their connections and I'm sure they'll leave you alone.

In my experience, most people who fall foul of such usage policies are those who leave BitTorrent clients running 24/7 and just forget about them, as even if you're not downloading anything you're still uploading all the time.

Phalanx · 15 Apr 2006 at 17:44

the problem is that what they consider peak times is ridiculous. I think they said that peak hours are 9am till 6pm. Surely these times are offpeak times considering most people are working (im at school).

james.miller · 15 Apr 2006 at 17:46

depends. work related calls in the day far out number calls made by school children in the evening im sure.

Vertigo · 15 Apr 2006 at 22:03

From the Fair Usage policy on the Tiscali website:

This fair usage policy automatically identifies the very small number of extremely heavy users and manages their bandwidth only during peak hours (6pm to 11pm Monday to Sunday), to protect the service for all our other customers. Outside peak hours, the use of the internet by these heavy users is unaffected.

If any documents Tiscali have sent you state different peak hours to those quoted in their Fair Usage policy I'd query it pronto. Restrictions during evening hours of 6pm to 11pm is fair enough in my book but, as you say, daytime is not peak hours.