Im currently using BT Total Broadband ,and i was just wondering during the
day they manage to restrict download speed using torrentz to a really slow
speed until midnight but download speed directly from the web always max
out the bandwidth consistantly..
How do they do this ??
This type of thing is not unique to BT or any one ISP - Known as traffic Shaping it relies on analysing the stream of data passing to your address from the internet and throttling the speed available to certain types of data - normally "peer to peer" traffic.
You may find some oblique reference to the practice in the small print of the contract but it is not likely to be prominently advertised
Some ISP's will actually use this information to throttle all traffic for high bandwidth users rather than simply the one traffic type
Thanks for clearing that upThis type of thing is not unique to BT or any one ISP - Known as traffic Shaping it relies on analysing the stream of data passing to your address from the internet and throttling the speed available to certain types of data - normally "peer to peer" traffic.
You may find some oblique reference to the practice in the small print of the contract but it is not likely to be prominently advertised
Some ISP's will actually use this information to throttle all traffic for high bandwidth users rather than simply the one traffic type
Hello Tom,
A quick google of "BT traffic shaping " produced a few results ( most of which were not suitable for even linking to here
I think you could say that this is a contentious issue
Ive been following this issue on the Reg, and it has spread over here as well.. Most ISP's will publicly say they are in compliance with Net Neutrality, but in practice .... fortunately my ISP doesnt throttle traffic at all..
I think all the major UK ISP's shape to some degree - it's a case that to provide the advertised service at peak times they would need to greatly increase the infrastructure.
That costs so shaping is the answer for the ISP. As the users of P2P are pretty well demonised anyway, they are the perfect target
when information surfaces the stock answer is "we are doing our bit to stop the illegal file sharing", if this is the case then be up front about it.
It's the same as the perennial issue of UP-TO ....Mb connections, and BT advertising the UK's fastest wireless broadband connection because they're the only ISP to supply a "Draft N" wireless router.
I get a 9.5 Mb/sec connection on my 10 Mb/sec cable through my 54 Mb/sec g router and the same if I'm on 100 Mb/sec Ethernet - BT's 8Mb/sec in this area offers about 3.5 Mb/Sec - now who's fooling who
Would just like to add that BT is used for illustration purposes - others may be equally as bad
Quote
