Gaming World Forums
General Category => Technology and Programming => Topic started by: Lord Kamina on April 08, 2008, 05:23:31 pm
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I think my ISP's been fucking me and giving me less speed than what I'm paying, so I'm looking for a free app for windows that will let me continuously measure my connection speed (i.e. runs in background or something and measures up/down speed)
Ideally it should be able to graph changes in speed and save info to a log.
Can anyone help me with this?
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http://www.softpedia.com/get/Network-Tools/Bandwidth-Tools/ISP-Monitor.shtml
I haven't use it, but here's a free ISP Monitor. Not sure if it's exactly what you're looking for.
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You never get what you pay for :(
I have 1.5 Mbps (192 KBps) supposedly, but my downloads have been around 150 Kbps at most, usually ranging from 20 to 120, depending on the server.
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Well, I have 4mbps and I'm not getting more than 1.5 mbps...
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Well you won't see your max speed constantly unless you're constantly maintaining max speed. Unfortunately not ever site out there will give you that max speed. I am capable of about 900k/sec but don't usually get more than 150-300k from most sites. Run a speed test from your ISP or from a site like dslreports.com and make sure your modem is able to send and receive at near max speed of your current plan. If it is, and you're DAMN sure whatever you're connecting to should be giving you higher speeds, then it's something on your side. Either your router or your system.
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Speed tests suck.
The connection is there, but I'm being artificially shaped.
Not even a torrent with a 1000 seeds will get me anything past 150kb/s.
On the other hand, a week worth of calling, insulting and complaining the supervisors over the phone seems to be working.
I mean, you don't just do this to a guy who's been your client for the past 12 years and get away with it.
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ISPs are becoming crafty and they know when you're doing p2p as opposed to HTTP downloading. I share a house with 4 other students and one of my housemates ABUSES our net to fuck and it's really annoying. He'll have like only 10Kb/s throughput on his torrents but it will slow down our 20 MEG CONNECTION. When he turns it off it's fine. Reason: THEY KNOW ABOUT BITTORRENT.
It took me about 5 weeks to get this into his thick head. 5 WEEKS of web pages loading as if I were carrying the 0s and 1s into my house under each arm.
(End anger rant)
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I use NetLimiter 2, which can be used to monitor network activity. It's also useful because you can limit down/upload speeds globally and for any software individually with it.
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Speed tests are very important. If your cable modem is getting correct speeds, but none of the devices connected to the cable modem do, thats your issue. The cable company only troubleshoots your cable modem and outward. If a tech was to come to your house to troubleshoot the problem, and he saw the modem able to hit its max speed, he could only make suggestions as to the solution. They only make sure that you have the capability of that speed, they're not responsible if you're not constantly hitting that speed or the devices connected to it are slowing it down. Bit torrent is also throttled by many ISPs nowadays, and even though encrypting your packets helps deter that, bittorrent is still a very poor way to guage your net speed. Also that many number of connections open could bog up your router, and cause even less performance.
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Yes. I want them to stop throttling my torrents because that is fucking illegal.
I don't give a shit if they know I'm downloading torrents, I want the full speed I paid for, because seriously... Do you need anything more than 300kbps for HTTP?
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Yes. I want them to stop throttling my torrents because that is fucking illegal.
I don't give a shit if they know I'm downloading torrents, I want the full speed I paid for, because seriously... Do you need anything more than 300kbps for HTTP?
Hahahaha, no, it's not illegal, not at all. Better get used to throttling torrents, because they're not gonna change that for you. Chances ARE getting the full speed you payed for, right into the modem, it's just not being applied to what you want it to.
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Yes. I want them to stop throttling my torrents because that is fucking illegal.
I don't give a shit if they know I'm downloading torrents, I want the full speed I paid for, because seriously... Do you need anything more than 300kbps for HTTP?
Technically torrents are the ones illegal. And torrents take up a LOT of bandwidth on the internet, so your ISP really does give a shit if you are. Getting slow speeds on torrents is very infuriating, but it's dependant on the speeds of the people sharing the file, the availability of the file, and their ISPs shaping their traffic as well.
Try enabling packet encryption, uses a bit more CPU but allows you to avoid most traffic shaping. Not much else you can do. You could change ISPs but odds are they too will have some sort of bittorrent throttling enabled as well. It's much more common now since it really does account for a big chunk of internet traffic.
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Technically torrents are the ones illegal. And torrents take up a LOT of bandwidth on the internet, so your ISP really does give a shit if you are. Getting slow speeds on torrents is very infuriating, but it's dependant on the speeds of the people sharing the file, the availability of the file, and their ISPs shaping their traffic as well.
Try enabling packet encryption, uses a bit more CPU but allows you to avoid most traffic shaping. Not much else you can do. You could change ISPs but odds are they too will have some sort of bittorrent throttling enabled as well. It's much more common now since it really does account for a big chunk of internet traffic.
1) I do use packet encryption.
2) I know I'm not getting the speed because I was using a monitor, it was just shitty.
3) Oh yes, they are going to change it (And I think they already have and did just now) if I take it upon me to find out who the fucking CEO is and yell at him for a couple of hours on the phone.
About three years ago I had the same problem and I called everyday and complained for three months, in the end they stopped throttling me... Now, they were doing it again and after about a week or two of complaining, it seems to be fine again.
You see... If they decide to double the speeds of every person in the country and advertise it as such, and it's on the news and shit... I will not stand for getting half the speed I had BEFORE getting it doubled.
Also, this is not the USA... And, boy... I'm glad of this when it comes to this kind of stuff. In here, there's about a dozen government entities on the consumer's side without even having threat with a suit.
P.S... Even if torrents are ilegal (And they're not, and nobody enforces it in here), the ISP is in no position to fiscalize that. In the end, it's just like someone mini-modding on a forum.
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Where do you live? (just curious)
This may or may not help, but apparently sandvine is a method ISPs use to throttle your connection, and theres a method to fixing it here:
http://wakarimasu.googlepages.com/
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Where do you live? (just curious)
This may or may not help, but apparently sandvine is a method ISPs use to throttle your connection, and theres a method to fixing it here:
http://wakarimasu.googlepages.com/
Chile.
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Your country not having a good pipeline to most the people on the internet (North America, Europe, Eurasia) could be a factor.
It's not uncommon for some ISPs in less wired countries to limit international bandwidth seperate from domestic, leading you to less than advertised rates due to a seperate cap they don't tell you about. I found a few forum posts that said an ISP in Chile named "Telefonica" splits bandwidth going outside the country in half, meaning a local 500k connection will only see 250k anywhere outside of the country. It's also not uncommon for companies to sell more bandwidth than they can put out, based on the assumption that not everyone will be at 100% at all times. Countries with less bandwidth to hand out may do this more so than others.
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Your country not having a good pipeline to most the people on the internet (North America, Europe, Eurasia) could be a factor.
It's not uncommon for some ISPs in less wired countries to limit international bandwidth seperate from domestic, leading you to less than advertised rates due to a seperate cap they don't tell you about. I found a few forum posts that said an ISP in Chile named "Telefonica" splits bandwidth going outside the country in half, meaning a local 500k connection will only see 250k anywhere outside of the country. It's also not uncommon for companies to sell more bandwidth than they can put out, based on the assumption that not everyone will be at 100% at all times. Countries with less bandwidth to hand out may do this more so than others.
I am aware of all of this. Now, this all doesn't mean they are by law forced to provide me for what they advertise or get raped by the superintendence of telephony and communications.
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Exactly.
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I was tired when I said that. I meant, it doesn't mean they are NOT forced to do it... Because, well... They are.
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Here's the thing:
You are not guarenteed anything.
You are wrong.
Whether you like it or not, every ISP advertises the following:
up to XYZ kbs.
Up to means they can give you whatever the fuck they want up to that amount. They are in control of your connection, you pay for access to their connections. If they want to, they could give you 1kbps for everything and there is absolutely 0 you could really do to change it if they wanted to keep it there except change companies. This is pretty much universal. The exact same thing happens in MMO's, players get a misconception that they own their account, when in actuality, the company owns your account, you just pay for access to it. A ton of people believe that ISPs owe them full speed because they pay for it and therefore it is their connection, but it is not your connection it is the ISPs and their say is final. Sure, you can probably bitch at them for a couple hours and maybe fix it, but if they are set on keeping something they way it is, then tough shit. They have pages upon pages of EULA's and legally binding contracts and asterisks in their commercials with small font for a reason.
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Here's the thing:
You are not guarenteed anything.
You are wrong.
Whether you like it or not, every ISP advertises the following:
up to XYZ kbs.
Up to means they can give you whatever the fuck they want up to that amount. They are in control of your connection, you pay for access to their connections. If they want to, they could give you 1kbps for everything and there is absolutely 0 you could really do to change it if they wanted to keep it there except change companies. This is pretty much universal. The exact same thing happens in MMO's, players get a misconception that they own their account, when in actuality, the company owns your account, you just pay for access to it. A ton of people believe that ISPs owe them full speed because they pay for it and therefore it is their connection, but it is not your connection it is the ISPs and their say is final. Sure, you can probably bitch at them for a couple hours and maybe fix it, but if they are set on keeping something they way it is, then tough shit. They have pages upon pages of EULA's and legally binding contracts and asterisks in their commercials with small font for a reason.
And you don't know how Chilean law works.
They are forced to give me my full speed or face legal action FROM THE GOVERNMENT.
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And you don't know how Chilean law works.
They are forced to give me my full speed or face legal action FROM THE GOVERNMENT.
Do you have a link to back that up? That'd be interesting to see. I'm sure they would have some sort of backup clause, seeing how the nature of the internet providers operate. Too much harder and distance involved for everything to be perfect all the time.
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Not really, but I do know that when this whole "hey we will double and in some cases triple everyone's speed country-wide" was on the news, they interviewed someone working in the telecomunications intendency who basically said "PEOPLE, MAKE SURE _DO_ GET WHAT THEY ARE ADVERTISING, AND IF THEY DON'T, THEN COME TO US"
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Not really, but I do know that when this whole "hey we will double and in some cases triple everyone's speed country-wide" was on the news, they interviewed someone working in the telecomunications intendency who basically said "PEOPLE, MAKE SURE _DO_ GET WHAT THEY ARE ADVERTISING, AND IF THEY DON'T, THEN COME TO US"
They could easily have doubled or tripled the speed country-wide while still keeping international bandwidth restricted/capped. If you have evidence of not getting these speeds in connections within your country, you may have a case, provided the law you speak of exists and is applicable.
Personally, I'm glad I am in the USA when it comes to this stuff.
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Not really, but I do know that when this whole "hey we will double and in some cases triple everyone's speed country-wide" was on the news, they interviewed someone working in the telecomunications intendency who basically said "PEOPLE, MAKE SURE _DO_ GET WHAT THEY ARE ADVERTISING, AND IF THEY DON'T, THEN COME TO US"
so stop saying there is a law for it when you have nothing on it
you are getting what you paid for
which is access to their connection
they have tons of legal binding documentation to protect themselves because every company does, and unless if you have specific legal proof (hint: "not really" doesn't count) then you have nothing.
The consumer is not always right.
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so stop saying there is a law for it when you have nothing on it
you are getting what you paid for
which is access to their connection
they have tons of legal binding documentation to protect themselves because every company does, and unless if you have specific legal proof (hint: "not really" doesn't count) then you have nothing.
The consumer is not always right.
Shut the fuck up, seriously. Begin talking about a country's law when you actually live on it. It was just a passing comment, and face it. YOU ARE WRONG. It may work like you say in the states, but it's different in here.
And no, it's not like I want to be right or I claim to be right because I'm looking for support from you, I am just certain I know more about my country's legislation than you do.
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Shut the fuck up, seriously. Begin talking about a country's law when you actually live on it. It was just a passing comment, and face it. YOU ARE WRONG. It may work like you say in the states, but it's different in here.
And no, it's not like I want to be right or I claim to be right because I'm looking for support from you, I am just certain I know more about my country's legislation than you do.
no. you say not to talk about your countries law, and how I don't know it and then you can't even provide a link proving your statement, why don't you talk about your countries law when you actually know it.
MAYBE I'D SHUT UP IF YOU COULD PROVE WHAT YOU'RE SAYING??? instead you just went "not really".
edit: ps you didn't have to be so goddamn rude about it
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Because I have never (and will not now) bother looking it up on the internet. I know how things work in this particular case in the real world, that is which matters.
It's quite simple, really... I've done it before and when a shitload of people threaten to end the contract with a company, it damages and they tend to comply. Especially if they are OLD, VIP customers.
Additionally, we do have these government organisms dedicated to fiscalizing companies trying to fuck the consumer up the ass... We've got a government institution regulating health-care and insurance providers, one regulating telecommunications, one for the general consumer, etc.
For example, in my country... If you need X treatment or you die, and your insurance provider tells you to go fuck yourself, then you can go to this institution and... Yes, it will take a while, perhaps a year, when all is said and done... But you WILL get your treatment/procedure and THEY WILL give you your money back... Because, it's quite simple... the companies are forced to comply when these organisms come in play.
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Okay. Look. Internet is based on hardware. Lines going to your house, crossing distance between you and your ISP. There are so many variables that can go wrong that make it so that the ISP can't guarantee you a 5 meg connection or whatever. DN is right, he says they just about always say UP TO 5 meg. Or UP TO x. Why? Because some people won't always or can't get that much. Also I suggest you read through all the companies fine print, whatever EULA type thing there. I betcha you are wrong on just about every account you have been bitching about, and really man, you have been bitching.
Make sure you have all the information you need before you start talking shit about the company. Do speed tests, test what works, what doesn't. Your ISP should have some sort of speedtest site, maybe an HTTP download test as well. See what the speeds are, and compare them to what your package offers. If it's just torrents that are affected, it might be shaped. Once again, contact ISP (please be less pissy about it if you do so) or read the fine print, and read if they mention anything about packet shaping or international shaping.
If it doesn't and your speeds are just fucked, then continue to deal with the company, and do what needs to be done to get the connection restored.
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Okay. Look. Internet is based on hardware. Lines going to your house, crossing distance between you and your ISP. There are so many variables that can go wrong that make it so that the ISP can't guarantee you a 5 meg connection or whatever. DN is right, he says they just about always say UP TO 5 meg. Or UP TO x. Why? Because some people won't always or can't get that much. Also I suggest you read through all the companies fine print, whatever EULA type thing there. I betcha you are wrong on just about every account you have been bitching about, and really man, you have been bitching.
Make sure you have all the information you need before you start talking shit about the company. Do speed tests, test what works, what doesn't. Your ISP should have some sort of speedtest site, maybe an HTTP download test as well. See what the speeds are, and compare them to what your package offers. If it's just torrents that are affected, it might be shaped. Once again, contact ISP (please be less pissy about it if you do so) or read the fine print, and read if they mention anything about packet shaping or international shaping.
If it doesn't and your speeds are just fucked, then continue to deal with the company, and do what needs to be done to get the connection restored.
God... Arguing here is retarded. You just don't get it. Please lock this topic.
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God... Arguing here is retarded. You just don't get it. Please lock this topic.
i actually spent a good hour googling for this law of yours and besides seeing this topic like 600 times I haven't found a mention of anything remotely close. So either you just think you do (which btw, will never happen. I guarentee you right now you probably aren't even getting your full speed, just from the way the internet works) and they simply went along with you because they can (expect to pay more soon...) or there is one but for some reason the internet doesn't have it (very doubtful considering......it's the internet) / my googling skills suck (not likely)
JUST SAYING????
it'd be easier to help people if instead of going NOT REALLY or HEH....YOU DONT KNOW MY COUNTRIES LAW HEH HEH they....idk...providing something about their laws if they live in other countries which could possibly change the answer they are seeking, rather than lashing out at people who are trying to help?
WHO WOULDA THUNK IT
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There is not a specific law saying I have to get my max internet speed.
However, there is a law against fake advertising and the companies ARE subordinate to a government organization that loves fucking them in the ass in favor of the consumer.
You see... If I have 2.4 mbps, and I constantly download at about 1.5mbps, then they advertise they are increasing my speed to 4mbps FOR FREE and now I am downloading at 1.5mbps... That in itself is matter for complaining.
Furthermore, it is obvious they are throttling me like shit and that their international link sucks ass.
You see, I understand that I can't always get the max speed I'm paying for, but CONSTANTLY getting LESS THAN HALF the amount they are advertising is just ridiculous.
The real reason for what's happening here is, I suspect... They've grossly oversold their actual bandwidth and just can't cope anymore, so they are throttling every to hell. Now, a little throttling is normal, but the levels these guys do it... It's just ridiculous. But, since this is a relatively underdeveloped country and the majority of the populace are computer illiterate, they just don't notice...
Last time they sent a technician, he literally told me... "Ahh, the problem is you do too much with you internet... Most people just use google and a local newspaper."
And then... He procceeded to describe how he had visited a hacker's house the day before... "And imagine this... He wouldn't admit it, but he was a hacker... I knew it! He had 4 PCs, all networked and running LINUX"
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There is not a specific law saying I have to get my max internet speed.
However, there is a law against fake advertising and the companies ARE subordinate to a government organization that loves fucking them in the ass in favor of the consumer.
There is a law against that here too! However, they are not false advertising per se. That's what I mean by the "up to" clause. If I say right now "LK if you do 50 jumping jacks I will give you up to 500$" and you do it and I give you 1$, technically I didn't false advertise, I just decided to give you 1$, which completes what I said (up to means up to and anything below it). It's really shitty I know.
You see... If I have 2.4 mbps, and I constantly download at about 1.5mbps, then they advertise they are increasing my speed to 4mbps FOR FREE and now I am downloading at 1.5mbps... That in itself is matter for complaining.
It is but there is very little to do, especially when there is like 5,000 ways for you to be losing download rates, everything from a connection gone bad, to someone jacking your connection if its wireless to a whole bunch of other shit. It isn't always the companies fault!
Furthermore, it is obvious they are throttling me like shit and that their international link sucks ass.
You see, I understand that I can't always get the max speed I'm paying for, but CONSTANTLY getting LESS THAN HALF the amount they are advertising is just ridiculous.
This happens quite often imo, I have Verizon and I get up to 768kbps, but it only happens occasionally, most of the time I will get ~300-400kbps. Which is still okay for gaming and stuff just not as good. Oddly enough I only seem to break 300-400kbps on torrents. <_<_<_<
The real reason for what's happening here is, I suspect... They've grossly oversold their actual bandwidth and just can't cope anymore, so they are throttling every to hell. Now, a little throttling is normal, but the levels these guys do it... It's just ridiculous. But, since this is a relatively underdeveloped country and the majority of the populace are computer illiterate, they just don't notice...
Last time they sent a technician, he literally told me... "Ahh, the problem is you do too much with you internet... Most people just use google and a local newspaper."
And then... He procceeded to describe how he had visited a hacker's house the day before... "And imagine this... He wouldn't admit it, but he was a hacker... I knew it! He had 4 PCs, all networked and running LINUX"
go get a new company
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Haha, I love this topic. False advertising is illegal here as well. That's why I suggested reading the fine print of your company. I'm sure you are very well in the limits of the service they said they would provide. But you didn't even look, you just assumed you knew best. Normally I wouldn't care about a topic like this, and would just laugh, but the reason why I have been posting here is I work for an ISP, and I seriously find this hilarious. You remind me of the people who call in and scream about having been a customer for 10 years, and they are getting a 1 meg, when they are paying for a 5 meg!
Well sir, it says here in our EULA that we are providing you UP to 5 meg, therefor you are getting what you paid for at 1 meg. We would be glad to provide you with a full 5 meg connection, but at this point in time you are too far away from the Bell Central Office to stably increase your speeds!
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yeah exactly thats why they say up to. if my internet company had its base of operations half a state away i wouldn't expect the same speed as someone who lives right next to them
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Yes, I know it says UP to 4meg, but they are still getting fucked in the ass by the government.
Mostly because of the whole "DOUBLING SPEEDS" campaign that was even all over the news.
Also, there's only like three ISPS here in Chile and this one is pretty much the less_shit of them. Also, they provide with cable and phone.
And... The whole point is... I know if I whine enough, they'll fix it, because I've done it before... That's the whole point, it ain't the first time I've had this happen.
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Yes, I know it says UP to 4meg, but they are still getting fucked in the ass by the government.
Mostly because of the whole "DOUBLING SPEEDS" campaign that was even all over the news.
Also, there's only like three ISPS here in Chile and this one is pretty much the less_shit of them. Also, they provide with cable and phone.
And... The whole point is... I know if I whine enough, they'll fix it, because I've done it before... That's the whole point, it ain't the first time I've had this happen.
I'm sure in the doubling speed campaign they had fine print to cover their asses. Have you done any sort of troubleshooting at all? How often have you run speedtests? Is it just torrenting that is affected?
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Really, in all technicality it's more like double POTENTIAL speed. If you weren't hitting your max speed enough before, you won't hit it any much more now. And like I said before, all ISPs can control is the connection between them and you, if speed tests show full speed received to your modem, they don't care WHAT speeds the devices connected to it get, or speeds you get outside the ISP. You're modem is capable of receiving X speed from your ISP, and you're paying for X speed from your ISP. That is ALL they are concerned about. I should know, I used to work for an ISP as well. If the customer was able to get full speeds on the modem from the ISP on their speed test, then the ISP wasn't holding them back, it was one of the thousand of other possibilities that could slow internet traffic at any given time. Traffic shaping, while quite limiting, is something that a majority of ISPs do even here. Though I do feel bad about not having full speed on all my torrents, I'm glad that I have a lower ping, faster web page loading, and higher speeds at other sites because shaping saves so much bandwidth since P2P traffic is almost a third of all internet traffic. If they didn't shape it, I might even be paying more per month for the same speed, since they would have to scale up to accommodate for it. If you don't like paying for 5mbps when you're only getting 1mbps, I suggest you go to the 1mbps plan and save some money. You might as well complain to the Ferrari dealer that the 220mph car they sold you only does 75mph tops. They'll just point out the fact that the car is actually capable of 220mph, but that they have no control over the roads themselves.
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(http://nacho.misrpg.cl/bitching.JPG)